Russian exhibit depicting Siege of Leningrad.
World War II’s Siege of Leningrad stands as a chilling reminder of the toll a military blockade can take on a civilian population. German forces first reached the city in 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, a massive surprise attack on the Soviet Union. Eager to avoid the carnage of urban warfare, the Nazis made no serious attempts to take Leningrad by force. Instead, Adolf Hitler opted for a brutal alternative—laying siege and starving the city into submission.
The 3 million inhabitants of Leningrad had been caught unprepared, and lacked sufficient supplies for a prolonged standoff. In addition to daily bombardments by the Luftwaffe, they were soon forced to contend with extreme hunger, freezing temperatures and disease. People ate everything from wallpaper paste to shoe leather to supplement their meager bread rations, and some even resorted to cannibalism. Despite these horrific circumstances, the citizens of Leningrad managed to endure life under siege for 872 days from September 1941 until January 1944.
Even in victory, the siege proved tragic: By the time the city was finally freed by the Red Army, an estimated 1 million Soviets—most of them civilians—had perished.