St. Petersburg is marking the 65th anniversary of the Red Army breaking the World War II blockade of Leningrad by the Nazis. But it wasn't for another year before the city was finally freed.
The deadliest siege history began in the autumn of 1941 after several unsuccessful attempts by the German army to take over the city. Leningrad was cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union for 900 days, leaving next to nothing for its 2,5 millions inhabitants. The siege claimed more than 600,000 lives. When it was finally over Stalin awarded Leningrad, as the city was then called, the status of hero city.