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St.Petersburg to mark 69th anniversary of lifting the Siege of Leningrad

A funeral ceremony will be held at the Church in honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian land in the Moscow Park in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, January 27 (Itar-Tass) – St. Petersburg will mark the 69th anniversary of lifting the 900-day WWII siege on Sunday. On January 27, 1944, after a two-week offensive, the Soviet troops fully lifted the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

The city has been celebrating January 27th as “The Leningrad Victory Day” since then. By tradition, the commemorations will start outside building No.14 on Nevsky Prospect which has a warning inscription on its wall: “Citizens! This side of the street is particularly dangerous during artillery bombardments.”

Memorial ceremonies will take place at the Piskaryovskoye memorial cemetery and other places of common burials of the people of Leningrad and soldiers who defended the city during the war.

A funeral ceremony will be held at the Church in honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian land in the Moscow Park in St. Petersburg. The church was built at a place of a crematorium where the corpses of dead people were burnt during the siege.

War veterans, the survivors of the Leningrad siege and members of patriotic youth clubs will gather for a rally outside the “Broken Ring” memorial in the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Siege survivors who have arrived in St. Petersburg for the 22nd congress from various parts of Russia, the CIS states and foreign countries will take part in the festivities. Together with representatives of 17 veteran organizations of St. Petersburg they will be present at a concert at the Oktyabrsky concert hall on Sunday evening in which well-known Russian singers, actors and movie stars will take part.

Evenings and meetings will be held at other stages in St. Petersburg.

A large-scale re-enactment of the battles that took place on January 27, 1944 will take place near “The Volunteers” memorial on the St. Petersburg highway and in the Rzhevsky woodland park. Fireworks will be fired from the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress at 21:00 Moscow time.

The siege of Leningrad started on September 8, 1941 and lasted for 900 days until January 27, 1944. Over that time, 150,000 shells and 15,000 bombs were fired and dropped on the city. The minimal daily bread ratio during the unbelievably cold winter of 1941-1942 reached 125 grams. The 900-day heroic defense of Leningrad became an unexampled feat in the history of mankind.

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