According to foreign media reports, on June 22, 1941, Germany ignored the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact signed with the Soviet Union and launched 3 million German troops to pour into the Soviet border and start a three-pronged attack. Its central and southern forces attacked Moscow and Ukraine, while Army Group North marched across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia toward Leningrad. Hitler had always regarded Leningrad as the primary target of the siege, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet, with a permanent population of more than 3 million and more than 600 factories, and its economy was second only to moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union at the time.
In the late summer of 1941, while Leningrad civilians were frantically building trenches and anti-tank fortifications, the Red Army and the Volunteer Army were gradually defeated. The Germans successively occupied the towns of Mga and Shliselborg, cutting off the last roads and railways in Leningrad, and finally the Ladoga Lake waterway became the only way for Leningrad to communicate with the outside world, and Leningrad was almost completely surrounded by German and Finnish troops.
By late September, the Soviets had finally blocked the attack of Army Group North, and the Germans were trapped in the trenches. At this time, Hitler suddenly changed his strategy, intending to besiege the city through shelling and continuous bombardment. But the German Nazis did not want to feed the city's large population, and they chose a chilling alternative, not to attack directly, but to starve the citizens of Leningrad alive.
When Hitler gave the order, the Germans had set up artillery ready to shell Leningrad, and the air force also carried out regular bombing, which seriously destroyed the Soviet army's important supply of grain and oil. The artillery fire killed 50,000 civilians in Leningrad, 600,000 fled, 2.5 million stranded, and the city was severely short of food and oil, forcing fresh supplies from Lake Ladoga. As the only open route into the city, the Ladoga Route later became known as the "Road of Life", but the food supply in Leningrad remained woefully inadequate. By November, workers and civilians had only 250 grams of bread to eat a day, compared with 125 grams for children, the elderly and the unemployed.
In the cold winter of 1941-1942, the plague caused by famine swept through Leningrad, killing as many as 100,000 people every month. In desperation, the hungry people ate even Vaseline, wallpaper, glue, and even ate all the rats in the city. To keep warm, people burned furniture, wardrobes and books. Social unrest, murder and arsonists, thieves everywhere, the Soviet authorities to maintain social order arrests more than 2,000 people, but as the famine continued to intensify, the city of Leningrad can be described as a corpse everywhere.
During the Great Famine, countless human tragedies unfolded in Leningrad, but the city still resisted the Nazi siege. In early 1942, the Soviet Union evacuated about 500,000 people through the Life Route of Lake Ladoga, and the trapped population shrank to 1 million. After spring, the survivors of Leningrad launched a self-help campaign, and although food was still scarce, the city had been pulled back from the hands of death. In early 1943, the tide of war finally began to reverse, and the Red Army successfully seized a small land bridge from the Nazis and built a special railway on the bridge corridor. By the end of 1943, nearly 5 million tons of food and supplies had been transported to Leningrad. Despite the german shelling and bombardment, the starving city began to rejuvenate, and factory workers soon produced large quantities of machinery and ammunition.
In early 1944, the long-awaited breakout finally appeared, 1.25 million Red Army troops captured the German line, and Hitler's Army Group North was soon forced into a complete retreat. On January 27, 1944, the city of Leningrad, which had been blockaded for 872 days, was finally liberated. On Victory Day, the Soviet government fired 24 salutes to celebrate, and civilians spontaneously celebrated in the streets.
The Battle of Leningrad killed 800,000 civilians, almost the sum of the anglo-American casualties in World War II, and the spirit of resistance of the people of Leningrad is also hailed as a symbol of the Russian national spirit. The New York Times once commented: "The stubborn resistance of millions of people is rare in history." Since the beginning of the campaign, Leningrad has fought alone against Germany, a heroic city that will go down in history as an indomitable spiritual symbol. ”
(Source: National History Channel website)
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Author: Life is simple zh
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