HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 217

Leningrad inhabitants, including women, using shovels and picks construct antitank ditches during the siege of
Leningrad, 1942. (Library of Congress)

forces, fighting along a broad front, drove the
Germans more than 50 miles from the devas-
tated city. For the first time in 900 days, the sur-
vivors of Leningrad could walk the rubble-filled
streets without the fear of a German air raid.
STALIN declared Leningrad a Hero City; one of
thirteen Soviet cities to receive such a designa-
tion in recognition of their suffering and hero-
ism during World War II. Dmitrii SHOSTAKOVICH ,
one of the Soviet Union's greatest composers
and an air raid warden, wrote his Seventh Sym-
phony during the siege. He was evacuated to
perform it in Moscow. The US premiere of what
became the Leningrad Symphony raised money

for relief. The saga of Leningrad's ordeal and
heroism was well publicized in the United States
and did much to strengthen support for the
wartime alliance.

Leningrad affair (1949-1950)
A major purge that resulted in the execution of
about 200 members of Leningrad Communist
Party members and academics in the late 1940s,
whose details remained unknown until revela-
tions in the glasnost era of Mikhail GORBACHEV .
The events surrounding the purge started in
February 1949 with the dismissal of P. S. Popkov,