User:Taaaaaaaaangro/Besieged Leningrad

The 75th anniversary of the victory in The Great Patriotic War was celebrated on 9 May, 2020. One of the most tragic events of the war was undoubtedly the Siege of Leningrad. On 8 September, 1941 the Siege of Leningrad began. 872 severe days and nights the blockade lasted and later was considered a genocide because of mass starvation and destruction of population.

German High Command put forward a resolution to lay the city under siege and bombardment making its population starve. The city was almost completely encircled by the Germans and their allies. Hitler simply waited for the city to starve to death. Desperate people ate everything they could find. Moreover, an estimated 75,000 bombs were dropped on the city during the blockade. More than 641 thousand people died from starvation and bombardment.

A 12 –year-old girl named Tanya Savicheva was recording the dates of the death of all her family members in her personal diary. The last entry was: "Everyone is dead. Only Tanya is left." Still, the city managed to hold out against the Nazi siege. In August 1942 Dmitri Shostakovich performed his Seventh symphony and the concert was broadcast over loudspeakers. The Soviet troops made several attempts to break through the blockade. They managed to evacuate a part of civilian population across the “Road of Life” on Lake Ladoga and tried to supply the plagued city with basic goods. The major breakthrough came on 27 January, 1944 when the Soviet Army pushed the German troops into a general retreat; and after nearly 900 days under blockade Leningrad was freed.

Leningrad became a symbol of Russian determination and sacrifice. It was saved by its own will and heroic people. The commemoration of the siege links the present days generation with the great feat accomplished by Russian people in the fight against fascism. Leningrad received the title of Hero City in 1965 and the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad was erected in 1975. Every year on 27 January a military parade takes place in St. Petersburg.