Anonymous author

You crucify freedom, but the human soul knows no chains.

Yuliy Rybakov and Oleg Volkov wrote on the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress on the morning of August 3, 1976: “You crucify freedom, but the human soul knows no chains.” It was a protest action against the persecution of artists, writers, and poets in the USSR. The phrase stood out from previous graffiti created by nonconformists in Leningrad due to its “scale, poetic quality, and precise resonance with the historical and literary context.”
KGB officers initially attempted to cover part of the letters with boards (according to a common version in St. Petersburg — with coffin lids) and only later painted it over.
Volkov was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Yuliy Rybakov served six years — on charges of malicious hooliganism, theft of state property, and destruction and damage of state property.
This AR intervention is a reconstruction of that inscription, located near the pier of the Peter and Paul Fortress.