There is a popular postwar saying in the Soviet Union that translates to, "Hey, we tried." It was first uttered by a team of Sickle gunners on their ignoble return to base after the Allies' surprise siege on the former Premier's fortress at Leningrad. This led to a series of feel-good propaganda printings from the dismantled Soviet government to its shaken people (essentially an extravagant get-well card that cost the nation half of its remaining treasury). The image of a Sickle personified as a very sad-looking and bruised ice hockey player, with tears in its eyes and with one of its legs in a cast, became iconic throughout the war-torn Soviet Union. But even though thousands of Sickles met their crushing defeat in the war, this did not stop the Soviet Ministry of Experimental Science fro