Leningrad was besieged by the German army for 872 days from June 22, 1941 to January 27, 1944. Starvation devastated the city, and people collapsed in the streets and died, their bodies scattered around.

   On June 22, 1941, the German army launched Operation Barbarossa, an invasion of the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht advanced and reached the gates of Leningrad on September 8, and the city was besieged for 872 days until January 27, 1944. Starvation devastated the city, and people collapsed in the streets and their lifeless bodies lay scattered about. The bodies were collected to be buried in the mass graves at the Volkhov Cemetery. They began to slowly fall to the ground in the streets and died of exposure. The citizens had become completely accustomed to death and walked by indifferently. Since there was no one to clear away the bodies, they lay there for a long time.

   The frozen Lake Ladoga was the only route connecting Leningrad to the outside world. The Soviet army secured food supplies along the “Road of Life”, a road made across the ice of Lake Ladoga to get through the cold. The dangerous ice road, named “The Road of Life” by the Russians, was only passable at night. When the city was liberated in January 1944, more than 90% of the survivors had lost a great deal of weight, and the siege had claimed more than a million lives, including victims of bombing, malnutrition and frostbite. The Leningraders received only 86 tons of food per day.

   From mid-November 1941 to the end of January 1942, the number of famine victims increased rapidly, and more than 4,000 people died every day in Leningrad. More than 1,400 people were arrested on suspicion of cannibalism, and more than 300 people were executed. Decapitated corpses were seen everywhere. The majority of those who broke through the blockade from the Neva River Bridge were killed or injured, and one of the few who returned to active duty in October 1941 was the father of Russian President Vladimir Putin.