The Presidential Library hosted a book presentation about the feat of the 2nd assault army

On January 26, 2022 on the eve of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege the Presidential Library hosted a presentation of the book “Gone to Immortality. In Memory of the 2nd Assault Army”.

The project "The Feat of the 2nd Assault Army" was implemented by the Tavolga Foundation for the Development of Science and Culture with the support of the Avtodor State Company and the Russian Historical Society. The book is dedicated to the feat of arms and tragedy of the 2nd assault army, which, at the cost of incredible efforts, did everything possible to break through the blockade of Leningrad, fighting on the Volkhov front.

Also, this historical work is associated with the M-11 Neva highway (Moscow - St. Petersburg). It was the construction of the road that served as an impetus for the creation of not only a book, but also a memorial complex “To those who died defending the Fatherland”. The fact is that one of the sections of the highway passes near the village of Myasnoy Bor in Novgorod Region. In this area in 1941-1942 there was a narrow corridor along which the 2nd assault army was supplied, and in February 1942 the Red Army soldiers left the encirclement. Here, while preparing the territory for the construction of the M-11, the search teams discovered the remains of soldiers, and in June 2020, a memorial complex was opened at the 563rd km, perpetuating the memory of the fallen heroes. As part of the project, a large-scale study of the combat path of the 2nd assault, 52nd and 59th armies was carried out in an attempt to break through the blockade of Leningrad, called the Luban operation. The results of this work are based on the book “Gone to Immortality. In memory of the 2nd Assault Army”, which was worked on by a team of military historians consisting of A. V. Isaev, A. V. Drabkin, D. B. Khazanov and others. Soviet and German documents from domestic and foreign archives, which were not previously known to specialists, were introduced into scientific circulation. Based on the analysis of both sides of the conflict, the authors fully restored the chronology and details of military operations, the circumstances of the occupation in the territory of the Chudovsky district, the humanitarian catastrophe of the villagers who found themselves in the war zone. A great achievement was the creation of new maps that illustrate in detail the situation in the battle area. This book is an important step towards perpetuating the memory of fallen soldiers, towards restoring historical justice.

The event dedicated to the presentation of the book was attended by Assistant to the President of Russia I. E. Levitin (via video conference), Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Western Federal District V. A. Leontiev, Chairman of the Board of the Avtodor State Company V. P. Petushenko, the leadership of the Administration of St. Petersburg, Metropolitan Lev of Novgorod and Starorussky (via video conference) and others.

The event recording is available on YouTube channel.