On the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the Primorskoye Highway runs from St Petersburg through a string of resort villages, pine woods and sandy beaches toward Zelenogorsk and Vyborg. Northern Battery No. 5 belongs to the other side of the story, the chain of coastal defences that once guarded the sea approach to the city.
The route ties the battery to the Blockade Ring, the series of monuments around St Petersburg that mark the line where the Soviet army held the Germans during the siege of Leningrad, which lasted from September 1941 to January 1944. Nearly a million civilians died, mostly of hunger and cold, in one of the longest and deadliest sieges in history. The memorials are in the form of obelisks, tanks on plinths and plain stone markers, and they stand at crossroads and on hilltops around the city. They are sober places, and visitors are expected to behave quietly.
As a ride, the coastal road is fast and flat, with pine forest on one side and the sea on the other. The Primorskoye Highway is busy in summer, when city dwellers head for the beaches and dachas, but side roads through the woods are quieter. The sand is pale and the sky is wide, and the water is shallow and cold. In June and July the white nights keep the sky pale until midnight. In winter, ice and snow make riding impractical.
Fuel is available at garages along the highway and in Kronstadt, a town of forty-three thousand people. The villages along the coast have small shops and cafés that open in the summer season. Wear insect repellent in the woods in July, and carry water. If you plan to explore any military ruins, take care, since concrete and rusted metal can be hazardous.