Besieged Leningrad - a "city of militant poetry"

"During nine hundred days of the Siege, Leningrad remained not only a сity of armed struggle but also a city of militant poetry - in the broad sense of the word. Ice, fire and cold, gloom and bitterness could not deny its unique spiritualized poetry that had been given to him for centuries and continued to inspire its poets, artists and musicians. ... Nikolai Tikhonov says, recalling that time, that an emotional, encouraging poem was sometimes more important than a story or a leaflet", is written in the book Literary Leningrad in the Days of the Siege (1973), which digital copy is available in the Presidential Library's Electronic Reading Room.

In the first days of the war, about 150 writers of Leningrad — about half of the members of the city branch of the USSR Union of Writers — went to the front. On June 27, 1941, the Military Council of the Northern Front and the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided to create the Leningrad Army of the People’s Militia. Thousands of scientists, literary and art workers, teachers and doctors filed applications to be included in the People’s Militia. Among them were 80 writers.

On July 6, writers-volunteers held a meeting. They declared their readiness to defend native city with arms. They arranged a "writers' platoon" (1st battalion, 1st regiment, the People’s Militia division of the Dzerzhinsky district). It included Victor Bakinsky, Aleksandr Barten, Yuri Slonimsky, Isaac Yampolsky, Pavel Zhurba (Panteleimon Skripnikov), Arseny Ostrovsky and others. "The platoon's staff was rather diverse", recalled later the poet and writer Nikolai Novosyolov about the work of the writers' unit. - "It is difficult to imagine a team of people who are more dissimilar in appearance and character, in age and life experience, in their creative ideas and tastes. There were the venerable prose writers, whose novels and stories have been issued for several times, - and writers who have not published the first book ... Poets expansive in the manifestations of their feelings - and graduate professors and literary scholars". This writers' unit was led by the battalion commissar Sergei Semenov, a writer and member of the Chelyuskin Expedition.

A few days later, the writers' platoon passed to the 1st Kirov Division of the People’s Militia. Soon, on July 12, the division occupied positions on the Luga line of defence. Then it took part in fierce battles on the outskirts of Leningrad.

Writers fought, protecting the city wounded by bombs and shells. They also wrote poems that were able to light a spark of hope in the hearts of Leningrad residents even in the first severe and frosty winter of the Siege.

In the harsh December days of 1941, Nikolai Tikhonov urged Leningrad residents not to give up and believe in victory.

The poet was echoed by Vera Inber, who arrived in Leningrad with her husband on the eve of the beginning of the Siege, in late August 1941. The poet spoke on the radio, in factories, went to the front. From October 1941 to November 1943, she had been creating her poem of sorrow and all-conquering fortitude - Pulkovo Meridian.

Almost a full writers' platoon made up the editorial board of the divisional newspaper Za Sovetskuyu Rodinu (For the Soviet Motherland). This newspaper was published regularly in July - September 1941. In the beginning, it was issued in a field travelling printing shop equipped in the back of a truck, then in the printing shop of a Pushkin city newspaper. It featured articles and correspondence, reports and literary sketches of experienced journalists as well as the notes of soldiers, commanders and political workers.

The Leningradskaya Pravda (Leningrad Truth) newspaper, a press organ of the Leningrad Regional and City Committees of the All-Russian Communist Party, Regional and City Councils of Workers' Deputies, also published works of soldiers and officers of the Leningrad Front. There was, for example, a poem The Road by Lieutenant Nikolai Evstifeev issued on December 2, 1941.

After the disbanding of the Leningrad Army of the People’s Militia in September 1941, many writers continued to serve in combat units of the Army and Navy as well as in other newspapers, including front-line publications. Thus, Nikolai Novosyolov began to work in the Smena (Shift) newspaper. Vladimir Lifshits became a political instructor of the commander of an infantry battalion on the Leningrad Front. Many writers became ordinary soldiers, political instructors, military commanders.

The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union hired Gennady Gor, Evgeny Lyufanov, Pyotr Oifa, Yuri Slonimsky, Pavel Luknitsky, Isaac Yampolsky and others. Nikolai Gleizarov and Mikhail Dudin became special correspondents of the 23rd Army newspaper Znamya Pobedy (Victory Banner). Lev Uspensky, Nikolai Chukovsky, Aleksandr Stein worked in the naval newspapers of the Baltic Fleet.

Many writers participated in the edition of the Na Strazhe Rodiny (Defending the Motherland) newspaper, the only publication of the Leningrad Military District issued 6 times per week. Their frontline reports are available on the Presidential Library's portal, which provides electronic copies of the newspaper’s issues.

The Leningradskaya Pravda (Leningrad Truth) and Smena (Shift) newspapers were published in Leningrad during the war. The publication of the Zvezda and Leningrad magazines resumed after the first winter of the Siege. In the summer of 1942, Zvezda published a large essay by Jeremiah Aizenshtok and Aleksandr Barten - Militiamen, written in Sestroretsk in the autumn of 1941 and inspired by the July and August battles.

A character of the brave soldier Vasya Tyorkin was created by the poets Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Nikolai Shcherbakov and artists Veniamin Briskin and Vasiliy Fomichev as far back as the Winter War (1939–1940). Artist Boris Leo, poets Mikhail Dudin, Aleksandr Prokofiev and other authors revived this character during the Siege. Besides the group of authors, poems about the Tyorkin's adventures were composed and sent to the editorial board of the Na Strazhe Rodiny (Defending the Motherland) newspaper by soldiers and commanders of the Leningrad Front. Tyorkin's exploits were issued as some kind of comics.

Of course, not only poets but also prose writers created and published their works, but less often, postponing they experiences on post-war times. The Leningradskaya Pravda (Leningrad Truth) newspaper from April 25, 1942 (the Presidential Library's portal presents its electronic copy) published an article about the novel The Leningrad Sky by Vissarion Sayanov. The author shares his plan: "28 years ago, the heroes of the novel - the first Russian pilots crossed their weapons in the air with the weapons of the German "Aces". <...> At the end of life, the heroes of the novel meet with an old enemy. A new generation of heroic aviators has grown. They secure our air supremacy with fire and ram attacks. They are the main characters of the novel about the Leningrad sky. But the people of the old generation also found their place in the great battle".

The prose writer, poet, journalist Pavel Luknitsky calculated that out of over 300 members of the Leningrad branch of the USSR Union of Writers, 107 were in the army, more than 60 were evacuated, and 53 should be evacuated, about 30 remained in the city. But they, every day (each in their own way) fought with the enemy, bringing closer the long-awaited Victory Day.

The courageous radio broadcasts of the poet Olga Bergholz were the real feats. She became a "sister in anger and sadness" to thousands of Leningrad residents surrounded by a steel ring of enemy troops. She broadcasted almost daily from the House of Radio. Later her stories were included in the book Leningrad Tells. Her touching and fair poems came from the very heart of the besieged Leningrad (Leningrad: Verses and Poems, 1944). An Internet user may discover new aspects of these poems on the Presidential Library's portal.

The residents of besieged Leningrad, whose number, alas, is getting smaller every year, recall that the poet’s soft soulful voice sounded on the radio in the besieged city, and became native. There was no heat, no light, no food, and only this voice raised hope in the people. The reality was so cruel that it seemed that people were far from poetry. But Bergholtz wrote so that the verses became a support point for every listener.

The very beginning of the book Literary Leningrad in the Days of the Siege cited above contains an idea difficult to deny: "An emotional, encouraging poem was sometimes more important than a story or a leaflet. Olga Bergholz also pointed out the same feature of the literary process of those years. She truly believed that poetry took the main place. In fact, poetry performed the main functions of all art, especially in the first winter of the Siege".