High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Operation Iskra (Russian: Операция Искра, Operatsia Iskra; English: Operation Spark) was a Soviet military operation during World War II, designed to break the German Wehrmacht`s Siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortly after the failure of the Sinyavino Offensive. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 had weakened the German front. By January 1943, Soviet forces were planning or conducting offensive operations across the entire German-Soviet front, especially in southern Russia, Iskra being the northern part of the wider Soviet 1942–1943 winter counter offensive.