Siege of Leningrad

"Siege of Petrograd" redirects here. Not to be confused with Battle of Petrograd.

Siege of Leningrad
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Soviet anti-aircraft battery in Leningrad near Saint Isaac's Cathedral, 1941
Date8 September 1941 – 27 January 1944
(2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days)
Location
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
(present-day Saint Petersburg, Russia)
59°55′49″N 30°19′09″E / 59.93028°N 30.31917°E / 59.93028; 30.31917
Result Soviet victory
Territorial
changes		 Axis forces are repelled 60–100 km (37–62 mi) away from Leningrad.
Belligerents
 Germany
 Finland[1][2]
Naval support:
 Italy[3]		  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Initial: 725,000 Initial: 930,000
Casualties and losses

Nazi Germany Army Group North:
1941: 85,371 total casualties[4]
1942: 267,327 total casualties[5]
1943: 205,937 total casualties[6]
1944: 21,350 total casualties[7]
Total: 579,985 casualties

  • 117,407 killed in action
  • 23,405 missing in action

Glantz estimate:
3,473,066 casualties[8]

  • 1,017,881 killed, captured or missing
  • 2,418,185 wounded and sick
Krivosheev estimate:[9]
523,415 KIA and MIA
Soviet civilians: 1,042,000[8]
  • 642,000 during the siege
  • 400,000 at evacuations
Total dead: 1,300,000[10]–2,000,000[11]

The siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military siege undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) on the Eastern Front of World War II. Germany's Army Group North advanced from the south, while the German-allied Finnish army invaded from the north and completed the ring around the city.

The siege began on 8 September 1941, when the Wehrmacht severed the last road to the city. Although Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the Red Army did not lift the siege until 27 January 1944, 872 days (125 weeks) after it began. The siege became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and it was possibly the costliest siege in history due to the number of casualties which were suffered throughout its duration. An estimated 1.5 million people died as a result of the siege. At the time, it was not classified as a war crime,[12] however, in the 21st century, some historians have classified it as a genocide, due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.[13][14][15][16][17]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Baryshnikov 2003; Juutilainen 2005, p. 670; Ekman, P-O: Tysk-italiensk gästspel på Ladoga 1942, Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet 1973 Jan.–Feb. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 5–46.
  4. ^ "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1941". Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1942". Archived from the original on 28 December 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1943". Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1944". Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ a b Glantz 2001, p. 179
  9. ^ Krivosheev, G. F. (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1853672804. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  10. ^ Salisbury 1969, pp. 594
  11. ^ Glantz 2001, p. 180.
  12. ^ "Siege Warfare and the Starvation of Civilians as a Weapon of War and War Crime". justsecurity.org. 4 February 2016. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  13. ^ Bidlack, Richard; Lomagin, Nikita (2012). The Leningrad Blockade, 1941–1944: A New Documentary History from the Soviet Archives. Translated by Schwartz, Marian. Yale University Press. pp. 1, 36. ISBN 978-0300110296. JSTOR j.ctt5vm646. Next to the Holocaust, the Leningrad siege was the greatest act of genocide in Europe during the Second World War, because Germany, and to a lesser extent Finland, tried to bombard and starve Leningrad into submission. [...] The number of civilians who died from hunger, cold, and enemy bombardment within the blockaded territory or during and immediately following evacuation from it is reasonably estimated to be around 900,000.
  14. ^ Ganzenmüller 2005 p. 334
  15. ^ Hund, Wulf Dietmar; Koller, Christian; Zimmermann, Moshe (2011). Racisms Made in Germany. Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 25. ISBN 978-3-643-90125-5. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  16. ^ Vihavainen, Timo; Schrey-Vasara, Gabriele (2011). "Opfer, Täter, Betrachter: Finnland und die Leningrader Blockade". Osteuropa. 61 (8/9): 48–63. JSTOR 44936431.
  17. ^ Siegl, Elfie (2011). "Die doppelte Tragödie: Anna Reid über die Leningrader Blockade". Osteuropa. 61 (8/9): 358–363. JSTOR 44936455.