The Effects of Nuclear War
Chapter II
DETROIT AND LENINGRAD
Leningrad
Leningrad is a major industrial and transportation center built on the low-lying delta where the Neva River enters the Gulf of Finland. The older part of the city is built on the delta itself, with the newer residential sections leapfrogging industrial sections, primarily to the south and southwest (figure 8). The residential and commercial (but not industrial) areas are shown on the map.
The major difference between housing in Leningrad and that in Detroit is that Leningrad suburbs contain very few single-family residences. In the older part of Leningrad, the buildings have masonry load-bearing walls and wooden interior construction and are typically six to eight stories, reflecting the early code that only church spires could be higher than the Tsar’s Winter Palace. The post-World War II housing construction is 10- to 12-story apartments having steel frames and precast concrete walls, with the buildings comfortably spaced on wide thoroughfares in open parklike settings.
Since actual population density data for Leningrad was unavailable, simplifying demographic assumptions are used. The assumed populated areas are shown in figure 9, broken down into 1-km [0.6 mile] squares. The stated area of Leningrad is 500 km2 [193 mi2 ]. Since the shaded squares cover 427 km2 [165 mi2 ], it is assumed that the remaining areas are relatively uninhabited at night. It has also been assumed that in these inhabited areas the population density is uniform at 10,000 per km, because although the building density is lower in the newer apartment areas, the buildings themselves are generally higher. Thus, the population density does not drop off as it does in the U.S. suburbs of predominately single-family houses.
