Memorial Cemetery Piskarevskoye

Between September 1941 and January 1944, the German troops surrounded Leningrad (Soviet name of St Petersburg). Created in 1960, this 26ha cemetery hosts the remains of the 470,000 civilians and 50,000 soldiers who died during the siege. They were buried in one hundred and twenty-six communal graves. Two pavilions located at the entrance of the complex relates the ordeal that the inhabitants of the city had to go through. Farther, near the memory flame, a black marble plate recalls the shells that fell on Leningrad, their consequences on the population and the hundreds of thousands of people who died of hunger during the siege. A 6 meters high statue to the ”Motherland” was erected in the middle of the cemetery. The walls surrounding the place pay tribute to the victims through the words of famous Russian poetess Olga Bergholtz who lived this tragic time of Russian history.