Today is the anniversary of one of the most horrific events in modern history — the nearly 900 day siege of St. Petersburg, Russia.
As the editor of The 900 Days, The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury writes,
"The Nazi siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944 was one of the most gruesome episodes of World War II. Nearly three million people endured it; just under half of them died. For twenty-five years the distinguished journalist and historian Harrison Salisbury pieced together this remarkable narrative of villainy and survival, in which the city had much to fear-from both Hitler and Stalin."
I read this book a few years ago and was stunned by so much of what I read. It wasn’t just the never ending horrors for the residents of the city, but also the stupidity of Stalin who was warned repeatedly by the allies that Germany was preparing to invade and thought he knew better, and couldn’t be bothered to take action at the onset. It seems like a common theme by leaders before wars break out, or during strategic turns in a war.
Salisbury’s book was long, and thorough. After reading I will never complain about the bread I eat, or about being cold or hungry.
In doing a little research for tonight’s diary I’ve found another book that I’d like to read; The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad by Alexis Peri. It’s based on diaries that people kept during the siege. This article from The Guardian provides a good background of the book and the author’s views of the siege.
She spoke of her deep respect for the city’s people and what they went through: “Leningraders were indeed heroes for all that they endured. They suffered through the unimaginable. What interests me is that, in their diaries, they did not narrate themselves in heroic terms.
“They did not use the narrative of heroic resistance to describe their fight for survival, but found other ways to make sense of their suffering. They looked to literature, to history, etc. My book examines some of these alternative ways of articulating the ordeal of the blockade. My aim is not to negate the story of heroic resistance, but to show new dimensions of the siege experience.”
Want to know more without reading the book? Check out these tweets.
Usually I try to keep the evening diaries light, but this is an important moment in history that deserves some reflection. Thanks for indulging me.