When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 he intended to capture Leningrad before turning on Moscow. Soviet resistance forced him to change tactics: with his forward troops only thirty kilometres from the citys historic centre he decided instead to starve it out. Using newly available diaries & government records Anna Reid describes a citys descent into hell
- the breakdown of electricity & water supply; subzero temperatures; the consumption of pets joiners glue & face cream; the dead left unburied where they fell
- but also the extraordinary endurance bravery & self-sacrifice despite the cruelty & indifference of the Kremlin.