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.
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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