Forget the Dragons: King's Landing Has Nothing on Leningrad (Millions Died)

WarIsBoring

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After three years of war, Leningrad bore little resemblance to the grandiose city of prewar 1941. Historic buildings had been destroyed, the streets were piled with rubble, and over 15 million square feet of housing lay in ruins. The human cost had been appalling. Yet, an exact figure is unknown. Western scholars believe it approached nearly 1.5 million, while Red Army losses were estimated to be in excess of 3.4 million.

Leningrad, the old imperial capital, was the most beautiful city in Russia and had for centuries been her cultural heartland. Founded as Czar Peter the Great’s window on the West, it had known many agonies throughout its turbulent history, but in 1941 geography and pragmatic military strategy would see Leningrad engulfed in a tragedy unparalleled in modern history. 

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With most of Europe already under the heel of Nazi Germany, Hitler turned his attention eastward toward the vast expanse of the Soviet Union and on the morning of June 22, 1941, launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. Spearheaded by three Army groups, German forces stormed across the Russian frontier and completely overwhelmed the Red Army units in their path. With clinical precision, the world’s largest army was being systematically annihilated and, after just 18 days of fighting, the Russians had lost over three million men, 6,000 tanks, and most of their aircraft.

A Rapidly Developing Military Threat

The primary objective for 64-year-old Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, commanding Army Group North, was Leningrad; the assault on Moscow could not be undertaken until the city had been captured. Sweeping in a northeasterly direction from East Prussia, von Leeb’s refined Blitzkrieg was proving a spectacular success. The speed at which his panzers had destroyed the Soviet forces in the Baltic region and closed on Leningrad was staggering. In just five days, they had covered half the distance to the city.