Day 15: The Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering, and Communications Forces

 A T-80 tank outside the Artillery museum.  After all, someone’s got to protect those cannon cockers from direct fire weaponry.

This museum, which has the rather all-encompassing sectors of artillery, air defense, engineering, and signal communications, is quite a sight to behold.  And, since my Dad was an artilleryman, it only made sense to get the Russian perspective on artillery.  For those less familiar with military history, the Russians call artillery the “God of War” (Americans are content with calling it merely the “King of Battle”) and the Russians have been in love with artillery for centuries. 

Another view of the artillery park, taken during my previous visit to St. Petersburg.

To put things in perspective, the Soviets in their assault on Berlin alone employed over 40,000 guns and mortars, often times concentrating several hundred guns per kilometer of front.  That’s about three times as many artillery pieces as the largest artillery force in the world currently fields (North Korea).  But I digress… back to the museum:

The museum itself covers Russian artillery from its origins in the 15th Century through the modern day. During our visit, some of the halls were closed for remodeling, and we ran out of time to see the engineering and signal sections.  Still, it is a very comprehensive museum with hundreds of cannon, models, displays, and more.  The only downside is that there aren’t very many signs in English.

Model showing the assault on Kazan in October 1552.  Russian artillery and sappers played a key role in seizing the fortified city during the month-long siege.	One of the World War II halls, showcasing an anti-aircraft gun and targeting systems, with field guns in the background.

As always, it was interesting getting the Russian perspective on World War II (namely, “we defeated the German Army and then the Allies did some sort of landing in France and we met up in Germany.”)  To some extent that’s true going by sheer quantities of forces employed, though it overlooks the importance of Lend Lease aid to the Soviets (especially in trucks – some 2/3rds of the trucks employed by the Soviets at the end of the war were made in America), the effects of the US and British strategic bombing campaign on Germany, the victories in the Battle of the Atlantic, and so on and so forth. 

Soviet graph of deployment of German forces in April 1942 – 76.5% against the Russians, 22.3% in occupied territories or in Germany, and 1.2% against the Allies (in North Africa).	“Artillery in the Carpathians” (1944)

All in all, it’s a good museum for military history buffs and artillery/engineer/signal enthusiasts, though if that doesn’t suit your fancy or are on a limited time schedule, it’s certainly not an essential part to a St. Petersburg visit.  With our time up, we proceeded to link up with Lance and his family for dinner at a restaurant called “The Idiot.”