Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Here lie the people of Leningrad
Here are the citizens - men, women and children
And besides them the Red Army soldiers
Who gave their lives
Defending you, Leningrad,
Cradle of the Revolution,
Their noble names we cannot number
So many lie beneath the eternal granite
But of those honoured by this stone
Let no one forget
Let nothing be forgotten.
Olga Bergolts, Siege survivor
TEMPLE
BUDDHIST TEMPLE
beautiful
datsan
(temple) was built between 1909 and 1915 at the instigation of Pyotr
Badmaev, a Buddhist physician to Tsar Nicholas II. Money was raised from all over
Russia, and as far afield as Thailand and England, by various Buddhist organisations;
it even gained the support of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa.
In the 1930s the communists shut the temple, arrested many of the monks and used
the building as a military radio station. In the 1960s it was taken over by the Zoolo-
gical Institute and used as laboratories. Thankfully, however, the damage was not par-
ticularly profound and the
datsan
was returned to the city's small Buddhist commu-
nity in 1990, since when it has been renovated. Visitors are welcome.
HIST
HISTORIC
ORICAL B
AL BUILDING
UILDING
FINLAND STATION
(
Финляндский вокзал
; pl Lenina 6; Ploshchad Lenina)
Finland Station is where Len-
in finally arrived in 1917 after 17 years in exile abroad. Here he gave his legendary
speech from the top of an armoured car to a crowd who had heard of, but never seen
