World War II was fought on a scale unlike anything before or since inhuman history, and the unfathomable casualty counts are attributable inlarge measure to the carnage inflicted between Nazi Germany and theSoviet Union during Hitler’s invasion of Russia and Stalin’s desperatedefense. The invasion came in 1941 following a nonaggression pact signedbetween the two in 1939, which allowed Hitler to focus his attention onthe west without having to worry about an attack from the easternfront. While Germany was focusing on the west, the Soviet Union sentlarge contingents of troops to the border region between the twocountries, and Stalin’s plan to take territory in Poland and the BalticStates angered Hitler. By 1940, Hitler viewed Stalin as a major threatand had made the decision to invade Russia: “In the course of thiscontest, Russia must be disposed of...Spring 1941. The quicker we smashRussia the better.” (Hoyt, p. 17)Once the Siege of Leningrad began in the fall of 1941, the Sovietsknew they were in a desperate struggle to the death. In fact, theRussians wouldn’t have even been given a chance to surrender if they hadwanted to, because the orders to the German forces instructed them tocompletely raze the city: "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there canbe no interest in the continued existence of this large urbancenter…Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrendernegotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating andfeeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In thiswar for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even apart of this very large urban population."Even though the Nazis never managed to entirely cut off that supplyroute, during the nearly 900 day siege, which lasted from September 1941- January 1944, at least 750,000 civilians starved to death, one out ofevery three or four members of the pre-siege population. The siege wasso devastating…