Cemeteries and memorials to visit Russia

This commemorative site extends into a large park near the city centre on a huge esplanade. We come here to a family and this is an opportunity to put in front of a collection of Red Army tanks, vehicles and planes. The soldiers are of course glorified and the monument to the dead is still flowery. At the same time as a renewal of religion is observed, Russians remain very respectful of the sacrifice of the generations of World war II, the so-called patriotic war.

Having regained his name in September 1991, St. Petersburg did not forget that she first called Leningrad, a name loaded with the weight of a often tragic story. Dedicated to the heroic resistance of its inhabitants during the long blockade imposed by the Nazi armies, this monument erected on the square of Victory, in the south of the city, forcefully recalls this. Built from 1957 by the famous architects Anikouchine, Speranski and Kamenski, who were all veterans of the war, the monument was officially inaugurated only on May 9, 1975, on the occasion of Victory's 30 ^th anniversary. A set of sculptures on Victory Square illustrates the courage of the Russian population during the blockade, and especially solidarity between generations and social classes.

Inaugurated three years later, the memorial of the monument, in the basement, is struck by all the names of the heroes of the Soviet Union, knights of the 3rd rank, hero of socialist work, who have distinguished themselves in Leningrad; adding to the solemnity of this place of remembrance, 900 lanterns illuminate the underground room, one for each day of the blockade of the city. Unfortunately, a blockade that has been long enough to allow this symbolic light to be able to see without difficulty the documents exposed behind the windows that tell the history of the defence of the city. A poignant black and white documentary shows daily life during the terrible winter of 1941-1942: 41 ° C thermometer, streets strewn with corpses, bombed buildings… In the centre of the room, a model shows the line of the Leningrad blockade. Hitler thought it easy to obtain the surrender of this city whose reserves were bombed. But the population resists, and the city is encircled by September 1941. For some time, the city is ravitaillée by Lake Lagoda, on which the trucks can pass in winter. But famine is fast and, allied to cold, more than 1 200 000 deaths out of the 3 million Leningrad people, almost half of the city… At the end of 1943, Russians receive significant quantities of armaments from the west Ural and can counter.

In January 1944, the blockade was lifted. The exhibition also commemorates this immense relief by a large mosaic fresco representing the liberation of the city. It contrasts with a second fresco, on the opposite wall, which illustrates the distress of the people in these terrible days.

Next to the Dormition Cathedral, in the shade of peaceful lime trees, is the necropolis of some of the family members of Tsar Boris Godunov, whose life inspired Pushkin's play of the same name (1825), Mussorgsky's opera of the same name (1869), as well as Zulawski's film of the same name (1989). The necropolis houses his son Theodore, his wife (daughter of Maluta Skuratov, the cruel executioner of Ivan the Terrible), his daughter Olga and himself. Boris' parents are buried in Kostroma, in the monastery of St. Hyptati.

Originally outside the city, Vagankovskoye is associated with the Moscow plague epidemic of 1771, which killed thousands. This cemetery is off the beaten track, but is a regular walk for Muscovites. There are graves of many idols: Vladimir Vyssotsky, Bulat Okudzava, Sergei Essenin and many other famous Soviet musicians, poets and actors. On the other side of the street is the Armenian cemetery with its shimmering colors and soft blues. It is worth a visit.