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The siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military siege undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) on the Eastern Front of World War II. Germany 's Army Group North advanced from the south, while the German-allied Finnish army invaded from the north and completed the ring around the city.
Sep 8, 2016 · On September 8, 1941, German forces closed in around the Soviet city of Leningrad, initiating a siege that would last nearly 900 days and claim the lives of 800,000 civilians.
Sep 1, 2024 · Siege of Leningrad, prolonged siege (September 8, 1941–January 27, 1944) of the city of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the Soviet Union by German and Finnish armed forces during World War II. The siege actually lasted 872 days. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, German armies.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Sarah Roller
- The siege was part of Operation Barbarossa. In December 1940, Hitler authorised the invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa, the codename by which it was known, began in earnest in June 1941, when around 3 million soldiers invaded the western borders of the Soviet Union, accompanied by 600,000 motor vehicles.
- Leningrad was a key target for the Nazis. The Germans attacked Leningrad (known as St Petersburg today) because it was a symbolically important city within Russia, both in imperial and revolutionary times.
- The siege lasted 872 days. Beginning on 8 September 1941, the siege was not fully lifted until 27 January 1944, making it one of the longest and costliest (in terms of human life) sieges in history.
- There was a huge civilian evacuation attempt. Both before and during the siege, the Russians attempted to evacuate large numbers of the civilian population in Leningrad.
After days of heavy combat, Soviet troops finally succeeded in breaking the German stranglehold on the city. On January 27, 1944, after almost 900 days, the siege was lifted. The nightmare was over. After three years of war, Leningrad bore little resemblance to the grandiose city of prewar 1941.
Aug 28, 2023 · First, Leningrad was the former capital of Russia and was seen as the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution. Second, by completely destroying the city, it greatly weakened a key Soviet port to the Baltic Sea. Third, directly occupying Leningrad was deemed too costly, both in terms of resources and the number of troops that could be lost.
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Jun 2, 2023 · The harshest period was from October 1941 to January 1941, the first winter, in which the death toll averaged 6,000 deaths per day in December 1941 (Andrews). Strict rationing was imposed upon civilians due to the Soviet Union’s shortage of food supply, as there was not enough food to feed 3.3 million Soviet mouths in Leningrad.
