A Soviet Star loaf and other mementos of 1920s industrialization.
Do you think about bread only when you are hungry? Russians would say you have failed to note the reality behind man's relationship with nature, as for them bread is a "sacred" item.
In appreciation of bread's holy role, a bunch of St Petersburg enthusiasts launched the Museum of Bread in 1988 -- the only museum of its type in Russia and one of 13 world wide.
Five years after its establishment, the government caught up with these doughy pioneers and took the museum on board.
These days, the Bread Museum is a place where a visitor can learn of the bakery activities of different civilizations -- from the Stone Age to the ancient Egyptians, to Russian medieval bakers right up to modern techniques of bread production.
Traditions, cultures and taboos of different peoples in relation to bread and its baking are other aspects of interest to a visitor of the museum. Last week the museum held a one-week exhibition, Petersburg Bread Today, a series of four exhibitions to be conducted this year in memory of 50 years after the Leningrad Siege.
The museum's director, Marina Yakovleva, expressed regrets that only six out of about 25 city mills were able to demonstrate their products. But she hoped there would be more active participation in exhibitions to be held in May, September and October.
The museum's regular exhibition includes proud mementos of the early Soviet Union's industrialization of the bread-making process, such as bread baked in the shape of five-cornered stars or hammer-and-sickle motifs.
Bread has always been associated with Russia's bitter history of wars in which it has often played a vital role.
During World War I, in particular, bread became the major item that brought about a revolution in production and labor relations when women had to replace men in bakeries while the latter were fighting at the front.
Bread was also central to the Bolsheviks' attempts to win over the population with their catch-cry "Land, Peace, Bread." During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), bread played a very special role in Russian history.
It saved millions of lives in Leningrad during the 900 days of the Nazi siege of the city. For Siege survivors, bread is everything, from sad memories of suffering and grief to a comforter that led to the victory.
In their memories is the World War II bread legacy, giving them grounds to relate human moral standards according to mankind's relationship to bread, asking themselves how anyone can be indifferent to a slice of bread?
They remember those days when they survived on a maximum of 160 grams (5.6 oz) of daily bread.