ST PETERSBURG (JUNE 21-25)
This has been on the 'bucket list' since nearly visiting Leningrad, as it was back then, in 1989 but with my schedule being changed at the last minute left me with a life long desire to visit this most beautiful city. The historical significance of St Petersburg in Russia's cultural and political development in all of it's manifestations has greatly contributed to this want to return to Russia. After our short visit on this occasion and barely scratching the 'things to do' surface, we both now have a stronger urge to return.
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| Our digs STREET SCENES                      
TZARS SUMMER GARDENS
     
THE HERMITAGE & PALACE SQUARE
              
CHURCH of the SAVIOUR on SPILLED BLOOD
  
TZARS SUMMER PALACE 'PETERHOF'
    
(photos courtesy of Ngaire a/c no card put back in camera!)
POST SCRIPT
Diary evidence of 11 year old Tanya Sanchevs presented at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials notes:The starvation and deaths of her sister,then grandmother, then brother, then uncle, then another uncle, then mother. The last entry "Sanchevs all dead, everyone died only Tanya is left".Tanya Sanchevs died of dystrophy shortly after the siege ended.
The siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days and was personally ordered by Hitler in September 1941, just 3 months after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitlers order stated that Leningrad, along with all of it's 3,385,000 inhabitants, was to be erased from the earth. No capitulation was to be accepted. The reason for Hitlers obsession with Leningrad was primarily ideological as it was the home to the birth of the 1918 Bolshevik revolution under Lenin's leadership. In 1914, at the outbreak of WW 1, St Peterburg's name was changed to Petrograd as it was less German sounding. Russia entered the WW 1 against Germany. It remained Petrograd until 1924, the year of Lenin's death, when it was named Leningrad. It reverted back to St Petersburg after the counter revolutionary coup in 1991. The outer St Petersburg area, or Oblast, is still known as Leningrad.
Economic and human losses resulting from the siege exceeded those of the battle of Stalingrad, Moscow and the fire bombing of Tokyo put together. Civilian losses alone, the majority through starvation, were 800,000. Over the period 1942/3 1.74 million people were evacuated of which over 414,000 were children. Tens of thousands of these died through starvation and disease.
From November 1941 through to February 1942 citizens were rationed 125 grams of bread per day 50% of it being sawdust. Weather conditions over this period were regularly at -30 C with most of the cities utilities and infrastructure out of service. The death toll peaked during January and February 1942 at 100,000 per month. Total deaths of Russian military personal and civilians over the period of the siege was 1.5 million.
Also on orders direct from Hitler Catherine's Palace, Peterhof and other historic sites outside of the Russian defensive zone were looted then destroyed with artwork and priceless valuables being transported back to Germany. Reconstructive work is still being carried out on Catherine's Palace.
Memorial to the Leningrad Seige
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