During the siege of Leningrad, about one million three hundred thousand people died, especially young infants who were strangled with food rations in the midst of hunger and bitter cold. Mothers, residents of Leningrad, slumped over beside their corpses, mourning and wailing.

 　On the Eastern Front of World War II, one million three hundred thousand people died during the nearly nine hundred day siege of Leningrad by German forces. In the midst of starvation and bitter cold, a young infant in Leningrad died. At the side of their corpses, Russian mothers mourned and wailed. Children, the elderly, and the unemployed, in particular, were strangled of their food rations.

For 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, Leningrad was besieged by German troops. Leningrad was in a state of extreme stress: in ruins, under exploding bombs, under artillery fire, cold and hunger every day, the inhabitants struggled to survive. Life and death were more common than a slice of bread. Bodies were dragged uncovered on sleds. Everything that was not absolutely necessary disappeared. Hot rice-cooker meals, blazing lights, and even open windows, which had been commonplace before the war, suddenly disappeared. With constant problems of electricity, running water, and heating, residents literally survived by eating everything they could find. They burned books and furniture for warmth, bathed in the ice of the frozen Neva River, and made soup out of wallpaper paste.

　　The blockade of Leningrad lasted 900 days, and Boris Kudyarov, a photographer and reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda, lived, suffered, and fought alongside the citizens of Leningrad for 900 days. He photographed the fighting near the besieged city and daily life in the streets, factories, schools, and apartments. He was sent from Moscow to Leningrad on the first day of the war. Air travel was interrupted and he traveled by train via Vologda and a detour around Lake Ladoga. At that time, Leningrad was on alert and awaited the German advance. Kudyarov, a Soviet Jew who photographed the siege and defense of Leningrad and the suffering of families, women, and children, took some 3,000 photographs.

　1941 was the worst year, as millions of refugees poured into Leningrad, fleeing the Baltic states. The Germans blockaded Leningrad, and the only supply route for food and ammunition continued across Lake Ladoga. The supply route across Lake Ladoga was called the Path of Life (Droga Zizhne). It passed over water in the summer and over ice in the winter. The daily bread ration was set at just over 85 grams per person.