Footsteps of WWII · Russia & Belarus
Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, St Petersburg
Cemetery · Sep 1941 – Jan 1944 (memorial opened 9 May 1960)
The story
During the siege of Leningrad, from September 1941 to 27 January 1944, the city's dead were brought here by lorry and sledge and buried in trenches. The cemetery holds about 420,000 civilians, most of whom died of starvation and cold, and about 50,000 soldiers of the Leningrad Front, in 186 mass graves. Each grave is marked only with the year of burial. The memorial, designed by Alexander Vasilyev and Yevgeny Levinson, opened on 9 May 1960. Its centrepiece is the bronze figure of the Motherland by Vera Isayeva and Robert Taurit. On the granite wall behind her is a poem by Olga Berggolts, the poet whose radio broadcasts kept the besieged city company.
What to look for
Begin at the eternal flame between two small pavilions with the exhibition, then walk down the 480 m central avenue between the low grassy mounds of the mass graves, each with a granite slab giving only a year and a hammer and sickle or a star. The Motherland statue and Berggolts's wall close the view.
Plan your visit
FCDO advises against all travel to Russia. Grounds open daily 9:00–18:00 in autumn and winter, to 21:00 in spring and summer; exhibition pavilion 9:00–18:00 daily. Admission and guided tours free. Check the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
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Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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