The Siege of Leningrad(September 8, 1941-January 27, 1944)

Chris Brown and Jacob Wolfman

Events Leading up to the Siege

• June 22, 1941 Germans invaded the Soviet Union

• Stalin was fearful of Hitler and didn’t take any action for 11 days

• Stalin told the Red Army to destroy anything of use to the Nazis (Scorched Earth Policy)

战小栗

Goals and Objectives

•Germans–Occupation of Leningrad–Hitler thought that the loss of Leningrad

would be demorilizing to the Russians• Leningrad was a naval base, railroad

junction, and symbolic “cradle of the Russian Revolution”

Goals and Objectives

• Russians– Stop the Germans from taking over

Leningrad

The Siege Begins

• The Nazis outflanked the Red Army and had fully encircled Leningrad

• 3 million civilians (400,000 children) were trapped in the city

• The civilians had to endure many hardships in order to survive

• They refused to give up though

The Siege

• The German stategy was to bombard the city and starve them until they surrendered

• There was only 1-2 months supply of food and fuel left

• By January 1942 the rations were 125 grams (1/4 lb.) of bread per person per day

• January 1942 was an unusually cold winter• In January and February 200,000 people died

of cold and starvation• There was no public transportation, heating,

water supply or electricity

The Siege Ends

• January 1943 the siege was broken• January 1944 the siege was fully lifted• The siege lasted 900 days• Most of the people that died during the siege

were burried in mass graves– Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetary

Outcome of the Siege on Leningrad

• Soviet Union― The soviet union won the battle. After

the battle the city was destroyed and the people that still lived in the city had to evacuate.

• Nazi Germany― Nazi Germany and Finland lost the

battle. Nazi Germany lost a major city which they wanted to occupy. When they retreated they looted and destroyed many buildings. Causing the citizens in the city to evacuate.

Losses sustained by Soviet Union

Red Army: 1,017,881 killed, captured or missing

2,418,185 wounded and sick

Civilians: 642,000 during the siege, 400,000 at evacuations

Interesting Facts

• It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had the invitations to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria already printed

• Almost all historians regard the siege as a German operation and do not consider that the Finns effectively participated in the siege. Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov argues that active Finnish participation did occur, but historians have been mostly silent about it, most likely due to the friendly nature of post-war Soviet-Finnish relations

• On October 29, 1966, a monument to the Road of Life was erected. Entitled "Broken Ring", designed and created by Konstantin Simun, this monument pays tribute not only to the lives saved via the frozen Ladoga, but also the many lives broken by the blockade. It is customary for newlyweds to come here to give thanks to the fallen

• The Road of Life was the ice road transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad in the winter months during 1941–1944

Works Cited•http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/siege.asp•http://victory1945.rt.com/war-facts/key-battles/siege-of-leningrad/

•http://siegeofleningrad.tripod.com/mitch/id4.html

Works Cited"Road of Life." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_of_Life>."Siege of Leningrad." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad>.