Leningrad: State of Siege [Paperback]

What puts this book apart from the existing literature on the subject, is the extent to which the author seeks to go beyond writing a straightforward account of the suffering of the population during the siege (horrendous though that suffering was). Instead, Michael Jones writes evocatively about the mindset of the German besiegers and reveals in great detail the ineptitude of the Russian authorities. He also charts the inhuman depths that some people within the besieged city sunk to in order to survive. Drawing from a huge number of original and authoritative secondary sources Michael gives a very readable account of this black period in the history of Russia. I thoroughly recommend this book and would place it above Salisbury's 'The 900 Days' as the definitive account of this titanic struggle.

This book is not an easy read, but one that needed to be written, especially considering all the new literature out there in both English and Russian about the siege. This work then brings together accounts from dozens of sources and interviews to tell an altogether harrowing tale of how millions trapped within Leningrad had to struggle to survive. One of the main points this book will try to address, as Jones did in his previous book on Stalingrad, is how the citizens and soldiers of this city managed to survive and eventually defeat their German opponents. The psychological angle is one that is not often presented as being important. Usually, weapons, commanders, and numbers are glorified or blamed by one side or the other. Here, we have that idea of 'morale' being given center stage, as well as seeing what it is capable of achieving.

Very interesting descriptions are given in regards to when Zhukov took over control of the North Western Front from Voroshilov. On September 11th, 1941, Zhukov assumed command and soon after the 4th Panzer Group was taken out of the area and switched over in preparation for Operation Typhoon, which would throw it against the defenders of Moscow. Zhukov, apparently, couldn't be convinced by those around him that the Germans were digging in around Leningrad and further offensive actions were being discontinued. The end result was a series of needless offensives by Red Army troops in the Oranienbaum bridgehead and around Leningrad which needlessly wasted lives. When a commander refused to obey, in one instance, he was 'sacked' and his replacement was given the same orders. At another part of the front a marine landing unit of 200 men was sent against their target in broad daylight, they were picked off in the water by the Germans and only 14 managed to reach the shoreline (pg. 117). The actions on the Nevsky bridgehead are quite telling of the time and desperation the Red Army found itself in. Units of the 54th Army, under Kulik, were a mere 9 miles away from the Nevsky bridgehead, which if broken through to would have created a corridor to besieged Leningrad. As Kulik's forces could not break through, it appears that Zhukov tried his hardest from the other side. He threw unit after unit into action, trying to break through to the 'main land'. Divisions were ground down to mere hundreds of men and, at least one marine brigade, simply ceased to exist. This seems to ring quite true with what I am familiar with in regards to Zhukov. He seems to be more than willing to sacrifice ten thousand or twenty thousand men if it means saving millions. On the 21st of November, Zhdanov, after taking over when Zhukov left to help defend Moscow, ordered Colonel Ivan Frolov and his 80th Rifle Division into battle with exhausted soldiers who were short on ammunition. Frolov refused to issue the orders and was replaced by another commander who would send his men into a frontal assault over an open expanse of a frozen lake, "the men were mown down in their thousands" (pg. 140). In the end Zhdanov needed a scapegoat and Frolov, along with the divisional commissar, who was also dismissed, were brought in front of a military tribunal. Both were found guilty of "cowardice and criminal negligence that resulted in the failure of the operation" and were shot on December 3rd.

The chapters the author devotes to the people living and suffering in Leningrad will gnaw at your heart. The elderly, women and children slowly lost their sanity as hunger began to take its toll on them. In the midst of all that suffering, they still endured constant German artillery bombardments. Yet, there was still hope. In one instance, during a bombing of the city, violinists are trapped in a shelter with civilians. In the middle of explosions one begins to play his violin and, miraculously, no longer are the deafening noises the only thing those trapped in the shelter can think about, the terror that had gripped them all was somehow transported outside their bodies, and the powerful music, was all they could concentrate on. Another account portrays a woman pulling her double bass through the snow on a sled, trying to make it to a hospital for a concert recital. Behind the sled, pushing, was her young child.

Disturbing are the scenes of cannibalism and dead bodies in the streets missing limbs or simply the meat from their bones. While the civilian administration and those with high status seemed to be well fed, the rest of Leningrad, suffered and died by the thousands during that first winter of 1941/1942. While cannibalism might have been heard about via rumors during the siege, I believe this book shows more than enough evidence that it was at times an all too common phenomenon. The suppression by the government and local administrators of what the siege did to the people and the city was enlightening, I had never really encountered such information before. One would think the government would use this cruelty, on the part of the Germans, to their advantage and their people's suffering to its greatest effect on the population, but apparently talk of it was forbidden. I can only guess that such full disclosure would cause the citizens of the Soviet Union to question their government in ways which were not wanted. One story which I ran across, and have read before (in Bellamy's "Absolute War") was in regards to "The Rebel" which was leaving leaflets, trying to incite the population against the Soviet leadership, and sending letters to Zhdanov, etc. The resources poured into investigating this one man were enormous, tens of thousands of people were interviewed and their hand writing was compared to try to find the culprit. The author feels this was a waste of resources considering what the city was going through, I'd have to agree on one hand. On the other, it seems the perpetrator had to be found and, as the NKVD had been known to do, any person could have been hauled off the street and put in prison or killed for the offense (a confession could have been beaten out of them, etc) but instead the authorities tried their best to actually find the guilty party.

The majority of the stories told here, be they from the military or civilian population, will make you think twice about what it might take to survive an event like this. Words can't begin to describe what these people endured and overcome. What kind of will power and stamina it takes to stand in line for hours trying to get food, to lead a normal life and go to work everyday as people slowly die in front of your eyes. How much can one endure as death becomes a constant companion on each trip to visit a loved one, a friend, or a co-worker and check up on how they are doing? Many times civilians would walk along the street only to see someone in front of them slowly fall to the ground and lay there without the strength to even ask for help. I found myself having to reread passages dozens of times, the meaning of these words and what they represented just couldn't sink in. How humanity is capable of such cruelty and indifference and yet such love and devotion baffles the mind.

Michael Jones' book is a good introduction to the Siege of Leningrad but suffers from a few problems which, while they are clearly intended to illustrate his points, often detract. The focus of the book is split fairly evenly between the military and civilian aspects of the campaign and from this point of view it makes a good introduction.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the first year of the siege and the catastrophic toll it took on the people of Leningrad. Jones frequently hops between military and civilian topics and while many people might find this distracting, it was not a problem for me. I would actually say it helped in some ways because it stopped reader fatigue from setting in.

While there are many positives to this book, there are nearly as many negatives. Jones' hatred for Voroshilov might be entirely justified in his mind but it would make better history to provide more objective analysis rather than a 40-page diatribe against the man. At that point it starts to sound less than credible. The same might also be said of his references to Stalin, who is always going to be a lightning rod for severe criticism but it should be remembered that not everything he did was stupid or fanatical. In short, I thought a lot of what he said was over-simplified.

Anyone who reads this book will probably already be aware of the malfeasance perpetrated on Soviet citizens by Stalinist officials so it serves little purpose to harp on about it continuously. At that point it becomes almost ritualistic.

Jones has used a very simple formula to tell the story: heroes and villains and fools. The heroes are the citizens and soldiers of the Soviet Union. The villains are the government and apparatchik military leaders and the fools are the Wehrmacht. Writers know that you can attract a lot more reader attention and sympathy by creating notions of corruption and treachery than you can by being even handed. I'm not fool enough to think that these things did not happen but he labours the point to the extent that the message is lost.

Some of the stories like the woman praying for food and then receiving a package the next day just come off as trite to me.

On the positive side, the stories of the citizens of Leningrad have actually left a mark on me. I can't say that for many books, least of all military history books which tend towards being clinical and technical. Of particular note is the awful story of 12-year-old Tanya Savicheva who noted in her brief diary the passing of all of her family members until she was the only one left. That was a story which affected me in quite a profound way. It's things like that which give one a greater appreciation of how much worse things could be.

Jones also goes into some detail on the lengths people went to get food and water. They ate just about anything. By early 1942 there were no animals left in Leningrad because they had all been eaten, rats included. People ate furniture glue, leather belts and in some cases, they even ate each other. Such was the desperation of the time. I felt that this was a necessary issue to discuss and a positive aspect of the book.

This book is a mixed bag. The positives outweigh the negatives and although I'm no expert on the Eastern Front in WWII, I have a better appreciation now than I had before, particularly of the human toll. I can't quite bring myself to give it 4 stars but it gets an honest 3.