United by war: blockade chronicle presented at the RUSSIA EXPO

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The results of the project "United by War" which allowed to collate the data of almost 700 thousand Leningrad residents were presented at the exposition of St. Petersburg.

"These days we celebrate the most important date - the anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade. 80 years ago, Soviet troops threw back the enemy for almost 100 kilometers, but not only military success was important. January Thunder Operation buried the Nazi plans to wipe our city off the face of the earth, to destroy its inhabitants and its rich cultural heritage. Leningrad survived - it was not broken by bombing and shelling, hunger and frost," Alexander Beglov, Governor of St. Petersburg, addressed in his video message.

He noted that every St. Petersburg family has their own blockade chronicle:

"Our President has it too - he also comes from the blockade. Our President instructed to tell about people during the blockade. The city has collected and presented many testimonies about Leningraders. Their stories have been included in books, plays, exposition displays".

The St. Petersburg Archive Group presented the interregional project "United by War". The Archives Committee of St. Petersburg together with 144 archives from 44 regions of our country by order of the President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin digitized five thousand archival files from the time of the Leningrad blockade and matched the names of 684 thousand Leningraders.

During the ceremony of handing over the information about the evacuated Leningraders to the St. Petersburg Archive Committee, Artem Vartanyan, Marketing Director of ELAR Corporation, delivered a speech:

"We are pleased to summarize the results of the great work on immortalizing the memory of the Leningraders, which we conducted together with 144 archives from 44 regions of our country on the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Five thousand archival files comprising 180 thousand sheets were digitized. We got a single database where we managed to match the names of 684 thousand Leningrad residents".

Pyotr Tishchenko, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Archives Committee, noted the importance of the archival work carried out on this terrible but memorable date:

"Today we have added to the list of names of people who lived in our city during the most difficult time during the blockade, which was organized by the enemies, in the hope of breaking the will of the inhabitants and defeating the city. They failed. World history knows three sieges: Troy, Carthage and Leningrad. The first two cities fell. Leningrad is the only one in the world history that managed to withstand".

Among the commemorative events of the St. Petersburg exposition on this day are the presentation of the book "There Are No Little Ones at War" and a meeting with its author Tatiana Kudryavtseva, a lecture "Keeping the Living Memory of Generations", which was delivered by the chairman of the Cultural Council of the St. Petersburg Diocese, Priest Iliya Makarov. Artists of "Petersburg-Concert" presented the program "Front-Line Songs and Dances", and the Leningrad Zoo introduced the stories of animals of the blockade - hippo Belle, vulture Verochka, bear Grishka and other animals that survived the war in the besieged city. The stand also organized a photo zone "Tailed Heroes" with the cat Yelisey, brought from the Malaya Sadovaya Street in St. Petersburg.

A series of historical lectures were delivered by poets, scientists, and employees of the Presidential Library, highlighting various aspects of the Great Patriotic War, the impact of the events of the war on the current image of the country, and discussing ways of understanding the present and future through the lessons of the past.