Victory Day in Russia 🇷🇺 | What May 9th Looks Like in Saint Petersburg

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Hi everyone, it's Russian girl, and today we arrived to the city center of St. Petersburg to celebrate this special day here, the 9th of May, the day of victory. You already see how many people also came here to see the concert, to see the parade, and I want you to share this day with me because I'm going to take you to the concert. I'm going to show you the parade, the immortal regiment that we have also here in the city center, and also there is one special place that I really want to show you is the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad. So, if there is something you can be interested in, keep watching this video. Let's go to see the concert first.

[00:00:51]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Behind of me, there is a Dvorcovaya Square, and in the morning there was a parade. But we Russian citizens, locals, we usually watch parade from the TV because it's impossible to came to see it or to watch it from somewhere around because all the streets are blocked for security reasons. So, I will show you the parts of the parade that was on TV from Moscow.

[00:01:55]>> [music] >> Moscow In St. Petersburg, it was a little parade but still it was really nice.

[00:02:10]>> [cheering] >> So, we came to the city center of St. Petersburg to to >> [music] [singing] [music] >> Yeah.

[00:03:51]So, we came to the city center of St. Petersburg to join the immortal regiment, but we couldn't because the all the Nevsky Prospect now is closed and you cannot enter to to join all the people who walk with photos like in this way. I guess this man wants to join them, but he will not be able to. Um because all Nevsky Prospect, all the street where all people walk, it's closed. And you can just uh enter in the initial point where all the people gather and they start walking on Nevsky Prospect. That's why now we're walking to another metro station that is open.

[00:04:28]And from there we will try to join all people where the initial point is. They they closed all the part for protocol security for don't have struggles in all the way because if the situation that is Russia passing now, it's better to have the control of all the people in different points. It's for that reason. Yeah, so security measures are the first priority here.

[00:05:12]That was just a small part of the immortal regiment because to the main one that was on Nevsky Prospect with with half of a million people actually this year, we couldn't join them because all Nevsky was closed. And but now we saw a little small version of it. That was also very nice of activists, of people who really wanted to join, but couldn't, I think. We came to the museum of the siege of Leningrad, but before we enter, I want to tell you one story.

[00:05:38]This is a really personal story that that is connected to my granddad. Um a lot of people were affected by the war and they lost some family members. And my family was not an exception.

[00:05:51]Actually, my grand- grandparents were taking part in the war as soldiers, as officer as officers, as just people who wanted to make a research on the war field.

[00:06:03]But, I've never seen them. But, I was really close to my granddad, and my granddad, before he died a few years ago, he had this time to tell me all the histories of all the memories that he had as a child when the war just started. When the war started, he was around 10 years old. So, even his um older brothers, who were just 14 years old, they were already going to the front line to to take part in the war, to fight. But, he was too small for that.

[00:06:36]And um he was telling me that there was the time when they didn't have food. He was originally from Ukraine, from the um place from the city where all these fightings are going right now with the special military operation and everything.

[00:06:54]And um so, he was a child, and it was a hard time. There was no food. And in his family, there were like six or seven children.

[00:07:05]And he was telling me that he used to sleep as a child in one bed with his little sister.

[00:07:11]And every morning, he was waking up, and they were going to hunt to these suricates, the animals like kind of mice that live in the southern part southern regions.

[00:07:25]And one day, he woke up, and he saw his parents coming to his bed where he was lying with his sister, and the parents took his sister, and they just left. And from that moment, he never seen his sister smaller sister before. Again, sorry.

[00:07:45]And she just died. She just died and parents had to take her from him.

[00:07:51]And he didn't understand even what's happening. But after some days, of course, he he just understood that his smaller sister died. I hope that no one ever again will have to go through this experience again. But when we will enter for now to this museum, you will see which how hard this time was for everyone, especially in St. Petersburg, that was called Leningrad.

[00:08:18]Let's go.

[00:08:29]>> [music] >> This is how people lived during the war.

[00:08:57]The apartments were really simple.

[00:08:59]Table, a bed, a cupboard, and also because the it was winter, here they have the special place with chimney to feel a little warmer.

[00:09:25]The siege of Leningrad last for 872 days. During this time, people didn't have food supplies. They didn't they couldn't get out from the city. And the only way to get food, for example, was during the winter when the lake Ladoga Lake, well, that was close to St. Petersburg, was frozen and the trucks with food were coming on this lake because all the other parts around the city, all the other roads were closed, like they were taken by Nazis. And here is the installation of a train that took children from the Leningrad to another regions for children to save the lives of the children. So, basically, again, just the wooden beds, some chimney to warm up with woods.

[00:10:33]>> [music] [music] >> Here is another very important exposition. Here you can see because the Leningrad was disconnected from food supplies for 872 days, the time of the siege.

[00:10:52]This was the portion of bread people get every day, for one day, for the whole day. People got special cards with which which they could change for the piece of bread. And if you think that this is the bread that we can buy now in the store, it's not correct because this bread was made from some skin of animals, the materials that are used to to make the shoes. So, it was like actually not food at all, but this was the only way for people to fulfill their stomachs.

[00:11:25]>> [snorts] >> And also here you can see the picture of the like aerostats, the balloons that helped to protect the most important buildings in the city. In St. Petersburg, at the time Leningrad, more than 400 bombs were fallen down in the city. And with these satellites, with these aerostats, the people were protecting, the government was protecting the buildings because from the planes there were no radars, no special equipment to detect the buildings. And that was the way to protect the buildings for the pilots not to see them.

[00:12:05]Also, here are the diaries of people. We have one girl called Tanya Savicheva. This is not her diary, but they will be in another place.

[00:12:15]And in these diaries, people during all the siege, all the war, they were texting all their memories. And for example, in the diary of Tanya Savicheva, if you read this diary, you can see that almost every day, she's a girl, I think she was around 16 years old, she was losing one of her relatives, one of her family members.

[00:12:38]And that is terrible.

[00:12:40]And what I like about this museum is that it is really interactive. Here, for example, you can take kind of phone and listen to these diaries. Listen what people were people were saying, how bombs were falling down in the city, how people were trying to get their bodies from the streets during the winter.

[00:13:05]It was a really terrible time for everyone.

[00:13:13]This is the way how citizens were kind of warned about dangerous places. This is the installation of the war and what's written here, "Civilians, when you see the the shots from the airplanes, this street this side of the street is the most dangerous. Go to another side. And with this kind of notices, people were feeling more protected and they were more safe.

[00:13:45]The original piece of kind of motivation for people to fight against Hitler, against Nazis saying that you're the fighter of the Leningrad.

[00:13:58]Don't be scared.

[00:13:59]This is your city that you should protect. This is your birthplace.

[00:14:04]I'm not going to translate everything, but basically that gave strength to people to stand up and go to the war to protect other civilians, to protect all the city.

[00:14:18]The interesting fact is during the siege still schools were working. Children were coming to schools to continue writing, reading in the very cold place because there was no heating.

[00:14:32]Uh there was interruptions with heating.

[00:14:34]The city basically didn't work. And people continue do their jobs, do what they do.

[00:14:42]You know, to feel that all this kind of normal. That to give themselves the feeling this continue doing the routine to feel that, "Okay, things are bad, but let's try to make our days normal in the way they were.

[00:15:01]And let's hope that one day that the war will finish and these normal days will still keep being a routine, a normal routine."

[00:15:20]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> This how actually these cards to get your portion of bread looked like. The portions were really limited, so people who were given this bread were weighing them. And this basically how people came, children, adults, just came to get their bread for the whole day.

[00:16:37]This how schools looked like at the times. And look, here the numbers of all schools that were working during the wartime.

[00:16:58]The very important role women had during the war because all men they came to the war to fight, and women they were taking the roles of men. They were working in factories. For example, here you see there is the factory and they were creating some machines, some weapons.

[00:17:14]And you may notice around in the walls of the room, there are the portraits of women who were in charge of all men responsibilities, of all men work during the siege.

[00:17:33]In such a historical places like this, you really feel all the pain that people came through during the war time. And all the losses that they had, all the people, all the relatives they lost. And these people can never come back into their lives again.

[00:17:57]So, that was how we celebrate this big day when Nazism was defeated here in Russia. As we say, no one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten. We always have to remember these people who were fighting for us to have our future, for us to have our life here. I hope you enjoyed this day with me. Let me know what you think in the comments. Maybe you have some questions, and I will see you in the next video. Bye.