The history of the Great Victory illustrated on the pages of newspapers and magazines

January 13 marks the Day of Russian Press, which has more than three hundred years of history. On this day in 1703, in Moscow, by decree of Peter the Great, the issue of the first Russian printed newspaper Vedomosti was published.

The Presidential Library’s collections include over 190 thousand newspapers and magazines. The number of their titles exceeds 1100. Many publications, published at different times and intended for different audiences, are presented in the public domain on the institution’s portal in the special collection “Domestic Periodicals in the Presidential Library’s collections”. It includes 164 titles of journals - these are legal, socio-political, literary, geographical, local history and other publications. The collection also involves more than 180 newspapers - socio-political, central, regional, specialized and others.

Marking the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, it is necessary to especially note the collection of front-line periodicals of 1941-1945. The Presidential Library’s portal provides opportunity to browse through the pages of digitized numbers of the newspapers Leningradskaya Pravda, On Guard of the Motherland, Smena, partisan editions, leaflets and posters of the war.

On June 21, 1941, the editorial in Leningradskaya Pravda was called Theatrical Season, the newspaper issue spotlighted tours of Leningrad artists, about factories that had completed the six-month program ahead of schedule, about admission to universities ...

In the issue dated January 1, 1942, on the most terrible days of the siege, the New Year's greetings on the newspaper say: “On this day we are not summing up the results of peaceful construction, but the results of fierce battles and battles with the German hordes that treacherously attacked our country. The past 1941 was a year unprecedented in the history of the heroic struggle of the Soviet people against the enemy armed to the teeth ...

On January 26, 1944, the newspaper reported: “Two days ago, another one was added to the list of victories of the Red Army: our troops captured large railway junctions and powerful German defense points - the cities of Pushkin and Pavlovsk. The fighting is on the outskirts of the city of Gatchina... " In the same issue photographs of D. Trachtenberg are published, the caption of which reads: "In the last battles for the city of Lenin". There was only one day left until the siege was completely lifted...

The section of school and teenage publications digitized by the Presidential Library is of special attention. It also presents military topics. Thus, on the cover of the literary and art magazine for children and youth Murzilka, published in February 1942, there is a drawing by the artist Afanasyeva "Meeting", which depicts the commander of the Red Army and partisans.

Kostyor, the magazine for middle-aged and older children, also published materials during the war, digitized copies of the issues of which are also available on the Presidential Library’s portal. The magazine published on its pages materials about the heroism of soldiers on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, impressions of participants in hostilities, stories about helping families of war veterans, about the schoolchildren studying during the siege of Leningrad and their years of hard work in factories

One of the important areas of work of the Presidential Library is interaction with the media.

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, the Presidential Library launched a major project dedicated to preserving the historical memory of the siege of Leningrad. Together with Radio Rossiya and the Peterburgsky Dnevnik newspaper, a campaign was held to collect historical materials - documents, letters, diaries, photographs from the personal archives of the inhabitants of the besieged city. The materials have been digitized and made available to users all over the world, are widely reflected in the media, are used in the preparation of exhibitions, conferences and other events.

250 people responded to the Presidential Library’s appeal to share evidence of that terrible time, providing about 3,800 unique documents for digitization. The pages of the Peterburgssky Dnevnik  regularly publish materials prepared by the Presidential Library on the basis of documents received as part of this major campaign.

In 2019, the Presidential Library became one of the founders of the Petersburg City Journalism Marathon Editorial Competition for School Media and in November became a platform for summing up and awarding the winners of the competition.

The result of active interaction with the media are joint events, projects, the exchange of information materials, which add the collections  of the institution. For example, in the framework of cooperation agreements on the territory of the Presidential Library, the opening of a multimedia exhibition dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the Rodina magazine and the exhibition “Diary of St. Petersburg in Photographs” took place. Digitized copies of the covers of Rodina popular science and history magazine and photographs of the Petersburgsky Dnevnik newspaper - publications of the Government of St. Petersburg entered the electronic collections of the Presidential Library.