Presidential Library presents newsreels of the siege and the Battle for Leningrad

July 10, 1941 is the day of the beginning of the Battle for Leningrad, which went down in history as a unique phenomenon still of great interest to Russian and foreign researchers.

The incredible price the Soviet people had to pay for the victory on the Leningrad front is highlighted in the Presidential Library’s collection “Memory of the Great Victory” and its separate selection “Defence and Siege of Leningrad”, which included official documents, periodicals, food cards, photographs and newsreel. Books of military historians, declassified documents, newspaper files, photographs, diaries of front-line soldiers and residents of the besieged city keep a lot. Newsreel of the Great Patriotic War as well as documentaries can also describe these terrible years. 

...Frozen Aurora and St. Isaac's Cathedral in a cold daze, empty snow-covered streets, Leningrad residents who are gathering water from the hole, a column of cars on the Road of Life, its shelling... The off-screen text reports: "A strong and insidious enemy plotted a monstrous evil act: hunger, wipe out the Neva stronghold. But nothing could break the courage and determination of the Soviet people. Everyone was a fighter”. This is a fragment from the newsreel “Defence of Leningrad. Siege of Leningrad”, which depict not only shots of military actions reflecting the heroic steadfastness of the soldiers of the Leningrad Front, but also the life of the blockaded city.

Sergei Loznitsa’s film “The Siege” tells about defensive and offensive operations of the Soviet troops on the Leningrad front from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944. The city was to be taken by one of the three strategic groupings of the Wehrmacht – Sever Army Group, under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb: there were 29 selected divisions behind it, the newest weapons... But the strength of the spirit of the Soviet soldiers and inhabitants of Leningrad turned out to be more powerful than the Fuhrer's military machine. The documentary chronicle “The Siege” directed by Sergei Loznitsa, which won many international festivals, reflects the daily life of the city taken by enemy.

The film from the Presidential Library’s collections "Life Artery" by Roman Koschienko tells about the first in the Soviet Union submarine pipeline laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga. This little-known “life artery” provided besieged Leningrad with fuel, thanks to which firefighters went out to extinguish burning houses, rescue products were taken to the shops, combat aircraft took to the air, tanks of the Leningrad front went on the attack. The films tells how the top-secret “special construction № 6” took place, what role military divers played in this story, including legendary Nina Sokolova - the world's first female diver.

The Presidential Library’s portal features TV project “Blockade Murals” (authored and directed by Alexey Oliferuk), which took shape over several years based on numerous interviews with direct witnesses of the blockade time and participants in the defence of Leningrad. The film shows the work of factories and hospitals, kindergartens and shops of the besieged city through the eyes of former artisans, nurses, sand-riders, and veterans.

Members of the Presidential Library are provided with a virtual tour of the exhibition halls of the State Museum of Defence and Siege of Leningrad.

Less than a year later, on May 9, 2020, we are waiting for the 75th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. On the eve of this date, the Presidential Library is launching a new project, say, which transforms the “Blockade-75” project, in the course of which about 3,000 unique documents were received to the collections by survivors of the siege, as well as their relatives and friends dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory.