The Siege of Leningrad: History in an Hour

The German soldier was under strict orders – anyone caught trying to escape the city, man, woman, or child, was to be shot. However, the German command, aware that shooting unarmed women and children could be detrimental to the mental health of the German soldier, ordered the use of artillery which could be applied from a safer distance.

Thus, on 8 September, the German advance halted just seven miles from the city gates, its troops dug in, and prepared to subject Leningrad to the most devastating siege in modern history. It was to last almost 900 days. To the east of the city a small corridor of land, a tiny chink, remained in Soviet hands between the Finns on one side and the Germans on the other; a corridor that was to prove a lifeline for the besieged Leningraders.

The Men in Charge

The men in charge of the defence of Leningrad were Andrei Zhdanov and sixty-year-old Kliment Voroshilov, one of Stalin’s old favourites. Voroshilov had been criticized for his incompetent leadership during the Winter War against Finland and had been dismissed only to be reinstated to save Leningrad. Stalin, aware of Voroshilov’s failings, realized that under such pressure Leningraders would question the regime and his leadership in particular. He needed a man of utter political reliability to instil in Leningrad the right political thinking. And Voroshilov was that man.

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