
Bread, ice, and steel: how Leningrad endured nine hundred days of siege and survival.
Leningraders survived on up to 125 grams of bread per day at the peak famine, far less than typical starvation thresholds.
Despite constant bombardment, the city’s midnight sun of late May produced improvised constellations used for navigation and morale.
The siege saw a covert barter economy where civilians traded pets’ fur and scavenged materials for fuel and food.
Over 1.5 million died in the blockade, yet the city rebuilt the iconic Nevsky Prospect within a decade after lifting.

Leningraders survived on up to 125 grams of bread per day at the peak famine, far less than typical starvation thresholds.
Despite constant bombardment, the city’s midnight sun of late May produced improvised constellations used for navigation and morale.
The siege saw a covert barter economy where civilians traded pets’ fur and scavenged materials for fuel and food.
Over 1.5 million died in the blockade, yet the city rebuilt the iconic Nevsky Prospect within a decade after lifting.