RemembranceBitter
· Day 79 of 1418
The siege ring closes
Leningrad
- days the siege lasted
- 872
- days the siege lasted
- children were trapped in the besieged city
- ≈ 400,000
- children were trapped in the besieged city
On 8 September 1941 the enemy closed a ring around Leningrad. A city of nearly three million people was cut off from the rest of the country. The siege would last 872 days. Leningraders went hungry and cold, but kept working, studying and defending their city.
When the siege began about 400,000 children were still in the city. Schools kept working: in winter lessons were held in coats and mittens, ink froze, and children wrote by the light of smoky oil lamps. The Hermitage hid its treasures, and scientists at the plant-breeding institute saved a huge collection of seeds: starving themselves, they did not eat a single grain.
The enemy waited for the city to surrender. Leningrad never did.
See it on the map