Effect of the Siege of Leningrad on the city The 872 - day , prolonged military operation , The Siege of Leningrad , Russia , resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front of World War II , between September 8 , 1941 and January 27 , 1944 , was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history , causing considerable devastation to the city of Leningrad ( now Saint Petersburg ) . Timeline of the Siege of Leningrad . The timeline of events is as follows . Civilian casualties . Because the Soviet records during the war were incomplete , the ultimate number of casualties during the siege is disputed . About 1 . 4 million people were rescued by military evacuation from the besieged city in two years between September 1941 and November 1943 . Another 1 . 2 million civilians perished in the city . After the war , The Soviet government reported about 670 , 000 registered deaths from 1941 to January 1944 , explained as resulting mostly from starvation , stress and exposure . Some independent studies suggest a much higher death toll of between 700 , 000 and 1 . 5 million , with most estimates putting civilian losses at around 1 . 1 to 1 . 3 million . Many of these victims , estimated at being at least half a million , were buried in the Piskarevskoye Cemetery . Hundreds of thousands of civilians who were unregistered with the city authorities and lived in the city before the war , or had become refugees there , perished in the siege without any record at all . About half a million people , both military and civilians from Latvia , Estonia , Pskov and Novgorod fled from the advancing Nazis and came to Leningrad at the beginning of the war . The flow of refugees to the city stopped with the beginning of the siege . During the siege , part of the civilian population was evacuated from Leningrad , although many died in the process . Unregistered people died in numerous air - raids and from starvation and cold while trying to escape from the city . Their bodies were never buried or counted under the severe circumstances of constant bombing and other attacks by the Nazi forces . The total number of human losses during the 29 months of the siege of Leningrad is estimated as 1 . 5 million , both civilian and military . Only 700 , 000 people were left alive of a 3 . 5 million pre - war population . Among them were soldiers , workers , surviving children and women . Of the 700 , 000 survivors , about 300 , 000 were soldiers who came from other parts of the country to help in the besieged city . By the end of the siege , Leningrad had become an empty " ghost - city " with thousands of ruined and abandoned homes . Food shortages . Rations were reduced on September 2 : manual workers had 600 grams of bread daily ; state employees , 400 grams ; and children and dependants ( other civilians ) , 300 grams per day . After heavy German bombing in August , September , and October 1941 , all main food warehouses were destroyed and burned in massive fires . Huge amounts of stored food reserves , such as grain , flour and sugar , as well as other stored food , were completely destroyed . In one instance , melted sugar from the warehouses had flowed through the floors into the surrounding soil . Desperate citizens began digging up the frozen earth in an attempt to extract the sugar . This soil was on sale in the ' Haymarket ' to housewives who tried to melt the earth to separate the sugar or to others who merely mixed this earth with flour . The fires continued all over the city , because the Germans were bombing Leningrad non - stop for many months using various kinds of incendiary and high - explosive devices during 1941 , 1942 , and 1943 . In the first days of the siege , people finished all leftovers in " commercial " restaurants , which used up to 12 % of all fats and up to 10 % of all meat the city consumed . Soon all restaurants closed , food rationing became the only way to save lives , money became obsolete . The carnage in the city from shelling and starvation ( especially in the first winter ) was appalling . One of Nikolai I . Vavilov ' s assistants starved to death surrounded by edible seeds so that the seedbank ( with more than 200 , 000 items ) would be available to future generations . It was calculated that the provisions both for army and civilians would last as follows ( on September 12 , 1941 ) : On the same day , another reduction of food took place : the workers received 500 grams of bread ; employees and children , 300 grams ; and dependants , 250 grams . Rations of meat and groats were also reduced , but the issue of sugar , confectionery and fats was increased instead . The army and the Baltic Fleet had some emergency rations , but these were not sufficient , and were used up in weeks . The flotilla of Lake Ladoga was not well equipped for war , and was almost destroyed in bombing by the German " Luftwaffe " . Several barges with grain were sunk in Lake Ladoga in September 1941 alone . A significant part of that grain , however , was later recovered from the water by divers . This grain was delivered to Leningrad at night , and was used for baking bread . When the city ran out of reserves of malt flour , other substitutes , such as finished cellulose and cotton - cake , were used . Oats meant for horses were also used , while the horses were fed wood leaves . When 2 , 000 tons of mutton guts had been found in the seaport , a food grade galantine was made of them . When the meat became unavailable , it was replaced by that galantine and by stinking calf skin s , which many survivors remembered until the end of their lives . During the first year of the siege , the city survived five food reductions : two reductions in September 1941 , one in October , and two reductions in November . The latter reduced the daily food consumption to 250 grams daily for manual workers and 125 grams for other civilians . Reports of cannibalism began to appear in the winter of 1941 – 1942 , after all birds , rats and pets were eaten by survivors and meat patties , made from minced human flesh went on sale in the ' Haymarket ' in November 1941 . Many bodies brought to cemeteries in the city were missing parts . Starvation - level food rationing was eased by new vegetable gardens that covered most open ground in the city by 1942 . Damage to public utilities . The Nazis cut almost all supplies to Leningrad , garment industries and retailers closed , most schools as well as most public services became obsolete , causing a massive exodus of women and children . During all three winters of the siege of Leningrad , 1941 – 1942 , 1942 – 1943 , and 1943 – 1944 , water pipelines were constantly destroyed by the bombing and artillery bombardments . Women were searching for water under the icy ground . Ice and snow were deadly sources of water because of cold winters and lack of heat . During the siege , three cold winters were the time of the highest mortality rates among the civilian population . Tens of thousands of civilians froze to death in Leningrad . Due to a lack of power supplies , many factories were closed down and , in November , all public transportation services became unavailable . The construction of the pre - war designed metro system was stopped , some unfinished tunnels were used as public shelters during aerial bombing and artillery bombardments . In the spring of 1942 , some tramway lines were reactivated , but trolleybuses and buses were inoperable until the end of the war . The use of power was forbidden everywhere except at the General Staff headquarters , Smolny , district committees , air defense bases , and in some other institutions . By the end of September , oil and coal supplies had run out . The only energy option left was to fell trees . On October 8 the executive committee of Leningrad ( Ленгорисполком ) and regional executive committee ( облисполком ) decided to start cutting timber in Pargolovsky and Vsevolozhsky District s in the north of the city . By October 24 only 1 % of the timber cutting plan had been executed . Civilian population evacuation . Almost all public transportation in Leningrad was destroyed as a result of massive air and artillery bombardments in August – September 1941 . Three million people were trapped in the city . Leningrad , as a main military - industrial center in Russia , was populated by military - industrial engineers , technicians , and other workers with their civilian families . The only means of evacuation was on foot , with little opportunity to do so before the expected encirclement by the " Wehrmacht " and Finnish forces . 86 major strategic industries were evacuated from the city . Most industrial capacities , engines and power equipment , instruments and tools , were moved by the workers . Some defense industries , such as the LMZ , the Admiralty Shipyard , and the Kirov Plant , were left in the city , and were still producing armor and ammunition for the defenders . Evacuation was organized by Kliment Voroshilov and Georgi Zhukov and was managed by engineers and workers of Leningrad ' s 86 major industries , which were themselves also evacuated from the city , by using every means of transportation available . The evacuation operation was managed in several ' waves ' or phases : The total number of civilians evacuated was about 1 . 4 million , mainly women , children and war effort essential personnel . Urban damage . Severe destruction of homes was caused by the Nazi bombing , as well as by daily artillery bombardments . Major destruction was done during August and September 1941 , when artillery bombardments were almost constant for several weeks in a row . Regular bombing continued through 1941 , 1942 , and 1943 . Most heavy artillery bombardments resumed in 1943 , and increased six times in comparison with the beginning of the war . Hitler and the Nazi leadership were angered by their failure to take Leningrad by force . Hitler ' s directive No . 1601 ordered that " St . Petersburg must be erased from the face of the Earth " and " we have no interest in saving lives of civilian population . " Hundreds of buildings , public schools , hospitals and industrial plant were destroyed by the bombing . Museums and palaces in the suburbs were destroyed , vandalized and looted by the Nazis , while the employees of museums were trying to save some art . Only parts of art collections from the famous suburban palaces of the Tsars were evacuated in time , while some of the salvaged art was stored in the basements of the Hermitage until the end of the war . The destruction of Leningrad during the siege was regarded as a larger event than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined . Thousands of homes , industries , roads and transportation structures , schools , hospitals , power plants and other infrastructure were completely destroyed , or severely damaged during 29 months of constant bombing and fires . Civilian support of military operations . The resistance of the surviving civilian population of Leningrad provided crucial support for military operations during the battle of Leningrad . The total number of civilian volunteers helping the military is estimated to be equal to the number of civilians left in the city – about 500 , 000 of them were fire - watching . The Nazis had a special intelligence unit that operated in secrecy , focused on causing more death and destruction in Leningrad through sabotage to destroy the morale and spirit of its citizens . Some of the Nazi secret agents were arsonists , arrested while setting fires at storage facilities in besieged Leningrad . Water and food supplies were often found poisoned and infected by the Nazi spies infiltrating the city . Volunteer militia brigades were involved in assisting civilians - mainly women and children . While the population of Leningrad was depressed by the long and exhausting siege , people still tried to lift their spirits in the time when they were struggling to survive . Popular film star Boris Babochkin made many visits to the city . He gave numerous stage performances ; he also delivered several copies of the classic film Chapayev , which was a highly popular movie . Symphony performances for survivors of the siege were rare , but attendance was high , regardless of the risks and exhaustion of everybody . Perhaps the most important booster of morale was Shostakovich ' s Seventh Symphony , entitled " Leningrad " . The symphony did much to raise the spirits of the defenders . At its Leningrad premiere , Marshal Zhukov ensured that what was called the " eighty minutes of silence , " ( when the soldiers at the Front did their utmost to stop the city bombing so as to not interrupt the performance ) . Music performances were broadcast over the Leningrad radio 24 / 7 . At rare times when music was not broadcast , a metronome was placed before the radio microphone to assure the people that the resistance was ongoing . Performers and radio personnel worked without compensation , they received 250 – 500 grams of food per day , mainly low grade bread . The poets Olga Bergholz and Anna Akhmatova contributed their talents to support the morale of civilians and military personnel fighting in the city . Many women and children risked their lives helping military operations at the front line . 15 , 000 children were decorated for their courage in military operations during the siege . Aftermath of the siege . Following Germany ' s capitulation in May 1945 a concerted effort was made in Germany to search for the collections removed from the museums and palaces of Leningrad ' s surrounding areas during the war . In September 1945 the Leningrad Philharmonic returned to the city from Siberia where it was evacuated during the war to give its first peacetime concert performances . For the defense of the city and tenacity of the civilian survivors of the siege , Leningrad was the first city in the former Soviet Union to be awarded the title of a Hero City in 1945 . Siege commemoration . Economic and human losses caused incalculable damage to the city ' s historic sites and cultural landmarks , with much of the damage still visible today . Some ruins are preserved to commemorate those who gave their lives to save the city . As of 2007 , there were still empty spaces in St . Petersburg suburbs where buildings had stood before the siege . Siege influence on cultural expression . The siege caused major trauma for several generations after the war . Leningrad / St . Petersburg as the cultural capital , suffered incomparable human losses and the destruction of famous landmarks . While conditions in the city were appalling and starvation was constantly with the besieged , the city resisted for nearly three years . The pride of the city is unmistakable : " Troy fell , Rome fell , Leningrad did not fall . " The Siege of Leningrad was commemorated in the late 1950s by the Green Belt of Glory , a circle of public parks and memorials along the historic front line . Warnings to citizens of the city as to which side of the road to walk on to avoid the German shelling can still be seen ( they were restored after the war ) . Russian tour guides at Peterhof , the palaces near St . Petersburg , report that it is still dangerous to go for a stroll in the gardens during a thunderstorm , as German artillery shrapnel embedded in the trees attracts lightning .