St Petersburg, Russia - Russia's second-largest city is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the start of a deadly 29-month-long Nazi siege during the World War II that cut its population by nearly a million people.
Public loudspeakers in St Petersburg, along with radio and television stations, on Thursday morning broadcast roaring air-raid warnings and sounds of a metronome. The metronome sound was used during the siege to inform residents of air raids and all-clear announcements.
The 872-day-long siege of the city, then known as Leningrad, is one of the darkest moments of Russia's participation in the war. A million city residents are believed to have died of hunger and bombings and while defending the city's outskirts. - Sapa-AP