New materials of the Presidential Library highlight the legends of the Great Patriotic War

On the eve of the anniversary of the Great Patriotic War’s beginning, the Presidential Library unveils new materials freely available as a part of a large-scale electronic collection «Memory of the Great Victory».

In particular, the website provides access to a book "The Blue Kerchief" of Lieutenant Maksimov" published in 2017. It reads about the author of the lyrics of the legendary war-time song. In fact, initially the lyrics were different, but the Great Patriotic War made its own corrections. It was the version with the text of Mikhail Maksimov that has became widely known and beloved.

The preface of the publication reads: "For several decades, the name of Maksimov has been in the shadow, and in the memory of three generations he remains a “one-poem” writer. Meanwhile, "Lieutenant Maksimov" was an outstanding and multifaceted person, unusual in many ways. At last readers are offered the most reliable information about this mysterious person, based on documents and personal memories, in contrast to fictional and tall stories, which exist in abundance." The author of the book Yu. N. Kruzhnov had conducted a real investigation, found the daughter of the forgotten poet, and then with her help - other witnesses, whose memories have made up an exciting story. For example, Aleksandr Barten, a fellow soldier and friend of Maximov, said: "On the night of April 8-9, Maximov returned from the concert given by Shulzhenko, sat down at the table (we shared the room) and woke me up at dawn with words: the text is ready, listen to it ... While, three days later - on April 12 - Klavdiya Ivanovna performed "The Blue Kerchief" at the Volkhov railway station depot for the first time... Grateful railwaymen presented Shulzhenko with a real cream cake - an incredible gift at that time. As to Maksimov, he got a piece of cake, a dozen cigarettes and a glass of cranberries with sugar. Such an unusual fee ..."

The mystery of another legend of the time of the Great Patriotic War was revealed by the author of «We will remember that war forever» (2015) essay Yu. S. Rozadorsky: "Recently as a part of the Victory Day celebrations, newspapers, magazines, greeting cards occasionally featured a photo of a legendary "battalion commander". I took an interest in an officer, with a confident and bold expression, ready to fight a battle and destroy the Nazis. Unfortunately, my question about who that battalion commander was, remained unanswered." Nevertheless, the researcher found out: "Later it was discovered that during a battle a battalion commander was killed. Under the enemy’s increased fire the advancing fighters decided to wait, what could have threatened the assigned mission. Pavel Fyodorovich Petrov, commander’s deputy responsible for political education, who was within the ranks of the advancing soldiers, takes command, pulls himself upright, with a pistol in his hand, and calls out: "Attack! Forward! For our Soviet Motherland! Hooray!". The Red Army men jumped up, burst into the trenches under the firestorm and destroyed the enemy. The mission was accomplished." Thus, it was possible to find out the name of an unknown hero – who before going to the frontline was a school teacher in the town of Slobodskoy, Kirov District. «We will remember that war forever» publication highlights some other details about war-time events as well.

In 2018 «Memory of the Great War» collection was enlarged by new materials that eventually made up a new section – «Search, Examination and Recovery of Sunken Military Equipment». It presents photographs of expeditions aimed to preserve the history of ships and vessels of Arctic convoys that perished during the war in the Kara and Barents Seas. The expeditions have found and examined the legendary “Alexander Sibiryakov” icebreaker, “Marina Raskova” vessel, “Shkval” diving support vessel, T-114 and T-118 sea minesweepers, “Deyatelny” destroyer, and the German U-362 submarine. What is more, four IL-2 attack aircrafts were raised from the Black Sea and handed over to the Ministry of Defence. Photographs taken by expedition members are accompanied by stories about the discovered objects: information about the crew and passengers, the circumstances of death, etc.

The electronic collection of the Presidential Library dedicated to the victory in the Great Patriotic War has been constantly growing. Today it presents a great variety of official documents, photographs and newsreels, wartime newspapers, books, propaganda publications, collected articles, biographies, firsthand accounts of combatants and homefront workers, their personal documents, images of combat and labor awards, monuments and memorial complexes.