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The Battle for Leningrad, 1941–1944

David M. Glantz

November 2002
704 pages, 90 illustrations, 16 maps, 6 x 9
Modern War Studies
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1208-6, $39.95

SELECTION OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB

Book cover imageThe German siege and Soviet defense of Leningrad in World War II was an epic struggle in an epic war, a drama of heroism and human misery unmatched in the annals of modern warfare. While innumerable writers have dealt at length with the besieged city itself, David Glantz provides for the first time the definitive military history of the conflict waged beyond the city’s borders.

One of the first major Soviet cities threatened by the German blitzkrieg, Leningrad was as much a symbolic target as it was a strategic one for Adolf Hitler, who fully expected the birthplace of the Russian Revolution to be reduced to rubble quickly and with ease. The Red Army’s ferocious defense of the city, however, made that impossible.

Glantz digs deep to recount the full story of how these two military giants bludgeoned each other for nearly three years with a relentless barrage of offensives and counter-offensives designed to crush one another, in horrendous weather and a harsh terrain and with staggering loss of life on both sides. His richly detailed history shows how battles and campaigns were conceived, engaged, and resolved—including a half dozen or more ”forgotten battles” that took place during the blockade. He explains how the struggle for Leningrad impacted other theaters of operation along the Eastern Front, eventually forcing the Germans into their long and costly retreat back toward Berlin.

Glantz also provides insights into conditions within the city, adding new details to the horrors of the siege; sheds new light on partisan warfare in the countryside surrounding Leningrad; and corrects many errors found in earlier works.

Based on an unparalleled access to Russian archival sources and going far beyond the military aspects of such renowned works as Harrison Salisbury’s 900 Days, Glantz’s book is a testament to the nearly two million Russians who lost their lives during the Leningrad conflict and confirms his status as the preeminent authority on the Russian military experience in World War II.

“An original and important contribution not only to the battle for Leningrad but also to a wider understanding of the Great Patriotic War. Drawing upon previously unavailable or neglected Soviet and German sources, it provides a major corrective to the shortcomings of previous accounts and will stand as a significant and durable achievement on a subject that continues to fascinate.”—John Erickson, author of The Road to Stalingrad

“An outstanding contribution to the study of the Second World War as it was fought on the Eastern Front.”—Malcolm Mackintosh, author of Juggernaut: A History of Soviet Armed Forces

“An exceptional work on one of the great campaigns of World War II.”—James S. Corum, author of The Roots of Blitzkrieg and The Luftwaffe

DAVID M. GLANTZ is the author of The Battle of Kursk, Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War, Zhukov’s Greatest Defeat: The Red Army’s Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, and When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, all published by Kansas.