St. Petersburg is beautiful in every way. However, it attracts tourists to its streets not only with royal palaces, magnificent monuments, museums and other sights. No less interesting are its necropolises. And not even the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, not the Novodevichy Cemetery, where many famous people found their last refuge. There is another mournful place in St. Petersburg, which many have heard about. This is the Piskarevsky cemetery. A churchyard that does not impress visitors with an abundance of ancient or rich modern monuments and ornate epitaphs. The necropolis, consisting of practically only long hills of mass graves, in which a huge number of those who died in the terrible days of the Leningrad blockade are buried. The names of many of them are still unknown, and only modest monuments perpetuate their memory - granite slabs, on which the year of burial is engraved. And instead of an epitaph - a sickle and a hammer for the townspeople who died of starvation, and a star - for the defending warriors.
To remember and know…
Piskarevsky cemetery is nothing more than a besieged necropolis. A mournful monument that has become for all the inhabitants of the planet something like a symbol of courage, stamina and tremendous fortitude of those who defended Leningrad, and those who worked in it with all their might for the sake of victory, freezing and dying of hunger. St. Petersburg. Piskarevsky cemetery. These are all synonyms for the words blockade, death, hunger, honor and glory. And only here, at the Piskarevsky cemetery, one can literally feel the horror of those terrible nine hundred days when death every second, grinning evilly, could take anyone, regardless of age, gender and position. And to realize how many troubles and misfortunes the Second World War brought, and not only to the blockade, but to the whole world.
History
I must say that today at school, students receive not quite correct information about this necropolis. According to the materials of the textbook, the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery is a large mass grave for those who died during the blockade and the war. The time of burial is from 1941 to 1945.
But things are a little different. Even before the war, Leningrad was a huge metropolis. Non-residents aspired to the city of Petra no less than to the capital itself. In the late thirties, there were no less than three million inhabitants. People got married, had children and died too. And therefore, in the thirty-seventh, due to the lack of places in the city graveyards, the city executive committee decided to open a new cemetery. The choice fell on Piskarevka - the northern outskirts of Leningrad. Thirty hectares of land began to be prepared for new burials, and the first graves appeared here already in 1939. And in the fortieth Piskarevsky cemetery became the burial place of those who died during the Finnish War. Even today, these individual graves can be found in the northwestern part of the churchyard.
It was so…
But who could have imagined then that such a terrible day would come when they would have to urgently dig a trench, no, not even dig, but hollow the ground frozen through to bury ten thousand forty-three people at once. That was the twentieth day of February forty-second. And, I must say, the dead are still “lucky”. Because sometimes on a huge field covered with snow, which everyone today knows as the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, for three, or even four days, the dead lay stacked in piles. And their number sometimes "went off scale" for twenty, or even twenty-five thousand. Terrible days, terrible times. It also happened that along with the dead waiting for their turn, they had to bury their own gravediggers - people died right in the cemetery. But someone had to do this work too…
For what?
How could it happen that a modest, almost rural cemetery yesterday, today - a monument of world significance? Why was this rural churchyard destined for such a terrible fate? And for what reason, having heard the words of the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery, I want to kneel. The reason for this is a terrible war. And those who started it. Moreover, the fate of Leningrad was already predetermined on September 29, 1941. The "arbiter" of fate - the "great" Fuhrer - adopted a directive that day, according to which it was supposed to simply wipe the city off the face of the earth. Everything is simple - blockade, constant shelling, massive bombing. The Nazis, you see, believed that they were not at all interested in the existence of such a city as Petersburg. He had absolutely no value to them. However, what else could be expected from these non-humans… And who cares about their values…
How many died…
The history of the Leningrad blockade is far from what Soviet propaganda said about it. Yes, this is selfless courage, this is a fight against the enemy, this is boundless love for your native city and your homeland. But above all, it is horror, death, hunger, which sometimes pushed them to terrible crimes. And for some, these desperate years have become a time of recovery, someone was able to cash in on the endless human grief, and someone lost everything they could - family, children, he alth. And some are life. The latter were 641,803 people. Of these, 420,000 found their last refuge in the mass graves of the Piskarevsky cemetery. And many were buried without documents. In addition, the defenders of the unbending city rest on this churchyard. Those - 70,000.
After the war
The most terrible years - forty-first, and then forty-second - are left behind. In 1943, Leningraders did not die by the thousands, then the blockade ended, and after it the war. Piskarevsky cemetery was open for individual burials until the fiftieth year. In those days, as you know, all speeches about total burials were considered seditious. And therefore, of course, the mass laying of wreaths at the Piskarevsky cemetery was by no means the most popular event. But people did not seek to carry flowers to the graves of their own and other people's loved ones. They carried bread… What was so lacking in besieged Leningrad. Something that could have saved the life of each of those remaining in Piskarevka's land in due time.
Construction of the memorial
Today, every resident of St. Petersburg knows what the Piskarevskoe cemetery is. How to get there? It is enough to ask such a question to anyone you meet in order to immediately receive an exhaustive answer to it. In the post-war years, the situation was not so unambiguous. And only after the death of Stalin, it was decided to build a memorial on this mournful land. The project was developed by architects A. V. Vasiliev, E. A. Levinson. Officially, the Piskarevskoe Cemetery memorial was opened in 1960. The ceremony took place on the ninth of May, on the day of the fifteenth anniversary of the victory over the hated fascism. The Eternal Flame was lit in the necropolis, and from that moment on, the laying of flowers at the Piskarevskoye cemetery became an official event, which is held in accordance with all festive dates dedicated to those events that are actually related to the war and blockade days. The main ones are Siege Day and, of course, Victory Day.
What the necropolis looks like today
In the center of it there is an unusually majestic monument: the Motherland rises above the granite stele (granite sculpture, the authors of which are Isaeva V. V. and Taurit R. K.). In her hands she holds a garland of oak leaves, braided with a mourning ribbon. From her figure to the Eternal Flame, a mourning alley stretches, the length of which is three hundred meters. All of it is covered with red roses. And on both sides of it are mass graves, in which those who fought, lived, defended and died for Leningrad are buried.
The same sculptors created all the images that are on the stele: human figures bowed in mourning over the mourning wreaths, holding lowered banners in their hands. There are stone pavilions at the entrance to the memorial. They house a museum.
Museum display
In principle, the Piskarevsky cemetery itself has the status of a museum. There are guided tours here daily. As for the exposition itself, located in the pavilions, unique archival documents are collected here, not only ours, but also German ones. It also contains lists of people who are buried here, however, they, of course, are far from complete. In addition, the museum exposition contains letters from the blockade survivors, their diaries, household items and much more. For those who would like to know if any of the relatives or friends who died during the blockade are buried at the Piskarevsky cemetery, an electronic book has been specially installed in which you can enter the necessary data andget information. Which is very convenient, because, although many years have passed since then, the war still reminds of itself, and not everyone who suffered from it knows exactly which grave to go to to bow to their untimely departed loved ones.
What else is there in the necropolis
In the depths of it there are walls with bas-reliefs. They are engraved with lines dedicated to her city by Olga Berggolts, a poetess who survived all nine hundred days of the siege. Behind the bas-reliefs is a marble pool into which visitors throw coins. Probably, in order to return here again and again, to pay tribute to those who died in order to prevent fascism from eradicating their hometown from the face of the earth. A mournful and amazing place Piskarevsky cemetery. How to get to it, you can find out at the end of the article. There we will provide all the necessary information for tourists. But before that, I need to say a few words about something completely different.
What the memorial is missing
If you listen to the feedback from visitors and residents of St. Petersburg themselves, you can come to a disappointing conclusion. Yes, nothing is forgotten. And yes, no one is forgotten. But today, many who come to bow to the graves of the defenders of Leningrad and the dead of the blockade note that they lack an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. And almost unanimously they say that a church should be built at the Piskarevsky cemetery. Yes, such that people of any religion could pray for their own, and not only their dead. In the meantime, only a smallchapel in the name of John the Baptist. Sculptures, monuments and fences are not enough to somehow overcome the spirit of despair hovering over the graves.
Piskarevsky cemetery: how to get there
How to get to the memorial museum? Its address: St. Petersburg, Piskarevskoye Cemetery, Prospect Nepokorennykh, 72. Buses No. 80, 123 and 128 run from the Metro Muzhestva station. Bus route No. 178 runs from the Akademicheskaya metro station. The final stop is Piskarevskoye Cemetery. How to get to the memorial on holidays? Special buses run from the same Courage Metro station these days.
Tourist information
- The memorial is equipped in such a way that people with disabilities can easily get acquainted with both its territory and the museum exposition.
- There is a comfortable hotel near the cemetery.
- The Museum Pavilion is open from 9 am to 6 pm (daily).
- Tours of the cemetery are also held daily. In winter and autumn, from nine in the morning to six in the evening, in summer and spring, their time has been extended until 21:00.
- You need to sign up for a tour in advance by calling one of the phone numbers that can be found on the official website of the memorial complex.
- On average, the memorial complex is visited by about half a million tourists a year.
- Funeral solemn ceremonies are held four times a year.
Memorable dates (flower laying)
- January 27 - the day the city was liberated from the fascist blockade.
- May 8 - in honor ofanniversary of the Victory.
- June 22 - the day the war began.
- September 8 - the day the blockade began.
