The siege of Leningrad lasted from September 1941 to 1944. By the end of the siege, some 632,000 people are thought to have died with nearly 4,000 people from Leningrad starving to death on Christmas Day, 1941. The first German artillery shell fell on Leningrad on September 1st, 1941. The city, one of the primary targets of 'Operation Barbarossa', was expected "to fall like a leaf" (Hitler).
The Germans, flushed with the initial success of 'Barbarossa', decided that they would not storm the city. Hitler had stated to his generals that once Leningrad had been surrounded and bombarded from the air and by artillery on the ground, the resolve of the city to continue the fight would disappear. German bombers also dropped propaganda leaflets on the city - claiming that the population would starve to death if they did not surrender.
The ruling elite of Leningrad had imposed martial law in June - a reaction to the success of 'Barbarossa'. Authority to govern the city was handed to Lieutenant-General Popov, commander of the city's garrison, A. A. Zhdanov, head of the local party committee and P. Popov, head of the city's Soviet Executive.
Zhdanov told the people of Leningrad:
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