Within the city, the authorities did what they could. As one fell ill, another succeeded him. Continuous attacks by ill-trained Russian troops finally broke through the German lines and the siege was relieved. However, by this time almost a year had passed since the city was cut off from the rest of Russia. In Moscow, Stalin feared that the citizens had developed a sense of independent thought and had become, as he put it, "ideologically loose." A quiet purge followed in which the leaders of Leningrade, including especially the heroes, were spirited away into exile or execution. This film devotes about equal time to the suffering of Leningrad and the machinations of Stalin. The main elements are newsreel footage and the testimony of eyewitnesses and experts.

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