The botanists of besieged Leningrad

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Between 1941 and 1944, the city of Leningrad was subjected to a brutal siege by Nazi Germany. Cut off from the outside world and with food and other essentials dwindling, it's estimated that upwards Of one million people died. Yet throughout this ordeal, a group of indomitable scientists overcame hunger and injury and risked their lives to protect the world's first seed bank.

Danny Byrd speaks to the writer Simon Parkin about the Plant Institute's pioneering work and the astonishing fortitude of the men and women who fought to preserve a unique botanical collection amid unimaginable conditions. How did you first come across this remarkable piece of history? So I was reading a newspaper article several years ago about a land dispute in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. Really scintillating stuff, but the piece was all about how developers wanted to put up some apartments on this land about 20 miles outside of St.

Petersburg and There was a big outcry in the scientific community because this land happened to be owned by the Plant Institute, the World's First Seed Bank. And in the 1930s and 40s, the botanists who worked there had planted lots of rare seeds and plants in this particular area. And so you know, fast forward to today and there's lots of very rare trees here, you know, exactly on the place where they wanted to put up these buildings.

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