MONUMENT TO THE HEROIC DEFENDERS OF LENINGRAD

Having regained his name in September 1991, St. Petersburg did not forget that she first called Leningrad, a name loaded with the weight of a often tragic story. Dedicated to the heroic resistance of its inhabitants during the long blockade imposed by the Nazi armies, this monument erected on the square of Victory, in the south of the city, forcefully recalls this. Built from 1957 by the famous architects Anikouchine, Speranski and Kamenski, who were all veterans of the war, the monument was officially inaugurated only on May 9, 1975, on the occasion of Victory's 30 ^th anniversary. A set of sculptures on Victory Square illustrates the courage of the Russian population during the blockade, and especially solidarity between generations and social classes.

Inaugurated three years later, the memorial of the monument, in the basement, is struck by all the names of the heroes of the Soviet Union, knights of the 3rd ^{rank, hero of socialist work, who have distinguished themselves in Leningrad; adding to the solemnity of this place of remembrance, 900 lanterns illuminate the underground room, one for each day of the blockade of the city. Unfortunately, a blockade that has been long enough to allow this symbolic light to be able to see without difficulty the documents exposed behind the windows that tell the history of the defence of the city. A poignant black and white documentary shows daily life during the terrible winter of 1941-1942: 41 ° C thermometer, streets strewn with corpses, bombed buildings… In the centre of the room, a model shows the line of the Leningrad blockade. Hitler thought it easy to obtain the surrender of this city whose reserves were bombed. But the population resists, and the city is encircled by September 1941. For some time, the city is ravitaillée by Lake Lagoda, on which the trucks can pass in winter. But famine is fast and, allied to cold, more than 1 200 000 deaths out of the 3 million Leningrad people, almost half of the city… At the end of 1943, Russians receive significant quantities of armaments from the west Ural and can counter.}

In January 1944, the blockade was lifted. The exhibition also commemorates this immense relief by a large mosaic fresco representing the liberation of the city. It contrasts with a second fresco, on the opposite wall, which illustrates the distress of the people in these terrible days.