900 Days - The Siege of Leningrad (Harrison Salisbury, 1969)

Another World War II story that - if one were to write it as fiction - would be dismissed as simply too much to believe.

I had heard a bit about this siege in other reading, but it hadn't really hit home what was going on. I know it's difficult to measure these things but I would tend to believe statements that this was the worst disaster to befall any large modern city. Soviet Russia tried to suppress the goings-on after the war; the author had great familiarity with Russia from various connections, so could piece things together.

The beginning of the story is pretty well known - Stalin refused to believe his erstwhile ally, Hitler, was preparing to invade Russia notwithstanding endless clear evidence to the contrary. This led to all sorts of problems for Russia and, in particular, Leningrad. Preparations for war with Germany would have been considered "defeatism" by Stalin - so local authorities were limited in making preparations.

The Nazis had great early successes and effectively encircled the entire city. A large lake to the northeast (Lake Ladoga) was the only remaining route during the winter of 1941-42 (after it froze). It seems that the Nazis could have stormed the city and wouldn't have needed a siege - except they prioritized taking Moscow and diverted heavy armor at a critical moment. They then decided to settle in for the winter and starve the city into submission (while shelling and bombing constantly).

This winter also was supremely cold. Bad news in a city lacking fuel.

Food supplies dwindled rapidly. The author reports the ration for factory workers in November was cut to as low as 125 grams of "bread" per day (250 grams for factory workers). (Do the math, it's 454 grams per pound.)

And the "bread" on which folks tried to survive was an awful mix of flour sweepings, cottonseed cake, reclaimed flour dust, "edible cellulose," salt, etc.

What was going on for the general population in the winter of 41-42? (I focus on this because the remainder of the 900 days - while bad - wasn't as bad.)

1. A city of 3.5 million that was eerily quiet - no fuel for vehicles, streetcars, etc. Factories and stores closed - no goods, no power.

2. No heat in dwellings - in a bitterly cold winter.

3. Hunger made folks too weak to do much of anything - how could anyone function on a few ounces of marginally nutritional "bread?"

4. The survivors recall how children's sleds became the mode of transportation - you could haul your water, your relatives that were too weak to walk, your corpses.

5. Folks started dying in droves. Thousands per day in '41-'42. Everybody was repeatedly affected - estimates of losses reach one million persons, most of whom simply starved to death. Not imaginable.

6. Bodies everywhere - no smell because of super cold. Corpses stay in houses for weeks (too much effort required to remove them), lay on streets (folks just walked on by, what else was there to do?); many gathered up for mass graves.

7. Part of the eerie quiet: no dogs or other animals. Poignant stories of folks killing (and eating) longtime family pets.

8. Part of the eerie quiet: few children in the streets. Many were dying; others not allowed out much due to rumors of cannibalism, that children were preferred as yielding more tender meat. (Women supposedly better than men in the cannibal hierarchy, except perhaps soldiers who benefited from larger rations.)

9. And there was cannibalism - meat patties trading on the black market at Haymarket Square; some Leningraders that simply looked "too healthy" for the rations received.

10. Life with ration cards - reissued on the first of every month with no chance of reissue if lost; those that lost their card early in the month didn't have a chance without charity from others. Or theft. Black market trades - family heirlooms for half a loaf of "bread."

11. Yet a sense of camaraderie; some of the Stalinist repression lifted; some performances go on; lectures; Shostakovich composing while the shells fall; saving Hermitage treasures; etc.

Wow. I suppose it was heroic, but it's not easy to classify driving off the Germans - after almost three years - as a "win" when you lose one million people.