St. Petersburg is beautiful in every way. However, it is not only the royal palaces, magnificent monuments, museums and other attractions that attract tourists to its streets. Its necropolises are no less interesting. And not even the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, not Novodevichy Cemetery, where many found their last refuge famous people. There is another mournful place in St. Petersburg that many have heard about. This Piskarevskoe cemetery. A churchyard that does not amaze visitors with an abundance of ancient or rich modern monuments and ornate epitaphs. A necropolis consisting almost exclusively of long hills of mass graves, in which a huge number of those who died during the terrible days of the Leningrad siege are buried. The names of many of them are still unknown, and their memory is perpetuated only by modest monuments - granite slabs on which the year of burial is engraved. And instead of an epitaph there is a hammer and sickle for the townspeople who died of hunger, and a star for the warrior defenders.
To remember and know...
Piskarevskoye cemetery is nothing more than a besieged necropolis. A mournful monument that has become for all the inhabitants of the planet something of a symbol of the courage, fortitude and amazing fortitude of those who defended Leningrad and those who worked in it from last bit of strength in the name of victory, freezing and dying of hunger. Saint Petersburg. Piskarevskoe cemetery. These are all synonyms for the words blockade, death, hunger, honor and glory. And only here, at the Piskarevskoye cemetery, can you literally feel with your skin the full horror of those terrible nine hundred days, when death every second, grinning evilly, could take anyone, regardless of age, gender and position. And to realize how many troubles and misfortunes the Second World War brought, and not only to the siege survivors, but to the whole world.
Story
It must be said that today at school students receive not entirely correct information regarding this necropolis. According to the textbook, the cemetery is large for those killed during the siege and war. The burial time was from one thousand nine hundred forty-one to one thousand nine hundred and forty-five.
But everything is a little different. Leningrad was a huge metropolis even in pre-war times. Nonresidents flocked to the city of Petra no less than to the capital itself. At the end of the thirties there were no less than three million inhabitants. People got married, had children and died too. Therefore, in 1937, due to a lack of space in the city graveyards, the city executive committee decided to open a new cemetery. The choice fell on Piskarevka - the northern outskirts of Leningrad. Thirty hectares of land began to be prepared for new burials, and the first graves appeared here already in 1939. And in the forties, the Piskarevskoye cemetery became the burial place for those killed during the Finnish War. Even today you can find these individual graves in the northwestern part of the churchyard.
It was like that...
But who could have imagined then that such a terrible day would come when it would be necessary to urgently dig a trench, no, not even dig, but chisel through the frozen ground in order to bury ten thousand and forty-three people at once. This is exactly what the twentieth day of February forty-two became. And, I must say, the dead were still “lucky.” Because sometimes on a huge field covered with snow, which everyone knows today as Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery, for three or even four days the dead lay stacked in piles. And their number sometimes went “off scale” to twenty, or even twenty-five thousand. Scary days, terrible time. It also happened that along with the dead people waiting their turn, their gravediggers had to be buried - people died right in the cemetery. But someone had to do this work too...
For what?
How could it happen that a modest, almost village cemetery yesterday, today is a monument of world significance? Why was this rural churchyard destined for such a terrible fate? And for what reason, when I hear the words Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, I want to kneel. The reason for this is a terrible war. And those who started it. Moreover, the fate of Leningrad was predetermined already on the twenty-ninth of September forty-one. The “arbiter” of destinies - the “great” Fuhrer - adopted a directive on that day, according to which it was planned to simply wipe the city off the face of the earth. Everything is simple - blockade, constant shelling, massive bombing. The Nazis, you see, believed that they were completely uninterested in the existence of a city like St. Petersburg. He had absolutely no value for them. However, what else could you expect from these non-humans... And who cares about their values...
How many died...
The history of the Leningrad blockade is far from what Soviet propaganda said about it. Yes, this is selfless courage, this is the fight against the enemy, this is boundless love for one’s hometown and one’s Motherland. But first of all, it is horror, death, hunger, which sometimes pushed people to commit terrible crimes. And for some, these desperate years became a time of recovery, some were able to profit from endless human grief, while others lost everything they could - family, children, health. And some are life. The latter numbered 641,803 people. Of these, 420,000 found their final refuge in the mass graves of the Piskarevskoye cemetery. Moreover, many were buried without documents. In addition, the defenders of the unbending city also rest in this graveyard. There are 70,000 of them.
After the war
The most terrible years - forty-one, and then forty-two - were left behind. In 1943, Leningraders no longer died in the thousands, then the blockade ended, and after it the war. Piskarevskoye cemetery was open for individual burials until the fiftieth year. In those days, as is known, all speeches about total burials were considered seditious. And therefore, of course, the mass laying of wreaths at the Piskarevskoye cemetery was by no means the most popular event. But people did not try to bring flowers to the graves of their loved ones and others. They carried bread... Something that was so lacking in besieged Leningrad. Something that could in due time save the life of each of those remaining in the Piskarevsky land.
Construction of the memorial
Today, every resident of St. Petersburg knows what the Piskarevskoe cemetery is. How to get there? It is enough to ask such a question to anyone you meet to immediately receive a comprehensive answer. In the post-war years, the situation was not so clear. And only then was it decided to build a memorial on this mournful land. The project was developed by architects A.V. Vasilyev and E.A. Levinson. Officially, the Piskarevskoye Cemetery memorial was opened in nineteen sixty. The ceremony took place on May 9, the fifteenth anniversary of the victory over hated fascism. The necropolis was lit and from that moment on, laying flowers at the Piskarevskoye cemetery became an official event, which is held in accordance with all holiday dates dedicated to those events that are, in fact, associated with the war and the days of the siege. The main ones are the Day of Lifting the Siege and, of course, Victory Day.
What does the necropolis look like today?
In the center of it there is an unusually majestic monument: the Motherland (granite sculpture, the authors of which were Isaeva V.V. and Taurit R.K.) rises above the granite stele. In her hands she holds a garland of oak leaves, braided mourning ribbon. From her figure to her very Eternal Flame there is a funeral alley, the length of which is three hundred meters. It is all planted with red roses. And on both sides of it there are mass graves in which those who fought, lived, defended and died for Leningrad are buried.
The same sculptors created all the images that are on the stele: above mourning wreaths human figures bowed in grief, holding lowered banners in their hands. There are stone pavilions at the entrance to the memorial. They house a museum.
Museum exhibition
In principle, the Piskarevskoye cemetery itself has the status of a museum. There are excursions here every day. As for the exhibition itself, located in the pavilions, unique archival documents are collected here, not only ours, but also German ones. It also contains lists of people who are buried here, although they are, of course, far from complete. In addition, the museum exhibition contains letters from survivors of the siege, their diaries, household items and much more interesting things. For those who would like to find out whether any of their relatives or friends who died during the siege are buried in the Piskarevskoye cemetery, a special eBook, into which you can enter the necessary data and obtain information. Which is very convenient, because, although many years have passed since then, the war still reminds us of itself, and not everyone who suffered from it knows exactly which grave to go to in order to bow to their untimely departed loved ones.
What else is there in the necropolis
In the depths of it there are walls with bas-reliefs. On them are carved lines that Olga Berggolts, a poetess who survived all nine hundred days of the siege, dedicated to her city. Behind the bas-reliefs there is a marble pool into which visitors throw coins. Probably in order to return here again and again, to pay tribute to those who died in order to prevent fascism from erasing them from the face of the earth hometown. A sad and amazing place, the Piskarevskoe cemetery. How to get there can be found at the end of the article. There we will bring everything necessary information for tourists. But before that, we need to say a few words about something completely different.
What is missing from the memorial?
If you listen to the reviews of visitors and residents of St. Petersburg themselves, you can come to a disappointing conclusion. Yes, nothing is forgotten. And yes, no one is forgotten. But today, many who come to bow to the graves of the defenders of Leningrad and those killed during the siege note that they lack an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. And almost unanimously they say that a temple needs to be built at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. Yes, such that people of any religion could pray for their own, and not only their dead. For now, at the Piskarevskoye cemetery there is only a small chapel in the name of John the Baptist. In order to somehow overcome the spirit of despair hovering over the graves, sculptures, monuments and fences are not enough.
Piskarevskoye Cemetery: how to get there
How to get to the memorial museum? Its address: St. Petersburg, Piskarevskoye Cemetery, Nepokorennykh Avenue, 72. Buses No. 80, 123 and 128 run from the Muzhestva Metro station. Bus route No. 178 runs from the Akademicheskaya metro station. The final stop is Piskarevskoye Cemetery. How to get to the memorial on holidays? Special buses run from the same “Metro Muzhestva” station these days.
Tourist Information
- The memorial is equipped in such a way that people with disabilities could freely get acquainted with both its territory and the museum exhibition.
- There is a comfortable hotel not far from the cemetery.
- The museum pavilion is open from nine in the morning to six in the evening (daily).
- Tours of the cemetery are also offered daily. In winter and autumn from nine in the morning to six in the evening, in summer and spring they are extended until 21:00.
- You must sign up for the excursion in advance by calling one of the phone numbers that can be found on the official website of the memorial complex.
- On average, the memorial complex is visited by about half a million tourists a year.
- Mourning ceremonies are held four times a year.
Memorable dates (laying flowers)
- January 27 is the day of the liberation of the city from the fascist blockade.
- May 8 - in honor of the next anniversary of the Victory.
- June 22 - the day the war began.
- September 8 - the day the blockade began.
Fresh review
Our last day in France began with a trip to Deauville, a resort town on the English Channel in Normandy. From Caen to Deauville it’s about 45 km, the whole way the guide talked about the customs that existed in France during her time in order to provide a basis for the emergence of this resort city. So at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, it was customary for the male population of France to have a wife from a socialite and a mistress from the ladies of the demimonde, or even a kept woman or courtesan. He had to support all these women according to their needs and status. In those days, it became fashionable to take wives and children to the sea for the summer, but this created inconvenience for men burdened with relationships with other women. Now the road from Paris to Deauville takes 2 hours, but in the 19th century everything was much more complicated. That’s why the resort of Deauville arose, very close to the already existing town of Trouville-sur-Mer. These two resorts became an ideal holiday destination for the nobility, even a proverb appeared: “A wife goes to Deauville, a mistress goes to Trouville,” especially since everything is nearby, just cross the Tuk River. This is roughly the story the guide told us, well, maybe more colorfully than I did.
Random entries
For Victory Day, I will begin publishing a book published by the Staatsferlag of the German Democratic Republic in Berlin in 1981. This book was presented to one of the WWII veterans by the administration of AZTM around the same year.
The full title of the book is “Monument to the Soviet Soldier-Liberator in Treptow Park. Past and present". Authors: “Young Historians” circle of the House of Young Pioneers of the Berlin city district of Treptow. Head Dr. Horst Koepstein.
There is one paragraph on the dust jacket:
The monument to the Soviet Soldier-Liberator in Treptower Park is evidence of the unforgettable heroism of sons and daughters Soviet people who gave their lives in the struggle for the liberation of humanity from Hitler's fascism. He calls and obliges people of all nationalities, sparing no effort, to fight for the preservation of peace on earth.
The next point on our journey was the port city of Saint-Malo on the English Channel at the mouth of the Rance River. This town is located a little more than 50 km from the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel; it belongs to the region of Brittany, which occupies the peninsula of the same name, separating the English Channel from the Bay of Biscay. The ancestors of the Bretons (Celts) lived in the British Isles; starting from the 6th century, the Anglo-Saxons began to push them out, and willy-nilly they had to leave their homeland. Having settled on the opposite bank of the English Channel, the Celts named their new place of residence Little Brittany. Together with them, they moved here the legendary heroes: King Arthur and Merlin, Tristan and Isolde. In addition to legends, the Bretons have preserved their culture and language, which belongs to the Brythonic subgroup of Celtic languages. And this province officially became a territory of France only in 1532.
La Merveille, or in Russian transcription La Merveille, means "Miracle". The construction of this monastery complex began with the arrival of the Benedictine monks. At the beginning of the 11th century, their community numbered about 50 people, and in the middle of the 12th century it reached its maximum in history - 60 people. At the very top of the rock in 1022, construction began on a large church in romanesque style, and lasted until 1085. The top of the rock is not the best place for the construction of a huge structure, which, according to the canons, should be in the shape of a Latin cross and 80 m long. There was not a large enough platform for this, so the architects decided to first build three crypts on the slopes of the mountain, which would serve as the basis for the choir of the church and the wings of the transept or transverse nave. And the western side of the building will rest on the Church of Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. By the middle of the 12th century, the church was completed; it was crowned by a tower, which caused fires; the builders did not take into account that a tower on a mountain top in the middle of the sea would attract lightning.
Our trip to France was called "The Atlantic Coast of France", but on the first day we did not see the sea. But on the second day, our bus went straight to the shores of the English Channel, or rather, to a rocky island rising above the bay and called Mont Saint-Michel (Mount St. Michael). True, this rock was originally called Mon-Tumb (grave mountain). The origins of the abbey dedicated to the Archangel Michael are described in a 10th century manuscript. According to this text, in 708, the Archangel Michael appeared to Bishop Aubert from the city of Avranches in a dream and ordered him to build a church on the rock in his honor. Ober, however, did not pay due attention to this and the saint had to appear to the unbelieving Ober three times. The archangel’s patience is also not unlimited; in the end, he pointed his finger at the stubborn man’s skull. It is said that Aubert's skull, with the hole caused by Michael's touch, is still kept in the Avranches Museum. Thus, having understood the message, he nevertheless built a chapel on the rock, and even collected some relics in order to establish the cult of St. Michael in this place.
Resort area of the city. Surrounded by gardens and parks there are sanatoriums and holiday homes
I’ll finish my winter reviews with this note. These photos were taken by a German tourist in December 2013. There is a little bit of the Kaskelen Gorge and a little bit of Ushkonyr. In winter, really, everything is almost the same. In this review, everything is a little more beautiful than in the previous one about our city, but there are also plenty of photographs that the locals don’t take.
There are quite a lot of photographs, many of them are very similar. Commenting on natural beauty is quite boring, so basically everything will be without description.
Let me start with the fact that the Maralsay rest house is located not far from Almaty, and specifically beyond Talgar in the Talgar gorge or, more precisely, in the Maralsay gully. Maral is a deer and a beam, translated respectively as Deer.
First, a little road - the one that is already in the mountains. Getting to the mountains is not at all interesting and not particularly beautiful - you just drive along the Talgar highway through endless villages, gas stations, roadside shops and banquet halls. And then you turn into the Talgar Gorge and it immediately becomes beautiful.
It was mid-February. We ordered a transfer from home to the recreation center and back - we were told that we would not get there in a regular sedan. The road, in general, showed that they were right - not to say that there was ice, but the road was snowy and the slopes were not small - the all-wheel drive pickup truck skidded and sometimes the driver engaged the locks.
In the previous article about Rouen, I started right away with the main attraction - the Rouen Cathedral, since the cathedral is the holy of holies in European cities. It has been built for centuries and to last, and they try to decorate it more elaborately. But Rouen is famous not only for its cathedral. The city suffered greatly during the Second World War, especially from British bombing in April 1944 and American bombing in May-June of the same year. During these air raids, the cathedral and the historical quarter adjacent to it were significantly damaged. Fortunately, most of the most iconic historical monuments city was reconstructed or rebuilt within 15 post-war years, thanks to which Rouen is in the top five French cities in terms of the antiquity of its historical heritage.
From Champagne we had to move to Normandy. From Reims to the main city of Normandy - Rouen - just over 200 km. After a practically sleepless night, I dozed off while the guide told me about the opening of a second front during World War II. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, it’s just that I’ve already heard and seen something on TV on Discovery Channel and History, and sometimes I opened my eyes when the guide pointed in one direction or another. But green meadows spread around, the sun was shining and nothing reminded of the war. “It clicked” in her head only when she began to talk about the feat of an American soldier who, showing remarkable ingenuity, was able to make his way to a German firing point, using the body of a dead comrade as a refuge. And thoughts themselves flowed in a different direction. Still, there are events in the assessment of which we will never meet Western requirements. Intellectually, I understand that in war all means are good, but we were brought up with other examples. Our people recklessly cover the embrasure with their bodies so that their comrades remain alive.
In my review today, I want to show you the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery - I’m sure you’ve heard or read about it more than once or twice; Well, if not, I think it’s time to get acquainted, because - important know the history of our past, no matter how bitter and terrible it may be, and not brush it aside... like - it’s boring there, or - it was a long time ago...
And yes, most of the photos are not of ideal quality - at that time I had a completely different camera... now retired, but then I considered it mine true friend and an assistant.
Information from Wikipedia -
The Piskaryovskoye cemetery was founded in 1939 on the northern outskirts of Leningrad and was named after the nearby village of Piskarevka. In 1941-1944 it became a place of mass graves. Victims of the siege of Leningrad and soldiers of the Leningrad Front (c) are buried in mass graves.
And one more small detail - in this review all the photos are located/loaded exactly as I took the photos that day (so that I myself don’t get confused about how and what, because although I tried to choose the best shots, everything anyway, in the end there were too many of them. I didn’t delete anything).
So, the metro station we need is Ploshchad Muzhestva.
What I especially like about St. Petersburg is that it’s simply impossible to get lost there: firstly, there are installed information stands With detailed map one or another area and with a bright inscription *YOU ARE HERE*. Thus, even if you are taken somewhere in the wrong place, you can always go to this map and choose a route to the desired place or to the nearest metro station.
And secondly - very friendly people who will always help and advise, they can even take you by the hand to the right building... and it’s the same for both locals and foreign tourists! I have never seen such powerful mutual assistance and desire to help anywhere...
But let's get back to the topic of the review..
We leave the metro and walk along Nepokorennykh Avenue- if my memory serves me right, it is located two steps from the metro, you need to turn the corner...
On the wall of one of the houses on this avenue I found this memorial sign:
And in general, at first glance it may seem that this avenue is no different from the big streets big city- architecturally diverse houses, shops, transport. But...
Quite soon the surrounding area changes (I was walking) - instead of purely city views, there are green trees ahead, and the asphalt turns into paths... and just nearby hundreds of cars are still rushing along the highway -
A very strange contrast, it must be noted... especially when you know that you are almost in the center of the city, and around you is the CITY... This is - Piskarevsky forest park.
And somehow, slowly, imperceptibly, the forest park becomes a cemetery...
Impressive, yes. Especially considering that it was my first time there, alone and there wasn’t a soul around. Those who died in the Finnish War are buried here, as evidenced by the monument - funeral urn -
And you walk further along the path, forward, and around you are dozens and hundreds of stone tombstones with the names of the victims engraved...
And then the terrain changes - the first mass graves appear, the graves of the siege survivors...
And later I went to the central alley of the Piskarevsky cemetery -
Roses, lots and lots Red roses, and for some reason the phrase from *The Thorn Birds* is spinning in my head - ashes of roses, ashes of roses...
We come closer to the memorial -
Stone walls- without words.
View of the central alley -
Piercing lines -
Monument - Mother Motherland, bearing a mournful branch -
View around -
Reminder to the visitor -
I walk in the other direction, forward... and I see another memorial sign -
It turns out that there is a beautiful and sad pond very close by -
What kind of pillar-structure in the form of a semicircle is this - I still don’t know...
The walls on the Memory Alley have stone-granite memorial slabs on them, a tribute from different cities, regions and republics of our country, foreign countries and republics of the CIS, enterprises and industrialists of besieged Leningrad to their fallen fellow countrymen, comrades and more.
For example -
Glory to the soldiers Altai Territory who defended besieged Leningrad.
In memory of your courage (c).
To the residents and defenders of besieged Leningrad who fell during the siege.
Kharkov, Ukraine (c).
Or (in two languages) -
Eternal memory to the heroes of Turmenistan who fell in the battles for Leningrad (c).
Sacred memory of the sons and daughters of the Azerbaijani people
To the defenders of besieged Leningrad
Will live forever in the hearts of generations (c).
Or (in two languages) -
To the Poles - defenders of besieged Leningrad (c).
Armenia, Ossetia, Belarus, Yakutia, Uzbekistan, Kuban, Udmurtia, Georgia, Moldova, Bashkortostan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Krasnoyarsk, Izhora, Angara, Vologda, Dagestan, Perm, Yelets, Mordovia... many memorial stones are immortalized on these walls. ..sorry, I didn’t mention who.
It seems to me that there will be even more memorial plaques... because you can see empty walls in the depths of the park (closer to official entrance all the walls are *occupied*). Or they already exist.
And opposite the walls are mass graves with the year of burial...
Bad photo...
I'm going to the official entrance and exit -
It’s the height of the day - and not a soul here... (except for a couple of workers)... The so-called fountain -
Eternal Flame (was lit from the fire from the Campus Martius) -
Stove - 1944. A rarity here, because... the main burials were in 1941-1942. -
View of the central alley from the official entrance/exit (it’s free) -
Museum of the Memorial Cemetery, two pavilions (I wasn’t inside because I didn’t have enough time that day, I thought I’d come back again... but it didn’t work out. That’s where Tanya Savicheva’s diary is kept) -
Next to these buildings there is another pond... and there is a graceful swan. One...
What Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery looks like from the other side of the avenue -
(If anything, the toilet is just opposite, there is a sign, it’s clean, good... in short, no one has canceled physiology, and there, on the territory of the cemetery, there is no toilet for visitors, keep in mind).
The wooden chapel in the name of the Beheading of John the Baptist is located next to the cemetery - And again - the city of St. Petersburg, Avenue of the Unconquered -
And the image of a stylized siege hero who did not spare himself in the name of Victory recedes into the distance, the features of just people in a besieged city, exhausted by endless hunger...
And accordingly, the first winter, 1941-1942 turned out to be the most terrible for unprepared Leningraders - it was during this winter that a lot of people died from hunger, bombs and artillery shelling, more than half a million, as the author says, were buried ONLY at the Piskarevsky cemetery...
But there were other cemeteries -
Volkovo, Okhotinskoye, Smolenskoye, Serafimovskoye, Bogoslovskoye, Evreyskoye, In Memory of the Victims of January 9, Tatarskoye and Kinoveevskoye (c).
And the most mass graves are at Piskarevsky - 420 thousand citizens and 70 thousand military personnel who died in the city, this is official information.
It seems we will never know the exact numbers...
The story is also impressive about HOW exactly the dead were buried... there was no respect for the corpses.
And there were *daily* norms for burials, dynamite to blow up the frozen ground for graves, excavators... the bodies were literally compacted in a jumbled manner to fit as much as possible more people. Coffins? People were taken out of there, buried like this, and the coffins themselves were burned to keep warm... and it becomes even more terrible when you find out that in the first months of the blockade by the authorities prohibited bring people for burial without coffins - whatever you want, get it.
And where could the exhausted siege survivors get it?.. Sometimes they rented a coffin... and then that’s why they were forced to leave the bodies of their loved ones on the street so that the patrol would pick them up... they didn’t have the strength for a decent burial, to survive themselves.. .that's why there are so many unidentified corpses...
Just like that. This is our history that we should know.
And don't forget about many things.
My review on memorial signs of the Road of Life, Museum *Road of Life*, Flower of Life, stone pages of Tanya Savicheva’s diary and much more - (carefully, 125 photos).
Books on the theme of the siege -
On Victory Day, May 9, townspeople traditionally come to the Piskarevskoye cemetery to honor the memory of those killed during the siege of Leningrad. On the territory of the necropolis there are 186 mass graves in which more than 470 thousand Leningraders are buried. These people gave their lives so that their descendants could live. We must remember the dead and, as they said in ancient times, “be worthy of the memory of our ancestors.”
Citizens bring flowers and light funeral candles to the Piskarevskoye cemetery
Hitler planned to destroy Leningrad, even if the city decided to surrender to the mercy of the enemy. This is stated in the documents “...2. The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of St. Petersburg from the face of the Earth... 4...If, as a result of the situation created in the city, requests for surrender are made, they will be rejected, since the problems of preserving and feeding the population cannot and should not be resolved by us.”
If it weren’t for the feat of the Leningrad blockade survivors, modern city St. Petersburg would not be on the map.
And you, my friends of the last call!
In order to mourn you, my life has been spared.
Don't be ashamed of your memory weeping willow,
And shout all your names to the whole world!
What names are there! After all, it doesn’t matter - you are with us!..
Everyone on your knees, everyone! Crimson light poured out!
And Leningraders again walk through the smoke in rows -
The living are with the dead: for glory there are no dead.
(Anna Akhmatova, 1942)
Three generations of Leningraders accidentally came into the foreground of the frame
Mass graves where survivors of the siege are buried
Families died of hunger, as described in Tanya Savicheva’s diary. At the Piskarevskoye cemetery, several thousand people were buried in mass trench graves every day. The first winter of the blockade of 1941-1942 was especially tragic. According to documents, on February 20, 1942, 10,043 people were buried at the Piskarevskoye cemetery.
On the graves there are slabs with the year of burial
Piskarevskoye cemetery is the largest memorial necropolis in the world. Is not the only place burials of Leningrad blockade survivors. In total, more than a million people died in Leningrad during the war years.
D.V. Pavlov, author of the book “Leningrad in the Siege” wrote:
“Cemeteries and their entrances were littered with frozen bodies covered with snow. There was not enough strength to dig into the deeply frozen ground. The MPVO teams blew up the ground and lowered dozens and sometimes hundreds of corpses into spacious graves, without knowing the names of those buried.
May the deceased forgive me alive - in those desperate conditions they could not fulfill their duty to the end, although the dead were worthy of a better rite..."
The memorial complex was opened in 1960 in honor of the 15th anniversary of the victory.
Eternal flame
Children come to honor the memory of their ancestors
A fountain into which coins are thrown. Slavic funeral tradition - coin on the grave
IN Soviet time a legend appeared associated with this fountain, in which the cemetery guards collected a “catch” of kopecks every evening. One night, one of the guards, having collected coins, suddenly felt that he could not move. The frightened cemetery watchman stood in one place until the morning. At dawn, when his replacement arrived, it turned out that the guard had simply caught his overcoat on the fence. However, they took the case seriously and stopped stealing coins.
View of the fountain from the mass grave
Green fields are all mass graves
The children brought their drawings. Cookies and sweets are also placed on the graves - a funeral tradition.
Bread and candles are symbolic, the lines immediately come to mind:
"One hundred twenty-five blockade grams
With fire and blood in half..."
Since November 1941, according to the food rationing system, city residents received 125 grams of bread, factory workers received 250 grams, and soldiers received 500 grams.
Memorial plaque
Ladoga ice shimmers.
In the midst of Piskarevsky peace
hearts can be heard from under the stove.
Z. Valshonok
Forty-third year...
The fierce bombing of the city, as well as the famine, claimed many lives.
As the poet Mikhail Dudin wrote:
"Fire!
And death rose all around
Above the place where the shell fell."
Siege poet Olga Berggolts wrote in her diary in December 1943 about the bombing of the city:
“Recently, the Germans have begun to frequently use night shelling. But this is only one of many methods of shelling the city. For two and a half years, the enemies have been tirelessly, with diabolical sophistication, inventing ways to destroy the townspeople. They changed their firing tactics up to fifty times. The goal is one - to kill as many people as possible.
Sometimes the shelling takes the form of a frantic fire raid - first in one area, then in another, then in a third, etc. Sometimes eighty batteries hit all areas of the city at once. Sometimes a strong salvo is fired from several guns at once and then a long interval - twenty to thirty minutes. This is done with the expectation that after twenty minutes of silence, the people who have taken refuge will again come out into the street, and then again a new volley can be fired at them. Shelling of this kind is usually carried out in several areas at once and sometimes lasts, as in early December, up to ten or more hours in a row. This summer there were shellings that lasted twenty-six hours
contract.
The enemy attacks the city in the morning and evening, given that during these hours people go to or return from work.
During this time, he mainly uses shrapnel to kill people. Shrapnel is also often used on Sundays and holidays, when people go outside to relax.
But now, as I write, he is sending us not shrapnel, but heavy shells. After all, before killing a sleeping person, you need to break into his house... At night, the Germans attack mainly the most populated parts of the city, where the most people sleep. They shoot at the sleepy, the undressed, even the defenseless. This is how the Germans “fight”! »
It started to rain, I remembered the lines
...Piskarevka lives in me.
Half the city lies here
and doesn't know it's raining.
S. Davydov
Relief of the memorial wall of the cemetery
Nearby is a tree that those who came tied St. George ribbons
Flowers at the foot of the monument
Glory to you who are in battle
The banks of the Neva were defended.
Leningrad, which never knew defeat,
You have illuminated with a new light.
Glory to you, great city,
Merged front and rear into one.
In unprecedented difficulties which
He survived. Fought. Won.
(Vera Inber, 1944)
Children left a yellow balloon with a smiley face
Reliefs about life in the besieged city
Famous lines of the blockade poet Olga Berggolts
Leningraders lie here.
Here the townspeople are men, women, children.
Next to them are Red Army soldiers.
With all my life
They protected you, Leningrad,
The cradle of the revolution.
We cannot list their noble names here,
There are so many of them under the eternal protection of granite.
But know, he who listens to these stones:
No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten. 
Enemies were pouring into the city, dressed in armor and iron,
But we stood together with the army
Workers, schoolchildren, teachers, militias.
And all as one they said:
Death is more likely to be afraid of us than we are of death.
The hungry, fierce, dark one is not forgotten
Winter of forty-one and forty-two,
Neither the ferocity of the shelling,
Nor the horror of the bombings in '43.
All the city soil is broken.
Not a single life of yours, comrades, has been forgotten.
Under continuous fire from the sky, from the ground and from the water
Your daily feat
You did it with dignity and simplicity,
And together with his Fatherland
You have all won.
Motherland and hero city Leningrad."
So let it be before your immortal life
On this sad solemn field
The grateful people forever bow their banners,
Motherland and hero city Leningrad.
And more children's drawings
And the poems, it is in the poems that the mood of the terrible time of the siege is very clearly conveyed
Siege troubles know no bounds:
We're stalling
Under the roar of shells,
From our pre-war faces
Remained
Only eyes and cheekbones.
And we
We go around the mirrors,
To avoid being scared...
Not New Year's affairs
Among the besieged Leningraders...
Here
There isn't even an extra match.
And we,
Lighting the smokehouses
Like the people of primitive times
Fire
We carve it out of stone.
And a quiet shadow
Death is now
Crawling after every person.
But still
In our city
Will not
Stone Age!
(Yu. Voronov)
I say: us, citizens of Leningrad,
the roar of cannonades will not shake,
and if tomorrow there are barricades -
we will not leave our barricades...
And women and fighters will stand next to each other,
and the children will bring us cartridges,
and they will bloom over all of us
ancient banners of Petrograd.
(O. Berggolts)
The snowstorm is spinning, falling asleep
Deep footprint on the shore
A barefoot girl in a ravine
Lies on pink snow.
A thick, lingering wind sings
Over the ashes of the passed paths.
Tell me why I dream about children,
You and I don't have children?
But at a halt, resting,
I can't sleep peacefully:
I dream of a barefoot girl
On the bloody snow.
Mikhail Dudin
Behind the Narva gates were
There was only death ahead...
So the Soviet infantry marched
Straight into the yellow Bert vents.
Books will be written about you:
“Your life is for your friends,”
Unpretentious boys -
Vanka, Vaska, Alyoshka, Grishka, -
Grandchildren, brothers, sons!
Anna Akhmatova
Modern memorial plaques
Dark waters of the pond
Sad landscape
We know what's on the scales now
And what is happening now.
The hour of courage has struck on our watch,
And courage will not leave us.
It's not scary to lie dead under bullets,
It's not bitter to be homeless,
And we will save you, Russian speech,
Great Russian word.
We will carry you free and clean,
We will give it to our grandchildren and save us from captivity
Forever.
(Anna Akhmatova, February 1942)
Glory to the city where we fought,
You won't give your rifles to anyone.
Wakes up with the sun
Our song, our glory, our city!
(A. Fatyanov, 1945)
The date is 1945, we didn’t live long enough to see victory.
Remember even the sky and the weather,
Absorb everything into yourself, listen to everything:
after all, you live in the spring of such a year,
which will be called the Spring of the Earth.
Remember everything! And in everyday worries
Celebrate the purest reflection on everything.
Victory is on your doorstep.
Now she will come to you. Meet me!
(Olga Berggolts, May 3, 1945)
Park at the exit from the cemetery
I would like to end with the Piskarevsky Memorial, remember what tragedy fascism leads to.
The torrential time is at its zenith,
country forest
blackened and naked.
The monument is getting cold.
On granite
Bergholtz's sorrowful words.
Running along the alleys of foliage...
Memory in stone
sadness in metal
fire flaps its eternal wing...
Leningrader by heart and origin,
I have been ill for forty-one years.
Piskarevka lives in me.
Half the city lies here
and doesn't know it's raining.
Memory runs through them,
like a clearing
through life.
More than anything else in the world
I know,
my city hated fascism.
Our mothers
our children
turned into these hills.
Most,
more than anyone else in the world
we hate fascism
We!
Leningrader by heart and origin,
I have been ill for forty-one years.
Piskarevka lives in me.
Half the city lies here
and doesn't know that it's raining...
(S. Davydov)
Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery - a mournful monument to the victims of the Great Patriotic War, a witness to a universal tragedy and a place of universal worship. The memorial is dedicated to the memory of all Leningraders and defenders of the city. People sacredly remember the heroes of the defense of Leningrad, and the lines from Olga Berggolts’ epitaph “No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten”, the memorable text on the friezes of the pavilions “To you, our selfless defenders...” by Mikhail Dudin are confirmation of this.
At the site of mass graves of residents of besieged Leningrad and warriors who defended the city in the period from 1945 to 1960, designed by architects A.V. Vasiliev and E.A. Levinson, a memorial complex was erected.
The grand opening of the memorial complex took place on May 9, 1960. Every year in memorable dates(January 27, May 8, June 22 and September 8) wreath-laying and flower-laying ceremonies are held here at the Motherland monument.
In April 1961, the Resolution was approved: “... to consider the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery as the main monument to the heroes who gave their lives for the happiness, freedom and independence of our Motherland...”. The same Resolution obliged the City Tour Bureau to include a visit to the memorial in its routes, and State Museum History of Leningrad was commissioned to create a museum exhibition and place it on the first floors of two pavilions. The exhibition was supposed to reflect the criminal plans of the Hitlerite command to destroy Leningrad, the difficult living conditions of Leningraders during the 900-day siege of the city, their courage, heroism, resilience, victory over the enemy, and the defeat of the Nazi troops near Leningrad. The exhibition was updated periodically. Today it occupies the first floor of the right pavilion. As before, the main focus of the exhibition is documentary photographs.
In the museum you can get acquainted with photographs and newsreels of the siege - during the day there is a screening of the films "Memories of the Siege" and "City under Siege", mounted in 1990 at the Leningrad studio documentaries from fragments filmed by military cameramen in besieged Leningrad at the risk of their lives, as well as Sergei Larenkov’s film “Siege Album” (See the section in the left menu).
In the museum pavilion there is an information kiosk, with which visitors can search the electronic catalog of the Books of Memory "Siege. 1941-1944. Leningrad" (names of Leningrad residents who died during the siege), "Leningrad. 1941-1945" (names of soldiers called up in Leningrad, who died on various fronts of the Great Patriotic War), “They survived the siege. Leningrad” (names of residents of Leningrad who survived the siege).
The eternal flame on the upper terrace of the Piskarevsky memorial burns in memory of all the victims of the blockade and heroic defenders cities. The three-hundred-meter Central Alley stretches from the Eternal Flame to the Motherland monument. Red roses are planted along the entire length of the alley. From them to the left and to the right go sad hills of mass graves with slabs, on each of which the year of burial is carved, oak leaves are a symbol of courage and perseverance, a sickle and hammer are on the graves of residents, a five-pointed star is on the graves of soldiers, the grave number is stamped on the side of the slab. In mass graves rest 420 thousand residents of Leningrad who died from hunger, cold, disease, bombing and artillery shelling, as well as 70 thousand soldiers - defenders of Leningrad. There are also about 6 thousand individual military graves at the memorial.
The figure of “Mother Motherland” (sculptors V.V. Isaeva and R.K. Taurit) on a high pedestal is clearly legible against the backdrop of the endless sky. Her pose and bearing express strict solemnity; in her hands is a garland of oak leaves braided with a mourning ribbon. It seems that the “Mother Motherland”, in whose name people sacrificed themselves, slowly and solemnly marches to the graves of her sons and daughters to lay a funeral garland on them.
A memorial wall-stele completes the ensemble. In the thickness of granite there are 6 reliefs reproducing episodes heroic life Leningraders during the siege. Sculptors B.E. Kaplyansky, A.L. Malakhin, M.A. Vainman and Kharlamova M.M. managed to reflect the self-sacrifice and cohesion, heroism and perseverance of the defenders of the besieged city, to create a monolithic unity in which sailors, soldiers, workers and the civilian population of the city stood shoulder to shoulder . On the side sections of the stele relief images of mourning banners at half-mast - symbols of eternal sadness . Its end parts are decorated with large wreaths woven from oak branches. Inside the wreaths are lowered torches with escaping flames - a symbol of extinct life. On the left and right, a soldier and a woman, a worker and a sailor, knelt down, paying their last respects to the dead.
In the center of the stele are the words of the epitaph of the poetess O.F. Bergholz, which sound like a hymn to the unconquered Leningrad. The line “No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten” has particular power.
Along the eastern border of the cemetery there is a Memory Alley. In memory of the defenders of Leningrad, memorial plaques from cities and regions of our country, CIS countries and foreign countries, as well as organizations that worked in the besieged city, were installed on it.
An important role in the artistic appearance of the memorial ensemble, enhancing the overall impression of artistic unity, is played by large and small ponds, a pergola, a white marble pool, stone benches, obelisks on the upper terrace, granite rosettes with spillways in the span of arches of the retaining wall, a fence with cast iron grating, wickets - in artistic drawing which include branches with stems down, which symbolizes a departed, extinct life .
About 46 species of trees and shrubs are planted on the territory of the complex. The sad and solemn works of domestic and foreign composers sound over the memorial as an eternal reminder of the harsh times of the siege.
The Piskarevsky Memorial Ensemble is a unique composition where architecture, sculpture, poetry and music are fused together.
