Bodies are scattered in the Ligovka area of Nevsky Boulevard in Leningrad after being shelled by Nazi German troops on October 25, 1941. A large number of civilians were killed in Leningrad, victims of German shelling.
The actual death toll from the Nazi attacks reached 800,000, equivalent to one-third of the population of Leningrad. The Nazi bombardment of Leningrad began on September 4, 1941, and continued until January 22, 1944. Starting on September 4, 1941, Leningrad was subjected to the first shelling from the flank of the German-occupied city of Tosno. German artillery shells burst into a heap of dead and wounded, mostly women and children, scattered on the cobblestone pavement, moaning and crying. On some of the walls on the north side of Nevsky Boulevard, a sign read, "Citizens! During shelling, this side of the street is most dangerous", warning passersby that this was the area most at risk of German shelling, were placed on the north and northeast sides of the street.
Nazi German forces launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union on September 8, 1941, completely encircling the city of Leningrad three months later. Three months later, the city of Leningrad was completely surrounded. The city, then called Leningrad, was besieged by Nazi German and Finnish forces for about four years. The Finnish army rejected the German plea for an aerial attack on Leningrad. Due to the extremely cold winter and starvation, people were dying in the streets, and citizens soon found the sidewalks littered with bodies lying on the ground. Dead bodies are scattered at the corner of Nevsky Street and Ligovka in Leningrad after being bombarded by Nazi German troops on October 25, 1941. The Nazi Germans destroyed most of the food supply through air raids. It was estimated that a maximum of about 2 million people died and a minimum of 600,000. Of the approximately 3 million inhabitants, about 700,000 survived.
