[1] After the war, the Soviet government reported about 670,000 registered deaths from 1941 to January 1944, explained as resulting mostly from starvation, stress and exposure.

About half a million people, both military and civilians, from Latvia, Estonia, Pskov and Novgorod, fled from the advancing Nazis and came to Leningrad at the beginning of the war.

Their bodies were never buried or counted under the severe circumstances of constant bombing and other attacks by the Nazi forces.

The total number of human losses during the 29 months of the siege of Leningrad is estimated as 1.5 million, both civilian and military.

After heavy German bombing in August, September, and October 1941, all main food warehouses were destroyed and burned in massive fires.

[6] The fires continued all over the city, due to the Germans bombing Leningrad non-stop for many months using various kinds of incendiary and high-explosive devices during 1941, 1942, and 1943.

In the first days of the siege, people finished all leftovers in "commercial" restaurants, which used up to 12% of all fats and up to 10% of all meat the city consumed.

At least nine of the staff at the seedbank set up by Nikolai I. Vavilov starved to death surrounded by edible seeds so that its more than 200,000 items would be available to future generations.

When the meat became unavailable, it was replaced by that galantine and by stinking[clarification needed] calf skins, which many survivors remembered until the end of their lives.

[8] Reports of cannibalism began to appear in the winter of 1941–42 after all food sources were exhausted, but stayed comparatively low given the high amounts of starvation.

[citation needed] Almost all public transportation in Leningrad was destroyed as a result of massive air and artillery bombardments in August–September 1941.

Some defense industries, such as the LMZ, the Admiralty Shipyard, and the Kirov Plant, were left in the city, and were still producing armor and ammunition for the defenders.

Leningrad suffered less damage than most German occupied USSR cities, such as Stalingrad, which later was burned to ashes.

In September 1945, the Leningrad Philharmonic returned to the city from Siberia, where it was evacuated during the war, to give its first peacetime concert performances.

Petersburg as the cultural capital, suffered incomparable human losses and the destruction of famous landmarks.

The siege of Leningrad was commemorated in the late 1950s by the Green Belt of Glory, a circle of public parks and memorials along the historic front line.

Warnings to citizens of the city as to which side of the road to walk on to avoid the German shelling can still be seen (they were restored after the war).

Russian tour guides at Peterhof, the palaces near St. Petersburg, report that it is still dangerous to go for a stroll in the gardens during a thunderstorm, as German artillery shrapnel embedded in the trees attracts lightning.