It was politically and strategically important for the Nazi Command to conquer Leningrad. By the 30th of August 1941 they had cut all the railways connecting Leningrad with the rest of the USSR. By the 8th of September they had completely blocked roads. Therefore, the 8th of September is known as the day when the siege of Leningrad began.
900 days of siege turned into a tough test for the citizens of Leningrad. During this time the only link with the world was the Ladoga lake in winter covered with ice. When the city got besieged it hosted 2 million 544 thousand of civilians.
They lacked food stocks and were hit by early cold in 1941, that worsened the situation. Thousands of people died of frost-bites and malnutrition. It became possible to deliver a little food when the Ladoga lake got covered with ice. This ice road appeared the Road of Life for Leningrad citizens. A part of them as big as 500 thousand people were evacuated by this ice path.
During the period of siege, the city was hit by 150 thousand missiles and 100 thousand bombs. The civilians faced hardest times. The first winter in the siege appeared the toughest. The rate of bread for working people was only 250 grams, for others, officials, children, unemployed it was as twice as small. People ate everything that could possibly be eaten. Shortly the water supply system went out of order. The citizens took water directly from the Neva river. No heating and food sorely tested the people.
Nonetheless Leningrad kept resisting. Workers were working, enterprises were producing ammunition and fixing broken machinery. By the end of December most of people had died, that allowed to increase the rate of bread per a person.
Between the 12th and 30th of January Leningrad, Volkhovsk and Baltic fronts joined to conduct an offensive. The operation resulted in creation of an 8-12 kilometres wide corridor across the Ladoga lake that allowed to connect the city with the “mainland”.
On the 27th 1944 Leningrad was completely liberated from the siege.
