Among hundreds of books about the blockade of Leningrad, this is a very "unexpected" book, unlike any previous edition. In this work, for the first time, an attempt was made to study the activities of the national economy of Leningrad in all its diversity: this is the banking system, and the work of large factories and small artels; this is a very important work of utilities, mail, telephone exchanges and inconspicuous workers of research institutes. A.V. Zotova conducted numerous studies in the archives of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Freiburg and introduced hundreds of previously unknown documents into scientific circulation.