Tuesday 27 February 2018

Siege Of Leningrad


            Just so you know all this information comes from a talk of UTL on Belle Île I went to yesterday.


Siege of Leningrad
It lasted 872 days and didn’t end till the end of the war. Years 1941-1944

Germany had at its height of power 12 countries in its rule, in a month they took over a space 2 times the size of France. 

1941 Germany decided to attack Leningrad, for resources and the potential to access the northern countries, if Germany took Leningrad they would've been able to completely restock their resources and possibly even win the war.

Before Germany attacked, Leningrad had population of 4 million people in 1940 and was the strongest cite in the Europe or any where else, it was the powerhouse at the time leading the world in economics and industry. In fact the only reason Leningrad stopped Germany was because Leningrad was one of the biggest producers of firearms and other weapons. Because of this the soldiers were some of the best armed in the war.

They tried to evacuate the population before the sacking but they didn't have enough time to do it, if they did Germany would've been able to intercept the population and kill or enslave them, so instead they fortified Leningrad with barricades, trenches, and mines.

But from there on it was downhill for Leningrad even though they stopped Germany, they had some of the highest death rates and the population went down by more than half. They lost 700,000 to 1,500,000 civilians and that doesn't include the 1,000,000 soldiers who died. It got so bad that in the end the woman and children would make up the line against the Germans.

Most of those civilian deaths were from starvation and the rest died from the 100,000 bombs that were dropped on the city. The rationing got so bad that is you put your hands together, each civilian would receive a piece of bread the size of that for the entire day. Sometimes there would be days before people would even get that. It got so bad that people would eat bodies that would die from freezing in the street.
This is the same person before and after the war.


Suffice to say all the animals were killed, including the dogs and cats. Because all the cats were gone the rats came, but not alone, they came with diseases of all kinds, and it spread quickly for multiple reasons. 

With people eating them for the little food it would give them, the diseases would enter them internally, but also the people were already weak so the diseases would be able to infect them easier. 
But because Leningrad is at the same altitude of Alaska, the pipes froze leaving people to take dirty water from the street. 
People taking water out of trenches in the street.

Frozen pipes wasn't the only thing the cold affected, electricity would be turned off at 4pm and oil was heavily rationed, leaving households in extreme cold with the winter averaging minus 18 Celsius and the coldest being minus 36 and a high of 1. Winters would generally average 6 months. In these winters most public transport would be completely stopped. At this time people would often drag boards behind them, this would help carry produce and bags. 

The after damages was massive, 82% of schools where destroyed, but most of the monuments where saved by the city where they were hidden for safe keeping, now they're dotted around the city in pristine condition. The city is now back to its population it had before the war, But they still remember it vividly, they've banned words like "famine" and others.

In the end a great city of 4 million went down to 800,000 soldiers and civilians. The city is now only at 5 million.
At the end of the war they brought in 1 to 5 million cats to get rid of the rats and disease.


Cool note, Leningrad is the home of Google.


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