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Siege of Leningrad

 Siege of Leningrad (as the city was named from 1924 to 1991)

In September 1941, Nazi forces encircled the city - and bombarded it for 872 days, until January 1944. At the outset, the city's population, swollen with refugees, numbered three million. By the siege's end, a million or more people were dead, mostly civilians who succumbed to starvation. The assault claimed more lives than any other siege in world history.

St. Petersburg's buildings were ravaged, gut not the spirit of those who refused to surrender.

Siege of Leningrad monument: 

someone might find this monument to be hardly visible. And you would need to be able to read it to be able to understand the meaning of it.

It is the original sign from those terrific days of the Siege on the side of the street that reads, roughly: "Citizens: During artillery bombardment, this side of the street is the most dangerous".

This sign is preserved from those war times. You would need to come to the building with 1939 above the gated entryway. On the pillar to the right of the entry, notice the small length of barbed wired and a blue plaque. This is a monument to the WW II. 

The north side of the street (Nevsky Prospect) where you are standing was in the direct line of fire from Nazi shells, lobbed in from German positions southwest of the city.  

The Soviet government awarded the Order of Lenin to the people of Leningrad in 1945, paying tribute to their endurance during the grueling siege.

The city did not regain its prewar population of three million until the 1960s.