History Daily: The End of the Siege of Leningrad
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It's late summer 1941 in Leningrad, the second largest city in the Soviet Union. A school teacher named Maria hurries a group of young children through the streets. Overhead, German fire planes swoop low, spewing machine gun fire. Maria has the children stick close to the brick walls of the buildings lining the street, desperately trying to find safety. A month ago, Nazi Germany broke its non-aggression pact with the USSR and attacked Russia with the biggest invasion force in the history of warfare. Since then, German forces have advanced rapidly. Now, Leningrad is under attack, and Maria is risking her life to evacuate the children in her care before the Germans cut off all escape routes from the city.
A bomb lands at the other end of the street, and the children throw themselves to the ground. Maria urges them back to their feet again. They're too exposed to enemy fire out in the open. Maria decides they must get to the train station, so they have to keep moving. But as the children get up, another plane roars overhead. Bullets shatter the windows in a nearby apartment block, and the children scream. But Maria can see the train station entrance now. It isn't far. Picking up one small child who's sobbing uncontrollably, she hurries the others along the street as fast as she can. Finally, they run into the train station's cavernous lobby. It's packed with people also desperate to escape the city.
Maria knows the children with her are more protected here than out on the streets, but she also knows they won't truly be safe until they've escaped Leningrad. It will take several more weeks for the German forces to finally cut off the last safe route out of Leningrad. But after that, there will be no escape. Nearly 3 million people will be left trapped inside the city, and they'll remain there for almost 900 days. More than a million soldiers and civilians will die, and Leningrad will be reduced to ash and rubble before the longest siege of World War II finally comes to an end on January 27, 1944. American History Tellers is sponsored by Hills Pet Nutrition. Every shelter pet deserves a second chance, and you're making it possible for thousands of them every day. Because when you feed your pet Hills, you help feed a shelter pet, which makes them healthy, happy, and more adoptable, changing their life forever so they can change yours. Over 15 million shelter pets fed and adopted. Science did that. Visit hillspet.com slash podcast to learn more.
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From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is January 27th, 1944, the end of the siege of Leningrad. It's August 9, 1942, at the Grand Philharmonia Hall in Leningrad, almost a year into the siege of the city. Backstage, 35-year-old orchestra conductor Carl Eliasberg paces nervously, his three-piece suit flapping loosely around his emaciated body. Carl is preparing for the most important performance of his life, but the constant artillery fire outside is making it difficult to focus. When German leader Adolf Hitler ordered his generals to invade the USSR in 1941, he confidently predicted a speedy victory. German intelligence suggested that the Soviet Red Army was poorly armed and would not be able to mobilize in time to repel the Germans. But after its initial advance, the German offensive was slowed by unexpectedly fierce resistance.
When the invasion extended into winter, Hitler was forced to rethink Germany's military strategy. Rather than seek a quick victory, he instead vowed to burn the USSR to the ground, and there was no place he wanted to destroy more than Leningrad, the birthplace of Bolshevism, named after the father of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin. And by 1941, Leningrad was surrounded.
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