Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. During World War II German and Finnish armies besieged Leningrad for 872 days. It was the Soviet Union’s second largest city and important center for armaments production. The destruction of Leningrad was one of Adolf Hitler’s strategic objectives in attacking the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. German Army Group North sealed off Leningrad on September 8, 1941. About 2.5 million people were trapped within the city. During the siege of Leningrad 632 000 people died of hunger, 17 000 Leningraders were killed by bombs and shells, 840 factories and 53.5 million square feet of housing were destroyed.
The only connection that Leningrad maintained with the rest of the Soviet Union was across Lake Ladoga, which German aircraft patrolled.
Hitler’s plan was to subdue Leningrad through blockade, bombardment, and starvation prior to seizing the city. German artillery gunners, together with the Luftwaffe, killed approximately 17,000 Leningraders during the siege.
Bread was the only food that was regularly available, and the daily bread ration for most Leningraders was 125 grams. There was not enough fuel and the buildings were freezing cold. Wood was needed to boil water, but there was no wood. Furniture, books, fences were burned; wooden houses were torn apart and used for fuel.
A child in the street of besieged Leningrad at the poster Destroy the German monster!. Winter 1941-1942
Most Leningraders lived in the dark because only one city power plant operated at reduced capacity. Temperatures during that especially cold winter plummeted to -40 degrees Farenheit in late January and people lacked running water because water pipes froze. In that harsh winter Lake Ladoga froze enough to become the “Road of Life” over which food was trucked into the city, and many Leningraders were evacuated.
In January 1943 the Red Army pierced the blockade by retaking a narrow corridor along Ladoga’s southern coast. Nevertheless, the siege would endure for almost another year. On January 27, 1944, the blockade finally ended as German troops retreated all along the Soviet front.
A resident of besieged Leningrad with her child
Now memorials have been built over the common graves in Leningrad. The flame burns bright at the Piskarevskoye Cemetery. The Hero City has been fully restored, has grown, has become more beautiful. But the people of Leningrad will never forget the tragedy and heroism of 1941-44.
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history
An artist on Nevsky Prospekt in winter in besieged Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. An elderly Leningrader carries a male dystrophic, 07.02.1942
Anti-aircraft guns at the St. Isaac’s Cathedral at night
Armed detachments on Stachek Avenue in Leningrad, September 25, 1941
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. At the stall with goods. 1943
Broken window of the Leningrad Theater of Young Spectators after the German shelling. 10.05.1941
Children from Leningrad boarding school No. 7 are walking, 09.21.1941
Children of besieged Leningrad near the beds on Mytninskaya embankment
Column of German prisoners of war on Nevsky Prospekt, July 1942
Commander of the Soviet submarine Shch-323, Lieutenant-Captain F.I. Ivantsov on the deck of his ship in besieged Leningrad
Delivery of lunch to employees of one of the Leningrad enterprises in May 1942
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Evacuation from besieged Leningrad
Evacuation of people from besieged Leningrad by trucks on the Road of Life, 1941
Exchange of goods in the market of besieged Leningrad, February 1942
Female air defense fighters are on duty on the roof of the house number 4 on Khalturina Street in Leningrad
Football match in besieged Leningrad, 05.30.1943
Funnel from an air bomb on the Fontanka embankment, 9.09.1941
Girls from air defense units on the roofs of the besieged Leningrad
Harvesting cabbage near the St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Leningrad. 1942
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. January 1944
Leningraders on the construction of a barricade near the Kirov plant
Manufacturing of medals For the Defense of Leningrad at the Leningrad Mint, January 1943
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Minimal ration
Music teacher Nina Mikhailovna Nikitina and her children Misha and Natasha share the blockade ration, February 1942
On the ice of Lake Ladoga
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Palace Square. Autumn 1941
People dismantle the roof of the building for firewood
Photos of S.I. Petrova, who survived the siege. In May 1941, in May 1942 and in October 1942
Production of artillery shells at one of the Leningrad plants
Red Army men-skiers at the Atlantis figures of the New Hermitage in besieged Leningrad
Residents of Leningrad read private ads on the sale and exchange of things for products
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Ruined Pavlovsk Palace. 1944. Photo by Tarasevich V.
Sailors and workers of the Main Post Office dismantle the destroyed Leningrad buildings
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. School lesson in the Leningrad bomb shelter, 1942
Schoolboy Andrei Novikov gives an air alarm signal, 10.09.1941
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Schoolchildren before evacuation, 03.07.1942
Schoolgirls Valya Ivanova (left) and Valya Ignatovich, who extinguished two incendiary bombs that fell on the attic of their house. 09.13.1941
Soviet clergymen awarded with medals For the Defense of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Soviet scouts on the Pulkovo heights. March 1, 1942
Soviet women are making an anti-tank ditch near Leningrad, November 1941
Spectators before the performance at the Leningrad Musical Comedy Theater, 05.01.1942
The corner of Nevsky Prospect and Sadovaya Street. Tank T-34, heading for the front. 1943
The delivery of firewood to the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad
The embankment of the Fontanka River in Leningrad after the German shelling
The exhausted inhabitants of the besieged Leningrad on the road for water
The locomotive moving along the tram rails on Zagorodny Avenue in besieged Leningrad, October 1942
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. The market in Pavlovsk. 1941-1943
The queue at the children’s clinic number 12 in besieged Leningrad, 1942
The small inhabitants of Leningrad at the bomb shelters
The soldiers of the workers’ detachment A. E. Ratnikov and S. I. Menshikov patrol their section. 10.24.1941
The Soviet tank T-26 with a loud-speaking installation for oral agitation
The woman pastes agitation posters in besieged Leningrad, 1943
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Traffic on the Road of Life in March 1943
Training sessions of fighters of the self-defense group of Leningrad orphanage No. 17, July 12, 1942
Trucks with food on the melted ice of Lake Ladoga in the spring of 1942
Siege of Leningrad. Pages of history. Women are watching the air battle over the city. Spring 1943
Women repair BT-5 tanks at one of the Leningrad plants