Virtual tour of the besieged museum "And the Muses Were Not Silent..." available on the Presidential Library’s portal

The Presidential Library’s portal features a virtual tour of the museum “And the Muses Were Not Silent…” This is a one-of-a-kind museum dedicated to the culture and art of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. It was created by the forces of teachers and pupils of Dmitry Shostakovich school № 235, where it is today located. The uniqueness of the museum is in the fact that from a school and amateur, it grew into a serious and world-famous research centre.

The name of the museum “And the Muses Were Not Silent...” was invented by the soloist of the St. Petersburg Theatre of Musical Comedy Anatoly Korolkevich, who refutes the ancient Roman saying: “When guns speak, muses are silent”.

The updated exposition spotlights the cultural life of the besieged city, the tragic fate of Leningrad residents, about the path to spirituality through books, music or theatre. The museum features authentic materials of the besieged time associated with theatrical productions, art exhibitions, libraries and cinemas. Among them are posters, travel schedules of front propaganda brigades, books published in 1941-1944, scripts and scores, which were used during the siege. The museum presents the personal belongings of Olga Berggolz, Karl Eliasberg, Dmitry Shostakovich and many other prominent Leningraders.

The Presidential Library proposes to visit on its portal a virtual tour of the museum “And the Muses Were Not Silent...”, which is available for free download and can be used as part of educational events. The project, accompanied by the head of the museum, “And the Muses Were Not Silent...” Olga Prutt allows you to remotely walk through the exhibition halls and discover new heroic pages in the history of our city.

Virtual tours are an actively developing area of ​​activity of the Presidential Library, thanks to which the electronic storage fund, along with paper, photo, audio and video materials, is added with exhibits and items from museum collections. Among the interactive projects of the Presidential Library are tours around the legendary cruiser Aurora, the State Memorial Museum of Defence and Siege of Leningrad, Kobona: The Road of Life Museum, And the Muses Were Not Silent... Museum, as well as Yulian Semyonov House-Museum.

Temporary expositions of the Presidential Library move from real space to digital. Today, the institution’s portal provides a remote visit such exhibitions as Materialized Memory: Defence and Siege of Leningrad in museum expositions. Marking the 75th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege Weapons Designer and Assault Rifle: the Path of the Great Master. Marking the centenary of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Monuments of book culture: from Print to Digital , An artist against the Fuhrer: fascism in the caricatures of Boris Yefimov. Marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, The Saving Sword of the Revolution: Chekist in Life, Cinema and Literature and many others.

Visitors to the Presidential Library’s portal from anywhere in the world can walk through the historical building of the Synod, which today houses a modern multifunctional cultural and educational centre, visit the Constitution Hall, learn about the new materials of the interactive exposition covering revolutionary events in Petrograd.