Yesterday I saw a side of Piter that I haven't seen before - Leningrad. We did a walking tour with Peter's (an alternative tour guide style, it involves using public transport and walking a lot), who was excellent. During WWII (or as the Russian's call it, the Great Patriotic War), 28 million Russians died, more than all the other countries put together. Apart from Stalingrad, no city suffered as Leningrad did.
Leading up to the German invasion was the Molotov-Ribbontrop pact and the division of Eastern Europe into "spheres of influence". This allowed the Germans to take Poland, and the Russians to take Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They also took a 200km strip of land from Finland in the Winter War (which lasted three months and killed 70 000 Finns and 200 000 Russians) to protect the northern approach to Leningrad. Because of this mutual pact, Stalin ordered there to be no aggression to the Germans when Hitler built up his forces on the Polish border. Germans did fly-overs across the border, and Stalin ordered the anti-aircraft guns not to fire. This put off the war for a few months, until, on the 22nd of June, 1941, the Germans flew over and dropped bombs. The Russians were so afraid of Stalin that even then they didn't fire the anti-aircraft guns, and for three days (until news reached Stalin in Moscow and he gave new orders) the Russian army sat and did nothing during the bombing, with tens of thousands killed in days. The line broken, the Russians had to retreat back, ceding hundreds of kilometres, such that by the 8th of September the Germans had reached Leningrad. They never meant to cause a siege, as Hitler planned on simply running over the city and removing it from the face of the earth (as the birthplace of communism), but general Zhukov was flown in, and through enormous sacrifice of life they managed to build a barrier to stop the Germans. Still, the Germans blocked off the southern route, and the Finns joined them and retook the land ceded in the Winter War, blocking off the northern route. Leningrad was then encircled, with the Baltic sea to the west, and Lake Ladoga to the east. The siege lasted for 900 days (until the 27th of Jan, 1944), during which over a million people were killed, which, with the evacuation of refugees, brought the population down from 3.3 million to 800 000.
We caught a tram to the southern defence line of Leningrad, which is in the outer suburbs. Trams are very cool in Piter, since they were made to railway gauge, which makes them unique. Therefore no one makes trams that work on them, so the old 1960's trams are still used. The tram network is the largest in the world. Down south we saw the intact "pill boxes" small reinforced concrete bunkers, which made up the line of defence with trenches linking up units. We also saw the "dragon teeth" - pyramid shaped concrete slabs, tank trenches (3m x 5m trenches), and "hedgehogs" (like giant caltrops made from railway lines) to stop the progression of tanks. Much of this is left along the front, so we walked along the line, looking at the old defences.
For the first 500 days of the siege, Leningrad was completely cut off. There was no firewood (so all the fireplaces were boarded up to prevent loss of heat, even now they are almost all boarded up), very little food (100g of bread was the daily ration), and no petrol or electricity to run transport. What the survivors remember the most is the silence of Leningrad during the siege, with no traffic on the street. People were too exhausted to do anything other then walk up the road to get filthy water from the canals (all water supplies were destroyed in the first wave of bombs). The first winter ('41/'42) was the third coldest winter on record, and people froze to death in their sleep without firewood. The only way limited supplies got into the city was via the "Road of Life" - when Lake Ladoga froze solid trucks could drive across the ice (always risky while the Germans were bombing the ice down), and when it was liquid boats could make the dangerous journey. The freezing/thawing times were the worst, Leningrad had to survive by itself. After a year and a half, a pincer movement succeeded, and the Russians retook a land-route so more supplies made it into the city.
We saw a KB85 tank (the heavy Russian tanks), and Peter told us about the T34, which has a fast highly mobile tank with a quick turret rotation speed, such that Russians used to drive through German lines, then turn around and fire before the Germans could, allowing them to win Kirsk, the largest tank battle in history.
We walked along the Alley of 900 days, lined with 900 birch trees, then visited the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, seeing a short film made up of silent black and white images caught during the siege. Very powerful, very solemn. Going on in the background was a metronome, the ticking of which was played on the only Leningrad radio station except when alarms were called or news was being broadcast. The metronome was meant to be like a heart-beat, and they speed it up during air raids. It is a very powerful symbol to the Leningrad survivors, since they listened to it religiously for 900 days. The radio station is still going even today, playing only the metronome.
We also walked around some of the Siege of Leningrad cemeteries, although many many more bodies are unburied. Even now 100-1000 bodies are found every year, and only a month ago a fully functional Soviet tank was pulled up from the river.
Back to Piter
While we were in the southern suburbs, Luke and I had lunch in a local bakery (mmm...). Peter joined us, and we discussed modern Russian politics (which I really should know more of than I do). We then visited the tallest Lenin statue in the world (9m) and saw the candy-cane style Chesma church, with its pink and white strips. So pretty you could eat it all up. We then caught the metro to the Haymarket, visited the flat where Dostoevsky lived while he wrote Crime and Punishment, then we walked to where Raskolnikov was meant to live, and followed his pathway down to Kokushkin most, looking out over the canal where he so often contemplated suicide, and through the streets to the pawn-brokers flat. This book meant so much to me when I read it, that it was very moving to be able to walk through the same streets myself, imagine Raskolnikov's emotions.
We had Georgian for dinner with the group, which was excellent. Including lots of beer and vodka toasts. I became quite lively, and possibly gave Luke and John shoulder rides down Nevsky Prospket. I woke up grumpy this morning, with a chipped tooth (? beer glass?)
Today
After a slow start, Luke and I spent the day wandered around the Hermitage. The beautiful Winter Palace of the Tsars, now filled with the largest art collection in the world. The tsars (especially Catherine the Great) bought up much artwork, then the Soviets pooled artwork pillaged from all over the USSR, finally, when the conquered Berlin, they took all the German artwork (including those pillaged from all over Europe by the Nazis). It is staggering. What I really enjoy more than the art is the actual rooms of the Hermitage itself, each with its own theme and with ornate ceilings and frescos. We saw all the original Classical Greek and Roman sculptures, 5000 year old Egyptian mummies, 500 000 year old paleolithic art, and ancient Russian culture. Excellent. For lunch Luke had cookies and cream icecream (the best he had ever had) and a hot chocolate, which was so thick he had to use a spoon (he said it was basically hot chocolate moose) and also the best he had ever had. For trying to be healthy I had the worst mushroom quiche I have ever had. I just bought Puskin's Tales of Belkin for the trans-Siberian.
Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 3:41PM 
