History of Saint-Petersburg: Exhibition "War. Siege. The Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Family" launched at the Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad

The State Memorial Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad launched the exhibition "War. Siege. The Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Family". The exposition features the Siege diaries of three generations of an outstanding family of Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, the Russian scientist, traveller, irreplaceable chairman of the Russian Geographical Society. It also presents private documents and belongings from the archives of the Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Legacy Foundation, as well as family items, donated to the Military Medical Museum of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

The exhibition tells about the fate of three generations of Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky’s descendants during the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad. Their lives are inseparably connected with Saint-Petersburg. They survived the sorrows of World War II. Several branches of the Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky family resided in the besieged city. Five family members did not survive this terrible time. The family representatives defended one doctoral and two PhD dissertations in besieged Leningrad. Three of the Semyonovs struggled for their native city with weapons.

The exhibition project "War. Siege. The Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Family" won the "Memory" nomination of the All-Russian Historical and Literary prize "Alexander Nevsky" (contest of museum memorial projects). The exhibition was arranged by the Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Museum-Estate, marking the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory in 2020.

The current development of the project became possible thanks to the close cooperation of the State Memorial Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad and the Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Museum-Estate. The exposition was significantly increased. It got a new video film with an audio track. Actors of the Leo Tolstoy Lipetsk State Academic Drama Theatre did read excerpts from the diaries and memoirs of representatives of the Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky family. Besides, the music in the video is not accidental. It was created by the Saint-Petersburg group Roz Vitalis, whose member is also a descendant of the Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky family.

The exhibition will run until June 25, 2021.