The 70th anniversary of The Siege of Leningrad that happened in 2011 was marked with a series of commemoration events in Russia as well as various books and films devoted to the most horrific and deadliest siege in human history.  Today on the Russian BookWorld we shall try to explore why coming to terms with the events that happened over 70 years ago in the course of World War still matters hugely today.  Anna Reid, the author of a recent  book called ‘Leningrad, Tragedy of a City Under Siege, 1941-44’ talks about the new facts  she was able to uncover while working on her book while Professor Oleg Budnitsky, an esteemed historian of World War II  gives his assessment  of Anna Reid’s  account of The Siege of Leningrad  and  reveals  how the wider  use of personal  diaries in the recent years has had a  profound  impact on  the historical research in this area.