I can't BELIEVE you're putting so much blame for the whole thing on Leningrad now! Pretty soon you'll be blaming Leningraders themselves for the blockade, or at least say it's what they had coming to them!!
You should never forget the courage and heroism it took to survive such conditions. You should also remember that the people refused to give up for love of their city and homeland.
Even today, more than a decade after the end of the USSR, on days remembering the blockade, and on Victory Day, the residents of the city are again referred to as Leningraders. Still today are monuments EVERYWHERE to "Hero-City Leningrad". And NO ONE in their right minds would ever take these monuments down. The 900-day blockade was perhaps THE most difficult period in the city's 300 year history.
There is no other way to think about it. Those who survived the blockade are heroes for being able to do the impossible. Hitler's army was definately superior, and yet even then Leningraders refused to surrender their city. If it had come down to it, they probably would have burnt the city themselves to keep Hitler from having it.
It was dedication, patriotism, pride, courage, heroism, loyalty.
Stalin COULD have easily let Hitler take over Leningrad, or give it back to the Finns, or do whatever he wanted to. After the war, he could have prevented the government from spending resources stretched to the limits already to rebuild the historical and architectural monuments destroyed during the war, and taken away all of Leningrad's unique character. Instead, Stalin ordered that the city be rebuilt and reborn.
Some of the comments I've seen posted here would get you immediate hatred if you were to repeat them in St. Petersburg. Even today, it's difficult to even think about what happened, but it's necessary. People shouldn't forget history, and they certainly should never forget the sacrifices mady by Leningraders during the blockade.
Those who survived deserve praise and utmost respect, not condemnation. I'm very disappointed with all of you.
