The exhibition, dedicated to the Leningrad Victory Day – the 80th anniversary of complete liberation of the city from the Nazi siege – is targeted at contemporary audience and young generation. Our memory shaped by numerous artworks (films, novels, songs) created throughout the post-war years enables us to resort to the past and to imagine “life without living conditions”.

Wartime works are characterised by a diversity of subjects and genres. The exhibition presents portraits and self-portraits, cityscapes, thematic compositions and still lifes, sketches from life and from memory, as well as a specific form of a poster – the Fighting Pencil that originated in Leningrad as a successor to the famous ROSTA Windows. The variety of materials used by the artists (pencil and ink, watercolour and gouache), as well as almost all types of printing – lithography, linocut, woodcut and etching – testify to the richness of the graphic language of those years.

A special place in the exhibition is occupied by works related to the world-famous Leningrad museums, which considerably suffered during the siege, and to the destroyed suburban palaces and monuments – these sheets serve as a denunciative document against fascist barbarism: Vasily Kuchumov’s series Leningrad. Russian Museum, views of palaces in Pushkin (Alexander Vedernikov), Pavlovsk (Mikhail Bobyshov) and Gatchina (Vasily Vlasov). 

The artistic chronicle of the siege of Leningrad was created thanks to the efforts of painters, graphic artists, sculptors, architects and theatrical designers. The exhibition, dedicated to the memory of the citizens and defenders of Leningrad, acquaints its viewers with the works created in the severe time, which it is difficult and painful to speak about today. None of the artists knew what would happen to them or would they be able to go on living. They worked because they could not do otherwise. They believed in their beloved city, in the coming victory over death. And today we gratefully pay tribute to their courage, revealed through the works created in the besieged Leningrad.

Konstantin Simun’s famous sculptural composition is one of the most vivid artistic symbols of the siege. It symbolizes part of the Road of Life from Leningrad to Lake Ladoga. Two semi-arches representing the liberation of the city from the siege ring stand stiff on the lake shore. The Broken Ring sketch is kind of an epigraph to the exhibition, which ends up with works of monumental sculpture created in the post-war years. The show presents sketches and models of famous Leningrad monuments: at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery (Boris Kaplyansky) and on Victory Square (Mikhail Anikushin), works by Alexander Ignatyev and Lyubov Kholina, dedicated to the citizens of Leningrad. Carved in granite, they preserve the image of invincible fortitude shown during the years of hardship by the citizens and soldiers who defended one of the greatest cities in the world.

Age limit: 6+

The exhibition is held in the Benois Wing until April 7, 2024.