Ничто не забыт и никто не забыто

22.06 is the day WWII started for Russia. This day, I took a tour titled the "Siege of Leningrad". We went around the city, as we were told sad realities Leningraders faced during this time.  We ended the tour at a major memorial cemetery.

There are huge mass graves dug at this memorial site. Those with the hammer and sickle are citizens, those with the stars were in the military.

This next section is a text that was written after the Siege and was used in the memorial. The tour guide knew it by heart and recited it for us with her back to it. They was she said everyone word made everyone feel very emotional and this day along with Victory day is very special to Russians, especially Leningraders.

This is a picture of the amount of bread the citizens had to live on every day. 5 oz for regular citizens (women, children, elderly etc.) and 10 oz for military and those working in the factories.

These are diary pages from a little girl. She unfortunately did not survive the siege. After she was eventually evacuated she died shortly after due to lack of nutrition and starvation. The pages simply list what days various family members died. Nothing carefree or happy in this diary of a child.

Before leaving we saw this amazing swan, just thought it was worth taking a picture of.

This boat was the one used in the holiday Alie Parusa (Алые Паруса), which celebrates highs school graduation.

***please excuse my slowly sinking level of writing in English! Russia is taking over, and I keep thinking everything is phonetic, even in English, which it is not.