1939年後,坎托羅維奇成為軍事電工技術學院的教授。在列寧格勒圍城戰期間,坎托羅維奇是海軍高等工程技術學校的教授,從事「生命之路(英语:Road of Life)」安全的研究。他根據冰的厚度和空氣的溫度計算出冰上汽車的最佳距離。1941年12月和1942年1月,康托羅維奇在「生命之路」上行駛在拉多加湖冰面上的汽車之間行走,以確保汽車不會沉沒,然而許多為被圍困的倖存者運送食物的汽車被德國的空襲摧毀。1948年,坎托羅維奇被分配到蘇聯的原子項目。由於他的壯舉和勇氣,坎托羅維奇被授予衛國戰爭勳章及保衛列寧格勒勳章。
^The Soviet Union: empire, nation, and system, By Aron Kat︠s︡enelinboĭgen, page 406, Transaction Publishers, 1990
^Gass, Saul I.; Rosenhead, J. Leonid Vital’evich Kantorovich. Profiles in Operations Research. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science 147. 2011: 157. ISBN 978-1-4419-6280-5. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-6281-2_10.
Kantorovich, L. V. "My journey in science (supposed report to the Moscow Mathematical Society)" [expanding Russian Math. Surveys 42 (1987), no. 2, pp. 233–270]. : 8–45. MR 0898626.
Leifman, Lev J., ed. Functional analysis, optimization, and mathematical economics: A collection of papers dedicated to the memory of Leonid Vitalʹevich Kantorovich. New York: The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1990: xvi+341. ISBN 0-19-505729-5. MR 1082562.
Makarov, V. L. [Valery Leonidovich]; Sobolev, S. L. Academician L. V. Kantorovich (19 January 1912 to 7 April 1986). In: Functional analysis, optimization, and mathematical economics: A collection of papers dedicated to the memory of Leonid Vital'evich Kantorovich. : 1–7. MR 1082564.
Polyak, B. T. History of mathematical programming in the USSR: Analyzing the phenomenon (Chapter 3 The pioneer: L. V. Kantorovich, 1912–1986, pp. 405–407). Mathematical Programming. Series B. 2002, 91 (3): 401–416. MR 1888984. S2CID 13089965. doi:10.1007/s101070100258.
Spufford, Francis. Red plenty. London: Faber. 2010.
(俄語) Kutateladze, S.S., et al., "Leonid V. Kantorovich (1912–1986)" (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆), Sobolev Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Also published in the Siberian Mathematical Journal, Volume 43 (2002), No. 1, pp. 3–8