Siege of Leningrad | |||||||||
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Part of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||||
Soviet antiaircraft battery in Leningrad near Saint Isaac's Cathedral, 1941 | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Germany Finland[1][2] Naval support: Italy[3] | Soviet Union | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Initial: 725,000 | Initial: 930,000 | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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 |
Northern Front: 1,017,881 killed, captured or missing[8] 2,418,185 wounded and sick[8] Total: 3,436,066 casualties
Russian estimate of killed, captured or missing:[10] Baltic Fleet: 55,890 Leningrad Front: 467,525 Total: 523,415 | ||||||||
Soviet civilians: 1,042,000[8]
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The Siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military siege (alternatively a genocide aimed blockade depending on the definition) undertaken by the Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet 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,[13] 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.[14][15][16][17][18]
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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.
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