Leningrad Defence and Blockade Museum

Categories / Science. Education/Museums
LENINGRAD DEFENCE AND BLOCKADE MUSEUM, State Memorial (9 Solyanoy Lane) was established in the early 1942 by the decree of the Military Soviet of the Leningrad Front and of the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) as the exhibition dedicated to the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People against Nazi Germany. The exhibition was located at the corner of First Krasnoarmeiskaya Street and Izmaylovsky Avenue. In 1944, the exhibition, entitled Heroic Leningrad Defence was arranged in an apartment in Solyanoy Settlement. In the autumn of 1945, the exhibition was transformed into the Leningrad Defence Museum. The museum was opened on 27 January 1946 on the day of the second anniversary of lifting the blockade. L. L. Rakov was in charge of establishing the museum and the exhibition. The exhibition was prepared by artists N. M. Suetin, K. L. Iogansen, V. A. Petrov, A. A. Leporskaya et al. Various items, reminiscent of Leningrad Defence were exhibited in the museum, including the diary of Tanya Savicheva, Yak-7 fighter plane of twice Hero of the Soviet Union P. A. Pokryshev, and many other exhibits, as well as samples of Soviet and captured military equipment and armament. The total area of the exhibition was over 40,000 square metres, with some 37,600 exhibits. In January 1946 - May 1949, the museum was visited by over 1.1 million people. In August 1949, the museum was closed and its management was persecuted in the so-called Leningrad Case. In 1952, the museum was liquidated by order of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Examples of arms and equipment were sent for remelting in 1952-53, many exhibits were destroyed and those which escaped destruction were transferred to other museums (mainly to the Museum of Leningrad History). In April 1989, it was decided to re-establish the museum in Solyanoy Settlement. The museum was opened on 8 September, 1989. There were over 35,000 objects in its collection in 2003. The re-established exhibition is devoted to Leningrad Defence in the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. Everyday life articles, weapons, documents and photos of the time of the siege are on display.

References: Давид В. М., Добротворский Н. П. Государственный мемориальный музей обороны и блокады Ленинграда. СПб., 2001.

A. D. Margolis. Iogansen Kirill Leonardovich
Leporskaya Anna Alexandrovna
Petrov Vasily Alexandrovich
Pokryshev Peter Afanasyevich
Rakov Lev Lvovich
Savicheva Tatyana
Suetin Nikolay Mikhailovich
1st Krasnoarmeiskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Izmailovsky Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city
Solyanoy Lane/Saint Petersburg, city, house 9
Давид В.М., Добротворский Н.П. Гос.мем. Музей обороны и блокады Ленинграда. СПб., 2001 Leningrad Defence and Blockade Museum
Tanya Savicheva, Diary of
Leningrad Affair
St. Petersburg Museum of History
1944
1989