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OnJune 22nd 1941, Hitler invaded the
Soviet Union and German troops advanced towards Leningrad, with a
population of three million, Russia's second
city. OnJune 27ththe people of
Leningrad began constructing fortifications around the city and
steeled themselves for a defensive struggle which was to continue
until January 1944. So fervent was the people's resistance that
German forces, frustrated by their inability to take the
stronghold, encircled the city ina 872-day-long siege beginning on 8th
September 1941 during which around 500,000 troops and over a
million civilians died. [Author Caroline Walton's research puts the
figure higher than those of most Western historians in the '90s who
used Soviet statistics that may have tended to downplay the
number].
Her latest
work, The Besieged (Biteback
2011) takes us inside the fortifications and into the homes
and lives of those trapped in Leningrad. The history of the Siege
is recounted here bysurvivors, or 'blokadniki'who were
there (and who happen to have included, the author points
out,Vladimir Putin's older brother who
actually died. Putin himself was not yet born). In the summer of
1999, these 'blokadniki' disclosed their memories of that time to
writerCaroline Walton.
Their
stories describe humanity at its utter limit encompassing
desperation, fear, grief, famine, murder and evencannibalism. But there are also
stories of courage, camaraderie, fortitude, music, passion and
pride, and of an elusive, not quite describable but ineffably human
quality that allows hungry people to survive the worst that human
experience can yield. Harrowing, yet uplifting, The Besieged is
history in the broadest and best sense.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
ENGAGEMENT - On Friday December 9th at 6 pm, Caroline
Walton will be speaking on her book 'The Besieged' at the
Russkii Mir bookshop,
23 Goodge St, London, W1. Tel:+(44) 20
7436 6390
About the Podcast
Interviews with personalities, experts and authors.