Leningrado

On September 8, 1941, eleven weeks after Hitler launched the brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, the so-called Operation Barbarossa, the city of Leningrad was besieged. The siege lasted nearly three years and more than 750,000 civilians died of starvation. If the city had fallen, the history of the Second World War, and of the 20th century, would have been very different. Leningrad is a mixed account of personal stories that, based on chronicles and real testimonies from newspapers on both sides, reflects the daily lives of those who lived through the siege, European civilians of the 20th century who endured terrible hardships: the incessant search for food and water ; progressive discouragement and loss of family ties; looting, murder and cannibalism; but, at the same time, extraordinary stories of courage and dedication. Anna Reid also reveals the deliberate decision of the Nazis to starve the inhabitants of Leningrad into surrender, the consequences of Hitler's miscalculation, the incompetence and cruelty of the Soviet high command. She also tackles a number of questions that still beg for answers today: Was the staggering death toll as much the fault of Stalin as it was of Hitler? How did Stalin's and Moscow's distrust of the old, Western-leaning St. Petersburg contribute to the disaster? Why didn't the Germans take the city? What prevented it from falling into anarchy? How did some manage to survive?