Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery

At this sobering place one can truly understand the scale of tragedy that this city (then called Leningrad) lived through during the Second World War (the 900-day Siege of Leningrad). For over 2 and a half years the Nazis kept Leningrad under siege, but its heroic defenders, both soldiers and civilians, did not surrender. In St. Petersburg we take pride in the fact that during almost 300 years of the city's history enemy forces have never taken the city.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the city (mostly of cold and starvation) during the siege. About half a million of them, including 420 thousand civilians, are buried in the cemetery's 186 mass graves. The slightly raised mounds are marked by year and a long alley leads the visitor to a monument with a statue of the Motherland, portrayed as a grieving woman. Many of St Petersburg families come to the cemetery once or twice a year to bring flowers and pay tribute to the city's defenders, perhaps to members of their own family, who died during the Siege, which the Russians call Blokada.

Near the entrance there is an eternal flame, where everyone stops insilent mourning and two pavilions, with an exhibit of photographs that need no captions. During summer time Russians drop coins into the little ponds and the money goes for maintenance.

Location: Prospekt Nepokorionnykh.

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