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Leningrad: State of Siege | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Jones
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 95359
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0465011535
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780465011537
ASIN: 0465011535
Publication Date: August 4, 2008
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Condition: Dust cover is missing, text is good. Expedited shipping is available.
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Product Description
“All offers of surrender from Leningrad must be rejected,” wrote Adolph Hitler on September 29, 1941, at the outset of Operation Barbarossa. “In this struggle for survival, we have no interest in keeping even a proportion of the city’s population alive.” During the famed 900-day siege of Leningrad, the German High Command deliberately planned to eradicate the city’s population through starvation. Viewing the Slavs as sub-human, Hitler embarked on a vicious program of ethnic cleansing. By the time the siege ended in January 1944, almost a million people had died. Those who survived would be marked permanently by what they endured as the city descended into chaos. In Leningrad, military historian Michael Jones chronicles the human story of this epic siege. Drawing on newly available eyewitness accounts and diaries, he reveals the true horrors of the ordeal—including stories long-suppressed by the Soviets of looting, criminal gangs, and cannibalism. But he also shows the immense psychological resources on which the citizens of Leningrad drew to survive against desperate odds. At the height of the siege, for instance, an extraordinary live performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony profoundly strengthened the city’s will to resist. A riveting account of one of the most harrowing sieges of world history, Leningrad also portrays the astonishing power of the human will in the face of even the direst catastrophe.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Necessary Update January 5, 2009
Stalin's dictatorship showed its flaws vividly in the first days and months of the war. Less than three months after Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, Leningrad was surrounded and besieged, forbidden from surrender
and therefore doomed to starvation. The tale was told in excruciating detail in Harrison Salisbury's 900 Days, and now historian Michael Jones provides a sobering update, Leningrad, by tapping into newly available eyewitness accounts and diaries. He looks at aspects of the siege long-suppressed by the Soviets, and paints a very up-close-and-personal portrait of this difficult time. It is presented in eleven chapters that read like fine magazine journalism, each examining different facets of residents' experience in the besieged city, each as well-written and affecting as the last. (As reviewed in Russian Life)
Concise and poignant December 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I knew "of" the siege of Leningrad but I didn't know anything "about" it. L:SoS is a concise and poignant retelling of the story of those nearly 900 days. The German mission was specifically to starve the people and destroy the city as opposed to simply capturing it. I suspect Leningrad, a major city of several million, suffered more than any city in modern times.
Much of the book is taken from "war diaries" of citizens and soldiers in Leningrad. It's well written and moves quickly, making for a good read. Keep in mind, however; L:SoS is not a work of "military history," but rather, it's trying to document what's probably the greatest unheard-of tragedy of WWII.
Recommended.
A deeper view of the Siege of Leningrad October 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In his invasion of Leningrad, during Operation Barbarossa in June of 1941, Hitler despised the Russians (and the City of Leningrad) so much that, rather than expend valuable resources and manpower to overrun it, he elected to blockade the city and starve it into submission. The author marks this attempt at mass starvation as the only such instance in Twentieth Century warfare history.
According to this well researched book, which uses many interviews and newly revealed documents, Hitler almost succeeded in starving the Russians of Leningrad into submission. As he relentlessly bombarded the city with artillery for more than 900 days and nights, he leveled the city and left it prostrate. On his target list were all human related "choke points" such as water pumping stations, electrical grids, and all factories and infrastructure that could provide food, and anything else that would accelerate the city's demise.
The results were predictable: the citizens underwent unimaginable hardships that included among others, eating rats, and even engaging in a sizable amount of cannibalism. As the city was leveled above ground, citizens were forced to live like scared dogs underground emerging only for brief spells at night to forage for food. Despite all of the misery, there were still many stories of heroism among Leningrad citizens, as they made it their patriotic duty to share and support each other.
Eventually Hitler's war priorities changed and the siege of Leningrad was lifted and the city managed to survive, but with more than a million lives lost. There are still many WW-II stories yet to be told, and the suffering of the Russian people who lost nearly 30 million are foremost among them. For me, this was a sobering book about a period of time that we American still know too little about.
Five stars
 Just not enough of the details September 12, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The first two reviews written on this book were written by people that really know this area of history. I cannot compare myself to them and so I'm going to try to pick a different set of topics from which to write this review. I love to read history, but I'm a rookie compared to my colleagues, so my focus will be on the writing itself and readability.
This book is very readable, however, that said, I found myself drifting through the first 100 pages without that drive I receive from some authors. The second chapter was designated by the author to ream out Voroshilov. He started on him at the beginning of the chapter and didn't let up for 40 pages. I found the constant belittling to be a little over the top. I'm not saying that Voroshilov didn't deserve some pummeling, but enough is enough. Additionally, I believe in the saying that "A fish rots from the head", and there is no doubt who was really calling the shots. So even if Voroshilov is to blame for the execution of the defense, Stalin is still the ultimate responsible individual. Although I'm critical of the continuous hammering on Voroshilov, the author makes some very good points and shows that the "purge" in the Red Army by Stalin and his henchmen had a very dramatic effect on the Siege of Leningrad leaving someone like Voroshilov in charge.
I also judge a non-fiction history on the way the author sets up the bibliography; this one is just plain sloppy and the author lazy. I might get some static on this point, because much on the new story here is supposed to be from diaries and interviews, but the reader will never know which is from what.
It is difficult to see where the author's opinion and his interviews or the diaries leave off. An example of Jones' use of his own opinion (or at least undocumented) is on page 114: "Zhukov was unable to contain his exasperation with his predecessor (Voroshilov)". And yet, Jones makes no mention of how he knows of this exasperation or if there was anything in particular that was said to anyone about it. I can assume that Zhukov might have felt that he was placed into a disastrous situation, but this is the constant type of nitpicking at Voroshilov that Jones cannot stop - and it gets old to the reader. Much of it may be true, but due the poor footnoting, the reader will never know.
Maps: Why in a history book with a focus on particular points of interests and battles, is there not a map or illustration for every major event? For pages and pages, the Nevsky Bridgehead is described, but not one illustration or picture or depiction of what it looked like or how the troops of both sides were situated is displayed. I really dislike when illustrations are not used. I will concede that that there are two maps that describe many of the relationships of the cities and towns, however, not all of the cities and towns discussed in the book are on the maps - dumb.
Additionally, I was very disappointed in the failure to give the German side of the story with any detail. What were the soldiers thinking at the Bridgehead? We do get some information about the German decisions as they moved into position, but not enough first person accounts. After all, this is about the Leningrad Siege - it should be researched from both accounts, not just the Russian side.
Michael Jones considers himself a specialist in military history, but I found the first 125 pages to be the slowest of the book as he was unwinding the opening surge and set up of German forces. At about page 125, he begins to get into the Russia people and their diaries. This is the fascinating part of the book for me. The stories of the people are heartbreaking and soul searching and then heartwarming. But even in this section, he skips around chronologically when that should not be necessary. It breaks the flow of the story and it is not necessary in this type of book. Again, there were moments of truly terrific writing by Jones - i.e. the setup and telling of the 7th Symphony.
But after these couple of chapters, Jones again gets into more military work with the breakup of the defenses of the Germans. This is necessary, but the way in which it was told broke up the flow of the story. In the middle of the bombardment of the Germans, Jones takes two paragraphs to tell a story about a little boy named Davidov, who was picked on by some bullies - why? With all of the stories to be told, this was a strange inclusion.
I'm glad that I took the time to read about the Siege, but I'm afraid that this is just not the perfect book on this historic event. It just doesn't have enough information and detail of what was going on in both the German and Soviet headquarters. We went from everyone dying of starvation to the Red Army breaking out with more artillery and shells and people than they ever had in a battle. We saw nothing about the build up. There was just too much detail unaccounted. The thought process is missing. Jones was somewhat successful in his approach to find the underlying hope of the people but he extended the reach of the book to include military information and I felt that he failed at this. This rendition of Leningrad's Siege just left me unsatisfied.
The Battle of Leningrad - A New Perspective September 7, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
What puts this book apart from the existing literature on the subject, is the extent to which the author seeks to go beyond writing a straightforward account of the suffering of the population during the siege (horrendous though that suffering was). Instead, Michael Jones writes evocatively about the mindset of the German besiegers and reveals in great detail the ineptitude of the Russian authorities. He also charts the inhuman depths that some people within the besieged city sunk to in order to survive. Drawing from a huge number of original and authoritative secondary sources Michael gives a very readable account of this black period in the history of Russia. I thoroughly recommend this book and would place it above Salisbury's 'The 900 Days' as the definitive account of this titanic struggle.
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