Guest Author - Marianne Gibson

The rich and turbulent history of St Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad has left more galleries, churches and museums than you can shake a stick at, and certainly more than the average 3-day trip there can possibly encompass. You also need to leave time just to walk around, probably the best way to understand this most atmospheric of cities. I’ll admit, the museum of the siege of Leningrad doesn’t have the awe-inspiring grandeur of the Winter Palace. Nor is it in a particularly central location. But when you walk back out of it, you will see the streets around you in a different light.

The siege of Leningrad was an important part of the German campaign against the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Blockading Russia’s second city was an act of symbolic power as well as strategic importance, designed to break the spirit of the people by strangling their former capital. Germany was assisted in the attack by Finnish troops, Finland participating for reasons of its own. The memorial museum tracks the progress and effects of the blockade, looking at military strategy on both sides, and giving a moving picture of life trapped inside the starving city.

The death toll in Leningrad was horrific, reaching between 600,000 and a million during the 900-day siege. In the museum there are heart-breaking photographs and stories, as well as a fascinating picture of resilience and ingenuity in desperate circumstances. Particularly interesting was the story of the ‘road of life’, a shaky winter lifeline over the frozen lake Ladoga, across which many thousands fled the city, and supplies were brought in, all under constant threat of German bombardment.

Strangely enough, the exhibit which made the strongest impression on me was arguably a piece of propaganda. During the entire time of the siege, Leningrad Radio continued to broadcast, and when there was no-one to speak, they just left a ticking metronome, ‘the beating heart of Leningrad’, letting the outside world know that life in the city went on. Just goes to show the strength of a symbol.


The Memorial Museum of the Leningrad Blockade is at;
9 Solyannoi Pereulok
It is open from 10am-5pm daily, except Wednesdays and the last Thursday of each month. Last admission, 4pm