When was leningrad invaded

On 8 September, the Germans severed the last main road into the city and the most lethal siege in the history of the world began. For days the blockade stretched on, during which the Germans sat entrenched, encircling the city only miles from the historic centre. They tossed bombs in its direction, prevented supplies from reaching the starving civilian population, and waited for capitulation.

Hitler had optimistically predicted the city would "drop like a leaf," and menus were printed for the gala victory celebration that was planned at Leningrad's plush Astoria Hotel. Instead, civilians dropped like flies in an enclosed microcosm with virtually no food, no heat, no supplies, and no escape route.

People keeled over dead in the streets by the thousands, malnourished, exhausted, and frozen. The Blockade of Leningrad resulted in the worst famine ever in a developed nation - over a million people died. But Leningrad never surrendered. Perhaps most astounding was that amidst the hunger and the horror, with daily rations amounting to two thin slices of poor quality bread, great works of art were created. Dmitry Shostakovich spent the initial months of the siege trapped in the city of his birth, where he composed the first three movements of his searingly intense Seventh Leningrad Symphony, which he privately remarked was a protest not just against German fascism but also about Russia and all tyranny and totalitarianism.

The symphony's most memorable performance occurred on 9 August in besieged Leningrad. As bombs fell nearby, a depleted, weakened, starving orchestra played to a packed concert hall of weakened, starving people. Despite an increase in shelling and bombing from the Germans, the once-starving city sprang back to life.

Its factory workers—now nearly 80 percent women—were soon producing huge amounts of machinery and ammunition. The long-awaited breakthrough followed in early , when the Red Army mobilized some 1. On January 27, , after nearly days under blockade, Leningrad was freed. In total, the siege of Leningrad had killed an estimated , civilians—nearly as many as all the World War II deaths of the United States and the United Kingdom combined.

Soviet-era censorship ensured that the more grisly details of the blockade were suppressed until the end of the 20th century, yet even while World War II was still underway, the city was hailed as a symbol of Russian determination and sacrifice.

It is a city saved by its own will, and its stand will live in the annals as a kind of heroic myth. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This article was translated from the original in French.

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Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning Subscribe. Based on an unparalleled access to Russian archival sources and going far beyond the military aspects of such renowned works as Harrison Salisbury's Days, Glantz's book is a testament to the nearly two million Russians who lost their lives during the Leningrad conflict and confirms his status as the preeminent authority on the Russian military experience in World War II.

David M. Glantz is founder and former director of the U. Toggle navigation Books. The Battle for Leningrad, David M. Glantz The German siege and Soviet defense of Leningrad in World War II was an epic struggle in an epic war, a drama of heroism and human misery unmatched in the annals of modern warfare. About the Author David M.