Piskarevskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg

Piskarevskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg is the largest memorial necropolis in the world. More than 0.5 million people are buried here. It is the same monument of the WWII, although there were no large-scale battles, like the Battle of Stalingrad or the Battle on the Prokhorovskoye field. However, the Siege of Leningrad was as important a battle as the others were. 

The German offensive according to the Barbarossa Plan, which began on June 22, 1941, developed in three main directions: to Moscow, to St. Petersburg (formerly. Leningrad) and Kiev. These three industrial centers of the Soviet Union were very important for the existence of the state, so they received the most powerful blows.  

However, despite the huge losses, the resistance of the Soviet troops was very stubborn and the Germans did not have enough forces to capture all three industrial areas before the winter of 1941. In the south, Kiev was taken on September 19. In the north, on September 9, the Germans broke through in the area of the Shlisselburg Fortress to Lake Ladoga and were able to block Leningrad`s transport links with the rest of the country. However, the capture of such a large city in a short time was impossible, so Hitler decided to withdraw all tank forces from the Leningrad Front and concentrate them to capture Moscow. Thus began the Siege of Leningrad.

The Siege of Leningrad 

The siege of Leningrad with daily shelling is the battle waged by the residents of the city in the absence of food and other resources. At the moment when the German troops closed the blockade ring in Leningrad there were more than 500 thousand soldiers (4 armies), as well as more than 2.5 million civilians. There was no possibility for such a large number of people to be supplied with food on the ground: only by planes or by ships across Lake Ladoga. 

Considering that Leningrad was defended by large forces of the Soviet Army, the Germans decided not to storm the city, fearing heavy losses on their part. They decided to wait for the defenders` forces to weaken due to hunger. At the same time, they understood that there were many civilians in Leningrad who could also die of starvation, but their exit from the city through the German battle formations was prohibited. 

The siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941, to January 18, 1943. For almost 2.5 years, residents of Leningrad experienced an extreme shortage of food. The distribution of bread to the population was carried out by cards. At first, the daily ration was about 500 grams of bread per day, but then the norm began to be reduced. People started dying of hunger.

Mass graves at Piskarevskoye cemetery 

People who died en masse in their apartments and on the streets were buried at the Piskarevskoye Cemetery, on the northeastern outskirts of Leningrad. This cemetery was established in 1939. The city authorities planned to create a cemetery here for ordinary burials, but the war made adjustments. 

With the beginning of the mass death of people from starvation, people were brought here for burial without registering their names. They were buried in mass graves. It was important for the city authorities to prevent epidemics in the city due to the large number of corpses on the streets. 

The largest number of burials at the Piskarevskoye cemetery occurred in the winter of 1941-42. It was especially frosty, but the main problem was the capture of Tikhvin by the Germans on November 8, 1941. Through this city, there was a single railway road to Lake Ladoga, which was cut. There was only air supply left, but for 3 million people it is impossible to transport such a quantity of food by aircraft. 

The ration for residents of besieged Leningrad had to be reduced to 125 grams. This led to widespread famine. These days, up to 10,000 people a day were buried at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. On December 24, 1941, after persistent fighting, Tikhvin was liberated and the movement of trains along the "Road of Life" to Lake Ladoga was restored. 

In just 2.5 years of the Siege of Leningrad, more than 500 thousand people died (of which about 470 thousand civilians). Most of them were buried at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. Some sources give figures that there may be up to 1 million people who died during the Siege of Leningrad. 

Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery 

Considering the scale of burials at the Piskarevskoye cemetery, construction of a Memorial Cemetery began immediately after the end of WWII. The main alley with a length of 300 meters has been created at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. The Eternal Flame is burning at the beginning of the alley. On the other side of the alley, there is a monument to the Motherland. The Eternal Flame at the Piskarevskoye Cemetery was lit on May 9, 1960. 

The area of the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery is 26 hectares. On both sides of the main alley, there are huge mass graves. On each grave, there are granite steles where the years are written, during which burials were held at this place. There are also nominal burials here, but there are not many of them. 

There are two pavilions at the entrance to the Piskarevskoye cemetery. On one of them hangs a marble plaque where is written: "From September 8, 1941 to January 22, 1944, 107,158 aerial bombs were dropped on the city, 148,478 shells were fired, 16,744 people were killed, 33782 wounded, 641,803 people died of hunger."