‘Richly-layered and packed with insight, this riveting account of terrible events tells us as much about the present as it does the past’ Patrick Bishop, author of Paris ’44<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
From Peter the Great to Putin, a biography of the city Hitler tried – and failed – to wipe off the map<\/b><\/p>\n
The siege of Saint Petersburg – then known as Leningrad – stands as a testament to human endurance. Intended by the Nazis as civilian extermination, the numbers who perished in this 900-day ordeal almost outweighed the entire total of British and American troop deaths in the Second World War.<\/p>\n
The city’s 2.5 million residents began to starve as rations shrank and dwindled. As temperatures plunged to minus 43\u00c2\u00b0C, electricity faltered, and fuel ran out. Yet, amid this suffering, the resilience of culture and hope shone through, with orchestras and theatres defiantly continuing their performances, a flicker of humanity against the backdrop of despair.<\/p>\n
In Saint Petersburg<\/i>, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay book chronicles the horrors of the siege through immersive prose and gripping first-hand accounts. He also traces the pivotal importance of Saint Petersburg across the centuries, from Peter the Great’s visionary founding of the city to the way it has shaped its most infamous son, Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
From its darkest moments to its enduring spirit, Saint Petersburg<\/i> explore the layers of history that have shaped this extraordinary place.<\/p>\n
‘McKay is a gifted writer; his prose has the cadence, tone and power of a Shostakovich symphony. Horror is majestically conveyed’ Gerard DeGroot, The Times<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Built by slave labour in the early years of the 18th century Saint Petersburg was Peter the Great’s so-called ‘window on to Europe’, a city that would outdo all of Europe in its splendour. But a window works both ways, and as bestselling historian Sinclair McKay writes, St Petersburg has always been a city that has drawn Westerners who wanted to see into Russia. It is also a city where much has happened. It was St Petersburg until 1917, Petrograd after the revolution, Leningrad after Lenin’s death in 1924, and St Petersburg once again from 1991. This biography of a city stretches from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin, who was born and made in St Petersburg. Based on first-hand and many unpublished accounts from figures from all walks of life, this masterpiece reveals the story of the city told from the perspective of the people who lived there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[75],"product_tag":[1562,26922,2626,1247,349],"class_list":["post-112464","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-history","product_tag-european-history","product_tag-invasion-occupation","product_tag-oral-history","product_tag-second-world-war","product_tag-social-cultural-history","pa_book_author-mckay-sinclair","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-940-5421721-edition23","pa_imprint-penguin-books","pa_language-english","pa_pages-9229","pa_publisher-penguin-books","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n