Saint Petersburg

About the book

'Richly-layered and packed with insight, this riveting account of terrible events tells us as much about the present as it does the past' Patrick Bishop, author of Paris '44

From Peter the Great to Putin, a biography of the city Hitler tried - and failed - to wipe off the map

The siege of Saint Petersburg - then known as Leningrad - stands as a testament to human endurance. Intended by the Nazis as civilian extermination, the numbers who perished in this 900-day ordeal almost outweighed the entire total of British and American troop deaths in the Second World War.

The city's 2.5 million residents began to starve as rations shrank and dwindled. As temperatures plunged to minus 43°C, electricity faltered, and fuel ran out. Yet, amid...