SAINT PETERSBURG

Chronicling courage amid “all-encompassing misery.”

British literary critic McKay, author of The Hidden History of Code-Breaking (2023), does not break new ground in his account of an event that is hugely significant in Russian history: the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. The author hurries over pre-Soviet history and emphasizes Stalin in what followed. He writes about Stalin industrializing the USSR in the 1920s, descending into inexplicable madness with mass purges in the 1930s, and foolishly believing that Hitler—as cruel, crafty, and dishonorable as himself—was an ally. Although surprised and routed by Germany’s June 1941 invasion, the Red Army gradually pulled itself together and by September had halted the Wehrmacht on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. It’s possible that a major effort would have conquered the city, but the Wehrmacht was overstretched, facing increasing resistance, and suffering badly from fall weather and poor logistics. With the city surrounded, the high command concluded that starvation would accomplish the same goal. Making generous use of diaries, memoirs, and letters from those involved, McKay delivers a disturbing description of the siege itself. Red Army offensives to break it often went catastrophically wrong until they finally made progress in January 1943—although another year passed before the Wehrmacht retreated from the city. In the meantime, there was a great deal of heroism. There was epic suffering, too, with perhaps a million deaths from starvation and disease—almost 2,000 people were imprisoned for cannibalism—and no shortage of corruption and crime.

The horrors of war, skillfully told on an epic scale.