This work by Prit Buttar enhances his reputation as a detailed chronicler of the military campaigns in Eastern Europe in the Second World War. His understanding of the nature of the campaigns waged by both sides during the second phase of the siege of Leningrad is unmatched. He enables us to empathise with experience of the people of that city as it continued to withstand a deliberate campaign by Hitler’s forces basically to starve the city into submission.
For me the latter stages of Hero City have particular value. Here Buttar analyses the strategic failures of both sides, thereby explaining why the siege was so protracted. We learn that supply line weaknesses, especially on the German side where they had been focussing their priorities more towards Stalingrad and the Ukraine. Equally the leadership issues on both sides are revealed. The Soviets were led by Stalin who, by any yardstick, was paranoid. His track record in the 1930s had revealed how suspicious he was of anyone of talent, with the result that most of the upper reaches of the military and political hierarchy had been dismissed, or worse, and this led to an inadequate command structure, where in experienced officers obeyed instructions from on high rather than show independence of judgement. The dependence on the whim of a leader was the replicated on the German side where again the officer class waited on decisions from Hitler rather than act decisively. This is well-reflected by the siege itself because the instinctive reaction of the officer class, both in Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, would have been to attack and pulverise Leningrad but it was Hitler’s decision that the city should be starved into submission.
The relationship between Leningrad and the rest of Russia is also reflected in Buttar’s research. Whilst the Germans regarded Leningrad as a prize of political and cultural significance, the innate tension between Leningrad and the Soviet leadership also is a factor in how Leningrad was treated and respected.
Towards the end, Buttar reveals his view of the internal interpretation of what happened at Leningrad and how its people were treated and respected was in doubt until the democratic elections in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin came to the fore. Debates about commemorative statues and other memorials were always interwoven with various degrees of prejudice towards the people of that city. Obviously, it changed after the death of Stalin in 1953 but the debate over whether Leningrad should be defined as a ‘hero city’ completely on its own or be part of a wider pattern of recognition still continues.
If we recognise that there is still much to interpret politically over what happened in Britain in September and October 2022 in a society with very little political censorship or control, what Leningrad and its people experienced between 1941 and 1945, and indeed in the years that have followed, is a mystery which Prit Buttar has very ably helped us to understand.
by Prit Buttar is out now and published by Osprey Publishing. Trevor James is the former editor of The Historian.
