Under Siege episode 5 - Leningrad 1941: The 900 Days
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00:00The history of man's inhumanity to man has many dark chapters, but none worse than the
00:13war on Germany's Eastern Front.
00:18After the Wehrmacht had gained control of most of Western Europe, Hitler turned his
00:21attention eastwards, to the vast expanses of Russia.
00:26On the 22nd of June, 1941, some 150 German army divisions launched their great invasion.
00:34Operation Barbarossa had begun.
00:44Army Group North was ordered to destroy a strategically important city high on the Baltic
00:48coast.
00:50Hitler was intent on obliterating it at all costs, and ordered that its inhabitants be
00:54shelled and starved to death.
00:58The siege that ensued lasted nearly 900 days, and cost the lives of almost one million civilians.
01:06But the city would not yield to the mighty force at its gates.
01:10Leningrad, 1941.
01:54A vibrant, beautiful city, which boasts a rich cultural heritage.
02:01It is perhaps difficult for the contemporary visitor to imagine the horrors that took place
02:05on its streets just six decades ago.
02:10But they are etched on the fabric and consciousness of the city.
02:14Many of whose inhabitants are able to recall them all too vividly.
02:24Five months after Britain and France had guaranteed the security of Poland in March 1939, a Nazi-Soviet
02:30pact was signed.
02:33One week later, with Soviet backing, Poland was invaded, and World War II began.
02:54The pact had guaranteed that Russia would be safe from invasion by Hitler's forces.
03:00But in the late summer of 1940, the Fuhrer ordered plans for the invasion of his communist
03:05ally, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.
03:13Hitler invaded Russia for three reasons.
03:15First of all, he was determined to smash the Soviet Union's potential to attack Germany
03:23while Germany was engaged with what he saw as its major enemy, Britain.
03:28Secondly, because his long-term plans involved the colonization of Eastern Europe, and Russia
03:35was obviously the largest, by far the largest territory available for that project.
03:41And thirdly, because he had always made fighting and destroying Bolshevism a central part of
03:48the Nazi mission.
03:52Operation Barbarossa evolved into a three-pronged attack by Army Groups North, Center, and South.
04:01Comprising some 150 divisions, they were to advance on a wide front and establish a line
04:07from Archangel to the Volga.
04:11Army Group Center was to attack towards Minsk, Smolensk, and eventually take the capital,
04:17Moscow.
04:19Army Group South was to advance on Kiev and the Ukraine with its rich grain reserves.
04:27Army Group North, supported by 14 Finnish divisions in the Karelian Peninsula north
04:32of Leningrad, was tasked with the destruction of Soviet forces in the Baltic region and
04:38the capture of Leningrad.
04:44With the destruction of Leningrad and Soviet troops in the north, Army Group Center would
04:48have its flank secured and be able to take Moscow. With its capital in German hands,
04:55Russia would be conquered.
04:58Leningrad was the second largest city in the Soviet Union. It was a major industrial center,
05:05particularly producing war material, and it was the base of the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet.
05:11So for all these reasons, it was an indispensable target for the German offensive and for the
05:18reason it was given high priority in the early weeks and months of the war.
05:49Led by Field Marshal Ritter von Lieb, Army Group North consisted of the 18th Army, commanded
06:00by General von Kuechler, General Hoepner's 4th Panzer Group, and General Busch's 16th
06:08Army.
06:12The Army Group that von Lieb commanded was in many ways the poor relation of the German
06:17forces. With no motorized transport, 80% of its troops had to walk into battle, and the
06:24movement of its guns and equipment was largely reliant on horsepower.
06:33While it had 600 tanks and 430 aircraft, it was perhaps not quite the armored juggernaut
06:39of popular myth.
06:43However this did not deter Hitler, and he believed that the Wehrmacht could accomplish
06:47its goals in only 8 to 10 weeks.
06:56Rumors of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union had begun to circulate at the beginning
07:00of 1941, but Stalin had refused to believe them.
07:04There were many reports that were coming in leading up to the launch of Operation Barbarossa,
07:09particularly from informers within Germany. Stalin ignored all these because he was convinced
07:17that Hitler would not make the fatal error of Germany in World War I, namely of fighting
07:25a war on two fronts.
07:29Confident that Germany would not attack, Stalin banned what he considered to be provocative
07:33preparations. This left the Russian army and air force unprepared for the German onslaught,
07:40and in many places, civil defenses were also horribly inadequate.
07:50In July, Army Group North scythed through the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and
07:55Estonia. The Nazi-Soviet pact had enabled Stalin to occupy these states.
08:04And the joyful citizens greeted the German troops as liberators.
08:09Once the SS arrived with torture, murder and deportation, joy soon turned to terror.
08:18In the face of the German onslaught, the surprised and ill-prepared Russian army fell back to
08:23the Luga river, near the ancient city of Novgorod.
08:28The Luga line held until the 21st of August, when the 16th Army outflanked it to the south,
08:34before taking Chudeva and pushing further north near Magar, only 60 kilometres from
08:40Leningrad.
08:47Stalin's insistence that his border be extended into Finnish territory in 1939 had resulted
08:52in the Winter War. When the Soviets had emerged victorious in March 1940, the disputed territory
08:59had been incorporated into the USSR. Now the Finns saw an opportunity to regain their lost
09:06ground.
09:11On the 28th of August, Tallinn fell to the Germans, and at the same time the Finns advanced
09:16on both sides of Lake Ladoga, occupying their former territory.
09:24German and Finnish forces were forming a circle around Leningrad, and the ring was tightening.
09:29The prospects for Russian forces and the city's inhabitants looked bleak.
09:40Leningrad though had been doing its best to prepare for the assault. Tens of thousands
09:45of volunteers had worked around the clock to construct a maze of defences in a triple
09:49line around the city.
10:15Thousands of kilometres of trenches were dug, over 700 kilometres of anti-tank ditches
10:22and tank traps, and approximately 15,000 pillboxes were built. To protect these, fields of anti-tank
10:29and anti-personnel mines were laid.
10:36While Army Group North continued to advance on Leningrad, Hitler's plans were changing.
10:43The advance of Army Group Centre along the Moscow axis became the new priority.
10:48Hitler's plan was to attack Leningrad from the east, and to attack Leningrad from the
10:54west.
10:55The plan was to attack Leningrad from the east, and to attack Leningrad from the west.
11:02The advance of Army Group Centre along the Moscow axis became the new priority.
11:08On the 29th of August, von Lieb ordered his forces to close the ring around the city,
11:13before some of his units were ordered south.
11:17On the 30th, Magar was captured, and with it the last rail link from Leningrad.
11:24Schlisselburg fell on the 8th of September.
11:28The capture of Schlisselburg on the 8th of September was the decisive moment in the siege
11:39of Leningrad.
11:40From this point of view, that it meant that there was no longer any land contact, direct
11:49land contact between Leningrad and the interior of Russia.
11:56It meant that supplies now could only get into Leningrad via the air or across the huge
12:03lake to the east of Leningrad, Lake Ladoga, and Leningrad was in a ring of iron.
12:12On the 10th, the Duderhof Heights were lost, giving the German artillery an excellent view
12:17of the city.
12:20It was now that decisions made elsewhere impacted on the fate of Leningrad.
12:25On the 15th of September, Hitler ordered most of Panzer Group 4 to Army Group Centre
12:30for the assault on Moscow.
12:33Once you suck combat power out of Army Group North in order to feed the burning desire
12:40of Army Group Centre to get to Moscow before winter, Army Group North is left with no armoured
12:46capability at all.
12:48They've just gone 900 miles and they are almost to Leningrad and they're down to one
12:55motorised formation.
12:57They have got no panzer divs left to punch their way to where they want to be.
13:08Three days before Hitler's order, Stalin had sent General Georgy Zhukov to take command
13:12of Leningrad.
13:15Zhukov was the greatest Soviet military leader of World War II.
13:21He was something close to a military genius.
13:27Zhukov's main characteristics as a military commander were his command of detail on the
13:35battlefield, but also an ability to motivate those under his command.
13:42He was very decisive, he gave his all and he demanded everything from those underneath
13:50him.
13:51He was also absolutely ruthless.
13:53He was a Stalinist military commander.
13:56For him it was victory at all costs, whatever the sacrifice of human life this might entail.
14:13When he arrived in Leningrad in early September 1941, after the Germans had managed to block
14:21the city, the main problem was whether the city would be able to defend itself.
14:26The first thing Zhukov did was to overcome these problems, he said that we should do
14:34everything possible to organise the most effective defence of the city.
14:40Zhukov immediately reorganised and strengthened Leningrad's defences.
14:45Reinforcing the armies in the Uritsk and Polkovi sectors, he ordered relentless counter-attacks.
14:52These counter-attacks tied up German forces and prevented them crossing the Neva river.
14:59Von Lieb's troops were then halted by the triple line of defences outside Leningrad.
15:06Leningrad's offensives had also postponed the departure of Panzer Group 4 to Army Group
15:10Centre, adversely affecting the Moscow offensive.
15:16German efforts to close the Iron Ring around Leningrad were further hampered by the Finns'
15:21refusal to advance further than their regained territory.
15:25The Finns had lost a great deal of territory to the Soviets in the Winter War and they
15:30were willing to go to war to get some of that back.
15:35One thing that Marshal Mannerheim knew was that if he was going to continue to live alongside
15:44the very powerful Soviet Union after the war, he could not be a threat to Leningrad.
15:55In the big picture, in the long term, Finland could not afford to be a strategic threat
16:02to the Soviet Union's only year-round port.
16:08By late September, the Leningrad offensive had cost Army Group North in the region of
16:1260,000 casualties and the Russian Army Groups over 300,000.
16:19With both armies exhausted, the mobile phase of the battle was over.
16:24Hitler ordered the city bombed, shelled and starved into submission.
16:28The siege of Leningrad had begun.
16:42The German artillery bombardment of the city started on the 1st of September.
16:46On the 8th, the aerial bombardment followed as the Luftwaffe went into action over Leningrad.
16:596,000 incendiaries and 50 high-explosive bombs caused extensive damage to the south of the
17:08city and destroyed the main food warehouses.
17:28The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
17:33The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
17:38The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
17:43The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
17:48The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
17:54The German artillery bombardment of Leningrad continued.
18:13At the start of the German invasion, the population of Leningrad stood at over 3 million.
18:19As enemy forces advanced, evacuations by rail and water by Lake Ladoga began.
18:27The aim was to send one million evacuees to the east.
18:33By the end of August, over 630,000 people had left the city.
18:38But in September, with the Germans tightening their grip on the land, only 70,000 were sent
18:43to safety, leaving two and a half million people inside the city.
18:51Leningrad was an important industrial centre, and in August, many of the factories had followed
18:56the city's inhabitants to safety in the east.
18:59Whole plants, including their technical personnel and machines, were sent to the Volga and the
19:04Urals.
19:08After the fall of Schlisselburg on the 8th of September, evacuation was only possible
19:12by air or across Lake Ladoga.
19:15However, by then, the vital Kirov and Izhora tank factories had relocated, along with over
19:2110,000 technicians from the aircraft factories.
19:28Despite the loss of these factories, armaments continued to be manufactured in the city.
19:34Technical colleges were set up to train civilians, women joined the workforce, and workshops
19:40were set up to manufacture and repair small arms.
20:10While the need for weapons outside the city was great, inside Leningrad there was a more
20:30pressing requirement – food.
20:35In August, the rationing of bread and sugar had begun.
20:39And grain stocks led to the bread ration being cut twice in September.
20:45Rationing of cereals, fats, meat and fish began, and electricity supplies were restricted
20:50to only a few hours a day.
20:54Beer production was halted, and all of the malt, barley, soya beans and bran were sent
20:59to the bakeries to supplement the flour.
21:03As the siege wore on, many other substances, including sawdust, were added.
21:10By the 20th of November, the bread ration had been cut a further three times, making
21:15five cuts in 11 weeks.
21:19The daily ration consisted of 375 grams for priority workers, 250 grams for engineers
21:26and technicians, and 125 grams for employees, their dependents and children.
21:34This was a decrease from the normal consumption in June of between 60 and 80 percent.
21:56In the evening, we would have a soup from the same porridge, and in the evening we would have
22:03some poppy seeds, which were made from corn flour, and a piece of bread, 500 grams,
22:13and 30 grams of granulated sugar.
22:19But sometimes we would want to put sugar in our pockets, one or the other,
22:25and the next time we got home, we would give it to our mother or father.
22:33Once the Germans cut the rail links east, Leningrad's only means of supply had been via Lake Ladoga.
22:40This route, relying on slow barges crossing the lake day and night in all weathers,
22:45was inevitably vulnerable to German air attacks.
22:51In October and November 1941, shipping carried 60,000 tons of food, fuel and ammunition
22:58across the lake to the city.
23:01Aerial supply was sometimes possible, and between the 14th and 28th of November,
23:061,200 tons of high-calorie foods were flown in.
23:11However, this was never enough to sustain the city.
23:15Leningrad had begun to starve to death.
23:21The Stavka, the Soviet high command, knew that should Army Group North succeed
23:26in destroying Leningrad, then it could swing south and take Moscow.
23:30With Army Group Center already threatening Moscow,
23:33Stalin recalled Zhukov to the capital in November.
23:37Before he left, Zhukov put into operation an attack on the German army.
23:42Troops from the Leningrad region joined the 54th Army,
23:46and together with the Volkhov Army Group attacked in the Magar region to the east of the city.
23:52The fighting continued through November.
23:55While it did not force the Germans back, it did hold down German divisions
23:59bound for the attack on Moscow.
24:03Meanwhile, after three weeks' hard fighting,
24:06the Germans had taken Tikhvin in early November,
24:09and Lake Ladoga's only remaining rail links to Moscow had been cut.
24:14As temperatures dropped below minus 30,
24:17German forces could go no further, and fighting continued in the area for a month.
24:25Then, with a mighty effort, Russian forces attacked Tikhvin from the north and east.
24:30German communications south were cut by a third Russian thrust.
24:36On 9th December, the Germans withdrew from Tikhvin.
24:40Pursued westwards by the Russian armies,
24:43they fell back to their October positions across the river Volkhov.
24:47The importance of the limited Soviet military successes
24:53at the end of 1941 and beginning of 1942
24:58was that even if they didn't break the siege,
25:02they showed that the German lines would not advance further,
25:08they showed that the Red Army could contain
25:11and to some measure push back the German advance.
25:15And this was something of a morale booster,
25:19even though for the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad
25:23it was a major disappointment that the promised relief had not come
25:28and conditions in the city grew even worse.
25:32While they had gained ground and recaptured the vital rail link,
25:38the Russian counter-offensives had indeed done little
25:41to alleviate the pressure inside the city.
25:44To compound the supply problems, winter came early to Lake Ladoga
25:49and the ice severely reduced ship-borne supplies.
25:54The Leningrad Military Council drew up plans for an ice road across the lake.
26:00While the ice was too thick for shipping and too thin for trucks,
26:04the city could only wait.
26:07By the 22nd of November,
26:09the first convoy struggled across the lake's newly marked route.
26:14However, shortly afterwards, a partial thaw set in
26:18and 40 trucks and their valuable cargo were lost through the thinning ice.
26:23Poor organisation meant that deliveries were falling well short
26:27of the city's daily requirements.
26:30A.A. Zhandanov, Leningrad's Communist Party chief,
26:33and A.A. Kuznetsov, Secretary of the local party,
26:37took charge of the road and deliveries quickly increased.
26:42Towards the end of December,
26:44the authorities had constructed four roads across the ice,
26:47two for military vehicles and two for supply trucks.
26:51With the ice one metre thick,
26:53the routes could accommodate 24-hour two-way traffic.
26:57Along the road of life, as the vital lifeline became known,
27:00there were road guides, traffic officers and road service posts
27:04manned by engineers who repaired the ice.
27:07There were rescue services and communication points,
27:09medical stations and combat security posts.
27:12All were constructed and operated under heavy German bombardment.
27:17But the route remained open.
27:20Constructing the route was incredibly hazardous.
27:24The ice in many places was barely strong enough.
27:29What had to be done was, in such a case,
27:31to improvise bridges across those portions
27:35from where the ice was thick enough to bear the weight
27:38to the next point.
27:41There were several routes ultimately that were created
27:45in order to spread the load across the ice.
27:48Hundreds and eventually thousands of vehicles were going across,
27:52up to 4,000 a day,
27:54at the height of the operation of the ice road
27:58through the winter of 1941-42.
28:02On 22 December, deliveries reached 700 tonnes
28:06and the following day 800 tonnes arrived,
28:09exceeding Leningrad's daily needs for the first time.
28:15This came too late for many of Leningrad's inhabitants.
28:19I realized that people started to die of hunger
28:22not long before my father died.
28:26Because my father was one of the first victims of hunger.
28:30So, of course, it made a particularly strong impression.
28:35I remember this day well.
28:38I remember well how I tried to...
28:42I tried to...
28:44I tried to bring him back to his senses,
28:48to bring him back to life,
28:52but I couldn't.
28:56He died peacefully.
28:59He was also buried.
29:02My father's grave still exists,
29:05unlike most of those who died later.
29:11The greatest thing that their loved ones could have done
29:16was to bring him to his brother's grave,
29:20where he was buried.
29:2310,000 people died in November 1941.
29:27In December, the figure rose to 50,000
29:31and by January 1942 it had reached 120,000.
29:37People died at home, as they walked to work,
29:40at their machines and as they queued for food.
29:44Often there was no one at home or at work
29:47with the strength left to drag them to a cemetery or collection centre.
29:52The authorities were unable to cope with the dead
29:55and registration of deaths ceased as numbers increased.
30:00Sometimes deaths would deliberately go unrecorded
30:03so that the ration card of the deceased
30:06could continue to sustain the rest of the family.
30:10Ration card theft from the living as well as the dead was rife,
30:14as was forgery, and there was a flourishing black market.
30:18The attention of the NKVD, the secret police,
30:21did little to dissuade the city's desperate inhabitants
30:25from committing some of the most appalling crimes.
30:29With all of the city's cats and dogs already gone,
30:331,000 piles of corpses had to be guarded
30:36to prevent the madness of hunger
30:39driving some to hack off the limbs of the dead.
30:42These measures did not always work
30:45and in December, 26 people were charged with cannibalism.
30:52In some cases this was the result of people just being crazed with hunger
30:58and really losing any kind of control.
31:03In other cases it might be deliberate decision
31:06by someone having to take the decision over life and death for their own family.
31:12There are many cases of parents killing one child
31:16in order to use that child's body to feed themselves and other children.
31:23There are cases of husbands killing wives
31:26or children killing parents.
31:53This is a fragment from my diary.
31:5610th of January, 2012.
31:59I was in Moscow.
32:02I was in Moscow.
32:05I was in Moscow.
32:08I was in Moscow.
32:11I was in Moscow.
32:14I was in Moscow.
32:17I was in Moscow.
32:21I found this diary.
32:24January 10, 1942, the most difficult period of the blockade.
32:28One of the most difficult days.
32:31There is a kind of emotional outbreak.
32:34I am writing in a restrained way.
32:37Here is a recording.
32:40We live like pigs.
32:43There is no water.
32:45We are drowning in snow.
32:47We had to collect snow and melt it.
32:50There is no electricity.
32:53The smoker is on.
32:55It's a small bottle.
32:57The washing machine doesn't work.
33:00There is nothing to eat.
33:02Only recently my mother changed
33:05our coffee maker for a kilogram of bread
33:09and we were full for one day.
33:13In early January food and fuel reserves were so low
33:17that work on the ice road was stepped up
33:20and the speed of the convoys increased.
33:23The work was successful
33:25and by the 18th supply deliveries had doubled.
33:29On the 24th of January
33:31everybody's daily bread ration was doubled.
33:34All rations were further increased on the 10th of February.
33:38The trucks bringing the supplies
33:40began to carry women and children away from the city
33:43on their return journey
33:45and many of the sick and wounded
33:47were also evacuated to the east.
33:52During the 1941-42 winter
33:54the Soviet armies had continued
33:56to harass and attack Army Group North.
33:58The Red Army had special cold-weather clothing
34:01and their personal and motorized equipment
34:03was designed and built with northern winters in mind.
34:06The Germans had none of this
34:08and were finding it almost impossible
34:10to wage war in the brutal winter conditions.
34:38There were no serious preparations for this.
34:42The Soviet Union, of course,
34:44was counting on a long war
34:46and in this sense, of course,
34:48the Red Army and Red Navy
34:50who were defending Leningrad
34:52were better equipped.
34:55Having regained Tikhvin
34:57and made the Volkhov region relatively safe
35:00from further German attacks in December,
35:02Soviet forces went on the offensive again in mid-January,
35:06assaulting the German lines
35:08from Schlisselburg to Novgorod.
35:10The 54th Army and the Volkhov Army Group
35:13assaulted from the north and south-east.
35:17The fighting ebbed and flowed
35:19until mid-June 1942.
35:21The long, drawn-out battle
35:23succeeded in tying up thousands of German troops,
35:26keeping them away from Leningrad itself.
35:30With the spring thaw,
35:32the ice road disappeared
35:34but three major projects had been undertaken.
35:37To cut fuel consumption and speed deliveries,
35:40the old truck route was shortened.
35:43A new branch rail line was laid
35:45from the southern shore of Lake Ladoga
35:47to the main line east
35:49and a new underwater fuel pipeline was laid,
35:52reinvigorating Leningrad's military industries.
35:57Although the immediate threat of starvation
36:00was over by the spring of 1942,
36:02conditions in Leningrad remained grim.
36:05The noise of bombs and shells
36:07was still the background chorus to daily life.
36:11However, the inhabitants of the beleaguered city
36:14tried to maintain as normal a life as possible.
36:33We decided to play a four-handed piano
36:36as a gift to my father.
36:38We played a symphony by Haydn
36:40in four hands.
36:42It was recorded in my diary.
36:44My father was very pleased.
36:46I have to say now,
36:48probably,
36:50that he was not so pleased
36:53as he was probably in pain.
36:59Pain.
37:01And anxiety about the fate of his son and wife.
37:04Probably, this is all
37:06that I can say about my father.
37:09He was very pleased.
37:11He was very pleased.
37:13He was very pleased.
37:15He was very pleased.
37:17He was very pleased.
37:19He was very pleased.
37:21He was very pleased.
37:23He was very pleased.
37:25He was very pleased.
37:31In an attempt to raise the blockade
37:33and pre-empt a German offensive,
37:35the Stavka launched one of its own.
37:38On the 19th of August,
37:40with an advantage in men of 4 to 1,
37:42the Soviets attacked across the Neva River.
37:45The Germans counterattacked
37:47and nearly succeeded
37:49in encircling the Soviet troops.
37:54They managed to escape, however,
37:56and in the process inflicted 26,000 casualties,
37:59which the Germans could ill afford.
38:03Although all German hopes of capturing Leningrad
38:05were now dashed,
38:07the Soviets themselves
38:09had sustained over 110,000 casualties.
38:15As the second winter approached at the end of 1942,
38:18the lessons learned from the previous year
38:20were put into practice.
38:22The city's defences were strengthened
38:24under the supervision of the Leningrad Army Group,
38:27which then occupied them in depth.
38:30From the spring of 1942,
38:32with the return of public transport
38:34and an increase in the electricity and water supplies,
38:37Leningrad's industry was rejuvenated.
38:41T-34 tanks were produced in large numbers,
38:44along with artillery, small arms and ammunition.
38:50The winter of 1942-43 was far less severe,
38:54and much had been done to alleviate the hardships
38:57of the first winter under siege.
38:59Every park, garden or vacant space
39:01was used to plant vegetables.
39:05In January 1943,
39:07two Red Armies penetrated the blockade
39:10by creating a corridor south of Schlisselburg and Lake Ladoga,
39:14at last connecting Leningrad by land
39:16with the rest of the Soviet-held territory.
39:20General Koechler, who had succeeded von Leeb one year before,
39:24ordered his army to resist the Soviet forces at all cost.
39:28But they could not,
39:29and were thrown back nearly 10 kilometres from the lake.
39:34The Stavka ordered the Leningrad and Volkhov armies
39:37to dig in and defend this corridor,
39:39which they did by turning the area into a series of fortified regions.
39:44Over half a million people had been evacuated over the ice
39:47in the first four months of the year,
39:49and nearly as many followed in the summer.
39:52With deaths and evacuations,
39:54the population of the city had fallen
39:56to approximately 700,000 civilians and 420,000 soldiers.
40:02The late onset of winter meant that the main route for shipping
40:05was able to carry supplies well into November.
40:09In January 1943, a new railway was built,
40:13from Schlisselburg, along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga,
40:16through the corridor to the east.
40:19A second, parallel line was built in May,
40:22and with these two important supply lines,
40:25Leningrad's civilian and military needs were met.
40:30However, German shelling continued,
40:32and 6,000 Leningraders were killed in the summer and autumn of 1943.
40:40The Russian advances during 1943,
40:42and the fact that the Finnish army had maintained its 1941 positions,
40:46meant that the near-total blockade was over.
40:49However, despite having a front of over 160 km,
40:53the German 16th and 18th Armies
40:56held on tenaciously to their positions around the city,
40:59and there would be much hard fighting before the siege could be raised.
41:10With Moscow saved, the German army at Stalingrad destroyed,
41:14and the German tank forces at Kursk being decisively defeated,
41:18Stalin, Zhukov and the vast manpower reserves of the Soviet Union
41:23launched a three-pronged attack against Kükler's army.
41:29The hugely superior forces pushed the Germans back
41:32through the heavy January snows.
41:34They retreated to the Luga, savagely fighting all the way.
41:38Kükler was replaced by Field Marshal Model at the end of January 1944,
41:43but on 12 February, Soviet forces took Luga town,
41:48and on 15 February, the Luga and Narva lines were completely cleared of Germans.
41:54They had now been pushed back almost 160 km from Leningrad.
42:04With the German army group north in fighting retreat,
42:07the citizens had allowed themselves to celebrate.
42:10At 8pm on 27th January,
42:13searchlights and coloured fireworks had arced into the night sky,
42:17and 24 salvos crashed out from over 300 guns.
42:37That's what it was all about. We were just having fun.
42:41What was so special about it?
42:45Well, maybe there was some kind of tea,
42:50but the main thing was that there was a celebration inside.
42:55It had taken 880 days of hunger, horror and destruction to liberate the city.
43:01880 days, during which the citizens of Leningrad had died in their hundreds of thousands.
43:10Despite this, those that could work produced the arms for the crucial offensives of 1943
43:16and those in 1944, which liberated the city.
43:20We didn't think about capitulation.
43:23We didn't think about giving up the city.
43:27You know, it's amazing, and I'm still amazed today,
43:32that if I try to imagine myself in 1942,
43:42I would never even think about it.
43:45I would think about something else.
43:47I would think about how we would drive the Germans away.
43:51It was the life of people in such extreme conditions.
43:55But it was the life of people.
43:59That is, they quarreled, reconciled, fell in love, and got jealous.
44:06They kept their careers, and showed indifference.
44:13That is, the whole complex of questions, the whole complex of human feelings,
44:19was present in the blockade.
44:23During the siege, between 800,000 and 1 million civilians died
44:28from starvation, shelling and bombing.
44:32For every day under siege, Leningrad lost over 1,000 people.
44:38The figures for the military are no less staggering.
44:43By the war's end, the fighting had cost the Red Army
44:46over 1.1 million killed, captured or missing,
44:51and over 2.8 million sick and wounded.
44:57For Russians, Leningrad in World War II is a supreme example
45:02of sacrifice, endurance, fortitude, heroism.
45:08This great city that had been the capital of Russia,
45:12was the centre of its scientific and cultural life for a very long time,
45:18is the epitome of these qualities which are so valued in Russia.
45:27And so it remains to this day a symbol of what Russians can
45:33and in World War II did achieve.
45:38The siege of Leningrad has no equal in history
45:41for its length in suffering, misery and death.
45:45But remarkably, the indomitable spirit and endurance of its citizens
45:49conspired to wreck the ambitions of the German dictator and his war machine.
46:09World War II
46:12World War II
46:15World War II