Grim. Could have been more detailed. The detail on what led up to the siege was good. But once winter 1941 started, the detail fizzled out and all that was left were anecdotes. ( )

This is a fascinating account of the brutal siege of St Petersberg by the Germans in WWII. Since the fall of the Soviet Union more information about the siege has become available. In accordance with Hitler's directive, the German army did not attempt to take Leninggrad but surrounded it with the deliberate intention of starving 2 1/2 million people to death. The seige lasted almost 900 days and at least one million people died from cold and hunger. With interviews and extracts from journals and diaries, Michael Jones recounts this heartbreaking story. ( )

This is a well-written account, drawing on new sources, particularly private diaries and other writings to give the perspective of individuals caught in the horrific siege, while not neglecting to detail the military maneuverings on both sides. Jones also details the incompetence and venality of the Soviet authorities, both civilian and military, which was nothing short of criminal, including military efforts to break the blockade that were doomed to failure before they started and only resulted in the loss of thousands of Soviet soldiers. Life in the city spiraled down into a struggle for existence every single moment of every day, with profiteers and cannibals and gangs coming to the fore. People were barely hanging on, eating wallpaper paste, boiling belts. But Jones also describes the humanity of many people who gave their last ounce of strength to help someone else, sometimes even just a stranger and he makes the point that those who survived the siege best seemed to be the ones who found some activity, some helping of others, outside of themselves.

A million people starved to death during the siege. This was not just collateral damage to be expected in the conditions of a siege, it was the result of a deliberate policy from the Germans, part of a much larger plan. Timothy Snyder (Holocaust: The Ignored Reality; NYReview of Books, July 16, 2009) explains:

“Had things gone the way that Hitler, Himmler, and Goring expected, German forces would have implemented a Hunger Plan in the Soviet Union in the winter of 1941-1942. As Ukrainian and south Russian agricultural products were diverted to Germany, some 30 million people in Belarus, northern Russia, and Soviet cities were to be starved to death. The Hunger Plan was only a prelude to Generalplan Ost, the colonization plan for the western Soviet Union, which foresaw the elimination of some 50 million people.”

The numbers are staggering and as always they tend to numb the senses. Jones has done a service in restoring individuals to the story, with all their weaknesses, failures, success and heroism, while keeping the larger context.

An easy read, with emphasis on the effects of the siege on the common citizens of the city. The flow of the narrative suffers somewhat from a tendency to skip back and forth in time while discussing a specific aspect of the siege. ( )