The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 letter word STALINGRAD
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
T
A
L
I
N
G
R
A
D
More clues leading to the result STALINGRAD
- Old city that's cheerless, in which sailor eats fish
- Old city street and a girl waving
- Swimmer in famous commercial battle
- Soviet city
- Heather in famous commercial battle
- A swimmer in game doing the backstroke? That’s a battle!
- Old city street and a girl on the loose
- Daring last manoeuvres in battle scene
- Daring breakout freeing last pair from PoW camp in WWII conflict
- Site of battle where Nadal's grit comes alive
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "left covered in blight: Government gets radical (10)" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case left covered in blight: government gets radical (10) = stalingrad.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.