Memories of Leningraders to mark the Great Victory Day available on the Presidential Library’s portal

“Each of us will remember this day for the rest of our lives and very accurately: its simple, unique little things, all its unprecedented, great joys...”, - wrote the poetess Olga Bergholz, who was called the “voice of besieged Leningrad”, in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper for May 10, 1945.

The same newspaper’s issue, which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal, provides a report on the celebration of the Great Victory Day. “Morning of May 9. Morning of Victory Day. It began unusually early: during the hours that are always the quietest, when the first trams had not yet appeared, the streets became lively and crowded. Strangers greeted each other with smiles, hugged each other, meeting, friends...All day the streets were crowded with jubilant Leningraders. Parts of the garrison, cadets of military schools, sailors of the Baltic Fleet passed through the city. Red-star planes flew low, from which leaflets were scattered. Radio loudspeakers broadcast speeches by noble people of our city - soldiers of the Red Army, Stakhanovists, scientists, writers. Favorite songs were played. At 7 pm, festivities began in the squares, gardens and parks. Orchestras thundered. Artists performed. The youth began to dance... And when thirty volleys from a thousand guns thundered in the capital of our Motherland, tens of thousands of Leningraders joined the jubilant “Hurrah!” of Muscovites with their enthusiastic exclamations. Fireworks began ... Leningraders celebrated the Great Victory.

A lot has been said and written about the heroism and courage of the residents and defenders of the besieged city during the Great Patriotic War. Not only their native country was proud of the feat of Leningraders and the defenders of the city. US President Franklin Roosevelt, on behalf of his people, presented the letter to "the city of Leningrad in memory of its valiant warriors and its faithful men, women and children, who, being isolated by the invader from the rest of his people, and despite constant bombardments and untold suffering from the cold, hunger and disease, successfully defended their beloved city during the critical period from September 8, 1941 to January 18, 1943..."

Operation Iskra to break the siege highlighted a new vector in the Great Patriotic War namely the transfer of the strategic initiative into the hands of the Soviet troops, who from January 1943 carried out only offensive operations.

On January 27, 1944 the siege of Leningrad was completely lifted. And a year later, on January 26, 1945, the city "for the outstanding services of the working people to the Motherland, for courage and heroism, discipline and stamina shown in the fight against the German invaders in the difficult conditions of the enemy siege" was awarded the Order of Lenin.

The events of the terrible siege of the city on the Neva and its liberation is available in the digital collection of the Presidential Library The Defence and Siege of Leningrad. It has become part of the major and essentially folk collection Memory of the Great Victory, which is entered from year to year with new unique materials. Among them are the memories of people who not only survived those terrible 872 days, but managed, in conditions where it would seem impossible, to preserve the best human qualities in themselves. Letters, photographs, notes - all these most valuable testimonies of the era were transferred to the Presidential Library for digitization from family archives by the siege survivors or their relatives. In these memoirs and diaries, there are records of the biggest holiday for each of them - the Victory Day.

• Zinaida Arkadyevna Fedyushina (Itkina): "My Siege: Let my Memories Be a Grateful Memory"
• Yuliya Alexandrovna Hordikainen: “Life Under Occupation and in the First Post-War Years: Pushkin. Gatchina. Estonia: Diary»
• Fyodor Grigorievich Yeshugov. Diary
• Irina Borisovna Kharitonova (b. 1929): "My Memories"
• Elizaveta Alekseevna Dobrova (b. 1930): “Memories of my Siege”
• Tamara Alexandrovna Petrova (b. 1933) “Memories of Besieged Leningrad”
• Lidia Vasilievna Zhukova (Khvalovskaya) (b. 1922). Diary. 1938–1945