For almost 900 days was Leningrad – present-day St. Petersburg – besieged by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler’s plan was merciless: to destroy the city and its people.
Before World War II, the city had a population of three million. By the end of the siege, famine, disease, and relentless bombing had made Lenin’s city nearly one million people poorer.
One of the victims was named Viktor Putin. He only managed to turn one year old before he died of diphtheria.
Viktor Putin was the big brother of Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president is now accused of besieging the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in the same way that Hitler besieged Leningrad.
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Do not get help
For over a week, the port city has lacked water, heat and electricity, and new supplies are not arriving. A number of shipments of emergency aid have had to turn around because the aid crews themselves have been shelled.
US authorities accuse Russia of deliberately “starving” the city, and ask Putin to remember Russia and his personal history:
“Rash”
– The siege of Leningrad affected several million Russian families, including President Putin’s family. His one-year-old brother was one of the many victims. Russia is now starving cities like Mariupol. It’s a shame said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken earlier this week
Historian and Russian scientist Johannes Due Enstad, at the Institute for Social Research, has researched the Nazis’ occupation of Soviet territories during World War II. He understands why parallels are drawn between the Nazi siege of Leningrad and the Russian siege of Mariupol.
– But it’s a piece of yours. The siege of Leningrad was one of the really big single war crimes on the Eastern Front, which Hitler’s army committed, Enstad told Dagbladet.
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Wanted to destroy the city
The extent, duration and probably also the motivation separate the siege of Leningrad from the siege of Mariupol, Enstad believes.
– Leningrad was an important goal for the German leadership. It was a city that bore Lenin’s name, was the cradle of the revolution, and had great symbolic value in the Soviet state. Therefore, Hitler wanted to lay the city in ruins. In retrospect, it has become clear what the actual plans were. These documents show that the German strategy was to destroy the city and its population through starvation and gravel, not to produce a capitulation, the researcher says.
He adds:
– Today we do not know what Putin’s strengths are with the siege of Mariupol, but they probably want to defeat their opponents in order to force capitulation so that they can be freely rented from the Donbas to Crimea.
However, there are commonalities between the Nazi siege of Leningrad and Putin’s siege of Mariupol, says the historian and Russian scientist.
– The right strategy to win
“It seems that Putin’s siege forces are using the same type of means now that Hitler’s Wehrmacht is using then,” Enstad said.
The German army bombed grain depots, hospitals and critical and civilian infrastructure in Leningrad, which cut off access to electricity and clean water. In Mariupol, Russia has bombed a children’s hospital, and restricted the city’s access to water, heat and electricity.
– The inhabitants of Leningrad had to melt snow and burn wood from parks and forests to survive. Similar conditions are reported in Mariupol. Hitler’s forces also bombed columns of refugees trying to cross the icy Lake Ladoga. Russian forces have also prevented evacuation using artillery. The moral dimension is comparable. At best, the Russians show ruthlessness with regard to civilian losses, at worst, they kill civilians on purpose, says the historian.
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– Many can see the parallel
Hitler’s siege of Leningrad and warfare on the Eastern Front are still an open wound in Russian history. The suffering inflicted on the Soviet population by the Nazis was enormous. No one was spared, everyone was a legitimate target.
Had “the average Russian” today received undisguised information about what Russian forces are doing and have done in Mariupol specifically and Ukraine in general, Enstad is sure that the war resistance in Russia would have been far greater.
– As best it can be done by the Russian authorities, the Russian population is shielded from information about what is actually going on. For the “regular Russians”, it is not obvious that what is happening is to inflict civilian suffering, in the same way as in Leningrad, the researcher says.
Claims the Russians are killing civilians deliberately
Therefore, it is also in the interest of Western authorities to try to squeeze information through Russia’s state veil of censorship.
– The Russian population has been presented with allegations that there is a genocide against the Russian-speaking population in the Donbas. If you as a Russian citizen take it for granted, it is easy to understand how a military operation in Ukraine can be considered fair. If the authorities’ veil of propaganda and censorship had been removed, it is difficult to imagine a large support for this war, says Enstad.
The researcher adds:
– There are still many Russians who actually see what is happening, not least those with a high level of education and English skills. I reckon that there are many who can also now see the parallel to Leningrad.
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