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Historical BackgroundThe Siege of Leningrad lasted from 1941-1944 after advancing German troops had virtually surrounded the city. According to official data, some 2.8 million people, including 400,000 children, were trapped in the city at the outset of the Siege. The initial winter was the most difficult, with intensive aerial attacks and prolonged artillery bombardments causing electric failures and residential heating blackouts. Under these conditions, the interior walls became covered with white frost. In January 1942, during the first winter, temperatures plummeted to minus forty Celsius, freezing the municipal water pipes and disrupting the potable water supply. To overcome the water shortfall, people either melted snow or drew water from holes hacked in the ice of the frozen Neva River and the nearby canals. As of Nov. 20, 1941, the official daily rations had fallen to 250 grams of bread for essential workers vs 125 grams for non-essential workers and dependents (including children), i.e. little more than a slice of bread. The dead accumulated in the streets and homes, with many of the starving even lacking the energy to speak. Information about what was happening was extremely limited; it remains an issue of historical conjecture why the municipality had provided only minimal food supplies. Dmitri Likhachov wrote, "Germany prepared for the Siege of Leningrad, expecting the urban authorities to surrender" (Likhachov, 1999, p.161).Design of the studyThe present study collected participants' memories of their wartime experiences, with the long-term objective of gaining insight into how they had felt during the Leningrad Siege and whether the traumatic incidents had affected their personalities. A total of 120 elderly people were interviewed for the research paper in 2004, with these subdivided into two major groups: those who had lived in Leningrad during the Siege (the experimental group) and those who had been evacuated and experienced the war elsewhere (the control group). Both groups -- 37 men and 83 women -- were identical in terms of age and gender distribution. The data obtained were subjected to a quantitative analysis (of correlation, factor and cluster) and a qualitative analysis (combination of content analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis), with particular attention paid to the differences between individual experiences of the two groups. As in all studies of this kind, the participants were questioned about traumatic events they had experienced when they were relatively young. Many participants had vivid memories of the events, but experienced extreme difficulty in recalling them. Almost 50% of the people who had at first agreed to take part in the study eventually bowed out as a result of the extreme emotions attached to their memories. In other words, even sixty years after the event, many blockade survivors could not discuss it openly. Their response was similar to that of prisoners from German concentration camps, for whom silence and repression of trauma often remained the only bearable options. The protocol's questions concerned factual details (the birthdate, family members, and living conditions) during the blockade while the interviewees remained in Leningrad; and wartime memories (earliest childhood recollections and memories of the period in the immediate aftermath of the war).Semi-structured Interview Questions(Note: questions for the control group have been reformulated as questions about the war in general):1. Please describe in a few words your mother or the person who cared for you in that role.2. Please describe in a few words your father or the person who cared for you in that role.3. Why did Mama praise and scold you during your childhood?4. Why did Papa praise and scold you for during your childhood?5. What was your favorite book?6. Which was your favorite literary character?7. What was the most difficult thing for you during the Siege? …

The siege of Leningrad (1941–1944): memories of the survivors who have lived through the trauma