A cycle of multimedia lessons dedicated to the siege launched in the Presidential Library

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, the Presidential Library launched a cycle of multimedia lessons on the feat of the defenders of the city on the Neva and its residents. Participants of “Hero City Leningrad. 1941–1944” lesson were the eighth-graders of the Lyceum № 226 of the Frunzensky District.

The tour started for them in the lobby of the Presidential Library. Here, the children were told about the institution, about the specifics of storing electronic materials and about a separate “siege” collection.

Then, on eight plasma panels, materials were presented on the beginning of the siege, on the worst winter of 1941/42, illustrated with images of bread cards and campaign posters of those years, on breaking the siege and on the day of complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, about well-known residents of the city who survived that terrible time.

The attendees were told about the German Barbarossa war plan with the Soviet Union, showed the image of Hitler's directive on the destruction of Leningrad, and in contrast with this - various examples of heroism of city residents, supported by newsreel fragments and quotes from the Siege Book by Daniil Granin.

The lesson also included a visit to the thematic exhibition “Reified Memory: Defence and the Siege of Leningrad in Museum Expositions. Marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege”. Thanks to virtual tours, the attendees can remotely visit the museums of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, which preserve the memory of the courage and heroism of our compatriots.

Finally, the young Petersburg residents were waiting for the “practical part” in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library. The guys got familiar with the peculiarities of a simple and advanced information search on the institution's portal, carried out a bibliographic search on the topic “Children in besieged Leningrad”.

The project “Multimedia lessons of the Presidential Library” was launched back in December 2013. Over the years of its implementation, more than 20 thousand students attended classes. Lessons are free.

Plans for the organization of large-scale projects marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege were formed in 2018. In November it was held a round table at the Presidential Library, where an action to collect documents related to the siege was launched. About 200 people responded to the call to share testimonies about that time, about 900 storage units were transferred for digitization.

With the participation of the Presidential Library, the Unified City Information Center which coordinates the work of the media, public organizations and cultural institutions covering events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege has been established in Saint-Petersburg. 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 features the electronic collection “Defence and Siege of Leningrad”, which includes official documents, periodicals, memoirs of Leningrad citizens, food cards, photographs and newsreels.

Also, 2019 was declared in Russia the year of the centenary anniversary of the famous Leningrad and St. Petersburg writer Daniil Granin (1919–2017). To this date, the Presidential Library has timed many events. In particular, the traditional lessons of courage for schoolchildren were decided to be accompanied by quotations from the works of Daniil Granin. A separate collection is devoted to the writer on the Presidential Library’s portal.