The Presidential Library tells about blockade inventor

The Presidential Library continues to accept for digitization the personal documents of the residents of besieged Leningrad as part of a large-scale campaign to preserve the memory of the everyday life of the besieged city, announced late last year.

Today we will tell about the family of Leningrad inventors - one of those thanks to whose work not only the Northern Capital, but the whole country survived during the Great Patriotic War. In addition, one of the heroes of this publication was a great amateur artist. Specialists of the Presidential Library handed over to digitize his album February - March 1942 with sketches of the inhabitants of the hospital of the plant "Proletary", which during the siege produced electrical porcelain, widely used as an insulator on power lines, in communication technology, etc.

We are talking about Ivan Andreevich Doroshev. He himself and his contribution to the development of the national industry is reflected in a few newspaper clippings of the 40s of the 20th century.

Before us there is the page of the newspaper “Proletary” for May 1, 1941, a note entitled “Energetic Investigator”: “Ivan Andreevich Doroshev came to our plant in 1929... Soon he was nominated by the deputy head of the laboratory. During his many years of work, he made and developed many different proposals that improve product quality and working conditions. When in the workshop of tubular resistances they worked on lead enamel, this circumstance had a bad effect on working conditions and the health of workers. But here ... lead-free enamel was introduced into this production, which was developed by Ivan Andreevich. He also developed an exact technological process of production on lead-free enamel”.

We read further: “More recently, potentiometers (measuring instruments for determining voltage) were imported from abroad. Ivan Andreevich was instructed to develop a process for the production of potentiometers in our factory. The development of new, high-speed cement is also a merit of Comrade Doroshev ... "

Two months after the mentioned publication and a week after the start of the Great Patriotic War, in the article “Laboratory for Production Service” in the newspaper “Proletary”, dated June 29, 1941, we read: “In a bundle, wood resin and kerosene are commonly used for stamping porcelain products. Kerosene is now a scarce raw material. The laboratory was tasked to find kerosene substitutes. The Doroshev brothers, I. A. and L. A., and the laboratory assistant, Feigelson, A. G., developed a number of recipes and tested them on stamping. The best of them turned out to be an emulson with the addition of a soap emulsion - this recipe completely replaces tar and kerosene. The implementation of this event will further strengthen the defense of the Soviet Union”.

In the article "Technology - to serve the front" in the newspaper "For the victory!" dated August 22, 1941, it is noted that with the outbreak of hostilities in the country significant work was carried out on the introduction of substitutes for scarce raw materials. The Leningrad plant "Proletary" received the opportunity of uninterrupted work (replacement of chasquier clay, kerosene, etc.) thanks to the staff of the laboratory of Comrade Doroshev. In particular, new technologies were introduced in such areas of production as silvering, electrical testing of new products and others.

The head of the laboratory, a ceramist and the author of a number of textbooks on the faience industry and porcelain production technologies, Ivan Doroshev, among other things, kept his siege diary from September 8, 1941 until 1944. We quote some entries:

“September 8, 1941. For the first time, fascist airplanes dropped incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Leningrad. It was at 7 pm, at that time I was at the Kirovsky District Council. In one place the clouds of smoke increased, then the flame seemed”.

“September 14. A cap and a silk women's kerchief are lying around in the funnel square in the dust”.

"October 4. The worker L. lost the whole family at night, 6 people. Only shreds of clothing remained of the boys”.

“November 12. All the time I want to eat. I looked through all the reagents. I found 0.5 kg of starch, a can of tretant (the juice of the astratal plant is used as an adhesive in various industries) and a few grams of tartaric acid. Starch and acid can be eaten immediately, but the tratant must somehow be cooked so that it can be swallowed ... ”

“January 16, 1941. I eat tratant and wood glue. Weaken. If in the near future there will be no improvement - I will die".

"January 20, 1941. From December 1941 to January 20, 1942, 10% of the workers died of starvation at the plant".

“January 23, 1942. Yesterday, a 30-bed hospital was opened at the plant for the treatment of severely impaired victims of hunger. I was prescribed for treatment. 10 days I will eat normally, three times a day!”

It was in this way that the life of an engineer-inventor, who had weakened from hunger, was saved. While in the hospital, Ivan Doroshev painted portraits of those who were treated with him.

Earlier, as part of the campaign to collect documents from the period of 1941–1944 in the besieged city, the Presidential Library spoke about firefighters in besieged Leningrad, showed the horrors of war through the eyes of artists. Petersburg Alice Bolshakov, author of the book “The Girl from the Siege (Memories and Reflections)” told us her story. In total, about 200 people responded to the call of the Presidential Library to share testimonies about that time. With the participation of the Presidential Library in St. Petersburg, the Unified City Information Center, which coordinates the coverage of events marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, has been established.

As part of the TV project “Siege Diary” a specialist of the Presidential Library talks weekly about life in the besieged city on the St. Petersburg Channel. The Presidential Library’s portal provides the electronic collection “Defence and Siege of Leningrad”, which includes official documents, periodicals, memoirs of Leningrad citizens, food cards, photographs and newsreels.

It is also planned that the multimedia lessons of courage, which the Presidential Library holds for schoolchildren, will be based, among other things, on the military writings of Daniil Granin, whose centenary is celebrated this year.