The fight of the Leningrad

             "Troy fell, Rome fell, but Leningrad will never fall"

               Imagine a cold weather of Russia having temperature of -20 to -30 degree Celsius. Last three months have been passed and there is no food. People have already finished eating birds, horses, dogs and cats which they used to domesticate. Still there is no food.So now they have turned to human beings, situation has forced them to eat their city-men. People have turned into cannibalism. They are eating their own colleague for the sake of hunger. Government is providing 250 gram of food per day to military and civilians, which is not sufficient to fight.

               In addition to this situation, there is around 1.2 million of the enemy soldier at the gate of city, they have bombarded some thousand bombs in last three months. Deaths are so usual that every square is a pile of 20 to 30 new men felling because of the hunger. Each new day is bringing some 700 to 1000 deaths. Life expectancy of a new soldier in Leningrad has become 24 hours. The siege of Leningrad is the most fierce battle in the history of mankind. It is one of my favorite battles of research as it gives many brave untold stories.

              In the month of June 1941 breaking the code of no war with USSR, German launch operation Barbarossa on USSR .

              "First Leningrad then Stalingrad and then Moscow" was the order given by Hitler. 'Starve them to death' were the policy by Germans. They encircled Leningrad with the help of fin-lands army.

                On the other side there was Stalin who ordered not a step back. So new soldiers who joined the battle from Russia were in dual mode. A new recruit had no option but to fight. A situations was there, when only one soldier was given a gun and another soldier had to run behind him without gun. So when the front soldier would die the second soldier behind him who has no weapon, had to take his weapon. If someone in this chaos tried to move back he was being killed by his own men. The fierce battle continued till November by that time the population of Leningrad now st. Spitsbergen, was reduced to half, mostly due to hunger. 


             

                Winter came with new hope for people as lake Ladoga started to freeze. The battle now took turned across the lake as most of the reinforcement came from it. It became road of life for many people. German did bombard the lake so that Russian vehicles should drown. However, the brave Russian still brought it giving life to many people. No evacuation of citizen were ordered as Stalin thought it means downgrading the moral. In the chaos of this fierce battle Stalin carried out parade of red army in Moscow to boost the moral of Russians.

              
                Hitler on the other side frustrated by Leningrad, launch an attack on industrial city of Stalingrad now Volgograd. The battle of Stalingrad an ambitious city of Stalin saw biggest deaths. Within two months the 90 % of the city fell. Stalin repeated not a step back. The world saw a emergence of new hero Vasily Zaytsev , a sniper with great skill who killed as far as 243 Germans high ranking officer. Vasily so frustrated Germans, that they had to call for special officer of their head sniper institute. Vasily's heroics with sniper inspired Stalingrad, it inspired Stalin and it inspired Russia. They  launch counter attack taking Stalingrad from Germans.  By the end of February 1943 Stalingrad was captured as reinforcement to it was possible from river Volga.
                

                 Now the whole focus of Russia and Germans came again on Leningrad  the city became hell again waiting for winter. "The fight will continue still last man of Leningrad stands" roared Stalin. The new brigade of young red army launched final attack in the January 1944 taking Germans far away from the city. The Russians won but they had to fetch a price for that, a price of 1.7 million Russians citizens and soldiers. 


                 The siege of Leningrad was far more severe than the two atomic bombs which America dropped on Japan. The men who died were not only fighting for their land but for the order which was given.