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:
"The moment has come to put your Bolshevik qualities to work, to get ready to defend Leningrad without wasting words. We have to see that nobody is just an onlooker, and carry out in the least possible time the same kind of mobilisation of the workers that was done in 1918 and 1919. The enemy is at the gate. It is a question of life and death."
Many in Leningrad had expected the Germans to attack and occupy the city. However, a resolute Russian defence and inadequate German manpower, meant that the Germans could not successfully achieve this - hence the siege. By September 8th, German tanks were just 10 miles from Leningrad and the city was cut-off from the rest of Russia by any form of land communication. Supply lines existed in the air and by river - but both were under constant attack. The Germans continually bombarded the city, putting out of action power stations that supplied Leningrad with electricity. The city also quickly became short of food.
When the Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, the population of Leningrad was about 2,500,000. However, as the Germans advanced into Russia, a further 100,000 refugees entered the city. The area that the city authorities controlled produced just 1/3rd of what was needed for grain, 1/3rd of what was needed for coal, 1/12th of what was needed for sugar and half of what was needed with regards to meat - if the supply lines could be kept open. On September 12th, those in charge of the city estimated that they had the following supplies:
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