Hakusuisha, Summary and Comments on "The Leningrad Blockade: A City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944" by Michael Jones, translated by Yukishige Matsumoto.
I would like to introduce a book titled "Leningrad Blockade: City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944" written by Michael Jones and translated by Yukishige Matsumoto, published by Hakusuisha in 2013.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
During World War II, Leningrad was besieged by Hitler's German army for 900 days, resulting in the deaths of 1,000,000 civilians. Many died from air raids and epidemics, but it is estimated that 800,000 people died of starvation. Why were large cities besieged? Why did the food supply quickly run out?
The siege begins in early September 1941, three months after the start of the German invasion. The book unfolds chronologically from the viewpoints of the attackers (Manstein and the German army), the defenders (Stalin, Zhidanov, and the Soviet authorities), and numerous civilians. In particular, the book details the three months from mid-December 41 to mid-February 42, when the situation in the city was at its most desperate.
During that time, bread rationing was slow and meat and other foodstuffs were only available on the black market. Citizens starved, drank boiled glue from the backs of wallpaper, and ate leather belts cut into small pieces and boiled. Electricity, water, and heating had already been cut off. Mass starvation began in the city. Furthermore, the plague spread, and the cemeteries were overflowing with corpses that could not be carried away. The devastation of the human spirit and starvation gave birth to cannibalism, and the horrific testimonies leave us speechless.
What separated life and death in the extreme conditions of a siege? It was holding on to hope for life and having someone to protect (family, children, friends).
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Famous as one of the most disastrous battles of the Russo-German war, the book tells the story of the epic siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the former capital of Russia.
Let's take a quick look at the translator's afterword to the book.
This book (originally titled LENINGRAD: Stage of Siege) tells the story of the blockade of Leningrad by Hitler's forces during World War II, the attempted counterattack by Soviet forces, and the extreme conditions of civilian life that the blockade brought to this great city, which became one of the most horrific sieges in world history.
It is the story of how Leningradians found the strength within themselves to endure and survive.
The author, Michael Jones, is a British historian who specializes in the study of the psychological state of combat and the life-and-death role of morale in desperate situations. He holds a PhD in History (Military History) from the University of Bristol and has taught at the University of South West England, the University of Glasgow, and Winchester College. He is a Member Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and currently a writer. In recent years he has led tours of World War II Eastern Front battlefields.
Hakusuisha, The Leningrad Blockade, A City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944, by Michael Jones, translated by Yukishige Matsumoto, p. 413
Some line breaks have been made.
The author, Michael Jones, is a specialist in the study of the psychological state of combat and the life-and-death role of morale in desperate situations, and that perspective is very much present in this book. In this book, you will see how people endured in tragic situations that cannot be described by the word "despair," as well as the actions of those who lost their humanity because they could not endure the situation.
As is well known, in the first stages of the German-Soviet war of World War II, the Soviet forces on the western border were in a state of total collapse before the overwhelming force of the Nazi German army, which was fully prepared to attack.
The German army, which had broken through the border zone without difficulty, continued its rapid advance in each direction, and its northern group reached the southwestern tip of Leningrad Oblast only a few weeks after the start of the invasion on June 22, 1941. By late August, it had advanced into the zone encircling the city of Leningrad from the south, and on September 8, it completed the siege ring by capturing Schlisselburg on the shore of Lake Ladoga to the east. The Karelian isthmus north of Leningrad had already been blockaded by the German ally Finland. This marked the beginning of the "Leningrad Blockade.
By then, vast areas of territory in the European part of the Soviet Union had already been occupied by the Germans, and many important cities had fallen. However, Leningrad survived the German siege for the next almost nine hundred days. It was not until January 1944 that the blockade was completely lifted after Soviet troops drove the Germans and Finns from around the city.
The fact that Leningrad was one of the four cities named as "heroic cities" in Supreme Soviet Commander-in-Chief Stalin's May 1, 1945 proclamation, just before the end of the Russo-German War, was probably a natural recognition of the heroism displayed by the army and the citizens in the defense of this city (the other three cities were Stalingrad were Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and Odessa).
However, the sacrifices made by the citizens of Leningrad during the blockade were too great and tragic to be summed up in the concept of heroism. Many were killed by shelling and air raids, but a vastly greater number died of starvation due to lack of food. Today, the number is estimated to be at least one hundred thousand.
Most of the starvation deaths were concentrated in a period of about three months, from December of 1966 to the end of February of 1967. This tragedy was the flip side of the glorious defense of Leningrad, and the way in which the issue was handled may obscure the front part.
It goes without saying that the source of the tragedy was Nazi Germany, which invaded the city, but it was the Soviet leadership (Stalin) that was responsible for allowing the invasion and the devastating defeat of the Soviet army in the initial stages of the war, which in turn led to the blockade of Leningrad. Thus, information about the tragic aspects of the Leningrad blockade - especially the mass starvation deaths - was already strictly controlled by the authorities, both domestically and to the outside world (the Allies), through censorship during the blockade.
Hakusuisha, The Leningrad Blockade, A City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944, translated by Michael Jones, Yukishige Matsumoto, p414
Some line breaks have been made.
The Siege of Leningrad was a disastrous battle that left more than 800,000 people starving to death. But it was also a failure of the Soviet leadership. The Soviet government rewrote and propagandized the battle as a heroic story, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union and other events, many documents are now revealing the true facts of the battle.
There are many things I would like to say about this book, but due to the size of the article, I will only quote a few of them from the author's introduction.
The author narrates the following
At the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, a German POW testified. He said that the siege forces methodically shelled Leningrad from 8:00 to 9:00 am, then from 11:00 to 12:00 pm, in the afternoon from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, and at night from 11:00 to 12:00 pm.
He said, "By doing this, they aimed to kill as many people as possible, to destroy factories and important facilities, and most importantly, to break the soil of the citizens of Leningrad." Along with this onslaught, starvation was consciously chosen as a "weapon".
This vibrant and cultured city of over 500,000 people was facing a calculated attack. The very right of the city to exist was at stake. （The right of the city to exist itself was at stake.)
Vera Ludino could only look out the window of her apartment, but she later recorded what she saw in her diary. I wrote honestly about the terrible starvation, the incessant bombardment, and the frozen remains of the dead." Her account reflects not only the heroic struggle in Leningrad, but also its darker side. It tells of the inability of the Soviet state to protect its own people, of the cruelty that the siege sometimes evoked in its victims. It was a time when the worst and best qualities of the people were brought to light, with most people living on only one instinct: to eat." [omitted)
Looting and cannibalism were rampant. One by one, children disappeared from the apartment where Vera lived. Later, the clothes and bones of the children were found in the flat of a female violinist who lived next door. The violinist's five-year-old son also disappeared.
Ludino's family made leather belts and craftglueHe even began to eat gelatin made from the gelatin and flavored with bay leaves (every household had a supply of bay leaves for cooking). When I ate it, I felt as if my stomach was on fire and I was very thirsty," he said. But the secret was not to drink anything, but to keep the stomach full.
Hakusuisha, Leningrad Blockade, The City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944, by Michael Jones, translated by Yukishige Matsumoto, p. 15-17
Some line breaks have been made.
The Nazi army tried to avoid entering the metropolis of Leningrad and engaging in urban warfare because it was thought to cause too much damage to the attackers. This was because they believed it would cause too much damage to the attackers.
Therefore, the Nazi army chose to completely besiege the city, cutting off food and infrastructure and allowing it to die of starvation and pestilence. It may be more accurate to say that the city was besieged because starvation by starvation was chosen as a strategic weapon, rather than because it was starved by the siege.
Reading about these sieges reminded me of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which I visited in 2019.
Sarajevo was also besieged by Serbian forces during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, and its citizens suffered from the constant bombardment, bullets, and starvation.
I am ashamed to say that at the time I knew almost nothing about the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. However, now that I am learning about the war and thinking about Sarajevo again, I have different feelings from before.
History repeats itself. I felt the horror of that.
In 2002, the records of the secret police were made public. These records revealed that at least 300 people were executed for cannibalism during the blockade, and more than 140 were imprisoned on the same charges. Civilian morale was frequently hopelessly low during the early years of the blockade.
New research shows that by the winter of 1941, law and order had begun to break down and parts of the city had fallen under the control of gangs and cannibals. Leningrad stood on the brink of ruin. But, amazingly, the collapse did not occur.
It was not only the Red Army [the name given at the time to the Soviet Army] that saved Leningrad from utter ruin. What this book tells is the story of the city's survival, the story of what made it possible, the story of how the people of Leningrad found within themselves the strength to endure and survive.
This is because while some residents lost themselves under the strain of the blockade, others fought to maintain their own human values. As blockade survivor Irina Skripachova writes, in the midst of fear, "helping others became the key to survival. People lived with relatives and friends and helped each other. Sharing became our way of life. And helping others, staying busy, and working with responsibilities gave people strength," Skripachova said.
She emphasized that morale and motivation were very important, even in the most desperate situations.
Writer Daniil Granin, who interviewed blockade survivors for many years, also said.
Morale was one of the main features of the heroic struggle to defend Leningrad." It was not patriotism but rather the preservation of intelligence, a protest against the humiliation of hunger, the obliteration of humanity. Those who saved others saved themselves. Art and culture helped it."
How was it possible to maintain a sense of human worth during this mind numbing catastrophe? Literary scholar Dmitry Likhachev [1906-99], who continued his own scholarly research during the blockade as an act of faith first and foremost, writes movingly
The human brain has become a shinigami," he said. The limbs stopped moving, fingers could no longer button, even the ability to close a lo was gone, the skin darkened and stuck to the teeth, but the brain continued to work. People wrote diaries and even philosophical treatises with incredible tenacity."
Hakusuisha, Leningrad Blockade, The City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944, by Michael Jones, translated by Yukishige Matsumoto, p. 18-19.
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Even in extreme conditions, people showed incredible mental strength, and art and culture sustained Leningrad. And even in the midst of lawlessness to survive, there were those who had the spirit of mutual aid with others and survived.
I think this is phenomenal. I would love to write about every word of it, but it would be too long. But I can't do that because it would be too long. I was shocked to the point of getting goose bumps when I read it.
In the extreme conditions of war, some people's ethics collapsed and their spirit collapsed to the point of cannibalism, while others demonstrated their strong humanity. It is often said that war exposes human nature, but I felt that human beings are neither absolutely evil nor good, but can be both. It is easy to assert that humans are either sexually evil or sexually good. However, this book made me think again that it is actually possible to swing in either direction, depending on the situation and what a person is born with.
And at the same time, if I were put in this situation, what would happen to me...I am deeply frightened when I think about this. Of course, I won't know until it actually happens, but I honestly don't know if I have the strength of mind to handle it. But I am not sure if I have such a strong mind...I am not very strong to begin with. I may run out of strength soon...
This book is so shocking. The descriptions are quite intense. The citizens of Leningrad had to live in a hellish world. The book tells the story of how the citizens were starving and dying in droves. What were people doing to survive? What was happening there? One can only shudder at the horror of the situation, with over 800,000 people starving to death....
The Siege of Leningrad is a must-read to learn about the horrors of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Bullet-riddled battlefields are not the only kind of warfare. Strategic sieges in which civilians are starved to death are another major form of warfare.
This book is one of the best books to learn about such things. It is a book that requires a lot of preparation to read, but I highly recommend it.
Also, to learn about the Siege of Leningrad, also by Madoka HinoSymphony of War: The Truth About the 345th Day of the Leningrad Blockade.is also highly recommended.
In this book, it was mentioned that art was a great source of emotional support for people even under the extreme conditions of starvation, but in this book by Madoka Hino will take a more detailed look at the life-threatening struggle of the musicians. I highly recommend this book as well.
The above is "'Leningrad Blockade: The City of Hunger and Ruthlessness 1941-1944' - The Siege of St. Petersburg that resulted in over 800,000 deaths from starvation.
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