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The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad
- A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 10 hrs
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Summary
From the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize comes a fascinating and moving untold story of the Leningrad scientists who risked everything for the future of humanity
In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad - now St Petersburg - and began the longest blockade in recorded history. By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. Most died of starvation.
At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed - the world's first seed bank. After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?
Drawing on previously unseen sources, The Forbidden Garden tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during the darkest days of the siege, risking their lives in the name of science.
"A beautifully-written account of one of the most extraordinary and little-known episodes of the Second World War--a scientific feat and act of collective self-sacrifice the consequences of which continue to be felt today."
Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger
In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad - now St Petersburg - and began the longest blockade in recorded history. By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. Most died of starvation.
At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed - the world's first seed bank. After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?
Drawing on previously unseen sources, The Forbidden Garden tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during the darkest days of the siege, risking their lives in the name of science.
"A beautifully-written account of one of the most extraordinary and little-known episodes of the Second World War--a scientific feat and act of collective self-sacrifice the consequences of which continue to be felt today."
Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger
©2024 Simon Parkin (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Critic reviews
A gripping, harrowing history of science amid war and starvation, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad recovers in astonishing detail the efforts of Soviet botanists to maintain their country's most precious seed collection through the siege of Leningrad. It is an unforgettable tale of devotion to science, seeds, and the future (Helen Anne Curry, author of Endangered Maize)
A hugely moving piece of work, full of unforgettable images and moments, and centred on a gripping, compelling drama. The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad is a fascinating, vivid, and gripping book that will leave you feeling as though you have lived through the siege of Leningrad (Henry Hemming, author of Four Shots in the Night)
An astonishing achievement. Simon Parkin has turned a few lines in the history books about Soviet botanists and their unique seed collection during the Nazi siege of Leningrad into a riveting narrative about the loyalties of scientists in wartime. Should the botanists protect the seeds for science and humanity as their famous disappeared leader, Nikolai Vavilov, would have wanted, or eat them to stay alive? Their suffering and sacrifice brings into focus the key role scientists play today in challenging the new crop of anti-science politicians. (Peter Pringle, author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov)
What an impressive achievement this book is. Moving, mordant, crushingly sad, and often horrifying, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad is a useful reminder of how much human drama there remains to excavate from the ruins of the Second World War. Indeed, Simon Parkin has proved himself to be a human dowsing rod for such stories-and, in the meantime, become one of my favourite writers of literary-historical narrative alive. (Tom Bissell, author of APOSTLE)