UPDATE - Russia marks 80th anniversary of liberation of Leningrad

ADDS STATEMENT BY RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN AT ST. PETERSBURG CEREMONY

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Saturday marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the city of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, from Nazi occupation.

Leningrad is the only city in the world history with a multimillion population that could withstand an almost 900-day siege – Nazi Germany’s forces besieged Leningrad for 872 days, from Sept. 8, 1941 until Jan. 27, 1944.

The siege was broken on Jan. 18, 1943. On Jan. 27, 1944, a solemn salute was given to mark the end of the siege. By this time, no more than 800,000 out of 3 million who lived in Leningrad and its suburbs before the siege were alive.

Most of the casualties died of hunger as Germans blocked all food supplies to the city and people were only able to get some scarce shipments through a very fragile route via Ladoga Lake.

Memorial events took place across Russia, with the main ones in St. Petersburg where President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the Landmark Stone monument at Nevsky Pyatachok, a complex where one of the most tragic and heroic pages in the history of the Leningrad Battle were written.

Speaking at the event in St. Petersburg, Putin said that the Siege of Leningrad was "unprecedented" in terms of its "cruelty and cynicism."

"More than a million residents of Leningrad became victims of cold, starvation, and endless attacks. This information was revealed as a result of research done by historians and scholars and proven in court with documents," Putin said.

Work will continue to "investigate other crimes committed by the Nazis during their war against the civilian population of our country," he added.

The defenders of Nevsky Pyatachok daily repelled 12-16 enemy attacks, while each day Germans were dropping some 50,000 bombs on them. According to various estimates, some 100,000 people died there.

Among those who fought at Nevsky Pyatachok was Putin's father, Vladimir Putin Sr. He was seriously wounded and saved from death by a comrade-in-arms, who carried him on his shoulders, under fire, across the Neva River, to the nearest hospital.

Putin then visited the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, where he laid a wreath at the Motherland Monument, engraved with the inscription "Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten."

The Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery became the main mass resting place in the winter of 1941-1942. Some 420,000 residents of Leningrad and 70,000 soldiers/defenders of the city were buried there in mass graves.

The liberation of Leningrad marked a U-turn in World War II, as after the defeat near Leningrad and other places, Germans started losing.

The Soviet Union entered World War II in 1941 after Nazi Germany attacked it and helped win it in 1945. The war took the lives of almost 30 million Soviet citizens.