History of Saint-Petersburg: Exhibition, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944 at the National Library of Russia

January 18, 2014 the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Russia opened the exhibition “Eternal memory, silent glory”, timed to the 70th anniversary of breakthrough of the siege.

A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to specialists of the Manuscript Department of the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library, working here during the siege. During all the war and siege days the library has not stopped its work. During the siege the holdings of the library were used by 9229 readers, who were have been issued more than half a million of books. More than 10,000 books have been given for use in 1941-1942 to military units and hospitals.

By requests of the command of specialists of the library were prepared various information references and literature on a wide range of issues: the construction of fortifications and ice roads for military surgery, the different ways of masking and alternatives to food, etc. In the library at organized there hospital hospital in the most difficult period the treatment was provided to about 200 people.

The exposition features materials, dedicated to the siege topic, which were submitted to the department for the past fifteen years.

Among the exhibits are siege diaries of A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, L. V. Shaporina, Y. S. Druskina, M. V. Mashkova, S. K. Ostrovskaya, L. R.  Kogan, E. V. Shavrova and etc.

The exhibition also features new publications of documents and research papers on the history of the siege, prepared on the basis of materials of MD of the NLR in 2000s.