The Presidential Library in the movie theaters of “Petersburg-cinema” will remind the beginning of the Leningrad Blockade

On the day of the 76th anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, Petersburg-Cinema, together with the Presidential Library, will held an event for schoolchildren entitled “The Blockade: Chronicle of Life” at the movie theatres around St. Petersburg: Zanevsky, Druzhba, Voskhod and the Film Fund cinemas. The partnership of the two organizations is conditioned by the fact that the electronic library fund contains official documents, memoirs, diaries, film and photo chronicles of the blockade time, and the cinemas of the Petersburg-Cinema network traditionally organize film events for schoolchildren and residents of St. Petersburg on memorable and important, connected with the history of our city and its heroic past dates.

“Petersburg-cinema” is the only state network of cinemas in St. Petersburg, combining mineplexes (movie theaters with less than 8 screens) equipped with up-to-date cinema equipment, including the 3D systems. This allowed the Presidential Library on the day of remembering the beginning of the blockade to show its electronic content about the Blockade of Leningrad on the plasma screens in the foyers of the movie theaters of “Petersburg-cinema.” The school students before show beginning with great interest watched the blockade chronicle of the Presidential Library.

Addressing young audience, Pavel Fyodorov, leading research officer at the Presidential Library, said: “We should cherish the memory of the Great Patriotic War, all those who defended our native land and who did not return from the war, and appreciate the freedom and independence of our great country. Watch movies about war more often, read books about brave Victory soldiers, which you are recommended to you in school and libraries.”

Among demonstrated on plasma screens rarities is the video sightseeing tour of the Presidential Library The Blockade: Chronicle of Life. Unique in terms of material, it shows the life of the besieged city, the strength of the spirit of the Leningrad residents, who accomplished the feat and did not break under the onslaught of the enemy. There was a period in the life of the city when, except for 125 grams of bread, city residents did not receive anything. All the exhibits presented at the exhibition in the Presidential Library are genuine. They are the embodiment of how the citizens lived during the four blockade years. Diary entries, letters from the besieged Leningrad convey the feelings and experiences of caught up in the besieged city people. Alexandra Semyonova-Tien-Shansky, descendant of the famous researcher, in 1941 was 11 years old. In her diary, a digital copy of which is presented at the exposition, she writes: “The Germans deprived the Leningraders of everything, but people tried to support themselves, they tried to survive.” Letters from the besieged city show that, no matter how hard and scary it would be, the townspeople thought about the future. “Every day there are air alerts, and at night you have to hide somewhere in the cellars and other places. If I will be alive, I will wait for you,” — is written in a letter from the besieged city to the Greater Land. The exhibition presents various diaries, newspapers, leaflets, Windows of TASS posters, a photo chronicle of the Leningrad branch of TASS, and so on.

The chronicle movie of film director of the Presidential Library Tatyana Dyakonova The defense of Leningrad. The Blockade of Leningrad reflects the tragic growth of events: the queues for bread, people taking water from the river ice-hole, the gloomy opening of the bomb shelter among the ruins of the house… The film shows the realities of the brutal winter of 1942-1943: the frozen Aurora, the ruined roof of the plant, the Road of Life, this only thread along which food and weapons were delivered to the encircled city. In the frame — trucks on the ice of the Ladoga Lake, shelling of the column on the ice… And finally the breakthrough of the blockade begins: guns are firing, machine-gunners in white camouflage uniforms are running into attack, the military is looking through binoculars; a documentary camera recorded a meeting of soldiers from the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, the soldiers kissed and hugged, hoisted the banner that had passed with them in battle. Text behind the scenes: “For more than a year and a half, Leningrad was in the ring of the blockade. Strong and cunning enemy conceived a monstrous crime: strangle with the famine, wipe the Nevsky stronghold from the face of the earth. But nothing could break the courage and determination of Soviet people. Everyone was a fighter.”

After getting acquainted with the documentary materials of the Presidential Library, schoolchildren watched feature films about the Leningrad blockade. The kids of the junior classes watched the movie “Sit next to me, Mishka,” the senior graders — “Winter morning” and “Three days to the spring.”

“Owing to this project, we expect to reach a wide audience through a network of the city and the regional movie theaters and feel them with our unique materials,” —Deputy Director of the Presidential Library Valentin Sidorin said.

The Presidential Library pays much attention to the historical significance of the victory of the USSR over fascism. Its fund keeps the declassified official documents, memoirs, diaries, materials from personal archives, periodicals, newsreels, photo chronicles, cards, leaflets, memos and others materials, gathered in the collection entitled Memory of the Great Victory, in which a significant array belongs to the “Blockade” selection of documents.