“Blockade: Chronicle of Life” Exhibition

From January 23 to May 10, 2013 at the Presidential Library runs the exhibition "Blockade: Chronicle of Life."

The name "Blockade: Chronicle of Life" accurately conveys the main task - to show the life of the city besieged during the Great Patriotic War, the strength of mind of Leningrad citizens who performed the feat and did not break under the pressure of the enemy. All exhibits of the exhibition are authentic. They embody the way the citizens lived for four years of blockade. Diary entries, letters from the besieged Leningrad convey feelings and emotions of people trapped in the besieged city. Alexandra Semenova-Tyan-Shan, a descendant of the famous explorer, was eleven years old in 1941.

In her diary, a digital copy of which is displayed at the exhibition, she writes: "The Germans deprived Leningrad citizens of everything, but people tried to support themselves, tried to survive." Letters from the besieged Leningrad show that, no matter how difficult and scary people were, they thought about the future. "Every day is full a lot of anxiety, and at night we have to take shelter in basements and other locations. If I live, I will wait for you," says one of the letters from the besieged city to the mainland. The exhibition features a range of diaries, many people kept them: there are notes by an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin, a master of the plant "Krasnoznamenets" A. F. Evdokimov, other people. The city of Leningrad brought them together.

Newspapers, leaflets, posters of "TASS Windows", Leningrad Branch TASS news in pictures and newsreels depict the events of 1941-1944 from the official point of view. In those years, not only the Red Army was fighting fascism; teachers, educators, medical professionals fought of their own front. Poems by Olga Bergholz were published in the "TASS Windows", despite the hunger and deprivation of the people in the besieged city they were still interested in books.

Significant place in the exposition is given to books. During the blockade were printed the editions of classic literature, historical novels about famous Russian commanders, books by contemporary authors about the war heroes, manuals on performing combat operations, collections of patriotic poems, books on medicine, and industry. In the besieged Leningrad was published a series of books "The men of genius of the great Russian nation," an account of the work of A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, L. N. Tolstoy and many other writers, poets, composers and artists. One of the stands of the exhibition is devoted to children's literature published in 1943. There are tales by Hans Christian Andersen, stories and tales of D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian folk songs and other books.

Among the exhibits presented on plasma screens there are photos of the war years, which are the living witnesses of how libraries operated during the siege. Widely available are the photos of the besieged city war correspondent of the "Red Star" Mikhail Semenovich Prigozhin, who fought during the whole war and ended it in Germany. Leningrad newsreel and the heritage of war photographers is represented by pictures taken on the front lines and enterprises. In the focus – production of machine-gun belts in the factory "Skorokhod" and of medals "For the Defense of Leningrad" at the Mint place. The newsreel captured how sellers in the store post the rates of bread in the besieged city in December, and a New Year show in a kindergarten. One can also see the recovery period in Leningrad after the breakthrough and lift of the blockade.

Also visitors to the exhibition will see the unique documents from the Presidential Library’s collection, "The Memory of Great Victory." Among them – a Letter to Leningrad, presented by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, and his letter to I. V. Stalin in which, on behalf of the American people Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed admiration for the heroism of the citizens of two cities - Stalingrad and Leningrad.

Most of the exhibits have been provided by "Lenfilm" studio, the National Library of Russia, the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg, as well as by the Central Naval Library, the State Museum of Defense and Siege of Leningrad, the Main Library, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.

To visit the exhibition, you should first sign up by calling (812) 334-25-14 or send an email to excursion@prlib.ru.