Arkhangelsk: Monuments & Memorials

On our way to the open-air museum we planned to visit, our guide stopped at a beach overlooking the Northern Dvina River. Huh! Sure, it was a warm, sunny day ... but not nearly warm enough for us to consider a swim.

Turns out that this spot is rich in monuments and memorials ... all dedicated to the WWII era.

Since photo-captions are character-limited, I’ll explain each monument here ...

Monument to the Participants of the Arctic Convoys ... memorializes the American, British and Icelandic navies that protected the merchant convoys that brought aid to the Soviet Union under the lend-lease program of WWII.

Monument to the Seal ... the hunting of which sustained the local people and helped them to survive through the war years.

Victory War Monument ... dedicated to the lives lost in defense of the USSR during WWII.

Monument to Peter the Great (a little further down the road from the beach) ... erected in 1914, it consists of a statue of the Czar on a pedestal. Ironic, as Mui later noted, since Peter the Great pretty much signed the economic death warrant for the city when he established Petrograd (now St Petersburg).Read more