More than 1.5 million of Leningrad's inhabitants perished during the German siege of the city from September 1941 to January 1944. At the height of the siege some 10,000 people died of starvation every day. People even scraped paper off the walls to suck at the glue.
Writer Vera Ketlivskaya sat in her apartment with the temperature so low that the ink froze in the inkwell＊ while she was working on her book The Blockade. In the next room lay her mother, dead of starvation, placed on the floor three days before, with no immediate hope of getting her buried.
One elderly artist strangled his pet cat and ate it. Later he tried to hang himself but the rope snapped. He fell to the floor, broke his leg and froze to death.
一九四一年九月至一九四四年一月，德軍圍攻列寧格勒，城內居民死者超過一百五十萬。攻城戰最激烈的時候，每天約一萬人死於飢餓。有人甚至刮下牆紙，吃紙背的膠。
作家薇拉．克利夫斯卡亞坐在套房裏，撰寫《封鎖》一書。當時天氣嚴寒，墨水池＊裏，墨水凝結成冰。她母親三天之前餓死了，屍體放在隔壁房間地板上，暫時無望下葬。
一個年老藝術家，把寵愛的貓勒死吃掉。後來，他上吊尋死，但繩索折斷，掉下來，摔斷了腿，躺在地上冷死了。
＊Inkwell是嵌在書桌上凹洞裏的墨水池，和墨水瓶（inkpot）不同。