Saint Petersburg, AKA Petrograd, AKA Leningrad, began life as a twinkle in Russian Czar , Peter the Great’s, eye. What better way to announce to the world that one is powerful, glamorous and despotic than by creating a unique city of beauty and solidity on marsh land. Peter the Great’s vision for a city that would rival the established European glamour cities was a dream that often resembled nightmares for its citizens. Sinclair McKay’s Saint Petersburgh: Sacrifice and Redemption in the City That Defied Hitler is a robust and compassionate examination of the life of its citizens during the siege of Leningrad in World War II.
Sinclair is a literary critic for The Spectator and the Mail on Sunday and author of Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness, The Secret Life of Bletchley Park. He is a charming and erudite guide through the many layers of politics, art, science, military history and Russian history that make up life in Saint Petersburgh.
We’re firmly in the realms of modern history and the second world war was not that long ago. As McKay points out, Vladimir Putin was born in St Petersburg in 1952 and his parents lost their first child in the Siege. Although relatively modern, World War II was not a 24/7 media spectacle. It was documented by hardy photographers and journalists and propaganda departments were working overtime, so McKay’s use of the personal diaries and writings of individuals who lived through the period makes for a very sobering and intriguing peek into the lives of ordinary Soviets.
Leningrad, as it was called from 1924-1991, was a city finding its balance after many years of suffering under Stalin’s dictates. The city of famous sons and daughters: Anna Akhmatova, Shostakovich, Pushkin, Prokofiev, Dostoevsky and so on, was always eager to promote and publicise their works when it benefited the regime. Otherwise, these artists were constantly surveilled, interrogated and often imprisoned. Stalin’s man in Leningrad, Zhdanov was a firm believer in the goals of Soviet Socialism and a ruthless practitioner of its darker practices.
McKay provides a wonderful description of the birth of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony. Considered subversive, and far too modern, Shostakovich was on Zhdanov’s radar and the great composer had to endure surveillance and interrogation but he refused to leave Leningrad until he was forced to do so before the siege turned desperately dire. He began the 7th Symphony in Leningrad and it was performed, amazingly, in March 1942 during the siege and broadcast around the surrounding areas. Quite amazingly, the score was smuggled out of the country and made its way to America and Britain.
The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is one of the giant sof world literature and part of the myth of Saint Petersburg as a magical , not quite real city in the northern most region of the world. But in the 1930s and 1940s, Leningrad was a busy and important centre of industrial production. Many factories were busy producing ammunition and parts for planes and tanks, materiel for the war. The Germans planned to severely hamper and ultimately halt production by destroying Leningrad.
I am not an expert on military strategy and neither is McKay so i appreciated his layman’s introduction to the tactics of the Red Army and the German Army. The Germans were well versed in causing psychological as well as physical torture. The bombing of Leningrad was done not only to kill the populace and destroy the beautiful city, but the bombing raids were timed to cause mental distress to the population. McKay touches on the pathology of a military that was determined to eradicate the population by bombing, starvation, disease, any means at its disposal to ensure the death of all Leningraders. McKay provides enough information about the Germans without dwelling on them as his focus is on Leningrad and its people.
Leningrad has always been a profoundly literate society with a deep love of literature and books in general. It’s citizens have always been well served by the theatre, ballet, oopera and, of course, poets and writers. The strength of McKay’s book is his clever and judicious use of letters, diaries and many unpublished testimonies from children, factory workers, poets and soldiers. the spectrum of life in Leningrad is represented in these accounts and they speak as no formal government authored paper could ever hope to.
One extraordinary account of the Siege is from fifteen-year-old Yura Riabinkin who lived with his mother and younger sister in an apartment building. He was a young man who believed in the Soviet ideals and he was filled with plans for his future.
As the Germans began their march towards Leningrad, Yura was on his way to the Pioneer Palace to play chess with his friends. McKay intersperses military manoeuvres and wider political machinations with diary entries from citizens like Yura. His fate is unforgettable.
Cipher Brief readers will be familiar with the statistics from the Siege of Leningrad; the number of days Leningrad was besieged, the number of dead civilians and soldiers, but McKay personalises this tragic battle and humanises the participants. An excellent index and bibliography is provided to guide the curious reader. Saint Petersburgh is undoubtedly unique and beautiful but any city is only as interesting as its inhabitants. McKay has succeeded in bring the lives of ordinary Soviet citizens enduring unimaginable hardship and depravity to life with extraordinary vision.
4 trenchcoats
Barking Books 