The Blockade of Leningrad & the Mixed Results of Sovietiza Tion
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The Blockade of Leningrad & the Mixed Results of Sovietization Dane Burrough Abstract: The Siege of Leningrad, a joint German-Finnish religion and criminality violated the basic tenets operation during World War II, lasted for 880 days and t.ook of Soviet society and these accounts were the lives ofa large number ofthe citizens ofthe dty. The dty therefore censored from the records of the was entirely cut offfrom the rest ofthe Soviet Union, causing blockade published after the war. The freezing mass starvation that was far deadlier than the military operations of the siege. Many scholars have argued that the and starving citizens of Leningrad were more Second World War served as the catalyst to fully "Sovietize" concerned with their individual survival and the the populations of the various Soviet Republics. Examining survival of their proud city than they were with primary sources from the siege, this paper explores the the fate of the Stalinist regime; as a result, their extent t.o which that process of Sovietization actually occurred in Leningrad and how the unique experiences ofthe previously patriotic attitudes faded. The blockade imprinted on the dtizens a sense of independence remarkable physical and emotional losses from the greater Soviet state. rendered some Leningraders fiercely Sovietization was the multi-faceted process independent and more proud of their city than by which Soviet central planners endeavored to of the Soviet Union. The Siege of Leningrad was subordinate the whole U.S.S.R. to the power of possibly the most lethal siege in the history of the Communist government and thereby warfare. The siege began in early September transform ordinary citizens into driven 1941 after the Army Group North of the communist ideologues. Many scholars have Wehrmacht or German army moved through the argued that World War II, which Russians Baltic States to join with Finnish forces termed the Great Patriotic War, served as the surrounding Leningrad and cut off the railroad catalyst to fully "Sovietize" the populations of connection between Moscow and Leningrad at the various Soviet Republics. However, this the tiny village of Mga. In doing so, German and Sovietization failed to occur in the city of Finnish forces effectively surrounded the city Leningrad, which suffered a joint and cut off its communication with the rest of German-Finnish siege for 880 days.1 the country. Throughout the siege, the Wehrmacht shelled and bombed the city to During the siege and subsequent blockade smoldering ashes. The Soviet leaders of which lasted from 1941 until 1944, the citizens Leningrad failed both to understand the gravity of Leningrad starved on an unprecedented of the situation and to properly ration for a scale. Estimates of how many citizens died prolonged siege until it was too late to save during the siege vary; the official Soviet figure much of the population from imminent 2 claims a death toll of 632,253, but many starvation. Most of the Soviet deaths due to historians place the number in a range from starvation occurred in the winter of 1941. 3 750,000 to 1,500,000 deaths out of a prewar According to Soviet official figures, likely vastly 4 population of 2,500,000. During the blockade, underreported, 101,583 people, or roughly four citizens resorted to both criminal activity and percent of the Soviet prewar population, died in religious practice as a means of survival. Both January 1942 alone.5 The harslmess of this RICE HISTORICAL REVIEW 7 THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD winter, one of the coldest in memory for many Although the siege diarists, was exacerbated by the German bombardments that had cut off power to the destroyed any sense city in the fall. Though the siege continued of normalcy for the until 1944, the majority of the damage and casualties occurred in the winter of 1941. ''citizens of Leningrad, the During the siege, the citizens of Leningrad survivors held immense pride went to extreme measures to procure food for in their ability to survive and themselves and their families, frequently resorting to crime and the bartering of valuable preserve the spirit of their pre-war goods to obtain bread. The bread itself city. was frequently mixed with sawdust and other fillers because the blockade had created a The citizens of Leningrad met the beginning major grain shortage in the area. People even of the war in the summer of 1941 with a resorted to boiling belts and eating binding mixture of shock and intense patriotism. A glue and other barely edible items to satiate week after the war began Yura Riabinkin, a their hunger. 6 The sight of dead bodies frozen teenage diarist, wrote, "[a]t first I felt a certain in snow or corpses being dragged on children's sense of pride, then a wave of fear-the first sleds became a common sight during the eventually got the upper hand of the second."9 height of the winter of 1941. Inhabitants' Georgi Kniazev, the Director of the Archives of contemporary diaries provide a vivid account the Academy of Sciences, wrote in July, "[t]his of their daily struggle to survive on meager is my city... can it really be true that it is rations of food. In late November 1941 the Red threatened by the danger of an enemy Army, or Soviet ground troops, established an occupation? No, no, no!" 10 Kniazev's Ice Road across Lake Ladoga that served both observation is indicative of the greater as an evacuation route and a way to import sentiment shared amongst the Leningrad supplies into the city. The route however was intelligentsia as well as the Soviet leaders in dangerous and inefficient because the German the Smolny, the communist headquarters in army frequently bombarded it and transport Leningrad. It reflected the lack of preparedness If conditions were often terrible. 7 After the for the imminent siege and blockade. winter, fewer Leningraders died of starvation, Kniazev heard rumors of Germany marching and rations became less restrictive primarily towards Leningrad with the intent to occupy, due to collective gardening in residential areas the policymakers in the Smolny must also have and because there were fewer mouths to feed. had intelligence on the Wehrmacht's The Red Army conducted various offensives movements. However, Andrei Zhdanov, the throughout 1942 to break through the communist boss of Leningrad, and his staff did blockade, but its first successful operation, not believe that the Nazis would ever make it Operation Iskra, did not occur until January to Leningrad. Zhdanov had put responsibility 1943. Even after the Red Army broke the for the defense of Leningrad on his own blockade, constant shelling from the German shoulders in August, 11 mainly in response to forces would continue until the Soviets the political maneuvering occurring in the permanently broke the blockade on January 27, Kremlin in Moscow. Thus, Soviet leaders made 1944.8 multiple mistakes that sparked distrust amongst the Leningraders. One such mistake that proved to be fatal was the creation of the so-called People's Levy. Immediately after the war began, the Soviet 8 SPRING 2016 DANE BURROUGH authorities called for citizens to volunteer for Leningrad in the event of the forced retreat of military service. Officials ordered women and our troops from the Leningrad area." 18 The children to dig fortifications along the Luga public noticed these ultimately unnecessary Line and trained men to fight in battle. These contingency actions and increasingly feared troops, however, were vastly underprepared that the government would surrender the city and ill equipped, resulting in large numbers of to the Nazis. Once the siege began, the casualties among volunteer units. Of the plight Leningraders' attitudes towards Stalin and the of these volunteers, one diarist wrote, "[t]he U.S.S.R. became more apparent. Many entire cream of our Leningrad youth suffered Leningraders, particularly intellectuals and especially, forced to enlist as volunteers and in people whose family members Stalin had civilian battalions, driven to slaughter."12 purged in the 1930s, became hostile towards American journalist and author Harrison E. Stalin and the Soviet Union. One diarist wrote, Salisbury wrote of the volunteer regiments, "[a]s for Stalin, he has been grinding us to a "[the] officers were no more experienced than pulp for the past twenty years. He detests the men." 13 This deadly mix of desperation and Leningrad-no one here has known him or ineptitude did not engender support for the seen him since the Revolution."19 After Stalin Soviet cause from the average Leningrader; adopted the title of Marshal, a diarist instead, it bred resentment among the commented, "[a] man who possesses population once the blockade took its deadly everything in the world ... still needed the title, toll. the simple combination of sounds, the word 'marshal,' an innocent acoustical By September 1941, Leningrad had become a 20 dangerous place; German shelling had become window-dressing!" Another survivor recalled in an interview after the fall of the Soviet a common occurrence as the Wehrmacht began closing in on the blockade ring. At first, the Union, "[n]o one talked about the leaders ... Of course, the people didn't like Zhdanov, because Leningraders failed to understand the gravity 21 of their situation; the diarist Elena Kochina he was a 'fat cat,' the only fat cat we saw." Contrastingly, many historians have noted that wrote, "[a]ll roads to Leningrad are cut off. Is during and immediately following the siege, something about to happen?"14 One diarist more pictures of the Leningrad communist noted that, "Bread rations began to be cut on leader Zhdanov were hung in citizens' houses September 1,"15 while another recalled the bombing raids: "Every time there was a than those of Stalin or Lenin.