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Title: The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury ISBN: 0-306-81298-3 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great book on a great subject
Comment: It is a great book on a not-so-well-known subject. A really gripping depiction of the struggle and suffering in besieged Leningrad. Starting at a rather slow (read: too slow) pace, as the author presents the political situation before the German attack on the Soviet Union, and events leading to Leningrad's encirclement, the book proceeds to very graphic, horrifying description of the life under the siege. Road to Life accross Ladoga Lake, desperate attempts to feed the city's population, cases of cannibalism are just a few highlights of this great book. However, the book never looked at these events from the other site. Germans are just shadows looming over the city. We never got a chance to hear from them, to find out what it was like from their perspective. Another problem with the perspective: author makes it look like Leningrad was populated in 90% by artists. Writers, painters, composers, and their likes, crowd the pages of the book leaving little room for ordinary people. With all that said, it is a great book, very readable, and, at least to me, very enlightening.
Rating: 5
Summary: "Let no one forget. Let nothing be forgotten."
Comment: Having adopted two children from St. Petersburg orphanages and having twice visited the city in the past three years, I read this book from the perspective of an adoptive parent trying to gain a better understanding of the society and city my children came from. I was not disappointed. This well researched book tells the nearly forgotten tragic story of the people of Leningrad during what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War (WWII). It begins in great detail explaining Stalin's blunders before the war, which nearly allowed the Nazis to win a swift and easy victory. The bulk of the book of course recounts the stories of how a people, almost abandoned by its own country, coped with one of the most savage sieges of history. Finally, the book tells of the sad fate of many of the heroic survivors. The book does not try to tell the German perspective nor should it. By telling the stories of the victims we are more easily reminded of the horror of war and are less inclined to glorify aggression. The theme rather is taken from Leningrad poet, Olga Berggolts , "Let no one forget, let nothing be forgotten." For those of us not used to Russian names, places or war heroes, it can be difficult to keep track of how the war and the siege are progressing in the book. Poets, writers, composers and artists may seem a bit over represented in the book, but the reader should remember that since the book is non-fiction, the author had to rely on real accounts of what happened. These accounts are much more likely to have been written about the more famous. On the other hand, having been to St. Petersburg, it's hard to find someone there who is not at least a poet, writer, composer or artist at heart. So the author might have the right mix of artist/not artist accounts in the book after all.
Rating: 4
Summary: the greatest seige of the 20th century
Comment: Yes, Salisbury is a journalist and not a historian - a good and valid point. However, I got more out of the book as a journalistic venture discussing the mistakes and horrors of "the seige" than I would have from reading a history on it per se.
Salisbury does a remarkable job of humanizing a mythic and seminal event in the history of the USSR in all its grisly detail. Much has been made of the 900 days Leningraders suffered, earning it the accolade of "Hero City" by Stalin for its will to survive. Salisbury writes of the experience in a manner that allows the reader to empathize with the citizenry of Leningrad - something a historian would never do; however it is precisely this element that makes it such a remarkable book.
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Title: The Siege of Leningrad 1941-44: 900 Days of Terror by David M. Glantz ISBN: 0760309418 Publisher: MBI Publishing Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor ISBN: 0140284583 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Peter the Great by ROBERT K. MASSIE ISBN: 0345298063 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 October, 1981 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Women's Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose (Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies) by Cynthia Simmons, Nina Perlina, Richard Bidlack ISBN: 082294183X Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.00 |
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Title: Resurrection by David Remnick ISBN: 0375750231 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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