Virtual tour of the besieged museum “The muses were not silent ...” presented on the Presidential Library’s portal

The Presidential Library welcomes to an innovative format event. September 2, 2019 at 11:00 anyone can join the virtual lesson-tour to the People's Museum “The muses were not silent...” on the portal of the institution in “Live broadcasts” section.

The event is timed to hold lessons at schools in St. Petersburg, which traditionally open the new academic year. This year they are dedicated to the beginning of the siege of Leningrad. Teachers will tell the pupils how 78 years ago, on September 8, 1941, the city was under siege for a long 900 days.

As part of a virtual lesson-tour, the participants of the event, accompanied by the head of the museum “The muses were not silent ...” Olga Prutt thanks to the new virtual tour, created jointly with the specialists of the Presidential Library, will be able to go live through the exhibition halls and discover new heroic pages in the history of our cities.

The museum “The Muses were nor silent ...” is dedicated to the culture and art of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. It illustrates the spiritual life of the besieged city, about the huge creative potential demanded by the residents during the war, about the tragic fate of Leningrad residents. Its theme is the search for salvation through the spiritual ways, through books, through music and theater... The name “The muses were not silent ...” was invented and presented to the museum by the soloist of the Musical Comedy Theater Anatoly Korolkevich. It refutes the ancient Roman proverb: "When the guns say, the muses are silent".

The uniqueness of the museum, which is located in Dmitry Shostakovich school № 235 in Staraya Kolomna, is that the exposition was formed by the children and their mentors. For many years they were able to put together a unique siege collection that is known all over the world today.

The museum showcases thousands of things that belonged to people who went through the siege: these are documents about front-line brigades, art exhibitions, theatrical productions; materials related to the publication of books and notes, the work of libraries and cinemas, the activities of schools, the lives of children in kindergartens and orphanages. Each exhibit has its own dramatic story, each one has individual fate.

The Presidential Library’s portal provides access to the expositions of the State Memorial Museum of Defence and the Siege of Leningrad and the Kobona: Road of Life Museum, and also gives opportunity to take a virtual tour of the exhibition “Living Memory: Defence and Siege of Leningrad in museum displays. Marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege”, which was opened in the Presidential Library from January 24 to May 13, 2019.