January 1944: Soviet victory at Leningrad

The Siege of Leningrad, initiated in September 1941, was lifted on 27 January 1944. The initial stage of the siege was lifted in January 1943 during Operation Iskra, which opened up a land corridor to Leningrad and allowed for easier transmission of food. The bombardment of the city was not ended, however, until a general offensive in the surrounding region in January 1944 pushed the Germans back from Leningrad’s southern reaches.

By 1944, the tide had turned on the Eastern Front and the Soviets carried out offensives from Leningrad to the Caucasus. The major difference was increasingly a disparity in materiel: the Axis had limited supplies, long supply lines exposed to disruption by partisans, and faced shortages of essentials needed for winter warfare; the Soviets had both rebuild their industrial capacity east of the Urals and were receiving enormous amounts of American aid through the Lend-Lease program. The Soviets were able to mount offensives across the entirety of the Eastern Front and, rather than take unacceptable casualties in areas with limited strategic value, the Axis retreated.

The Soviet victory in Leningrad marks the second major Axis defeat on the Eastern Front after the Battle of Stalingrad. Both battles were significant for the number of lives lost in intense urban combat. The Axis defeat at Leningrad marks an intensification of the Axis retreat along the Eastern Front, as the Soviets will make significant gains from this point onward. The recapture of Leningrad was also a great symbolic victory for the USSR, which had recaptured the city where the Russian Revolution began.