The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad

If "war is hell," as General Sherman said, then at the innermost circle of hell you'll find the 900-day siege of Leningrad (now renamed St. Petersburg). It was, by all accounts, the deadliest battle in human history. More than 300,000 Soviet soldiers perished, plus uncounted thousands of Germans. Inside the blockade zone, an estimated 1.2 million civilians slowly starved to death as Hitler and Stalin used the city like a giant chess piece on the Eastern Front. The late Harrison Salisbury captured this epic struggle better than anyone else in "The 900 Days," a book every student of 20th century history should read at least once. He begins the story with Leningrad at peace during the balmy "white nights" of June 1941. Culture is flourishing throughout the city. Composers, writers, musicians and artists are busy at work. Families are vacationing on the Baltic coast. Meanwhile, Stalin and his minions are in a massive state of denial about the coming Nazi assault, despite dozens of warnings and signs. After the first few fascinating chapters, "The 900 Days" can be slow going as Salisbury details the military intrigue and paranoia that decimated the Soviet leadership in the years leading up to the siege, which yielded tragic consequences for Russian defenses in 1941 and 1942. If you're primarily interested in the human side of the story, skip to Part IV on page 393. The emotional core of this book is the immense civilian catastrophe that took place during the 2.5 year siege. Despite heroic attempts by local citizens and Young Communist brigades, the city became a slow-motion killing zone without nearly enough food, fuel or even fresh water to sustain the population. People resorted to the most desperate and barbaric measures to stay alive. (Warning: Not for children or the squeamish.) Compassion and brutality roamed the streets simultaneously. Ultimately, the siege was broken in January 1944, but not before Leningrad was largely destroyed. Stalin gets much of the blame for failing to evacuate more civilians earlier on. But the real lesson of "The 900 Days" is that human suffering has no limit in times of war. Let's not forget that before we start another one. Final note: This book is relatively short on maps, photos and diagrams. Some courageous publisher should republish the book with a complete set of photos from the period, many of which are available at the St. Petersburg library.

Few events in the annals of modern history compare to the saga of the terrifying siege of Leningrad for almost three years by the German Wehrmacht during World War Two. In this classic historical work, "The 900 Days" written by long-time New York Times correspondent and editor Harrison Salisbury, the incredible toll in terms of blood, sweat and tears of the millions of Russian protagonists trapped by the Nazis in the city is told. The story is told in such a graphic and moving fashion that the individuals involved are portrayed from a common sense, human perspective, in terms of describing breathing, struggling individuals locked into a living nightmare, each of them having to make a titanic effort day after day just to endure the hardships and survive. The scale of the siege itself boggles the mind; some three million residents and soldiers were encircled and entrapped at the beginning of the Nazi incursion into Russia in Operation Barbarossa, intensifying with a ruthless German offensive in early October of 1941 that literally strangled the lifeline for food and critical supplies from the embattled urban area. Of those trapped, almost half succumbed, and most of these fatalities were in a relatively brief period of time, commencing with the events of October 1941 and climaxing in early April of 1942. People starved, froze, drowned, were run over by tanks, walked into mine fields, succumbed to a wide range of diseases, were murdered by German soldiers, and sometimes were caught in artillery fire. In all, almost one and one half million people were lost during the siege. Yet in the midst of all this immense suffering and the degraded conditions that forced many to the brink of extinction, the people of Leningrad consistently fought back, fighting environmental conditions, temperatures that dipped below 30 degrees below zero, with no heat, no light, little or no food or water. Yet the fighting on the front went on, supported by the inhabitants, who did everything from digging ditches to helping to care for the wounded in the midst of their own daily struggles to survive. In this instance, they didn't merely endure; in fact they prevailed against incredible odds. In the final analysis, it was the German army that was destroyed. The scope of this achievement seems to be little appreciated today. And while Salisbury traces the causes in the tragedy of Leningrad in Stalin's sectarian governmental policies that ultimately played into Hitler's plans for capturing the city, he also describes the incredible contributions of a cross-section of the citizenry of the city, including artists, factory workers, soldiers, teachers, housewives, children, writers, and others engaged in the common daily struggle to survive without ever ceding the ground or the war to the foe. Even more impressive is his unflinching attention to detail, and his retelling of the final coup-de-grace delivered by Stalin, jealous and politically fearful of the genuine heroes made by t

Having adopted two children from St. Petersburg orphanages and having twice visited the city in the past three years, I read this book from the perspective of an adoptive parent trying to gain a better understanding of the society and city my children came from. I was not disappointed. This well researched book tells the nearly forgotten tragic story of the people of Leningrad during what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War (WWII). It begins in great detail explaining Stalin's blunders before the war, which nearly allowed the Nazis to win a swift and easy victory. The bulk of the book of course recounts the stories of how a people, almost abandoned by its own country, coped with one of the most savage sieges of history. Finally, the book tells of the sad fate of many of the heroic survivors. The book does not try to tell the German perspective nor should it. By telling the stories of the victims we are more easily reminded of the horror of war and are less inclined to glorify aggression. The theme rather is taken from Leningrad poet, Olga Berggolts , "Let no one forget, let nothing be forgotten." For those of us not used to Russian names, places or war heroes, it can be difficult to keep track of how the war and the siege are progressing in the book. Poets, writers, composers and artists may seem a bit over represented in the book, but the reader should remember that since the book is non-fiction, the author had to rely on real accounts of what happened. These accounts are much more likely to have been written about the more famous. On the other hand, having been to St. Petersburg, it's hard to find someone there who is not at least a poet, writer, composer or artist at heart. So the author might have the right mix of artist/not artist accounts in the book after all.

Reading the great new WWII novel, The Triumph and the Glory" triggered in me an interest in World War II, especially the fighting on the Eastern Front. I asked around and was told Salisbury's "900 Days" was one of the best accounts of the Leningrad fighting, and after reading it agree, with the slight complaint that it concentrates almost wholly on the situation inside the besieged city. It is more a story of the citizenry of Leningrad and their ordeal than in the military aspects of the siege.