The 900-day
siege of the Soviet city of Leningrad by the combined forces of the Germans and
the Finns is one of the most remarkable, and terrible, events of the Second
World War, yet until recently it has not received the attention it deserves – it
has been overshadowed by other massive confrontations on the Eastern Front, at
Stalingrad and Kursk. And rarely has the compelling story of the siege been told
through graphic wartime photographs like those that author Nik Cornish has
collected for this book. Many of these images have not been published before,
and they give an unflinching insight into the reality of the conditions of the
siege as it was experienced by the soldiers on each side and by the civilians
trapped in the city who were threatened by starvation, disease, shelling and
assault. The entire course of the siege is covered, from the encirclement of
September 1941, through the successive attempts by the Wehrmacht to break in and
the dogged, sometimes desperate defence put up by the Red Army, to the
withdrawal of the Germans and the lifting of the siege in January 1944. Nik
Cornish’s portrait of the ruthless struggle of Hitler’s armies to capture the
second city of the Soviet Union and the
determination and suffering of the defenders will be fascinating reading for
everyone who is interested in the war on the Eastern
Front.
