The main burial place for the victims of the Nazi blockade in WWII is a stark and poignant memorial to the tragedy. Some half a million people were laid to rest here between 1941 and 1943, during the siege.
From metro station Ploshchad Muzhestva, take marshrutka 123 in the direction of Ladozhskaya metro, which passes by the entrance to the cemetery.
Originally, this area was just an enormous pit where unnamed and unmarked bodies were dumped. In 1960 the remodelled cemetery was opened and has been an integral part of the city’s soul ever since. Every year on Victory Day (9 May) the cemetery is packed out with mourners, many of whom survived the blockade or lost close relatives to starvation.