[pjc50]

The Siege of Leningrad killed 1.5 million people, roughly half the population of the city, over a period of roughly two years.

[Qem]

The survivors cohort left to rebuild probably was not composed mostly of retirement-age people.

[lostlogin]

It was also a vicious dictatorship, and the live tended to stay alive longer if they did what they were told.

A feature of St Petersburg is the weather. It helped keep the place sanitary when corpses just froze.