One of the first major Soviet cities threatened by the German blitzkrieg, Leningrad was as much a symbolic target as it was a strategic one for Adolf Hitler, who fully expected the birthplace of the Russian Revolution to be reduced to rubble quickly and with ease. The Red Army's ferocious defense of the city, however, made that impossible.

Glantz digs deep to recount the full story of how these two military giants bludgeoned each other for nearly three years with a relentless barrage of offensives and counter-offensives designed to crush one another, in horrendous weather and a harsh terrain and with staggering loss of life on both sides. His richly detailed history shows how battles and campaigns were conceived, engaged, and resolved—-including a half dozen or more "forgotten battles" that took place during the blockade. He explains how the struggle for Leningrad impacted other theaters of operation along the Eastern Front, eventually forcing the Germans into their long and costly retreat back toward Berlin.

Glantz also provides insights into conditions within the city, adding new details to the horrors of the siege; sheds new light on partisan warfare in the countryside surrounding Leningrad; and corrects many errors found in earlier works.

Based on an unparalleled access to Russian archival sources and going far beyond the military aspects of such renowned works as Harrison Salisbury's 900 Days, Glantz's book is a testament to the nearly two million Russians who lost their lives during the Leningrad conflict and confirms his status as the preeminent authority on the Russian military experience in World War II.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Glantz has several strengths as a historian, and a few weaknesses. His principal strength, and this can't be overstated, is his access to Soviet archives that no one else has gotten into since the war ended. One of his previous books, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, recounts a large battle on the Eastern front in late 1942 that doesn't appear in many histories of World War II, because the Soviets successfully suppressed knowledge of it. There aren't any whoppers of that magnitude here, but there is a wealth of detail concerning operations, intentions, and forces that hasn't appeared elsewhere.

On the other hand, Glantz isn't Hemingway, or even Harrison Salisbury. His prose is rather wooden, and workmanlike, fine for retelling a story of a battle, but not much as literature. It's OK for the first 300 pages, but this book stretches to 470 pages of text, and it gets a little wearing. In other words, if you aren't *very* interested in the subject, I would recommend going elsewhere. On the flip side, if you *are* interested, there's more information here than you'll find anywhere else, and it's clearly presented and intelligently analyzed.

As an aside, you'll notice that all of the references above are to Glantz as a historian of the Soviet side of things. There are (of course) references to the Germans here, and to their dilemmas and opportunities, but the emphasis is on the Soviets. In most instances, the book only tells you what the Germans are doing to provide context for the actions of the Soviet army. He does provide a brief history of the city prior to the war, and some account of the privations of the citizens of the city during the war, but this has been done elsewhere, and better. I suppose if he didn't provide anything like this, he'd be criticized for its absence, but frankly it seemed a bit out of place.

Given that, this is one of the best books on the Eastern Front to appear in a good long while, and if you're as interested in this field as I am, it's a worthwhile addition to your library.