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History–Tours
19418 September 1941–27 January 1944 · St Petersburg (then Leningrad)

Siege of Leningrad

The central area of Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, St Petersburg, seen from the entrance
Photo: Ijuedt. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

German and Finnish forces cut Leningrad off by land for almost 900 days. Bombing, shelling and the famine of the first winter killed some 800,000 civilians or more, many buried in mass graves at Piskaryovskoye. Supplies came across frozen Lake Ladoga on the 'Road of Life'. The city's survival became a central Soviet story of the war.

Travel advisory. Russia: Western governments advise against all travel because of the war in Ukraine, the risk of arbitrary detention and very limited consular help. We list this event for reference, and don't list guides here until travel is possible again.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Piskaryovskoye Memorial CemeteryMass graves of hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Museum of the Defence and Siege of LeningradRation cards, diaries and objects of daily life under siege.Map ↗

More from the Second World War

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.