This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. During the Second World War the people of

Leningrad endured a brutal 900-day siege facing relentless bombing, shelling and

starvation. In early 1943 the Red Army broke through the blockade, marking a crucial turning point.

Despite setbacks, the Soviet forces and civilians held firm and by late 1943 the Germans weakened by harsh conditions began to retreat.

In episode 202 we discussed the siege up to 1942.

I'm joined once more by Pritatar to pick up the story of the siege being lifted which is covered in his latest book Hero City, Leningrad, 1943, 44.

Prit! Welcome back. We should perhaps start by reminding listeners what the situation was like at the end of

1942, the start of 1943, which is where we left it last time.

Geographically, the situation is pretty much unchanged from the end of 1941.

The Germans are still on the southern shore of Lake Ladiger, cutting Leningrad off from the rest of the Soviet Union,

and the Red Army has made repeated attempts to batter its way through that German corridor to lift the siege at enormous cost and very, very

little gain in terms of territory.

But there are several changes that have taken place over the preceding months.

The first is that the population of Leningrad itself is now a fraction of what it was at the

beginning of the war. Tragically, a lot of people starved to death and died from exposure in the first winter and from German shelling and bombing.

But far larger numbers were actually evacuated over the frozen Lake Ladiger during the first winter.

This combined with better organized transport of supplies

into the city during the summer

means that during the second winter,

the city is in far better shape to endure without all of the terrible

...