From today’s St. Petersburg to the horrors of Leningrad under siege

Seventy years ago, at 20:00 on January 27, 324 guns fired 24 salutes in honor of the final lifting of the blockade. It was the only salute during the war, and was not repeated in Moscow. RBTH presents a series of photo collages that combine frightful scenes of the Leningrad Blockade (1941-1944) with bright views of present-day Saint Petersburg.

The beginning of Nevsky Prospekt. The famous Admiralty spire is visible in the background.

Pedestrians pass an abandoned trolleybus at 174 Nevsky Prospekt. Without electricity it was impossible to operate a public transportation system.

Soldiers with a barrage balloon on Lomonosov Square on the banks of the Fontanka River

Women tend a garden plot in front of St Isaac's Cathedral. Many of the city’s parks were dug up and turned into vegetable gardens in order to provide food for the city.

The intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street. Pedestrians passing a detachment of soldiers.

Citizens survey shell damage in Dmitrovsky Lane, near Vladimirsky Cathedral.

Peterhof. Nazi policemen outside the local police office at 3 Razvodnaya Street.

The Catherine Palace in Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo). German soldiers looting the palace.

Soviet intelligence agents outside the Catherine Palace.

Peterhof. Soviet military personnel on horseback. Behind them is the wreckage of the Grand Palace and the Samson Fountain.

Girls on Konnogvardeisky (Horse Guards) Boulevard.

Schoolboys in the Petrograd District doing parade drills on Zverinskaya Street. The Peter and Paul Fortress is visible in the background.

A line of prisoners files past 186 Moskovsky Prospekt.

A street patrol pauses near Staro-Kalinkin Bridge and the Fontanka River.

A woman directs traffic in front of a bombed-out building at the intersection of Voznesensky Prospekt and the Fontanka River.