The 900 Days The Siege of Leningrad Author:Harrison E. Salisbury Kirkus Reviews: — Like Napoleon, Hitler failed to conquer Leningrad but managed to inflict severe pain. This is the overlong if terrible story of the German siege--from October, 1941 to January, 1944 when the city was cut off from the rest of Russia and three German armies along with their allies ""Generals Hunger, Cold, and Terror"" killed one-a... more »nd-one-half million people. Salisbury starts with Stalin's harried attempts to stave off war and his ""traumatic depression"" which followed the German onslaught. It early seemed that the pattern of blitzkrieg would be ""spectacularly repeated"" at Leningrad, but the efforts of the untrained People's Volunteers to hold the Luga Line were successful for more than a month, and even a starving, freezing population resisted. The siege ended finally, followed three years later by the little known ""Leningrad affair,"" a purge of officials who governed the city during the long crisis. Salisbury first visited Leningrad a few months after the blockade, and, apparently, he has been amassing relevant information ever since. His acquaintance with the city's literati pays off here, for their memories, poems, and notes contribute greatly. Salisbury's panoramic narrative, interspersed with specific episodes, makes a hard-hitting book. But his quotation of Zinaida Shishova's poem tells the human part of the story better; ""You and I/ And the wind blowing from the darkness. . ./ There is a fourth lying on the balcony./ Waiting a week for the funeral."" Reportage along with an admiring evocation of the mood of the time.« less