Kobona: History of the Road of Life

Kobona is a former fishing village whose history is closely connected with the Road of Life. During the siege, it was an important evacuation and supply port. The ice route, evacuation points and church anchor this history in specific places; the museum also focuses on the Road of Life.

The Road of Life and Kobona’s history

During the winter of the siege in 1941–1942, an ice route ran along the Road of Life between the village of Kobona and Cape Osinovets. Kobona was one of the two endpoints of this historic connection. Over two years, Kobona’s evacuation points enabled at least one million people to leave for the mainland, thereby saving their lives. The route across the ice and the work of the evacuation points show different aspects of Kobona’s role during the siege.

The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, built in 1861, provided shelter during the siege to residents of Leningrad evacuated along the Road of Life. For the residents of Leningrad, the church in Kobona became a visible symbol of rescue and the Road of Life.

Museum and remembrance

The “Kobona: Doroga zhizni” Museum opened in the village of Kobona in 1980. Since the early 1990s, the “Doroga zhizni” Museum in Kobona has operated as a branch of the “Proryv blokady Leningrada” Museum Reserve. The Road of Life and the ice route between Kobona and Cape Osinovets are at the heart of the exhibition at the “Kobona: Doroga zhizni” Museum. If you are planning a museum visit, check the weekly opening hours in advance, especially around public holidays.

In 2020, a memorial to the drivers of the Road of Life was erected next to the “Kobona: Doroga zhizni” Museum. The idea for the “Neizvestnomu voditelyu” memorial came from survivors of the siege who had been evacuated via Kobona, as well as from Alexander Moiseyevich Gorodnitsky, a scientist, poet and bard, and Nikita Vladimirovich Blagovo, director of the Museum of the History of the Karl May School and vice-president of the Russian Genealogical Society.

The memorial’s symbolism brings together a legendary one-and-a-half-ton truck, a rescued boy and a notebook containing a poem to the unknown driver, written 75 years later. The boy gazes hopefully through the open vehicle door into the future. The notebook gives rise to the silhouette of the truck, like an image from memory. Thus, remembrance and its visual language are central alongside the history of the route.

Choose a holiday apartment based on your travel interests

If you are looking for a holiday apartment for your stay, you can use Kobona’s history as a criterion when choosing where to stay. If you are interested in the Road of Life, the evacuation and the associated sites of remembrance, this makes a trip to Kobona a good fit.

Discover more destinations: Tamengont, Ushaki, Ropsha, Otradnoye, Shushary, Zaborye, Sarzhenka, Sredniye Krupeli

For the broader travel overview: Leningrad Oblast.