Siege of Leningrad Battlefield Tour
Board the bus at your hotel.
Begin your tour at the Road of Life, the only supply route to the besieged city, along which dozens of trains and trucks constantly shuttled from the lake coast to the city's supply depots. The bus will stop by a cemetery where the victims of war are buried, as well as two memorials built in the 1960s to commemorate the vital role the road played in saving Leningrad from starvation.
Explore the Road of Life Museum, which displays wartime relics telling of the heroic feat of the truck drivers who braved the lake's frozen expanses under enemy bomber and artillery fire. Next to the museum building, there is an exhibition of military and transport vehicles, complete with an airplane that delivered food supplies to the city.
Discover Oreshek Fortress, located on a tiny island at the very source of the Neva River. Soviet troops heroically defended it throughout the entire Siege.
Stop at Kirovsk, a little provincial town, for a meal in a restaurant that offers good-quality fare.
Proceed to the Nevsky Bridgehead, nicknamed "pyatachok" - "five kopeck coin". This tiny patch of land, about 3 square kilometres wide, became a common grave for almost 50,000 Soviet soldiers, making it one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Second World War. A network of trenches that you will be able to walk alongside is still clearly visible today. Several memorials and a church were built on the site.
Explore the Diorama Museum, located underneath a big bridge across the Neva River, on exactly the same place where the German fortifications and trenches along the river were successfully stormed by the Soviet infantry on January 12, 1943, opening the six-day offensive that broke the Siege. The diorama depicts the most crucial events that took place that day on an impressive 40 x 8 metre canvas. Several Soviet tanks that sank during the river crossing stand in front of the museum's entrance.
Head back to the city.
End of the tour.
