Archival documents about life in Moscow and Leningrad in early years of the Great Patriotic War available on the Presidential Library’s portal

Documents from the archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg have entered the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials about World War II and are now available on the Presidential Library’s portal subordinate to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.

The Collection includes resolutions and decisions of the Moscow and Leningrad City Committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the most important issues of organizing defence and mobilization, changes in urban life in wartime conditions, evacuation of the population and enterprises, food supply, especially in the autumn of 1941, when the enemy was approaching the capital, and the ring around Leningrad was shrinking.

Moscow and Leningrad photographers captured the formation of the people's militia regiments; Leningraders and Muscovites on the construction of barricades, the installation of anti-tank barriers, the camouflage of buildings, cultural facilities; columns of soldiers leaving for the front.

The documents contain information on the staffing of the divisions of the people's militia in Moscow and Leningrad, minutes of meetings of the Commission on the Defence of Leningrad, the evacuation of large defenсe enterprises and such an institution as significant for the country as the Lenfilm studio.

In December 1941 in the areas of Moscow Region occupied by the enemy partisan struggle was actively waged. The Collection includes references and notes on the activities of partisan detachments and underground organizations. Of particular importance is the decision of the executive committee of the Moscow City Council dated January 31, 1942 No. 3/10 “On carrying out restoration work in the areas of Moscow Region liberated from the German invaders”.

The hardships of wartime and the needs of the population after the defeat of the enemy near Moscow reflect the decisions of the executive committees of the Moscow Council and the Moscow Regional Council dated February 3, 1942 No. 3/14 “On the allocation of a fund of land plots for vegetable gardens to enterprises, institutions and the population of Moscow in the districts of Moscow Region adjacent to the city”, decision of the executive committee of the Moscow City Council of April 4, 1942 No. 8/11 "On the use of water bodies of the city of Moscow and its suburbs for growing and catching fish", as well as the decision of the executive committee of the Moscow City Council of February 20, 1942 No. 4/43 "On the placement of children left without parents".

The life of besieged Leningrad is available in notes and references to the secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the Leningrad City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. A. Zhdanov. For example, about food stocks on October 16, 1941, about the work of the food industry in the city (December 15, 1941), about the food situation in Leningrad (January 14, 1942), about the opening of canteens of an increased type in the city (April 26, 1942). The blockade period is reflected in the diaries and drawings of little Leningraders, photographs, texts of radio broadcasts "Leningrad Chronicle". The archives of St. Petersburg contain preserved cards for bread with the norms established on November 19, 1941 (125 gram of bread per day for dependents), and the very decision of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front on a temporary change in the norms for the sale of bread.

Of interest are the documents of research institutes in Leningrad on the organization of experiments on artificial freezing of ice and strengthening its strength on an industrial scale in October 1942, and on the approval of the power transmission route across Lake Ladoga in November 1942.

In total, more than 90 documents and photographs of the archives of St. Petersburg and 45 documents and photographs of the Central State Archive of Moscow were selected for the Collection, testifying to the courage, steadfastness, heroism of the Soviet people and faith in an early victory.

The Central State Archive of St. Petersburg features a valuable document dated June 22, 1941 - a message from the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Moscow and Kolomna, calling on everyone to rally before the enemy, appealing to the historical memory and spirit of the Russian people, with the blessing of the defenders of the Motherland.

“In recent years, we, the residents of the Soviet Union, have consoled ourselves with the hope that the military fire that has engulfed almost the entire world will not touch our country, but fascism, which recognizes only naked force as law and is accustomed to mocking the high demands of honor and morality, also found itself on this time, true to themselves ... Our ancestors did not lose heart even in the worst situation because they remembered not about personal dangers and benefits, but about their sacred duty to the Motherland and faith, and came out victorious. Let us not disgrace their glorious name, and we are Orthodox, kindred to them both in the flesh and in faith. The Fatherland is defended by weapons and a common national feat, by a common readiness to serve the Fatherland in a difficult hour of trial with everything that everyone can” (TsGA St. Petersburg. F. 9324. Op. 1. D. 5. L. 1–3).

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials "World War II in Archival Documents" are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Administration of the President of the Russian Federations and the Presidential Library.

The Collection content is carried out by the Federal Archives and federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus and others.

To date, the volume of the Collection exceeds 8.8 thousand materials: maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to November 1942.

Archival documents of the Collection World War II in Archival Documents are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents and the texts of the accompanying articles are also published in English.

In addition to digitized archival documents, the Collection contains a list of the main Internet projects, databases, other thematic Internet publications of documents, virtual tours of the history of World War II, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.