The muses were not silent. Cultural life was going on in the besieged city. Siege of Leningrad in art

“The gray leaden sky hanging over the city, rare snowflakes, swirling, fell on the embankment near the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. - Sailor, can you give me some bread? “The tired eyes of an old woman looked at me from under the scarf.”

From the diary of Ivan Dmitriev, artist of the Baltic Fleet Theater

Today it is incredibly difficult to imagine the hardships of life under siege. But still, try to imagine for a minute that in your house the heating, electricity, cold and hot water, no gas, sewerage system doesn’t work... Can you imagine? Now multiply all this by 900.

In besieged Leningrad, simply surviving was a feat. But we had to fight and survive! In addition, many poets, artists, actors and musicians, despite the harsh life, weather conditions, hunger and illness, still created, and ordinary Leningraders went to concerts, listened to the radio and read books until they burned them to kindle the stoves.

During the Great Patriotic War, while remaining in Leningrad, Anna Akhmatova was still in a state of inspiration and creative enthusiasm. According to her, the poems came in a continuous stream, “stepping on each other’s heels, hurrying and out of breath.” Akhmatova continued to write, and write surprisingly well, despite the fact that her fate at that time was difficult - her son was arrested for the second time, all the efforts and efforts to free him led to nothing.

Akhmatova saw the first cruel blows inflicted on the city she glorified. Thus, in July 1941, the famous “Oath” appears: And the one who today says goodbye to her beloved, Let her melt her pain into strength. We swear to the children, we swear to the graves, That no one will force us to submit!

This fragile woman, seriously ill, starving, wrote unusually strong poems: full of tragedy and feelings of compassion, love and sorrow. During the war years, perhaps her best poem, “Requiem,” was written. “I went to see Akhmatova - Pavel Luknitsky recalls meeting her in August 1941. “She was lying down—sick.” She greeted me very warmly, she was in a good mood, and with visible pleasure she said that she had been invited to speak on the radio. She is a patriot, and the knowledge that she is now in soul with everyone, apparently, greatly encourages her.”

Reading excerpts from the diary of the little-known musician Alexander Pergament, you involuntarily think about how difficult it was for people, soldiers, commanders at that time, and how they needed, simply needed, support. Thanks to concerts and radio appearances, their fighting spirit and optimism never faded. The music was a blast fresh air, a momentary happiness that made it possible to disconnect from the harsh reality. From the memoirs of A. Parchment: “Blocked Leningrad. Winter of '41. The sound of a metronome coming from the speakers.

Music in those days was not yet broadcast on Leningrad Radio, and at first it seemed obvious to us: times were harsh! But when traveling with brigades to the defenders of the city, we often heard: “Why aren’t you entertaining us enough? If only they would broadcast something for us on the radio!”

During the harsh times of the blockade, we went out a lot with concerts. We understood that our arrival to the tired, exhausted, but strong spirit brings a charge of optimism to the defenders of the city, confidence in victory...

We have always been concerned about the issue of repertoire. Olga Berggolts, Vera Inber, Nikolai Tikhonov, Vsevolod Azarov, Alexander Kron came to us and brought their new works, born in the besieged city.

And so we chose Matvey Tevelev’s play “Towards the Squadron”. Of course, we saw both the advantages and disadvantages of the play, but we all burned with one desire: to create a big performance about the Great Patriotic War. Sometimes, however, I couldn’t believe that the premiere would take place. Very difficult time! The actors could barely stand on their feet, exhausted, weak, but full of enthusiasm.

And the premiere took place on July 5, 1942 in the small hall of the House of Culture of the Industrial Cooperation! The performance turned out to be somewhat intimate, very portable and was well received by our audience.”

The premiere of a play during the siege seems something like a miracle, magic. But the most important premiere took place on August 9, 1942 in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. On that day the Seventh was performed for the first time. Leningrad Symphony» Dmitry Shostakovich. “On stage there are half-dead musicians who were hard to find throughout the city and even among the front-line soldiers who defended the city. There are listeners in the hall who didn’t know if they had the strength to get to their homes after the concert.”

I imagine that day, I imagine the hall, full of people, and I seem to feel the same thing that the Leningraders, exhausted by the blockade and war, felt then.

Where is the source of such unparalleled human resilience during all 900 days of siege? I think it is in the people who create such music in the hour of mortal trials, play this music and listen to it.

You can't beat someone like that!

On January 27, 1944, the blockade of Leningrad was lifted. We decided to remind readers how the inhabitants of the heroic city fought not only for lives, but also for what distinguishes man from animals - for their culture...

After the liberation of the city, palaces and museums, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo - everything turned into ruins. Paintings, statues, and furniture were either destroyed or taken to Germany, such as the famous Amber Room. Many libraries that were in private storage were lost. Dying from cold and hunger, Leningraders fought not only for their lives, but also for the preservation of the great cultural and historical heritage of their city.

“It seemed like bread, first of all bread, and then water and warmth! And everyone said and thought that all desires were focused only on this, on the most urgent. Nothing else. But no. In the withered body, the soul, suffering and humiliated by hunger, also sought food for itself. The life of the spirit continued. A person was sometimes surprised at himself, at his receptivity to words, music, and theater. Poems became necessary. Poems, songs that helped to believe that his boundless torments were not useless or in vain...”

Ales Adamovich, Daniil Granin “The Siege Book”

Hermitage

On the first day of the war, all Hermitage workers were summoned to the museum. Around-the-clock painstaking work began - it was necessary to pack the exhibits for transportation to Sverdlovsk. Hermitage employees, technical employees, security - everyone took part in the packaging, but this was not enough. From the second day, hundreds of Leningraders who loved the Hermitage came to the rescue... Thanks to them, already in July, 1 million 118 thousand exhibits were evacuated in two echelons.

During the evacuation of the exhibits, it was decided to leave the frames in their places. And through the empty halls of the museum, where until recently there were great paintings, Hermitage staff led real excursions.

“It was in the spring, somewhere at the end of April forty-two. In this case, it was courses for junior lieutenants. The cadets helped us pull out magnificent valuable furniture that was under water... And then I took these guys from Siberia and led them around the Hermitage, along empty frames. It was the most amazing excursion of my life. And empty frames, it turns out, are impressive.”

Pavel Filippovich Gubchevsky, researcher at the Hermitage

This is not the only amazing story associated with famous museum. Hermitage researcher Pavel Gubchevsky recalled how, after breaking the blockade on January 25, 1943, Palace Square a high-explosive bomb weighing a ton exploded. The blast wave, passing through the Hanging Garden, burst into the Pavilion Hall of the museum and knocked out the surviving glass even in the windows facing the Neva. And at night, gusts of wind blew wet snow into the halls, which melted by morning. And in the evening the frost hit again.

"The wet snow froze with broken glass, forming a continuous ice crust on the floors,” recalled Pavel Gubchevsky. “We all began to save figured parquet and mosaic floors from this destructive flooring. I got the Pavilion Hall. A thick layer of lumpy ice mixed with glass shards covered the wonderful mosaic embedded in the floor in front of the entrance to the Hanging Garden. There was an iron crowbar in my hands, and I knew what was under my feet. Centimeter by centimeter, I carefully chipped away the ice and glass.”

The city survived the blockade and the war. In the summer of 1944, when the main collections of the Hermitage were still in the rear, it was decided to organize an exhibition in the museum of those exhibits that were not evacuated. It was a symbol of the restoration of the peaceful life of Leningraders and the Hermitage.

Books

The war caused serious damage to private collections and personal libraries of Leningraders. To keep warm, people had to light stoves with furniture and books. Understanding the need for this, residents of besieged Leningrad mourned books as if they were people.

“I burned the books with my own hands, and I tried to somehow take them away, first what was worse. At first, all sorts of nonsense - something that I had not even seen before the war. Behind the shelf there was a lot of nonsense - some brochures, instructions for technical issues, apparently accidentally caught. Then I started with the least interesting ones for me - the magazine “Bulletin of Europe”, there was something else. Then they burned first, in my opinion, the German classics. Then I burned Shakespeare. I burned Pushkin. I don’t remember whose publication it was. In my opinion, Marx's, blue and gold. Tolstoy - the famous multi-volume book, such a gray-green cover, and a metal medallion glued in the corner.”

Vladimir Rudolfovich Den, resident of besieged Leningrad

Admiralty

During the siege, the architectural dominants of Leningrad served as the main reference points for enemy bombing. To disorient the enemy, it was necessary to camouflage the famous spiers. This task fell on the shoulders of four young climbers. It was decided to cover the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the dome of St. Isaac's, along with the belfries, with gray-blue oil paint. It blends well with the hazy autumn Leningrad sky and reliably covers these objects.

However oil paint could not be used on all dominants; this would destroy the fragile gilding. And special covers were made for the spiers. So, in order to do this, a “skirt” was required that weighed half a ton. It had to be put on with help hot air balloon. Working in forty-degree frosts, at night, under fire from the Germans, the climbers managed to “hide” the objects from the enemy.

Saint Isaac's Cathedral

There is a legend explaining how the city's most famous cathedral remained unharmed. At the beginning of the war, a hasty evacuation of artistic treasures began from the palaces of Pavlovsk, Pushkin, Peterhof, Gatchina and Lomonosov to the interior of the country. However, they did not have time to take everything out. It was necessary to find reliable storage for paintings, sculptures, furniture, porcelain, books and numerous museum archives. But they could not decide where such important exhibits could be safely hidden.

As the legend goes, at the suggestion of a former artillery officer, it was decided to create a central storage facility in the basements of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the tallest building in the city. The officer's calculation was as follows: the Germans, having begun shelling Leningrad, would use the dome of the cathedral as a landmark and try to preserve this highest point of the city for shooting. Thus, throughout the nine hundred days of the blockade, the museum treasures lay in this, as it turned out, reliable shelter and were never subjected to direct shelling.

Vegetable gardens

The first year of the siege claimed hundreds of thousands of lives of Leningraders. In order not to die of hunger, the blockade survivors are right on the streets of the besieged city. Wastelands, gardens, stadiums, parks and squares, slopes of rivers and canals were covered with crops. A vegetable garden was even laid out on St. Isaac's Square - cabbage was grown there, and potatoes were grown on Decembrist Square. IN Summer Garden white and cauliflower cabbage, carrots, beets, potatoes and dill grew in the beds.

The city authorities provided support to the owners of subsidiary farms - they distributed seedlings and helped to use them rationally, provided equipment and fertilizers.

The first harvest helped thousands of blockade survivors survive the next winter. And already in 1943, almost every family in Leningrad cultivated their own or collective garden.

“In 1942 and 1943 they were sown with turnips alone. In the spring of 1944, pieces of potato peels with eyes were planted. Although small, there was a potato harvest. Then the Berlikha variety of potatoes appeared, red, with yellow flesh, incredibly tasty.”

Vera Egorova

“There were enough vegetables not only to eat fresh, but also to store for the winter. Ten-liter bottles of pickled beets and carrots appeared in the bathroom.”

Elvira Mikhailova

Victory Road

After breaking the blockade of Leningrad on January 18, 1943, the opportunity arose to build a railway that would connect the besieged city with the mainland. The route, which went down in history as, was laid in just 17 days.

The task of its construction was extremely difficult. Firstly, the swampy and rugged terrain was very inconvenient for the construction of a steel line. Secondly, the lack of roads complicated the delivery of necessary materials. Thirdly, the peat bogs were in close proximity to the front line - 5-6, and in some places 3-4 kilometers. The work was carried out under constant artillery and mortar fire.

Every day the workers risked their lives to rebuild what had been destroyed by the enemy and move forward. In harsh winter conditions, builders carried heavy bags of soil, cut down trees, and made sleepers and rails.

By February 5, the road was ready, and already on February 7, Leningraders at the Finlyandsky Station greeted the first train with food with jubilation.

By railway After the victory, food, fuel, and ammunition were delivered to Leningrad, and cargo for the front left and people were evacuated.

You had to pay for transportation high price. The Germans, entrenched on the Sinyavinsky Heights, constantly fired at the trains with cannons and mortars. The death of drivers, destruction of cargo, and destruction of the railway track were commonplace. For secrecy, the trains moved only at night, and in order to provide the city with everything necessary, they followed one after another. The railroad workers called the route “Death Road.”

Victory Road played a vital role in lifting the siege of Leningrad a year later.

Shostakovich Symphony

A year before, in September 1941, the composer performed on Leningrad radio. Nazi planes bombed the city, and Shostakovich spoke amid the explosions of bombs and the roar of anti-aircraft guns:

“An hour ago I finished the score of two movements of a large symphonic work. If I manage to write this work well, if I manage to finish the third and fourth parts, then it will be possible to call this work the Seventh Symphony. Why am I reporting this? So that the radio listeners who are listening to me now know that life in our city is going well. We are all currently on our combat watch..."

Work on this symphony began at the very beginning of the war. From its first days, Shostakovich, like many of his fellow countrymen, began to work for the front. He dug trenches and was on duty at night during air raids. In October, the composer and his family were evacuated to Kuibyshev, where he completed his symphony on December 27, 1941.

Performed in besieged Leningrad, Shostakovich's new work shocked the audience - many of them cried openly. Great music was able to express what united people at that difficult time: faith in victory, sacrifice, boundless love to your city and country. During its performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio as well as over loudspeakers. It was heard not only by the residents of the city, but also by the German troops besieging it.

Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony became one of the brightest symbols of resistance of Leningraders fascist aggression.

Radio

To warn Leningraders about enemy attacks, 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the city streets. In addition, messages were broadcast through the city radio network. The alarm signal was the sound of a metronome: its fast rhythm meant the beginning of an air attack, and its slow rhythm meant a release.

Radio broadcasting in besieged Leningrad was around the clock. The city had an ordinance prohibiting turning off radios in homes. On the radio, announcers talked about the situation in the city. When radio broadcasts stopped broadcasting, the sound of the metronome still continued to be broadcast on the air. It was called the living heartbeat of Leningrad.

Zoo

Before the war, more than 160 animals and birds lived in the Leningrad Zoo. By the beginning of September 1941, when the city was completely surrounded, about half of the animals had been evacuated to Kazan. They took out polar bears, rhinoceros, tigers, panthers and others.

The zoo still has bison, deer, a female elephant, hippopotamuses, bear cubs, fox cubs, tiger cubs, a seal, two donkeys, monkeys, ostriches, a black vulture and many small animals. Many pets died from bombing, cold and hunger. For example, the favorite of Leningraders, the elephant Betty, deer, bear cubs, and tiger cubs, became victims of airstrikes.

But the zoo workers and residents of the besieged city made every effort to save the animals and to ensure that the zoo continued to operate, showing that Leningrad itself lives.

The animals were fed vegetables from the garden, which was planted right on the territory of the zoo. Cabbage, potatoes, oats, and rutabaga were grown there. The grass on city lawns was mowed. In the autumn they collected rowan berries and acorns.

Particularly lucky was the hippopotamus Beauty, who survived and died of old age only in 1951. All thanks to the fact that during the siege, Leningrad resident Evdokia Dashina looked after the animal - she fed and watered the hippopotamus, whose skin would crack without bathing, and lubricated its wounds with kilograms of ointment.

The bear Grishka, the nilgai antelope Mayak, the black vulture Verochka and many other siege animals and birds were also preserved.

Amazing fact: During the entire blockade, the zoo was closed only once - in the winter of 1941-42. The rest of the time he received residents of the besieged city. Also, throughout the blockade years, an animal theater operated in the zoo.

State educational budgetary institution

secondary vocational education in the Voronezh region

"Buturlinovsky Pedagogical School"

Examination essay on the subject ODK.05 History

on the topic “Fine art of besieged Leningrad”

Table of contents

I . Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..3

II . Fine art of besieged Leningrad... ………………………

1. Help from artists during the blockade…………………………………………………………...4

2. Landscapes and portraits of besieged Leningrad…………………………………...9

3. Posters and sculptures……………………………………………………………23

4. …………………………………………………… III Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….32

Introduction

The years of war are separating us further and further in time. A new generation has already grown up, which is only familiar with these tragic events from the stories of their elders and from works of art. Russians are a special people, because over the centuries their character has been tempered in the fight against enemies and invaders. I want to tell you what people thought and felt in those years, and especially about the difficulties that befell Leningraders during the difficult years of the war. Of course, historical documents provide facts that speak of the tragedy of the people who lived and worked in besieged Leningrad. However, I believe that art can tell about this more emotionally and vividly.

In my work, I tried to explore the works of Leningrad masters during the days of the siege, who worked in the field of propaganda art, painting, and culture. The creativity of these people was closely connected with the life of the city and the soldiers of the Leningrad Front. The works of these masters raised the spirit of the city and its defenders, formed an active opposition to the forces of fascism and the hardships that befell Leningraders and the army.

I chose this particular topic because people should remember and know about the great feat, about what every artist did in the name of Victory over a terrible and merciless enemy.

Fine art of besieged Leningrad

History and artists of besieged Leningrad

From the first days of the war, the enemy was rushing towards Leningrad. Only a few months later he stood at the walls of the great city. NDespite the rapid advance of the fascist hordes, no one could yet foresee what the situation would be like. military fate Leningrad and what awaits Leningraders.

The word “blockade”, which absorbed all imaginable and inconceivable difficulties, torment, misfortunes, did not immediately arise and take hold in the troubled life of the townspeople. Something terrible was happening, approaching, and Leningraders were eagerly looking for where, where, their personal efforts, their dedication, their readiness to fight, and if necessary, to die, were needed. If only this helpless expectation of the worst would not last. It was necessary to find an outlet for anger and anxiety in business, in general, and in the main matter...

A. Anushina. "Leningrad in July 1941"

The artists did everything they needed to protect their hometown. More than a hundred people - members of the Leningrad Union of Artists - immediately went to the front. Many fought in the people's militia. Everyone tried to defend their city with arms in hand. Those who were not in the army built defensive structures, worked in logging, and underwent military training in air defense teams. Some artists believed that no one needed art during the war, that the Union of Artists should simply be temporarily closed. But the work of painters, sculptors, graphic artists - their professional work - immediately became urgently needed by the city-front.

U
At the end of June 1941, a large group of artists began to carry out enormous work on camouflaging military installations - primarily airfields. It was also necessary to camouflage the most important civilian objects (in particular, Smolny) and famous architectural structures. It was necessary to protect the famous monumental sculpture from bombs and shells. For each monument, architects and sculptors developed a special method of shelter. Strange planked sand hills have grown up in the city, pedestals have become empty...

M. Platunov. "Night Alarm"

N. Protopopov. "Fire"

But the leadership of Leningrad believed that the strength of cultural figures lies not only in this. It is in those works of art that were able to support the people of the besieged city, to rouse them to fight. V. Serov, a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists, recalled the words that the city leadership addressed to cultural figures: “Your weapon is art, a pencil. No one has the right to throw away this weapon, to leave it without a fighter. This weapon should be in the hands of the artist, because it also effectively defeats the enemy and brings enormous benefit to our cause.”

Despite the difficult living conditions in besieged Leningrad, artistic life did not fade away in him throughout the heroic defense of the city. Masters of painting, sculpture, and graphics created works that have now become documents of the time, bearing the truth about the life and struggle of Leningraders.

Painting became one of the important means of fighting the enemy. The artists showed the amazingly tragic beauty of the city and found artistic means to convey their moral ideals reflected in the landscape, to the hearts of besieged Leningraders and soldiers lying in hospitals after being wounded or defending the borders of Leningrad.

TO Every day the landscape painter V. Pakulin went out onto the streets of Leningrad with a sketchbook in his hands. Wrapped in woolen scarves and an old fur coat, he stood for hours in the cold, not paying attention to exploding shells, barely holding a brush in his weakened hand, under which more and more new pictures of the tragically deserted beautiful city were born. Written on location, sketch-style, fluently and broadly, they still do not lose their not only emotional, but also truly aesthetic value. Signs of war are not everywhere visible in his landscapes, but they are always full of a special, sensitive silence, an amazingly reverent, heightened sense of love for the city, and sometimes bright joy, all the more amazing when you know where and how they were painted.

Of all the upcoming trials for Leningraders, perhaps the worst is hunger. Hunger and bombing! The only thing missing would be cholera, or plague, or just starvation typhus. People tried to accustom themselves to face events directly and think as little as possible about the future. When this future comes, then think about it!..

Ya. Nikolaev. "Line for bread."

G. Fitingov. "One hundred grams of bread"

The cards that were issued to members of the intelligentsia provided meager rations, which were noticeably different from what people who worked in factories received. But, despite everything, people continued to live and create. D.S. Likhachev recalled: “The human brain was the last to die. People wrote diaries, philosophical essays, scientific works, sincerely, “from the heart”, they thought and showed extraordinary firmness, not yielding to the pressure of the wind, not succumbing to vanity and vanity. Artist Chupyatov L.T. and his wife died of hunger. Dying, he drew and painted pictures. When there was not enough canvas, he wrote on plywood and on card..."

Winter of 1941/42 in Leningrad... Fierce, hungry, cruel. A series of endlessly long, dark days, the most tragic and courageous among the nine hundred unprecedented days of the siege. The city seemed extinct: deserted streets were covered with snow, cold buildings were gaping with wounds, broken wires hung lifelessly, trolleybuses were frozen solid in the snowdrifts. There was no bread, light, water.The war affected everything we had to do. And there was also work - cleaning up corpses, taking them to the trenches, saving the city from epidemics. This work is scary for a person.

Y. Neprintsev “Blockade” 1943

One of the direct participants in the blockade, who lived in the city all war time, recalled:“I was afraid of the dead, but I had to load these corpses. They sat right on top of the cars with the corpses and drove them away. And the heart seemed to be turned off. Why?

Because we knew that today I was taking them, and tomorrow they would take me, maybe. But someone will remain alive. We firmly believed that the Germans would never take the city..."

Babich M.Ya.: “...there were dead people in every apartment. And we were not afraid of anything. Will you go earlier? It’s unpleasant when the dead... Our family died out, and that’s how they lay. And when they put it in the barn!”

Laksha N.I.: “Dystrophic people have no fear. Corpses were dumped near the Academy of Arts on the descent to the Neva. I calmly climbed over this mountain of corpses... It would seem that the weaker a person is, the more afraid he is, but no, the fear disappeared. What would have happened to me if this had happened in peacetime? I would have died of horror. And now: there is no light on the stairs - I’m afraid. As soon as people ate, fear appeared.”

S. Boym “Winter of ’41”, 1942

Landscapes and portraits of besieged Leningrad

One of the brightest artists of the siege was a painter. Timkov N.E. He began painting landscapes of Leningrad back in 1941 - beautiful, truthful, humane. They are, as a rule, chamber and intimate - both in the small size of the sheets and in the chosen motifs (a piece of a street or embankment, a public garden, a courtyard). And, most importantly, the mood is clearly noticeable in them: now twilight sadness, now wary anxiety, now spring vigor.

Here in his picture"Leningrad under siege" 1942 we see a frozen embankment, buildings rise on the right, having a very gloomy, deplorable appearance due to broken and broken glass.

R work"Leningrad" 1943 is a typical painting by Timkov in compositionNOT.Here we see a quiet courtyard, where there are houses with boarded up windows and rare residents.

Both of these paintings convey the image of a city experiencing great hardship, but maintaining courage.

IN
During the war years, despite the efforts of citizens to preserve the empty museums, they had a very sad appearance due to multiple bombings. We can judge their condition from the works of the talented painter V. Kuchumov.

V. Kuchumov “Neva embankment near the Winter Palace” 1942

AND
from the diary of siege survivor G.A. Knyazev:« Leningrad is being shelled by the Germans from long-range guns. That's how the shells explode. Yesterday a shell hit a house on Glazovskaya Street, demolishing half the house.<…>Somewhere a shell hit a park - many were killed and wounded. This evening there is another shelling. And so the shells are booming somewhere in the direction of the Moskovsky railway station, there, further, behind it.”For artists such as S. Mochalov and V. Zenkovich, the most important thing was not the figures of people, who are either depicted in the distance or are completely excluded from the composition. The main thing was to convey the atmosphere that reigned in the city: harsh, tense, and to express the tenacity of the city’s defenders. V. Zenkovich's landscapes are filled with some kind of ringing beauty.

S. Mochalov “Shelling of Labor Square” 1942

V. Zenkovich “On the Neva embankment” 1943

To more truthfully convey those difficult days of the siege, the artist S. Boym, with the precision of a documentarian, showed the streets and residents of the harsh winter of 1941 - 1942.

S. Boym “Water from the Neva” 1942

From the notes of G.A. Knyazev:

“07/15/1941. Today we sent our greatest treasures from the Archives to the Hermitage - manuscripts of Lomonosov, Kepler, drawings from the Kunstkamera, etc. They will be sent with the second Hermitage echelon to a safe place. Which? We don't know..."

The war spared no one and nothing.Evidence of this is the diary of the deputy director of the Russian Museum G. E. Lebedev, who headed the team that remained in Leningrad. Here is one of the entries, dated August 5, 1943: “A terrible day. Two heavy shells hit the museum. One of them is about fifteen meters from our apartment.<...>In the main building - the library and academic hall - chaos of broken bricks, broken frames and marble.<...>And again they beat and beat. Very close..."

Artists could not stay away from this sad event. Having a hard time experiencing the tragedy of their hometown, they captured the state in which the art treasures of Leningrad found themselves.

Many years later,at the exhibition “In the Hour of Courage” at the State Russian Museum, dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the complete lifting of the blockade, Ya. Nikolaev recalled:“I have never felt his beauty so clearly through pain, never felt color so clearly.”

V.Milyutin “Hermitage, broken window” 1942

V. Kuchumov “Interior view of the Russian Museum building” 1943

The blockade changed the image of the city. Knyazev G.A. wrote in his diaries:“The Sphinxes, my ancient friends, stand alone on a semi-deserted embankment... Opposite them, the massive building of the Academy of Arts looks gloomily through its boarded-up windows. With some kind of heavy white greatness it still suppresses.

Rumyantsevsky Square thinned out and became exposed. There's a bivouac there. Red Army soldiers are wandering around, a fire is burning, a horse is nibbling at the remains of yellowed grass. On the Neva, dark leaden water ripples under falling grains of wet snow. The marvelous monument to Peter sank in the sand poured around it. A sad sight is a row of old houses along the embankment from the 1st line to the university: they all stand with fallen or broken windows…»

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the figurative panorama of the besieged city created by artists during the war. The feeling of historical significance that arises when looking at the paintings dedicated to events war, speaks of the authors’ aspirations to create voluminous and complete works in thought. Despite the genre characteristic of many works, they convey dramatic content. The background of the works is often the icy space of a deserted city landscape (one gets the feeling that the paintings emanate the soul-piercing winter cold).

The “iciness” of the canvases is intended for viewers to visually imagine the incredible severity of the hardships that befell the Leningraders, but at the same time to feel the tenacity and resilience of the inhabitants of the besieged city. Thus, through laconic pictorial means, artists recreated the atmosphere of besieged Leningrad.

Portraits of the war years are a special chapter in history Soviet art. Artists' interest in the man - the warrior, the worker, on whose shoulders fell the difficult and noble task of defending the Fatherland - has increased enormously.

Never before had the artist and the “nature” he depicted been so united by a common destiny - their hearts beat in unison, burning with a single fiery desire - to survive and defeat the hated enemy! In Leningrad, the artist and the warrior - be it a Red Army soldier or a sailor, a pilot or a partisan - were welded together by the tragedy of the nine hundred days of the siege...

Hermitage employee O. E. Mikhailova recalled: “The blockade bound us so tightly that we still cannot sever this connection. The blockade revealed people to the end, people became, as it were, naked. You immediately saw everything positive and negative in a person. Good start, the good side bloomed so magnificently!”

That’s why the portraits of those years are so simple and moving. They were created, as a rule, extremely quickly. To study nature, to search for the most expressive artistic means there wasn't enough time. No sketches or preparatory work were done. The portrait was created at once - with a brush on canvas, a pencil on paper - in several, and most often in one, session. But how the skill of many artists grew precisely in those heroic years! Their eyes seemed to become more alert, their hearts more sensitive, their hands more confident and firm.

And the portraits they created in one breath of their contemporaries and fellow citizens of those great years amaze us with the depth of their images, truth, sincerity, the artist’s clearly palpable excitement and high skill. The best of them were included in the golden fund of Soviet fine art. These are the already named “Self-Portrait” by Y. Nikolaev. “Portrait of I. Boloznev” by I. Serebryany, sculptural portraits of partisans and sailors by V. Isaeva, portraits of cultural figures by G. Vereisky, among whom the portrait of academician I. A. Orbeli is especially expressive, numerous portraits of partisans by V. Vlasov, portraits executed by P. Belousov, V. Malagis, V. Serov, V. Pinchuk.

M we see the artistK. Rudakov, who appears before us standing confidently, with a clear gaze, looking forward.

K.Rudakov. Self-portrait

The painter Nikolaev Y.S., extremely exhausted and sick, even in the most hard days blockade did not part with a pencil and brush. His self-portrait of 1942 is unusually expressive: an ascetically thin face, an inquisitive, intelligent look, sternly knitted eyebrows, tightly compressed lips - courageous and beautiful image a man who managed to overcome, it would seem, death itself.

Ya. Nikolaev Self-portrait, 1942.

Radio acquired particular importance for Leningraders. The voices heard on the radio were the voice of the Motherland, mother, friend, comrade, capable of supporting and encouraging in difficult times. That's why the artist. Nikolaev Y.S. captured M.G. Petrova in his work.

Ya. Nikolaev. Portrait of Leningrad radio artist M. G. Petrova

A special page of these years is children. And the artists could not stay away from this topic. These little boys warming themselves by the potbelly stove in the work of the artist Pakhomov look very direct and touching.A.F.

A. Pakhomov “Children” 1942

Another work by this artist tells about an ordinary day during the siege of little Leningraders.

A Pakhomov " To the Neva for water" 1942. From the series “Leningrad in the days of the siege” (1941-1944).

The boy’s head is bandaged, his left arm is in a sling, and there is bewilderment in his gaze: “For what?” This is the name of the drawing by artist A. Kharshak, which became one of the symbols of besieged Leningrad. The second title of this work is “Wounded Child.” A. Kharshak, a graduate student at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, in 1941, interrupting work on his diploma, volunteered for the people's militia. Defended Leningrad on the Pulkovo Heights. In fits and starts, in between battles, he took up pencil and paper. He actively collaborated with the army newspaper “Strike on the Enemy.” During one of his business trips to a besieged city, together with his partner, a front-line photojournalist, he visited the Rauchfuss Children’s Hospital. There they saw a boy with a bandaged head and a stunning look. The photographer clicked the shutter of his camera, and the artist began to draw the boy from life.

This drawing was presented at an exhibition of works by front-line artists that took place in 1943. A postcard was also issued at the same time.

ABOUT
Images of the city's defenders are represented in the works of many Leningrad artists.In A. Blinkov’s film we see a terrible picture of the death of a Red Army platoon that fell into a trap. The work is permeated with pain, suffering and resentment for what happened.

A. Blinkov “Ambush” 1943

The everyday life of the partisans is captured in the heroic pages of V.A. Vlasov and V.I. Kurdova.

With everything you have alive,How scary and beautiful life is,Blood, flame, steel, in a word.Overwhelm the enemy, delay

V. Kurdov “Partisan Campaign” 1943

Olga Berggolts

Many of the artists, such as the painter A. Bantikov, defended the walls of their native city with a machine gun in their hands, whose works are distinguished by restrained heroic pathos.

A. Bantikov. Self-portrait 1944

A. Bantikov. “Baltic soldiers in defense of Leningrad” 1944

It is impossible to surrender Leningrad... This feeling, this passionate conviction was stronger than hunger, suffering, disease, strong death. And so the city stood to the death. Workers, scientists, poets, musicians, and artists stood next to the soldiers to the death.Among all the countless and necessary tasks selflessly performed by artists, the most responsible and important task for them from the first day of the war was mass visual propaganda. How many different forms of propaganda art Leningrad artists had to master in the first months of the war! They worked on leaflets for propaganda among enemy troops, created dozens, hundreds of drawings for newspapers, and made artistic postcards that were printed in large quantities.

T their subject matter was very diverse: the glorious military past of the Russian people, combat episodes of the Great Patriotic War, exploits of the heroes of the Leningrad Front and partisan movement. Often the best posters and sheets of the “Combat Pencil” were reproduced on postcards, famous paintings of Russians and Soviet artists. The lithographed postcards of A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, who tirelessly glorified the unfading beauty of her native Leningrad, were especially loved at the front and in the rear. Diverse and difficult life Siege Leningrad is shown in countless drawings, etchings, engravings, and watercolors by N.Pavlov, E. Belukha, S. Mochalov, G. Fitingof, V. Milyutina, B. Ermolaev, N. Petrova, Yu. Petrov, I. Grigoryants and others. We see how people wander to the Neva for water, how they build defensive structures, how they clear the city of snow and dirt. We see fires and shells exploding in the streets, anti-aircraft guns on embankments and squares, warships frozen in the ice of the Neva, lines for bread and columns of soldiers going to the front.

S. Yudovin " On the streets of Leningrad in the winter of 1941-1942"
From the series "Leningrad in the days of the Great Patriotic War".

Graphic by S. Yudovin, before very in serious condition was taken out of the city in the summer of 1942, began working on a series of engravings “Leningrad in the days of the Great Patriotic War.” His sheets - “The Courtyard”, “Listen to the Radio”, “To the Hospital”, “For Water” - are truly tragic and at the same time striking with their insistent statement: Leningrad suffers, but lives, fights and does not give up. The artist’s chisel captures not death, but life.

S. Yudovin. "In the artist's studio", 1942

Yudovin's sheet became a symbol of the ascetic labor of the masters of fine art in the besieged city.S.B. "In the artist's studio." In a cramped room hung with paintings, a man dressed in a coat and hat sits by a burning stove. In one hand he holds a palette and brushes, the other he warms by the fire. In front of him is an easel with a painting in progress. Everything in this scene is simple and ordinary in the siege way: a dark room with a window covered with paper in a cross shape, a stove with a tin kettle - and a tirelessly working man. The simple plot is permeated with the high strength of the human spirit; everyday life turns into heroism. Every morning posters appeared on the wounded walls of Leningrad. Bright sheets smelling of fresh printing ink called for a fight against the enemy, branded fascist barbarians, called for vengeance, helped to live, fight, believe. People really needed them back then. In the frozen rooms of house No. 38 on Herzen Street, where the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists was located, a special, intense life was going on. Spacious an old house with two high halls for exhibitions, with large, once bright workshops, it became unrecognizable. In the rooms on the second floor, bunks were built, stoves were heated, and dim smokehouses were lit. A weak flame snatched out thin pale faces from the darkness, cast spots of fluctuating light on tables littered with paper, paints, pencils, and with timid warmth warmed the frozenfingers. Hands in gloves had difficulty holding the brushes; frozen paints had to be warmed by breathing. But the artists worked. They worked with energy, tenacity, and passion that was amazing for exhausted people.

WITH
every day the artists understood more and more the need for their enormous work and carried it out selflessly, with all their strength. But their ranks melted, and their strength diminished... More than a hundred people died from hunger, bombing and shelling during the harshest winter of the siege. Among them are outstanding figures of Soviet fine art I. Bilibin, A. Savinov, N. Tyrsa, P. Shillingovsky, N. Danko, N. Lapshin...

N. I. Dormidontov. " Urgent order for the front” 1942.

N. I. Dormidontov " Leningrad.
On the Fontanka embankment in August 1942",
1942.

Posters and sculptures

From the first days of the war, the work of the poster group “Combat Pencil”, where N.A. worked, was resumed in the Union of Artists. Tyrsa, N.S. Astapov, N.E. Muratov, V.A. Serov, V.I. Kurdov and many others. "Combat Pencil" is an association of Leningrad artists that produced collections of satirical drawings, and in wartime, lithographed military and political posters.

Anxiety! They took off into the sky
Columns of blue fire.
Rattling at an invisible target
Anti-aircraft guns, protecting our city.

And the awakened city knows:
The anti-aircraft gunner hits without a miss.
And, with a short explosion,
A hostile plane is on fire.

S. Spassky

N.A. Tyrsa " Anxiety", 1941. Poster "Combat Pencil".

Enemies cannot get into our city,
They should not drink from our river,
As before, the Baltic people are on guard,
Soviet country sailors.
They are like a steel fence
They take care of their hometown,
About the days of combat in Leningrad

The Baltic winds are singing.

Poster for "Combat Pencil". B. TimofeevV. I. Kurdov. " Baltic people. 1941-1944"

Already on the third day of the war, the first poster “We beat, we beat and we will beat!” appeared on the streets of Leningrad. artist V. Serov. Following him come the sharp, striking posters of B. Lebedev “I ran into it!”, V. Vlasov, T. Pevzner, T. Shishmareva - “Death to Fascism!”, A. Lyubimov “Well, Adolf, you have something here It doesn’t work..." and others.

During the Great Patriotic War, a strong team of poster artists formed and grew in Leningrad. Already in the first months of the war, at least fifty people participated in the work on the poster. Often the most expressive posters were created by those who, in their “peaceful” professional specialization, stood far from this unique type of art. These were easel painters, book charts and even sculptors.

The main group of poster artists included V. Serov, I. Serebryany, A. Kazantsev, N. Kochergin, T. Ksenofontov, L. Samoilov, A. Kokosh, M. Gordon, V. Vlasov, V. Pinchuk, A. Sittaro.

Poster authors: A. Kazantsev and V. Tsvetkov , 1941

The painter A. Kazantsev became one of the best poster artists in these years. Already in the first months of the war, his poster “Vengeance! Fascism is hunger, poverty, ruin! Burning hatred for the enemy and a fiery call for retribution are heard in this poster with passionate force. A young mother carries her child out of the burning ruins. Her face is full of hatred, her raised hand is clenched angrily into a fist. Into black and ocher color scheme The word “Vengeance!”, burning in large bright red letters, is embedded in the sheet.

Author of the poster – V. Ivanov, 1942

The posters “Warrior of the Red Army, save!” are dedicated to exposing the atrocities of the Nazis, calling for revenge and destroying the enemy! V. Serova, “Take revenge!” A. Pakhomova, “Revenge and death to fascist cannibals!” A. Vasilyeva, “For the death of our children, wives and mothers to fascist murderers - merciless revenge!” V. Pinchuk and many others.

Sculptor V. Pinchuk introduced propaganda graphics specific properties inherent in their profession. All defenders of the city remember Pinchuk’s poster, which appeared in 1942: “Have you done everything to help the front?”

The clearly sculpted head of a worker seems to emerge from the white plane of the sheet energetically. Questioning, demanding eyes stare out from the poster. The image is extremely collected, laconic, clear, it is perceived with lightning speed and precision, like a blow. The call to defend your city, your people, confidence in the strength of spirit of the Soviet man, in his readiness to fight to the death with the enemy is another enduring theme of the Leningrad military poster.

“Everyone to defend Leningrad!”, “Let’s defend the city of Lenin!” - V. Serov’s posters from 1941 call. Posters coming out soonA. Kazantsev “Youth, to arms!”, A. Efimov “For the Motherland!”, I. Serebryany “Beat harder, son!” and many others.

A. Kazantsev, 1943

The painter I. Serebryany worked on posters from the first days of the war and grew into a great, highly professional master of propaganda art. His poster “The Russian people will never kneel” was reprinted several times during the war and became one of the classic examples created by the best Soviet poster artists.

Each poster master gradually developed his own visual language, his own favorite techniques, and his own artistic style. But all their works are marked by the acute relevance of the topic, the concreteness and realistic clarity of images, emotional intensity, and a high patriotic feeling.

I.Serebryany 1943

In moments of respite, sparingly provided by the war, the masters of fine art drew, wrote sketches, and sculpted, although the specific nature of the sculptor’s work required both materials and working conditions, which seemed impossible to provide in those difficult days.Unfortunately, not all works made in plasticine and wax at that time could be transferred to plaster. Many works were lost, others were “reincarnated” due to lack of material into other things. But the sculptors did everything possible to preserve their works.

IN . At the end of 1941, Pinchuk created the sculpture “Baltiets”, full of dynamics and expression, A. Strekavin sculpted figures of steelworkers, V. Bogolyubov conceived a multi-figure monument dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The sculptors are A. Petoshina, V. Drachinskaya, T. Kirpichnikova, A. Gunnius, T. Linde, V. Gushchina.

V. Pinchuk. "Baltiets", 1942

V. Lishev “Checking documents” 1941-42

T. Kirpichnikova. Children - helpers of partisans, 1942

A. Andreeva-Petoshina “Partisan” 1942

V. Pinchuk “Oath of Revenge” 1942

Artists organized exhibitions and their discussions, held creative evenings, produced printed materials and thus contributed to achieving the common goal - Victory over the enemy.

TO
end of the blockade

A. F. Pakhomov " Salute January 27, 1944", 1944.

From the series "Leningrad in the days of the siege" (1941-1944).

AND Finally, the blockade was broken. From the diary of the artist Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P.: “Today an order was announced on the radio to the troops of the Leningrad Front. What happened after that! Everyone hugged, kissed, screamed, cried. Then the salute to the Leningrad troops who liberated Leningrad began. What a grand spectacle we experienced. 24 salvos from 324 guns. The guns were fired from military ships and from different parts of Leningrad - guns at Smolny, on the Field of Mars, on Palace Square and in many other places. It was at 8 pm. The night was dark. Fiery fountains of red, green, blue and white rockets soared high into the sky. “Hurray” cries from people distraught with joy were heard all around.”

A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva " Firework", 1944.

“...And again the world hears with delight
Russian salute peal.
Oh, this is breathing deeply
Liberated Leningrad!

Olga Berggolts
Leningrad fireworks
January 1944

Conclusion

Those who were born after the war can no longer understand much and cannot survive what the war generation experienced. You can only listen to the stories of those who survived, and try to understand, try to feel what they experienced, and keep it in memory... And pay tribute to eternal respect and eternal gratitude. Those who survived the siege were ordinary people. They managed to accomplish the impossible - survive the icy hell. And not only survive, but also remain human. They leave, and history goes with them. It's up to us to make sure she doesn't leave forever. Despite the difficult living conditions in besieged Leningrad, artistic life did not fade away throughout the heroic defense of the city. Masters of painting, sculpture, and graphics created works that have now become documents of the time, bearing the truth about the life and struggle of Leningraders.

Literature and Internet resources used:

1. Nikiforova I.V. “Artists of a besieged city.” - M., “Iskusstvo”, 1985

2. “St. Petersburg. Portrait of the city and its citizens." - St. Petersburg : Palace Editions, 2003. www.anthology.sfilatov.ru/

3. www.davno.ru/posters/artists/kokorekin/

4. www.oblmuseums.spb.ru/rus/museums/

5. pobeda-1941-1945.narod.ru/gal2/photo7.htm

6. www.rusmuseum.ru/ru/editions/video-blokada.shtml

7. www.sgu.ru/rus_hist/authors

8. smena.ru/destiny/62/

9. www.tvkultura.ru/index.html

, Anna Akhmatova, 1944

Prose

• Vera Inber, Almost three years (Leningrad diary), Soviet writer, L., 1947
• Olga Berggolts, Day Stars, Soviet writer, L., 1959
• Alexander Borisovich Chakovsky, Novel “Blockade” (books 1-5, 1968-75; Lenin Prize 1978)
• , Mirror
• Alexander Borisovich Chakovsky, It was in Leningrad
• Tamara Sergeevna Tsinberg, “The Seventh Symphony”, story - L., Det. lit., 1969.
• Nikolai Korneevich Chukovsky Novel “Baltic Sky”, 1946-1954, publ. 1955, film of the same name 1960. About the pilots of the Baltic Fleet, the defenders of besieged Leningrad.
• Panteleev L., In a besieged city. Living monuments./Collected works in four volumes. Volume 3. L.: Det. lit., 1984.
• Mikhail Chulaki novel "Eternal Bread", 1984. Ed. Soviet writer.
• Ginzburg L. Ya., Passing Characters: Prose of the War Years. Notes of a besieged man. M.: New publishing house, 2011.
• Nina Rakovskaya, Boy from Leningrad, State. publishing house of children's literature, Leningrad, 1945.
• Arif Saparov, The road of life. L.: Lenizdat, 1947.
• Arif Saparov, January '42. From the siege Leningrad chronicle. L.: Soviet writer, 1969.
• Victor Konetsky, Who looks at the clouds. First edition - mid-1960s.
• Nikolai Tikhonov, Leningrad takes the battle. L.: Goslitizdat 1943. 416 p.

Modern poetry and prose

• Polina Barskova, Living pictures. St. Petersburg Publishing house of Ivan Limbach, 2014.
• Sergey Anufriev, Pavel Pepperstein, chapters from the novel “Mythogenic Love of Castes” (1999-2002)
• Andrey Turgenev, Sleeping and Believing: A Siege Novel. M., 2007
• Sergey Zavyalov, Christmas post, poem (2009)
• Igor Vishnevetsky, Leningrad, story (2009)
• Polina Barskova, poetic cycle "Handbook of Leningrad front-line writers 1941-1945", from the book "Ariel's Message" (2011)
• Boris Ivanov, Behind the city walls. Deserter Vedernikov, story (2012)
• Irina Sandomirskaya, “Blockade in a word. Essays on Critical Theory and the Biopolitics of Language.” M.: New Literary Review, 2013.
• Gennady Alekseev, free verse "Firebird"

Music

• Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" (1941-1942)
• Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev, “Dithyramb to the Great City” (1941), “Songs of Sorrow and Tears” (1941) for solo piano, “Chants of the Unforgettable Memory of Alexander Dmitrievich Kastalsky” for mixed choir a capella (1941-1942) on texts from church use
• Gavriil Nikolaevich Popov Symphony No. 2 “Motherland” (1943, conceived in the winter of 1941-1942 in a besieged city)
• Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko, Symphony No. 5 “Chronicle of the Siege” (1975)
• V. Kudryashov (music), M. Ryabinin (lyrics), Spanish. Ville Perch and ensemble, Dad's Waltz
• Songs of the group "Splin" "Blockade", "Waltz" and "Orchestra".
• British rock musician Blaze Bayley's song City Of Bones from the album Promise and Terror (2010)
• Song by Chris de Burgh Leningrad
• The album “The Diarist” (2006) by the Italian band Dark Lunacy is entirely dedicated to the siege of Leningrad.
• Song and video clip of the group “The Largest Prime Number” (SBPC) - "Blockade"
• The song “Unconquered” by the rock group “Kipelov” from the single of the same name
• 09/08/2012, on the day of remembrance of the victims of the siege of Leningrad, the premiere of the Third Symphony (Military) op.13 by composer Alexei Kurbatov took place in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic (St. Petersburg), the orchestra conducted by Igor Ponomarenko. The symphony was broadcast live in city squares.

Monumental art

• Monument to the children who died on May 9, 1942 (Smolensk Cemetery)
• Memorial to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square

art

The best works created during the blockade years reveal the scale of the greatest tragedy taking place.

The fine arts of Leningrad have never achieved such powerful socio-political significance as they did during the days of the siege. During the siege, many artists worked in Leningrad; the members of the Union of Artists alone numbered about a hundred people. Artists had to work on camouflaging military installations, evacuating museum valuables, and camouflaging monumental sculpture. It was decided to leave the most famous of the monuments, the monument to Peter the Great, “The Bronze Horseman” in place, protecting it and covering it with sand. The artists also worked to create the Museum of the Heroic Defense of Leningrad, the decision to create which was made in the fall of 1943. The museum was opened in May 1944, and in 1953 it was disbanded as a result of the fabricated “Leningrad Affair,” but the museum exhibits were preserved.

Many artists directly followed the instructions emanating from the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Political Directorate of the Front, which called for “equating the pen to the bayonet,” and turned their art into a powerful propaganda resource. Paintings written during the siege are not nearly as numerous as graphic works. Battle painting includes numerous works created at this time by painters commissioned by the Leningrad Union of Artists, depicting episodes of the battles that took place during the battle for Leningrad, events taking place at the front, the fighting of partisans, and also the theme of the heroism of the city’s defenders. Artists received official orders to paint “military portraits”, while many soldiers came to pose directly from the front, receiving a short leave. Other orders were portraits of Stakhanovites and the working life of townspeople, much less often - events of the Russian military history. The works glorified the resilience and courage of the city’s defenders and carried the promise of victory. Among the artists who worked in this direction, the most famous were V. A. Serov, G. S. Vereisky, I. A. Serebryany, N. Pilshikov, V. A. Vlasov, V. I. Kurdov, and many other masters. A series of 24 lithographic works by A. F. Pakhomov “The Leningrad Chronicle”, completed in 1947, was awarded the State Prize after the war.

Since the beginning of the blockade, the most popular and in mass form art becomes a poster; one of the very first posters to appear in the city was made by V.V. Lebedev, in the past, a famous master of this genre, who in 1919-1920 worked on a series of posters “Petrograd windows of ROSTA”. At the beginning of the war, no more than five people worked on the poster, while by August the number of poster artists approached fifty, they worked in the renewed TASS Windows and for the Combat Pencil association. The posters had a strong impact, calling out to passers-by from the walls: “Death to child killers,” “Destroy the German monster.” In addition to the “Combat Pencil” sheets and posters, popular prints, postcards, and portraits of war heroes were produced in large quantities. Postcards, published in circulations of up to 25 thousand, were dedicated to military theme. During the war years in besieged Leningrad, book designers could not find work, and the activities of most publishing houses were almost paralyzed. , so postcards became their first and foremost possible source of income. Siege life, however, was also reflected in these subjects - the theme for a postcard could be “A woman knitting mittens for fighters.”

Throughout the blockade, there was active exhibition activity; the first exhibition was opened on January 2, 1942. Siege exhibitions, until 1944, were sparsely attended (15-18 people per day), including and not only because people had questions of survival in the first place. Thematic paintings were painted by artists socialist realism, which, unlike the “critical” realism of the 19th century, did not provide for criticism. “During the war, N.N. Punin compared the means of art to weapons. You cannot conduct military operations with the weapons of the past... There were also orders. These were the so-called thematic paintings. And there was a contingent that easily carried out these orders; their artists half-contemptuously called painters. They worked for the increasingly undemanding taste of their superiors. Possessing a certain, but rather artisanal skill, they filled exhibitions with their products, which made people who wanted to see genuine painting sick... Something dead, frozen looked from the walls of exhibitions in St. Petersburg... and this one. the process did not stop. At the exhibitions everything became more and more gray.. "

The creative positions of Leningrad artists were divided.

Already at the end of the 1930s, the academic hierarchy of genres was “restored” in socialist realism; artists turned directly to the authorities (in official paintings) or to colleagues (solving plastic problems in portraits and still lifes). Works representing landscape and everyday life became predominant in siege art.

IN genre painting(and graphics) in the first years of the siege, tragic and dramatic themes predominate; plot-narrative works appeared by 1944. Historians distinguish two lines of this genre - one, with an accentuated plot, or with the disclosure of a theme through the image of one person, while the artist does not set himself a portrait task. The second line of development of the genre is a type of landscape, often urban, with elements of genre action introduced into it. Another topic was “events taking place at the front or behind enemy lines”; these works, according to historians, also gravitated either to the everyday genre, with a clearly defined plot basis, or to the “military” landscape.

Daily life of the city

A significant part of the works created during the siege were drawings that were of a documentary nature. Some of them were made in sketches, but in many cases they are finished, well-thought-out individual pieces. Most of these works are far from the ceremonial “military officialdom” encouraged by the Regional Committee, and from optimism. They reflect the life of the inhabitants of the city, confronting the hardships of difficult years. Often the theme of these works is images of suffering and sorrow.

Most of the siege graphics (and partly paintings) are drawings from nature, and are divided into groups - city landscapes filled with people, often deserted ones, portraits and everyday sketches. Many of these works were made under government orders, most of them were purchased for the Leningrad Defense Museum.

One of the dramatic images, characteristic specifically for the winter of the siege, repeated in many works, is a man driving a sleigh along the street with the body of a deceased person. The themes of P. M. Kondratiev’s watercolors were cleaning street fences, emergency maps, trucks frozen in ice; works by S. S. Boym - clearing snow on the streets, queues at the bakery, preparing and unloading firewood, evacuation of children, hospital, Christmas tree market in December 1941. Drawings by N. M. Bylyev-Protopopov depict dystrophies basking at the stove, street barricades , girls weaving camouflage nets, teenagers on duty on the roofs, and a cluster of coffins at the gates of the Okhtensky cemetery. I. A. Vladimirov is known for his series of documentary sketches of the events of 1917-1918; he made the second such cycle during the blockade, this time his topics were the removal of corpses on the streets, the “road of death.” L. I. Gagarina's subjects were people bundled up, sitting at a smokehouse, clearing snow from the streets, T. N. Glebova's subjects were people sitting in a bomb shelter, mounted police, dismantling collapsed houses after a raid, crowds of fire victims sitting on the streets among their belongings , dystrophics, having lunch in the dining room of the Union of Artists. L.N. Glebova painted the faces of besieged children and women with children’s coffins on sleds. E. M. Magaril painted people in a hospital hospital, G. K. Malysh - children’s corpses on the streets, and - fireworks in honor of the lifting of the blockade in 1944, A. E. Mordvinova - people helping to extinguish fires, a woman with a newborn sitting at the potbelly stove, public teahouse, V.V. Sterligov - wounded in the hospital, A.G. Traugot - crossing the frozen Neva, S.N. Spitsyn - life of schoolchildren, students of the Secondary Art School, T. Kuperwasser - nurses in the hospital, E. Ya . Higer - heating repair. A.N. and V.N. Proshkins wrote about captured Germans near Shlisselburg, trains delivering fuel to the city. A. L. Rotach - fire in the Zoological Garden, Ya. O. Rubanchik - vegetable gardens near St. Isaac's Cathedral, water intake and frozen transport, sandbags, air raid, queue at the tobacco store, mountains of things taken with them by evacuees, piled up at the Finland Station , A.I. Rusakov and A.F. Pakhomov in the winter of 1941 made full-scale sketches of people dying from dystrophy in the F. Erisman hospital.

L.A. Ilyin painted explosions in the streets (he soon died from one of them) and corpses piled in basements. The plots of M. G. Platunov are more tragic - murders and thefts on the streets that occurred over a piece of bread, desperate suicides, people frozen on the street. Many of the works made during the siege can be confidently attributed to the everyday genre, but not all of them, since it was impossible for the artists to accept explosions in the streets and corpses stacked in piles as everyday life.

The daily life of the city and portraits of citizens was also the theme of the works of E. O. Marttila, P. I. Basmanov, V. G. Boriskovich, P. Ya. Zaltsman, V. V. Milyutina, V. V. Zenkovich, L. A. Ronchevskaya, A. I. Kharshak, M. A. Shepilevsky, N. Dormidontov, E. Belukha, S. Mochalov. Sculptors also worked during the blockade. Not all works created during the siege have survived; many have been lost. The siege works of Evgenia Evenbakh were also dedicated to the military everyday life of the blockaded city. .

Artistic merits The works were different; for example, the tragic cycle of works (linocuts) by Solomon Yudovin and the lithographic series by Adrian Kaplan, where he combines an everyday plot with the finest texture of a “multi-layered” drawing, are especially highlighted. In many of the siege works of the artists of the “Leningrad school” there is a conscious dispassion of fixation, a desire to present nature “as it is”, without an expressive mood.

Some artists set themselves the goal

“To draw like a chronicler.. as an eyewitness of things that many are not given the opportunity to see, and many turn a blind eye to them..” “.. I make art.. I have no inspiration to describe the beauty of air battles. searchlights, rockets, explosions and fires; I know what horror this extravaganza brings with it...”

Such works include the series “The Horrors of War for Civilians” and “The Siege of the City” by T. N. Glebova, a student of P. N. Filonov and a follower of his “analytical method”. .

The works created during the siege themselves became part of history and the reason for the emergence of new works of art. There is a well-known series of drawings by Vera Milyutina “The Hermitage during the Siege”, depicting the empty halls of the museum, walls without paintings, fallen chandeliers. It was this series that formed the basis for the works of the Japanese artist Yasumara Morimura “The Hermitage. 1941-2014”, in 2014, exhibited in the halls of the Hermitage during the exhibition of Manifesto 10 and recognized as “the most sensitive work about the Hermitage to the historical context.”

A special place among all the art of the siege is occupied by the painting by L. T. Chupyatov “The Protection of the Virgin Mary over the besieged city.” It was painted by the artist shortly before his death in the besieged city, September 8-10, 1941, when the Badayevsky warehouses were burning in the city.

Siege landscape

“Many people believe that if an artist deals only with landscape, then he is distracted or deliberately deviates from resolving large significant themes, while landscape - and this is confirmed by the entire history of painting - plays a major role. public role. The landscape, in essence, represents the worldview of the era,” wrote G. N. Traugot. The artists reflected the blockade in their picturesque and graphic works so that they remained far from direct naturalism in the depiction of suffering. But they are expressed, first of all, by the dying city itself.

Huge symbolic meaning Petersburg, obvious both to its defenders and to the enemy troops trying to occupy it, is also comprehended in a number of outstanding works of art high artistic expressiveness.

Artists on the verge of starvation created works that were later united by researchers into the special genre of “siege landscape.”

The most poignant works were created by artists during the very first winter of the siege, which left the strongest impressions on Leningraders.

The work of artists directly on the streets of the besieged city was not welcomed, however, many of the works created during the siege belong specifically to the genre of urban landscape. Sometimes I had to work on the streets during shelling. Many artists depicted city streets during shelling, houses destroyed by explosions, and sheltered monuments.

Siege landscapes were written and drawn by M. P. Bobyshov, B. N. Ermolaev, A. L. Kaplan, A. V. Kaplun, S. G. Nevelshteina, Ya. S. Nikolaev, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, N A. Pavlov, N. E. Timkov, G. N. Fitingof.

Among them, it is customary to highlight the architectural landscape, characterized by the “accuracy of reproduction of the object of the image.” Among those who painted them were many architects: I. S. Astapov, A. K. Barutchev, E. B. Bernshtein, V. M. Izmailovich, L. A. Ilyin, V. A. Kamensky, A. S. Nikolsky, M. A. Shepilevsky, L. S. Khizhinsky. The famous architect L. A. Ilyin, in addition to a series of landscapes, painted a graphic diary, *Walks around Leningrad" .

The extraordinary and terrible beauty of the besieged city was reflected in their works primarily by the artists of the “Leningrad school” - V.V. Pakulin, A.N. Rusakov, G.N. Traugott.

V.V. Pakulin had never painted city landscapes before the war, and it was during the blockade that the beauty of the city was revealed to him. Many artists noted that in the winter of 1941-1942 Leningrad was especially beautiful: sparkling with frost, motionless and almost deserted. Pakulin created about fifty city landscapes, among them “House of Books. Avenue 25 October" (1942), "At the Admiralty" (1941-1942), "Hermitage. Jordan entrance" (1942), "Prospect 25 October. Spring" (1943), "Demidov Lane" (1943).. In many of these works, pearl gray colors are used, reflecting the haze of the light-air environment.

The most famous of G. N. Traugot’s picturesque siege series are his paintings “Gunboat at the Winter Palace” 1942, “Neva with Pushkin House"1942, "At Peter and Paul Fortress" 1942, they depict deserted squares, snow-covered streets, clear air, the Neva, on which warships stand. He also created a watercolor blockade cycle. All his works are strict in color, their color scheme tends to be monochrome. The feeling of “miracle” and ghostliness persists even when genre scenes are included in the landscape. The artist does not paint the truly terrible things that happened in the city at every turn. The courageous spirit of his painting belongs to the sphere high tragedy, the same can be said about the drawings (“The Icy Sun of the Blockade”). The author’s individual experience grows to the scale of heroic pathos.

And I. Rusakov belongs to those rare artists who were able to survive the entire blockade. without stopping to work. He created the most powerfully expressive picturesque portraits of the city, deserted and destroyed, during the most difficult time of the first winter for it; These works are often reproduced and exhibited. "Rusakov, apparently, felt the special significance of each written and visual evidence “from the inside,” which Academician G. A. Knyazev noted in his siege diary.” Hence the important property of his drawings. made in 1942-1943. , - they are detailed, and made like finished things. not sketches.

The fundamentally intimate nature of Rusakov’s siege watercolors, both city landscapes and portraits, separates them from the famous series of A. F. Pakhomov (“Leningrad during the years of the siege and restoration”) or the portrait series of G. S. Vereisky. There is no deliberate emphasis on heroism, or on suffering. The artist carefully records the daily life of the city.

Siege portrait

The self-portrait occupies an extremely important place in the art of the siege. The main idea for the siege self-portrait is the opposition of life and creativity - death and destruction. Artists painted self-portraits different directions- from the students of P. N. Filonov, who just died in December 1941, - artists P. Ya. Zaltsman (graphic self-portraits), T. N. Glebova ("Self-portrait", "Portrait of a family during the siege", 1941, both in the collection Tretyakov Gallery) - and a series of tragic self-portraits by V. P. Yanova, before the works of Ya. S. Nikolaev (1942) and A. A. Bantikov (1944). From Elena Marttila's diary entries it follows that it was the work on the self-portrait, in which she wanted to record the process of her own dying, that saved her life in the winter of 1942.

The “siege portrait” was fundamentally different from the picturesque portraits made by state order, and always depicting a person performing a feat, labor or military. To enhance the impression, the portrait was often half-length or knee-length. In contrast, “siege portraits” have a different, intimate character. These can also be portraits - types, like the female images in the portraits of P. I. Basmanov and V. V. Zenkovich. Often the models for siege portraits are relatives or close friends of artists, as in the portrait of artists E. Zazerskaya and T. Kuperwasser, 1941, painted by A. I. Rusakov.

The same chamber genre also includes portraits of artists of the socialist method, V. I. Malagis (Portrait of an old worker, 1943; Portrait of the artist Ivanov, 1943), Ya. S. Nikolaev (Portrait of M. G. Petrova, 1942, portrait of the artist Vikulova, 1942), N. Kh. Rutkovsky (Portrait of A. Frolova - Bagreeva, 1943). One of the main differences between these works and the official commissioned portrait is the expansion of the range of traditions used. Departing from the canons of socialist realism, these artists turned to French painting, to the portraits of the Impressionists, however, completely changing the concept of color, replacing it with a deliberately dirty one. Although, in words, French impressionism was condemned in Soviet criticism in the 1940s.

Post-war art

Cinema

Art films

• Blockade (epic):
• “Leningraders, my children...” (Uzbekfilm, 1980)
• "Solo", dir. Konstantin Lopushansky (1980)
• “Red streptocide” (short film, directed by Vasily Chiginsky, 2001)
• “Ladoga” (TV series, directed by Alexander Veledinsky, 2013)
• “Leningrad” (film, dir. Igor Vishnevetsky, 2014)

Documentaries

• Siege of Leningrad
• Leningrad blockade
• Seventh Symphony
• Blockade tram
• "Leningrad in the struggle." Director: R. Karmen, N. Komarevtsev, V. Solovtsov and others, USSR, 1942
• "Feat of Leningrad." Director: V. Solovtsov, E. Uchitel, USSR, 1959
• "City under siege." Director: P. Kogan, USSR, 1969
• "Their weapon is the movie camera." Director: K. Stankevich, USSR, 1980
• "Memories of the Siege." Director: V. Semenyuk, USSR, 1990
• Program Investigations "Seekers"
  • "Witness to the Great Siege" (2005)
  • "Ghost Road" (2006)
• Documentary series «

In the city on the Neva, in the House of Artists, in front of the entrance to the exhibition halls hangs a large marble plaque. The names of those killed in the Great Patriotic War are carved on it. More than 150 artists...

1941 Winter, blockade, bombings. Shelling, hunger, cold. Countless thousands of deaths... A series of endless dark days, the most tragic and courageous among the nine hundred unprecedented days of the siege. The city seemed extinct. Deserted streets were covered with snow, frozen buildings turned black, broken wires hung lifelessly, trolleybuses and trams were frozen solid in the snowdrifts.

There was no bread, light, heat, water. And yet Leningrad lived and fought heroically.

Herzen Street, 38. In the frozen rooms of this house of the Leningrad Union of Artists, a special, intense life was going on during the days of the blockade. The spacious room with two high halls, with large, once bright workshops, became unrecognizable. In the corners there were beds that had come from nowhere, potbelly stoves were burning, and smokehouses were burning. A weak flame snatched out thin, pale faces from the darkness. Hands in gloves had difficulty holding the brushes; frozen paints had to be warmed by breathing. But the artists worked. They worked with amazing energy, tenacity, and passion.

Solomon Yudovin. In the artist's studio. Linocut.

From the first day of the war, artists, together with all Leningraders, built defensive structures, worked in logging, and underwent military training in air defense teams. More than a hundred people went to the front. Many fought in the people's militia. Everyone wanted to protect hometown with weapons in hands. Some then decided that no one needed the professional skills of an artist during the war. But already at the end of June 1941, the military command called on a large group of painters to carry out work to camouflage military installations - primarily airfields. The architectural monuments of the city-museum were also camouflaged and protected from bomb and shell fragments monumental sculptures on the famous embankments and squares of Leningrad. Hands skilled in handling works of art were also needed when urgently packing the treasures of the Hermitage and the Russian Museum for evacuation. The artists who survived the blockade remember with what trepidation and mental pain they helped museum staff remove priceless canvases from stretchers, how sad it was for everyone to see empty frames on the walls of famous halls...

Until the summer of 1942 Solomon Borisovich Yudovin lived in besieged Leningrad, then was evacuated to Karabikha near Yaroslavl, where he worked on a series Nekrasovsky places(1944). Upon returning the same year to the northern capital, he completed work on a series of wood and linoleum engravings Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War(published as an album in 1948).

Solomon Yudovin

Solomon Yudovin. Siege Leningrad

Solomon Yudovin. Moving to a new apartment.

In 1941 Alexey Fedorovich Pakhomov began working on a large series of autolithographs “Leningrad in the days of the siege.” The first sheets of this series - “They are being taken to the hospital”, “For water”, “In the center of defeat” - shock with the heart-wrenching truth of the images of the life of the hero city. In total, he made more than 30 artistic chronicles of Leningrad life, which, with all the utmost authenticity, are not just sketches from life, but compositions made on the basis of reflection and strict selection of details.

Alexey Fedorovich Pakhomov

Alexey Pakhomov

Alexey Pakhomov. For water.

Solomon Samsonovich Boym

Solomon Samsonovich Boym. Water from the Neva.

Solomon Samsonovich Boym. Leningrad. White Night. 1943.

Solomon Samsonovich Boym:

1941 - received appointment to the Kronstadt House of the Navy;
1942 - seconded to the newspaper “Red Baltic Fleet” in Leningrad. Participated in an exhibition of works by Leningrad artists during the Great Patriotic War;

1943-1945 - main artist Political Directorate of the Baltic Fleet.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Pavlov. Self-portrait

Together with other artists Nikolai Alexandrovich Pavlov He worked a lot and actively in besieged Leningrad: he was in aviation formations and on ships of the Baltic Fleet. Portraits of heroic pilots and sailors of the crew of the guards destroyer “Stoikiy” appear before us as pages of the heroic chronicle of the city’s defense. Next to them are sketches of the difficult life of Leningraders during the siege: “Removing snow”, “Fetching water”. In one of his etchings the artist captured dramatic event- “Fire at the Badayevsky warehouses on September 8, 1941,” which marked the beginning of famine in the city, when the main food supplies burned. Another engraving, “Apartment after artillery shelling” (1941), also reminds us of the horrors of war. The unforgettable impressions of the blockade years are preserved in a series of drawings dedicated to sculpture monuments.

N. A Pavlov. The first enemy raid on Leningrad

N. A. Pavlov. After the shelling

Nikolai Alexandrovich Pavlov. Concert on the Neva embankment.

N. A. Pavlov. Bronze Horseman disguise.

On June 24, 1941, the first “TASS Window” appeared in a store window on Nevsky Prospekt. Everyone at that time still remembered the famous “ROSTA Windows” of V. Mayakovsky’s times civil war. "TASS Windows" continued this glorious tradition. They were compiled from topical posters and cartoons, from daily reports from the Sovinformburo and obligatory photo chronicles. “Windows” became so popular that they soon had to be duplicated and copied by hand. There was also more work on combat leaflets and popular prints for the front, leaflets on propaganda among enemy troops, numerous drawings for newspapers and large propaganda panels that were placed on the main thoroughfares of the city and roads to the front.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Serov

TASS windows. V. A. Serov

Alexander Kharshak

Leningraders, and today St. Petersburg residents, know the work of Alexander Isaakovich Kharshak from the siege drawing, in which a wounded boy, bandaged, looks at us all with his huge, not at all childish eyes.

Alexander Kharshak. For what?

Alexander Kharshak, a graduate student at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, interrupted work on his diploma in 1941 and volunteered for the people’s militia. Defended Leningrad on the Pulkovo Heights. In fits and starts, in between battles, he took up pencil and paper. He actively collaborated with the army newspaper “Strike on the Enemy.”

During one of his business trips to a besieged city, together with his partner, a front-line photojournalist, he visited the Rauchfus Children's Hospital. There they saw a boy with a bandaged head and a stunning look. The photographer clicked the shutter of his camera, and the artist began to draw the boy from life.

Konstantin Ivanovich Rudakov

During the Great Patriotic War and the blockade, Konstantin Ivanovich Rudakov created a series of portraits of air defense fighters, worked on theatrical scenery, created picturesque panels for city squares and streets, and collaborated in the magazine “Koster”.

Konstantin Ivanovich Rudakov. Letter to the front. Dad, beat the fascists! Leningrad, Publication of the Printing Workshop of the Leningrad Union of Agriculture, 1941-1943. (Postcard)

Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. Self-portrait. 1940

When the Great Patriotic War began, Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva It was seventy-one. She did not leave besieged Leningrad and, since it was difficult for her to go down to the bomb shelter, she remained at home during the bombing. Ostroumova-Lebedeva set up her office in the bathroom - explosions were less audible there. She had to build a smokehouse from a medicine bottle. In such conditions, she completed work on the second volume of “Notes” and kept a diary, which was included in the third volume. Ostroumova-Lebedeva's engraving "Sphinx" adorned the invitation card for the first performance of D. Shostakovich's Seventh Leningrad Symphony.

Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. Sphinx. From the Series "White Nights".

Ostroumova-Lebedeva. Firework. 1944

Pavel Filonov. Self-portrait

Pavel Filonov. Faces (Faces). 1940.

Survived bravely Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov the beginning of the war, and even the Leningrad blockade did not force him to leave the tiny room filled with paintings and manuscripts. If not for his age, he would have volunteered for the front.

Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov died of hunger in besieged Leningrad on December 3, 1941. He was buried at the Serafimovskoye cemetery. "Faces" is one of his last works.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin died in besieged Leningrad on February 7, 1942 in the hospital at the All-Russian Academy of Arts. Last job famous artist became a preparatory illustration for the epic “Duke Stepanovich” in 1941. He was buried in the mass grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensk cemetery.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin. Illustration for the epic "Duke Stepanovich".

Artist Yaroslav Nikolaev, extremely exhausted and sick, even on the most difficult days he did not part with a pencil and brush. His self-portrait of 1942 is unusually expressive: his gaunt face, tightly compressed lips, an inquisitive gaze, the inflexibility of sternly knitted eyebrows - a courageous and beautiful image of a man who managed to defeat death.

Yaroslav Sergeevich Nikolaev. Self-portrait.

Artists accumulated more and more creative material day by day. And the Union of Artists already at the end of 1941 decided to organize an exhibition in its halls. Those who did not live within the walls of the union carried and carried their works on sleighs to Herzen Street.

January 2, 1942 in the frozen Exhibition Hall, with glass broken by the blast wave, The first exhibition of works by Leningrad artists during the Great Patriotic War. Despite the fact that the day was very frosty and the artists could barely stand on their feet from hunger, the opening of the exhibition was a grand affair. And most importantly, they visited her! Every day 15–18 people came - an incredibly large number for that time. The board of the union decided to constantly update the exhibition with new works.

Alexey Pakhomov. On posts.

Alexey Pakhomov. At the site of the lesion.

Alexey Pakhomov. Fireworks in Leningrad.

On January 18, 1943, a long-awaited and joyful event occurred: the blockade of Leningrad was broken. Life in the city has changed dramatically. Although the bombing and shelling have not yet stopped, the famine has subsided.

In the January days of 1944, a powerful offensive began. On January 27, Leningrad was completely liberated from the siege.

The city rejoiced. A fireworks display of extraordinary strength and brightness - the first fireworks display in Leningrad! - proclaimed victory over the enemy. The unusually dark streets of the city were once again flooded with light, the “Bronze Horseman”, freed from cover, stretched out his hand over the Neva, and Klodt’s horses, recovered from the deep pits, solemnly “drove” onto the Anichkov Bridge. Theaters returned to their hometown from evacuation. Many artists who had previously left also returned. A new stage in the life of heroic Leningrad began - its restoration.

I. Silver. Come on, let's take it! Poster.

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