The Siege of Leningrad: 872 Days of Survival Lessons

[elkhound]

Well people dont think a siege can happen..but its happening today as we speak....in various places...it can be various sizes to from an island to giant city and more.

Very good article with references from those that lived it...one thing of interest...look at art,music etc.



https://www.mypatriotsupply.com/blogs/scout/the-siege-of-leningrad-872-days-of-survival-lessons


One of the longest and deadliest sieges, the Siege of Leningrad, occurred in the Soviet Union during World War II.


Not only were those trapped within Leningrad in danger from military forces, but they were also trapped in some of the most extreme conditions imaginable.


Those who survived did so through a variety of innovative methods.


We must let history teach us, and the Siege of Leningrad is one of those history lessons that reminds us to practice not just basic preparedness, but extreme preparedness.


Here’s what happened, and more importantly, what we can learn:

The Siege of Leningrad​

The Siege of Leningrad took place from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 when the city of Leningrad—now known as St. Petersburg—was surrounded by the German and Finnish armed forces.


At the start of the siege, approximately 2.8 million people—including 400,000 children—were trapped inside the city.


Leningrad was wholly encircled, with the vital rail and necessary supply lines cut off.


The first harsh, cold winter of the Siege of Leningrad was devastating. The extremely low temperatures led to electrical failures, so there was no heat. The municipal water pipes froze, which disrupted the potable water supply.



This first brutal winter resulted in the deaths of 650,000 people. They died from starvation, exposure, disease, and gunfire.


Without the ability to get supplies, those who remained dealt with extreme wartime rationing.


Essential workers were given a daily ration of only 250 grams of bread, and non-essential workers and dependents were given a daily ration of only 125 grams of bread (a little more than a slice of bread).


According to Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes, “No one expected that Leningrad would hold out until the Germans retreated in 1944,” … but Leningrad did.


In January 1944, the siege ended, and 300,000 civilians survived.

 

[elkhound]

Adapting to Extreme Conditions​

The harsh winter made survival difficult. The electricity didn’t work. The water supply froze.


According to the Digital Encyclopedia of European History:


There were no more city trams, so the starving population had to walk to get around. There was no more heating in apartments. The cold was terrible. During the winter of 1941 temperatures regularly reached –20° C and even dropped to –40° C. The inhabitants had to burn anything they could find to stay warm, causing numerous fires.



in words of our @Sourdough SLEEPING BAG !

 

[elkhound]

Securing Clean Water and Sanitation​

In addition to deaths from exposure to the cold and starvation, there were also many deaths attributable to disease.


When the city’s water pipes froze, it cut off access to clean, potable water for citizens. Drinking unclean water can cause diseases and even death.


The survivors went to great lengths to get clean water for drinking and maintaining hygiene.


They melted snow or drew water from holes in the ice of the frozen Neva River and other nearby frozen canals.

@Sourdough Talks multiple water sources...well when you cant have that option...next thing to have is best water filter you can...multiples if possible.

POTABLE WATER !!

 

[elkhound]

Preserving and Stretching Limited Supplies​

Those stranded in Leningrad during the siege had to stretch their food and supplies as far as they could.


One method was strategically consuming low-calorie foods.


Here is a passage from Making Memory in Wartime:


In the late 1970s, Valentina Moskovtesva, who was a child during the war, remembered that Leningrad radio had taught her how to survive. The radio advised: “’Don’t eat your whole 1225 grams at once, eat it by halves.’ … And I did it this way: eat a little piece in the morning, a little piece in the evening. I paid attention to what they said on the radio.”

@Sourdough Pushes food...buried if possible

FOOD CACHES !!

 

[elkhound]

Medical and First Aid Adaptations​

Just as food supplies were cut off, so were medical supplies. The people of Leningrad had to improvise when it came to medical care.


This meant prioritizing care for those with the best survival chances, improvising medical procedures, and using natural remedies when possible.


Time Magazine reports:


Wound treatment was kept simple: gunshot wounds had their edges cut away, were not sewed up; wounds involving bone were usually put in plaster casts (the Orr-Trueta method which got its first full tryout in the Spanish War; TIME, July 8, 1940), and left alone, perhaps for weeks. “Some surgeons made a habit of using sphagnum moss for surgical dressings.”


In addition to a first aid kit complete with traumatic injury supplies, invest in a medical handbook that can be used to figure out care in extreme conditions where medical professionals are out of reach.

Elkhound says

MEDICAL KIT !!

 

[elkhound]

 

[Hardcalibres]

Residents burned books and furniture to stay warm and searched for food to supplement their scarce rations. Animals from the city zoo were consumed early in the siege, followed before long by household pets. Wallpaper paste made from potatoes was scraped off the wall, and leather was boiled to produce an edible jelly. Grass and weeds were cooked, and scientists worked to extract vitamins from pine needles and tobacco dust. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, resorted to cannibalizing the dead, and in a few cases people were murdered for their flesh. The Leningrad police struggled to keep order and formed a special division to combat cannibalism.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/siege-of-leningrad-begins

NKVD files report the first use of human meat as food on 13 December 1941.[92] The report outlines thirteen cases, which range from a mother smothering her eighteen-month-old to feed her three older children to a plumber killing his wife to feed his sons and nieces.[92]

By December 1942, the NKVD had arrested 2,105 cannibals – dividing them into two legal categories: corpse-eating (трупоедства, trupoyedstvo) and person-eating (людоедства, lyudoyedstvo). The latter were usually shot while the former were sent to prison. The Soviet Criminal Code had no provision for cannibalism, so all convictions were carried out under Code Article 59–3, "special category banditry".[93] Instances of person-eating were significantly lower than that of corpse-eating; of the 300 people arrested in April 1942 for cannibalism, only 44 were murderers.[94] 64% of cannibals were female, 44% were unemployed, 90% were illiterate or with only basic education, 15% were rooted inhabitants, and only 2% had any criminal records. More cases occurred in the outlying districts than in the city itself. Cannibals were often unsupported women with dependent children and no previous convictions, which allowed for a certain level of clemency in legal proceedings.[95]

Given the scope of mass starvation, cannibalism was relatively rare.[96] Far more common was murder for ration cards. In the first six months of 1942, Leningrad witnessed 1,216 such murders. At the same time, Leningrad was experiencing its highest mortality rate, as high as 100,000 people per month. Lisa Kirschenbaum notes that "[rates] of cannibalism provided an opportunity for emphasizing that the majority of Leningraders managed to maintain their cultural norms in the most unimaginable circumstances."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad

 

[Sourdough]

Everyone should watch the first (roughly) 15 minutes of the Movie: "ENEMY at the GATES".

This is 15 minutes should be watched once a week for 60 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_at_the_Gates

 

[Hardcalibres]

Everyone should watch the first (roughly) 15 minutes of the Movie: "ENEMY at the GATES".

This is 15 minutes should be watched once a week for 60 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_at_the_Gates

For every one US soldier killed in Europe in WWII, about 100 Russian soldiers were killed.

 

[Sourdough]

WW-II turned out to be an incredible gift for POST WW-II pilots, especially Private pilots, even today it is a great gift to have an airfield every 35 miles across Alaska and Canada. The airfields were for ferrying lower-48 built aircraft to Russia.

 

[elkhound]

WW-II turned out to be an incredible gift for POST WW-II pilots, especially Private pilots, even today it is a great gift to have an airfield every 35 miles across Alaska and Canada. The airfields were for ferrying lower-48 built aircraft to Russia.

Beavers and more