Surviving the Blockade of Leningrad - Hardcoverby Svetlana Magayeva (Author), Albert Pleysier (Author) In 1941 German and Finnish military forces established a blockade around Leningrad. During the 900 days of the siege, Leningrad was beset with aerial bombings, fuel shortages, and extreme starvation. At the end of the siege more than a million Leningraders had died. Svetlana Magayeva, just ten years old in 1941, witnessed the air raids and artillery shelling and endured the cold and hunger,