The Heroic Defenders of Leningrad

Small section of the "Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad".Leningrad, or St. Petersburg as it is now known again was under siege by the Germans in the second world war. That siege lasted for 900 days. The only way the people could get food and supplies was over the ice of frozen lakes in te winter. In January and February 1942 about 200,000 people died for example. The total deathtoll is unsure, it runs between 640.000 to 800.000 (on the Russian side, for Leningrad alone).I've been there and seen some photographs of the total destruction of large parts of St. Petersburg and its surroundings. Some Petersburg writers also tell about it in books. Today they are still restoring parts of Pavlovsk and Tsarkoe Selo (the Catherine Palace) for example. Leningrad had an unimaginable hard time, as did the whole of Russia with their tens of millions of deaths during the second world war. It puts the war in Western Europe in a whole other perspective.In 1975 a big monument for the defenders was erected on Victory square. When you come from the international airport and head towards Nevsky Prospect you will run straight into it. The monument is great, but the surroundings are awful (70's style flats).This photo is only a very small section of it. It contains soldiers, sailors and grieving mothers. It was designed by Sergei Speransky and Valentin Kamenensky.