The Siege of Leningrad: History in an Hour

by Rupert Colley

Soviet attention now turned to the slim corridor that linked Leningrad to the rest of the country, and specifically to Lake Ladoga. Supplies, such as they were, arrived by train at the town of Tikhvin, then delivered by the last remaining rail link to the western shore of the lake, from where they could be shipped into the city. It was vital to hold onto Tikhvin but, on 8 November 1941, the Germans captured the town. The city’s last trickle of supply had been cut. The city had no choice but to try and build a road circumventing Tikhvin to railway stations further east. Using coerced or forced labour, a road was constructed from massive logs through snow-laden forests and over frozen swamps. It cost several thousand lives, all hastily buried beneath the logs, but the road, over 200 miles long was somehow completed on 6 December. The Red Army recaptured Tikhvin on 8 December. Within two days the road was redundant. The loss of Tikhvin was Germany’s first reversal in the Soviet Union. Strategically, it was only a minor setback – but it was the first.