Just over two years ago, I was sitting in Pyshechnaya, a donut shop in Saint Petersburg with my wife-to-be, Alison. I was explaining my idea for a novel set in the city, inspired by its status as ‘hero-city.’ The Siege of Leningrad was arguably history’s most horrific military operation. For 872 days, the city was cut off from the world, with more than a million of its citizens losing their lives, primarily through starvation, disease and hypothermia, but also the heavy bombing that was inflicted in the early stages. Amongst the dead was a young child named Viktor Putin. Viktor died of diphtheria in the early stages of the siege,…