In the spring of 1942, the bodies were removed from the barren area of the Volkov Cemetery near Leningrad. During World War II, from 1941 to 1944, the Volkhov River served as a dividing line between Soviet and German military positions, with the Volkhov becoming a battlefield. In December 1941, the German advance on the Volkhov was halted by the Soviet Red Army. The lower reaches of the Volkhov River marked the southeastern front line of the German “Northern Army Group” during the Siege of Leningrad.
For the besieged city of Leningrad, Lake Ladoga was the only route connecting it to the outside world. The dangerous ice road across Lake Ladoga was named the “Road of Life” by the Russians and could only be traversed at night. Starvation devastated the city of Leningrad. Russians died on the streets. The bodies were collected and buried in mass graves at the Volkhov Cemetery. Starvation was not the only threat; isolation, cold, German artillery fire, Stalinist repression, lack of water, the need to break ice below freezing to obtain water, various diseases, and the complete absence of other means of transportation also took their toll.
In the second year of World War II, Hitler's German forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The German forces advanced rapidly and by September 1941 had surrounded Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the Soviet Union's second-largest city. This was part of the German Army Group North's blockade operation from the south. The siege was carried out by the Nazi German Army Group North, which attacked the Russian city of Leningrad from the south. Roads and railways were cut off, and the city was deprived of food, fresh water, and electricity. Air raids and artillery fire continued unabated. The siege of Leningrad lasted nearly two and a half years, resulting in the deaths of over one million civilians, most of whom died of starvation.
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