Siege diaries of Obukhov Plant engineers available on Presidential Library's portal

The Presidential Library's collection has been enriched with electronic copies of the diaries of the employees of the Obukhov Plant during the Siege of Leningrad. These diaries were transferred to the library by the Museum of the History of the Obukhov Plant for digitization.

One of the diaries, written by Dmitry Skipsky, is a record of his experiences as deputy chief power engineer at the Bolshevik plant from 1942 to 1943. The diary describes the events at the plant and in the city during that time, with a focus on the activities of the energy management services. It was written in a telephone book and availabe on the Presidential Library's portal.

Dmitry Skipsky survived the siege and continued to work at his home factory. From 1948 to 1950, he was the chief mechanic. From 1950 to 1954, he was head of the power plant. From 1957 until 1970, he served as the chief power engineer for the plant. After retiring, he continued working as a senior engineer until 1979. He was awarded two medals for labor valor, one for defense of Leningrad, two orders of the red banner of labor, and numerous jubilee medals.

Six notebooks describing the life and activities of the Bolshevik plant, as well as events in the adjacent territories of the Volodarsky (Nevsky) district, belong to Sergei Boronin, who worked as the head of the Central Factory Laboratory from 1941 to 1944.

In the first notebook of the diary, the author made the first entry in blue ink on November 20, 1941: "Diary. I started it on this day. It's a pity that the idea of keeping a diary, that is, writing short notes about my life in Leningrad, occurred to me so late...". And a short note was added: "This is dedicated to my wife as a reminder of our long separation." (Hereafter, the author's spelling and punctuation will be preserved.)

Numerous clippings from the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda (mostly reports from the front) for the dates mentioned in the diary were pasted into the notebook.

However, the plant not only survived, but it also continued to operate for the benefit of its hometown, Leningrad. Based on the technological developments created by Sergey, the central laboratory for patients with dystrophy organized the production of molasses from dextrin, which is used in the manufacturing of fabrics. They also produced vitamin infusion from pine and spruce needles, with the addition of citric acid, which helps prevent scurvy. Additionally, they invented compositions for corrosion protection for mechanisms and gun barrels in marine environments, as well as established the process of metallization to protect steel pipes from corrosion. Sergei Voronin, who was part of a team of employees at the Naval Artillery Scientific Testing Site, received a State Prize for developing a special mass for mortars' obturators.

In the sixth entry of the diary, the author describes the events that took place on January 27th, when Leningrad was finally liberated from the Nazi siege.

"Listen, Leningrad, listen, great city, you have survived and won! Listen to the country!" writes Sergei Boronin. He describes how the city celebrated: "Thousands of rockets, fireworks, colorful lights, tracer bullets were fired. Guns were fired from five locations and ships. The party lasted until one in the morning." The diary entries from 1944 conclude with a simple words: The End.

From March 28, 1945 to January 5, 1946, Sergei Mikhailovich was part of a government commission sent to Germany to investigate the German chemical industry. After 1954, he headed the central laboratory at the Bolshevik factory and retired in 1966. 

The Presidential Library has all six notebooks of Sergei Boronin's siege notes.