The siege of Leningrad lasted from September 1941 to 1944. By
the end of the siege, some 632,000 people are thought to have died
with nearly 4,000 people from Leningrad starving to death on
Christmas Day, 1941. The first German artillery shell fell on
Leningrad on September 1st, 1941. The city, one of the primary
targets of 'Operation Barbarossa', was expected "to fall like a
leaf"