Anna Reid (1965-present) wrote solid account of the German siege of Siege of Leningrad:1941-1944. Reid started her book similar to Harrison Salisbury's book titled THE 900 DAYS. Reid's book is filled with poignant quotes and memoirs of the survivors and those who died. Reid gave the suffering detailed descriptions which should attract the attention of sensible, and sensitive readers.
Similar to Salisbury's book, Reid began her book with the German invasion called Operation Barbarossa (June 22, 1941) when the Germans shocked the Soviets plus Stalin & co. and led the disastrous defeats of the Red Army with considerable loss of life. The Germans' three main targets were Moscow, Stalingrad, and, last but certainly not least, Leningrad. As Reid wrote, the Leningraders thought they were safe and had no awareness what they would suffer by the end of the year and well into the year 1943. In fact, the loss of life would soon make the Leningraders almost immune to death which became the norm until 1944.
Many Leningraders knew the death Knell sounded when the Bayadev food warehouse fire wiped out the city's food supply. The Germans used incendiary bombs to firebomb the warehouse and thought "General Famine" would encourage the Leningrad citizens surrender the city. In spite of military incompetent leadership, bureaucratic and political blundering, and dishonesty, the Leningraders DID NOT SURRENDER. The Germans underestimated Russian resolve and mental toughness.
In re blundering, the political leaders did not take advantage of the early enthusiasm of volunteers to fight the Germans. The organization of these enthusiasts was poor. The men were poorly trained and armed and died in droves vs. German artillery and tanks. Commanders lost communications with each other, and, as Reid wrote, these men did not know "what the hell was taking place." The German advance was much more rapid than expected. While the Red Army troops fought bravely, they were routed. Only when Marshall Zukhov (1896-1974) arrived did the German advance slow. As one historian noted, Zhukov did not break the German noose around Leningrad, he helped loosen it enough for the Leningrad to survive.
The siege caused severe famine, fuel shortages, lack of fuel, and accompanying tragedy. The rations reached below subsistence levels, and the food shortages led to the obvious disparate efforts to get food. For example, Reid mentioned "granny robbers" who robbed elderly women of their ration cards, The Soviet Secret police got involved with their usual persecution complexes. Some of the folks arrested were elderly woman. Innocent suspects were arrested to give the appearance "of doing something." The police encountered another depressing crime-cannibalism. As Reid cryptically wrote, the term dystrophy was substituted for the terms of famine and hungry. Reid's careful description of the dying and the eventual casual acceptance of death gives readers a good look at the desperation of Leningrad. The situation was so bad that employers refused to hire anyone suffering from dystrophy, and those affected were given even more reduced rations because these people were seen as drain and were going to die regardless.
Given the arrests during Stalin's purges (1934-1940), this police action was to be expected. Yet, the Leningraders were more resentful of the Germans who caused so much misery and suffering. As the undersigned mentioned in a previous monograph, the Leningraders were more loyal to "Holy Mother Russia" and the city of Leningrad rather loyalty to Stalin and Communist ideology. As an aside, Stalin should have directed more resources to Leningrad which was a heavily industrialized city whose workers produced tanks, ammunition, and artillery.
The section titled "The Ice Road" was dramatic. The Soviets tried to get food and supplies into Leningrad via a frozen Lake Ladoga. The physicists miscalculated the ice thickness causing trucks and wagons to fall through the ice to watery grave of thousands of brave souls. Eventually the ice was thick enough which, Reid noted, helped lift the siege and eventually helped defeat the Germans and force on them similar conditions that the Leningraders previously suffered.
The section titled THE LENINGRAD SYMPHONY was interesting. Shostkovich's symphony was so effective that German troops who listened to the music from Soviet loudspeakers realized that Russia was too big to conquer and Leningrad was invincible. This may reflect von Ribbentrop's remark when he negotiated with Molotov that Molotov tell Stalin that Ribbentrop was sorry for the failed negotiations.
Part Hitler's defeat laid at the ruins of Leningrad. Anna Reid's book is a vivid remember of how horrible war is and that those who cheer for war do not know what they are supporting. Machiavelli (1469-1527) is alleged that leaders know how to start wars but do not know how they end. Reid's book gave the impression that the Leningraders did not know how the siege would end. Neither did the German invaders.
Jame E. Egolf
May 14, 2016
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A Riveting Account in the Leningraders Own Words!
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2013
When I pick up a book, I cannot resist looking at all the photos first. The pictures here prepare you. Like "Scavenging meat from a horse killed by shelling": two women bundled against the cold chop up a horse in the middle of the snow-covered street, throwing the frozen pieces on a sled, and ignoring the frozen human body just 20 feet away.1941-1944, "the deadliest blockade of a city in human history". Best estimates are that 750,000 people starved to death. It's not so easy to construct the story. Stalin sent anybody who hinted at the truth to the Gulag. After the war, Stalin had two great purges of civilians and military, so the records and correspondence of many of the people with the greatest knowledge of how decisions were made were also destroyed.But there's enough to form an absolutely chilling story. Remarkably, while researching this book, Anna Reid found four survivors to interview, and she credits many people with sharing the letters, diaries and memories of people caught in the city, as well as some of the German soldiers surrounding it.Granted, this was war, and European civilians died everywhere. But the fact that Leningrad was blockaded was due to the madness of Hitler. And the fact civilian losses were so huge was due to the madness of Stalin. Not that Hitler would have been a good landlord if the siege worked. His plan for the East was totally different than the West and reflected his hatred of the Russians. "The campaign was to be conducted with unprecedented harshness." No charges would be filed for rape and murder of civilians. All Russians would be sent to Siberia to work as serfs, while the land would be taken over by Aryans to work "lovely farms". His instructions for Leningrad were specific: "Erase the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth."I knew this wasn't going to be a cheerful book, but it's still chilling to read the real stories instead of generalities. For example, Yelena Skryabina's diary chronicles her tall 15 year-old son's death from starvation - it made my stomach clench. Cannibalism was prosecuted, of course, but I will not sit in judgement. I have never starved, so to think I know what I would or would not do is ridiculous. And, of course, most of the Leningraders never did take that last resort.Some of the stories you expect, but they still aggregate into despair. The total incompetence of those in charge, the denial that Stalin required, the greed and corrupt officials. Just one example: On the Russian's western front, the Soviets tended to blow up bridges ahead of the advancing Germans - and before their own soldiers made it across. Soviet soldiers who swam the river and made it back to their own line were rewarded by being executed for cowardice.The stories of the fighting around Leningrad are necessarily compact, because that's not the main thrust of the book. But they are welcome because it all ties together in one horrific story.Because of it's huge scope, this story of Leningrad's siege sometimes gets a little dry. And because Anna Reid wants us to hear the real words of the people, there are lots of quotes and snippets of quotes, it can be hard to keep track of people. But this also means that this is in no way a sensationalized account. This is the truth, the bare truth. I found it riveting.Happy Reader
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2013
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