Thought-provoking and at times tear-jerking, the Memorial Museum depicts life as it was during the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by the Nazis. Artefacts, newsreels and biographical exhibits tell the story of how St Petersburg survived this appalling ordeal.
Leningrad (as St Petersburg was known during the Soviet era) was put under siege by the invading German Army in 1941. Rather than capture the city which bore the name of the founder of the Soviet Union, Hitler simply wished to wipe it from the map. There thus followed a 900-day siege aimed at starving to death Leningrad's entire population.
The museum features an exhibit on Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, composed and first performed in the battered city, as well as countless personal items in a collection which is simultaneously informative and highly sobering.