The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: Science and Sacrifice in a City Under Siege
20 comments
·January 31, 2025discmonkey
pjc50
Thanks for this personal story with the historical connection.
I would like to invite the audience to remember how many similar stories are being played out in the present day.
Synaesthesia
I've heard of this story before, the scientists who saved seeds and refused to eat them, despite the starvation everywhere.
It's remarkable that they sacrificed even their own lives to this end.
rdtsc
> The only outlet was Lake Ladoga, but German Junkers ruled the skies. There was no question of feeding the city’s two and a half million mouths, since the Fatherland needed food.
They ruled the skies even at night?
The sad part is the starvation and suffering was brought about by their own government. The people sacrificed themselves while the elites in Moscow enjoyed plenty of food. The article mentions that part further below, but doesn’t connect the dots. They could have left provisions in the city and could have supplied it if they wanted to. They just chose not to.
pjc50
It seems from Wikipedia that there was a relief attempt, which failed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lyuban
We'd need some maps, but I can't see how an encircled city could be supplied?
rtkwe
It would depend on there already being beach landing craft in the lake when the encirclement happened. There weren't any other major ports on the lake at the time other than Leningrad and Shlisselburg which the was on the German side of the front and heavily contested. The German line also went to the Southern bank of the River there up until it turned North West to get into the city so you couldn't use that so the options for bringing food in via the lake were pretty limited and any losses would be effectively permanent until the siege was broken.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Leningra...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Si...
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8fcb0d31607d4cd05fbe82998afc91ef...
mathieuh
Would it not have been the people besieging the city who were responsible?
rdtsc
That goes without saying. But the Soviets chose to abandon it. Brutality from the enemy wouldn't be that surprising, betrayal by your own government is.
The article mentions it below even:
> The betrayal came from the top. Stalin, neglecting the relevant intelligence and then focusing on Moscow, all but abandoned Leningrad, while his apparatchiks appeared at public baths milky and fat in their privilege. The man in charge of the city, Andrei Zhdanov, enjoyed butter on his bread and lashings of caviar while those in his care ate their pets, sometimes their neighbours, and fashioned tagliatelle out of slow-boiled strips of leather. Nor did the Soviets acknowledge the extent of the suffering.
ceejayoz
> They ruled the skies even at night?
rdtsc
None of those technologies: newly developed radar, or even more exotic night vision at that time, would have allowed them to bomb ships at night over lake Ladoga. Dive bombing would have worked but not at night.
rtkwe
From which port? to which port? with what ships? The Germans owned the bank of the river between the lake and Leningrad until the river turned North West. There doesn't appear to be much of a port on the parts of the lake still controlled by the Soviets during the siege either.
ceejayoz
Radar's useful for finding ships.
Radio's useful for telling the planes where those ships are.
Even before radar, night missions were a thing (even in pre-radar WWI, a little). It's rarely completely dark out.
And as a bonus, supplies have to be loaded and unloaded, which tends to take time. The day comes eventually, and the loading points on the other side of the lake would've been well within range.
Mikhail_K
> The sad part is the starvation and suffering was brought about by their own government.
That is not true. The starvation was planned by Hitler and he gave explicit directives to that effect. You're essentially reproducing the nazi propaganda.
rdtsc
> You're essentially reproducing the nazi propaganda.
And you're essentially reproducing Soviet propaganda. Over the years they covered it up extensively. If you read the article it mentions but doesn't go into details:
"The betrayal came from the top. Stalin, neglecting the relevant intelligence and then focusing on Moscow, all but abandoned Leningrad, while his apparatchiks appeared at public baths milky and fat in their privilege. The man in charge of the city, Andrei Zhdanov, enjoyed butter on his bread and lashings of caviar while those in his care ate their pets, sometimes their neighbours, and fashioned tagliatelle out of slow-boiled strips of leather."
pjc50
This really is a "what if both sides were indifferent to the value of human life?" situation.
Synaesthesia
Hundreds of thousands of people did not starve to death because of one man.
The Nazis wanted to starve millions of Russians to death. They even had a plan to do it and talked about it publicly.
wordpad25
Lets not forget that's where WW2 was fought and won. With two thirds of German army committed to eastern front, the entire D-day Normandy is just a pheriphiral operation.
Even Soviet propaganda aside, Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg now) objectively wasn't abandoned due to naked greed of the elite, after all USSR was fighting for survival and had to make tough decisions. Even if Stalin didn't care about the people, the city itself was really important strategically.
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lovegrenoble
Shostakovich's symphony is marvelous
My great-grandmother and grandfather were in Leningrad during the siege. My great-grandmother continued to teach throughout. At some point she was given the option to evacuate with my (very) young grandfather over the "road of life".
As my mother tells the story, my great grandmother had the choice of either taking a bus, or hanging on to the back of some delivery truck. She chose the truck. The bus broke through the ice and disappeared under the water.
It's strange to realize how close one can be to not being "here" and how history weaves its way through your blood and ends up on the front page of hackernews.