Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the 872-day siege of St Petersburg, the city - then known as Leningrad, during World War II by Nazi forces with a large military parade.
The siege of the city, then called Leningrad, lasted nearly 2½ years until the Soviet Army drove the Nazis away on Jan. 27, 1944.
The government of the erstwhile Soviet Union awarded the Order of Lenin to Leningrad in 1945 and bestowed the title Hero City of the Soviet Union in 1965.