To Besiege a City

Leningrad 1941–42

By: Prit Buttar

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Bloomsbury presents To Besiege a City by Prit Buttar, read by Leighton Pugh.

[An] excellent account.' – Richard Overy, The Telegraph

Shortlisted for the Military History Matters Book of the Year Award 2024

A ground-breaking history of one of the greatest ever sieges. Masterfully brought to life by a leading expert using original Russian and German source material.

This new history of the first two years of this crucial battle for the heart and soul of Russia is the first in over a decade and also the first to look comprehensively at the wider military strategies of both sides.

At a huge cost, the Red Army and the civilian population of Leningrad ultimately endured a bitter 900-day siege, struggling against constant bombing, shelling, and starvation. Throughout the siege, Soviet forces tried to break the German lines and restore contact with the garrison. To Besiege a City charts the first of these offensives which began in January 1942 and was followed by repeated assaults. Acclaimed Eastern Front historian Prit Buttar details how although the Red Army suffered huge casualties in the swampy and forested terrain, the German infantry divisions were also steadily eroded. Indeed, by keeping control of parts of the shores of Lake Ladoga, the Soviet Union was able to sustain Leningrad through the winters of the siege via the ‘road of life’, constructed across the frozen lake. This epic history details the dramatic race to create the road across the ice and first-hand accounts from both Soviet and German soldiers, many never previously translated, bring the horrific series of battles and assaults to life.

Ultimately the determination of the defenders to hold out during this first phase of the siege and the desperate attempts to break it became a hugely significant part of Russian wartime history. The echoes of the battle persist to this day helping to define both a country and its politics. There is no better time to fully understand this history and To Besiege a City is the most comprehensive account to date.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Prit Buttar (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Excellent Historical and Analysis!

Engrossing, well researched, and well told insight into the eastern front and the implications of the siege of St Petersburg.

Outstanding

Excellent research and narration. Detailed enough to acquire details of individual units without losing the reader with an overabundance of unit numbers, regiments, brigades, etc. 20 hours flew by. When the time came, I was surprised it was finished. I'm looking forward to a follow-up taking us beyond 1942.

Very in depth

The breadth of primary sources alone makes this worth a read, to say nothing of the analysis of the campaign.

Unbiased and Accurate

Worth the read and dispells many myths. Once again Pritt Buttar shines light on on of the most shrouded wars of the modern era.

Another outstanding work by Buttar

Prit Buttar's command of primary source material again undergirds a well constructed narrative. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in the Eastern front of world war II

the true grit

this book shows the raw, true grit of war and the sadness and difficulty of fighting under two madmen, Hitler snd Stalin, who defined ruthlessness,

Great book. Poor choice of title.

Amazing book that covers everything from Stalins purges to operation Barbarossa. Very detailed and well researched. It has almost nothing to do with the siege of Leningrad.

An outstanding addition to his WWII Eastern Front Collection

With a detailed run-up of the importance of St. Petersburg to Russian history and the Soviet revolution, the story expands far beyond the siege of Leningrad proper. Starting with the German advance to the city, it includes the lunge to Volkhov, and the vicious battles at Lyuban in 1942. It’s a great tale of desperate defense, heartbreaking loss, and humanity attempting to survive a war of annihilation. A worthy addition to an already prodigious story.

Waste of time and 1 months credit !!!

Thought this would be a great story from WWII about Lenningrad and it's people during that horrific time in history that they endured !!! instead it is a very lengthy and technical account of the prehistory of Stalin...the purges... the incidents of the Czars and 2 sides of the revolution. Very boring as if in a university class which never ends... the use of full 3 names or more for both the Russian and German Leaders in full accents bybthe narrator which mean really diddle to the story/class, single names could have been used to better effect !!! The narrators Eurpoean accent was also ineffective as a speaker and some of his English pronunciations of words were incomprehensible until you kind if figured them out after hearing them many times... ie... when describing an elite set of troops you think he's saying shook troops and it should have been Shock troops !!! Not his fault as that's how he spoke !!!
Also... it wasn't just about Lenningrad but also Moscow and other parts of the Country... not what the title implies and overall it also covered many more years other than 1941 to 1942 !!!
Should have been an awesome audible story but I could not wait for it all to end and even that was a let down storywise !!!
If you want the technical/political/prehistory and just class room boredom then try the book otherwise SKIP IT !°

Not the worst of Buttar’s books, but it’s the same old lying recitation of the communist narrative.

If you know anything about the author, you know there are no good or great Buttar books. Just varying degrees of bad to worse. This books ranks somewhere in the middle. Meat Grinder is arguably Buttar’s best book, because of its detailed analysis of the battle and the units deployed therein. However, it is still a terrible book because of the almost nonstop drumbeat of communist propaganda. It’s Hitlerite this, fascist that and Nazi this and that.

The other thing that strikes me odd about his WWII books is that there are always Germans pictured on the front of his books, but the books are always about the lying, propagandist, communist perspective. Listening to such nauseating Bolshevik garbage gets old really fast. If the guy would just stick to the cold hard facts of the battles STARTING with the huge German victories that characterized the first half of WWII, I have no doubt he could write some meaningful history. But just like almost every other writer of books on WWII, the story starts only after the allies have turned the war in their favor which is a form of propaganda all its own.