The Nightmare That Lasted 872 Days: Leningrad / Anna Reid

1941-ieji - a year forever etched in the memory of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). It began the most ruthless blockade of the city in human history, which claimed over 750,000 lives. Before that, the war seemed very far away. No one expected that Germany would attack the Soviet Union, a country with over 200 million inhabitants; and yet a country completely unprepared to defend itself. Leningrad became the biggest victim of this unpreparedness. The city's residents faced not only the brutality of the Nazis, but also the indifference of the Bolshevik government itself. Tens of thousands of people died every month. Hunger, which began in the first months, and piles of corpses growing right in the street, became everyday life. Hundreds of arrests, who killed their neighbors for food cards, even eating corpses could no longer surprise anyone. Everyone tried to survive. At any cost. This book is the true and unvarnished account of a nearly three-year nightmare, illustrated by nothing more than eyewitness accounts. It is the detailed story of the greatest tragedy to befall a city, along with the stories of those who managed to remain human when it was most difficult to do so.