 |
| Siege Of Leningrad Begins | ||||||||
|
||||||||
| Siege Of Leningrad Begins: | September 8, 1941 |
|
During World War II, German forces begin their siege of
Leningrad, a major industrial center and the USSR's
second-largest city.
The German armies
were later joined by Finnish forces that advanced against
Leningrad down the Karelian Isthmus. The siege of Leningrad,
also known as the 900-Day Siege though it lasted a grueling 872
days, and resulted in the deaths of some one million of the
city's civilians and Red Army defenders.Leningrad, formerly St.
Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, was one of the
initial targets of the German invasion of June 1941.
As German armies
raced across the western Soviet Union, three-quarters of
Leningrad's industrial plants and hundreds of thousands of its
inhabitants were evacuated to the east.
More than two
million residents remained, however, and the evacuated were
replaced by refugees who fled to Leningrad ahead of the German
advance.
All able-bodied
persons in the city--men, women, and children--were enlisted to
build antitank fortifications along Leningrad's edge. By the end
of July, German forces had cut the Moscow-Leningrad railway and
were penetrating the outer belt of the fortifications around
Leningrad. On September 8, German forces besieged the city, but
they were held at bay by Leningrad's fortifications and its
200,000 Red Army defenders.
That day, a German
air bombardment set fire to warehouses containing a large part
of Leningrad's scant food supply.Aiming to tighten the noose
around Leningrad, the Germans launched an offensive to the east
in October and cut off the last highways and rail lines south of
the city. Meanwhile, Finnish forces advanced down the Karelian
Isthmus (which had been seized from Finland by the Soviets
during the Russo-Finnish War of 1939 to 1940) and besieged
Leningrad from the north. By early November, the city was almost
completely encircled, and only across Lake Ladoga was a supply
lifeline possible.German artillery and air bombardments came
several times a day during the first months of the siege.
The daily ration
for civilians was reduced to 125 grams of bread, no more than a
thick slice. Starvation set in by December, followed by the
coldest winter in decades, with temperatures falling to -40
degrees Fahrenheit. People worked through the winter in
makeshift armament factories without roofs, building the weapons
that kept the Germans just short of victory.
Residents burned
books and furniture to stay warm and searched for food to
supplement their scarce rations. Animals from the city zoo were
consumed early in the siege, followed before long by household
pets. Wallpaper paste made from potatoes was scraped off the
wall, and leather was boiled to produce an edible jelly. Grass
and weeds were cooked, and scientists worked to extract vitamins
from pine needles and tobacco dust.
Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, resorted to cannibalizing the dead, and in a few
cases people were murdered for their flesh. The Leningrad police
struggled to keep order and formed a special division to combat
cannibalism.Across frozen Lake Ladoga, trucks made it to
Leningrad with supplies, but not enough. Thousands of residents,
mostly children and the elderly, were evacuated across the lake,
but many more remained in the city and succumbed to starvation,
the bitter cold, and the relentless German air attacks.
In 1942 alone, the
siege claimed some 600,000 lives. In the summer, barges and
other ships braved German air attack to cross Lake Ladoga to
Leningrad with supplies.In January 1943, Red Army soldiers broke
through the German line, rupturing the blockade and creating a
more efficient supply route along the shores of Lake Ladoga.
For the rest of the
winter and then during the next, the "road of life" across the
frozen Lake Ladoga kept Leningrad alive. Eventually, an oil
pipeline and electric cables were laid on the lake bed. In the
summer of 1943, vegetables planted on any open ground in the
city supplemented rations.
In early 1944,
Soviet forces approached Leningrad, forcing German forces to
retreat southward from the city on January 27. The siege was
over.
A giant Soviet
offensive to sweep the USSR clean of its invaders began in May.
The 872-day siege of Leningrad cost an estimated one million
Soviet lives, perhaps hundreds of thousands more.
The Soviet
government awarded the Order of Lenin to the people of Leningrad
in 1945, paying tribute to their endurance during the grueling
siege. The city did not regain its prewar population of three
million until the 1960s.
|
|