Virtual tour of the besieged museum “The Muses Were Not Silent...” presented on the Presidential Library’s portal

The Presidential Library’s portal features a virtual tour of the museum "The Muses Were Not Silent...", which is also available for free download and can be used as part of educational events.

One can go through its exhibition halls and discover new heroic pages of the history of our city without even leaving home thanks to this project, accompanied by the head of the museum “The Muses Were Not Silent...” Olga Prutt.

This museum has been collaborating with the Presidential Library for many years. A virtual tour is the interaction, which began in 2015, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory, and continued in connection with the 75th anniversary of the first performance of D. D. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in Leningrad.

The museum “The Muses Were Not Silent...” is dedicated to the culture and art of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War and tells about the spiritual life of the besieged city, about the tragic fate of Leningrad residents. It reflects spirituality through books, music, theater ... The name "The Muses Were Not Silent ..." was presented to the museum by the soloist of the St. Petersburg Musical Comedy Theater Anatoly Korolkevich. It refutes the ancient Roman proverb: "When the guns say, the muses are silent".

The museum houses Dmitry Shostakovich school № 235, however, being “school-like” became a serious and well-known research center. The museum’s exposition is constantly growing, It is made up of original documents of the besieged time: posters, travel schedules of front propaganda brigades issued in 1941–1944 books, scripts and scores of the siege time. There are genuine things of O. F. Bergholz, K. I. Eliasberg, D. D. Shostakovich and many other prominent Leningraders.

The museums showcases thousands of exhibits that have passed through the siege, which spotlight the theme of the work of libraries and cinemas, the activities of orphanages, schools and kindergartens. Each subject has its own dramatic story, each one has a person’s fate. Anyone can see the exposition in more detail - a virtual tour of the museum will soon be available on the official website of the Presidential Library.

“The Muses Were Not Silent...” museum’s phone number is +7 (812) 572-58-87.

The institution’s portal also features blockade expositions of the State Memorial Museum of Defence and the Siege of Leningrad and the Kobona: Road of Life Museum, as well as a virtual tour of the “Materialized Memory”: Defence and Siege of Leningrad in museum expositions. Marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege”, which run in the Presidential Library from January 24 to May 13, 2019.