The exhibition "The blockade of Leningrad in photographs" in the Sochi Museum of Art

Among the photographs of this exhibition are even pictures of smiling people, people working, hurrying on business, not noticing dead bodies on the sidelines. And it is not a matter of the cruelty of those who pass by — they fell into that inner space of war, where there is no longer death and life, the usual coordinates of human existence, and time is calculated differently. Every noon is marked by daytime aerial bombardment of the city, midnight - by night. Where concern for domestic needs becomes congenial to the philosophical comprehension of truth, and the pursuit of science is beyond the bounds of insanity that reveres those who are still alive.

Vsevolod Tarasevich. Leningrad Front. Guards submachine gunners in the trenches of the R. R. January 1944 beaten off from the enemy. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

The Great Patriotic War and Victory in it became for our Motherland a great feat and test, the event that still lives in the people’s memory. The blockade of Leningrad is that heroic and tragic page of the Great Patriotic War, which is experienced as a personal event by a large number of people. More than it will be with time. The heroes of lifting the blockade, the defenders of the borders of Leningrad and the townspeople who survived 900 days in the ring of the blockade are still alive - this exhibition is dedicated to them.

In Leningrad, more than 700,000 people died during the blockade. In this city, which is absolutely doomed from the point of view of even the physiological capabilities of man (in the winter of 1941-1942, the rate of bread delivery ranged between 125 and 500 grams per day, in the winter of 1942-1943 - between 300 and 500 grams, and, except for bread, there was already nothing), there were rules of survival: those who survived survived, took care of the last effort, heated, fed their loved ones, who spent precious calories on the physical efforts of the struggle. Books and furniture were burning in the city. But all the most valuable libraries and museums survived, park statues were buried in the ground, some of the precious cultural treasures were removed. Apathy and patriotism, work in the workshop of people who tied themselves to machine tools so as not to fall from hunger, and the “sweet” life of a narrow circle of people involved in the distribution of food coexisted in the city. In the city, idealists were starving at meetings and workplaces, while cynics collected collections of ancient paintings. In this city they ate dead neighbors and nursed the dying, giving them their bread. In besieged Leningrad, there were many levels of parallel lives.

Vasily Fedoseev. 15-year-old Vera Tikhova, whose father and two brothers are fighting at the front, is a good qualified turner of the 3rd category. For a 6-hour working day, she fulfills 1.5 norms. I acquired a specialty at a factory where one of her brothers worked before the war. August 1943. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

“The inner space of war. The blockade of Leningrad in photographs ”is an exhibition of documentary photography, among its authors are well-known Soviet photographers who worked for the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS), such as Vsevolod Tarasevich, Boris Kudoyarov, and photographers of the Leningrad press during the war, for example, the father of the poet Joseph Brodsky, Alexander Brodsky, as well as unknown authors. Among the photographs there are well-known, repeatedly published in Soviet times, as well as those that were declassified twenty years ago. Some of the images appear in the framework of the exposition for the first time before the general public.

The visual range of the exhibition - 150 archival photographs - is tragic and prosaic at the same time. But we must remember this story, and looking at these pictures is inspired by the knowledge that the people who are captured on them still survived. Not all, but at least half of those Leningraders who remained in the city for 900 days in the blockade ring.

The blockade of Leningrad lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944.

Signatures to many photographs contain information published along with photographs during the war.

In October-December 2003, the exhibition was shown at the National Museum of Slovakia, Bratislava. In January-February 2004 - at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia. In April 2005 - at the House of Human Sciences, Paris, France. In April-May 2006 - at the Samara Regional Art Museum, Russia. In May-June 2010 - at the Allen Center, Houston, USA. In August 2012 - at the Recoleta Center for Contemporary Culture, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In February-March 2013 - in the Krasnodar State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve named after E.D. Felitsyna, Russia. In January-February 2014 - at the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSIZO of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, Moscow.

Grigory Chertov. Leningrad. Troops heading to the front pass along Zagorodny Prospekt. September 1941. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Photo chronicle of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS). On Volodarsky Avenue. September 1941. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Vsevolod Tarasevich. For water from burst pipes. January 1942. The Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

David Trachtenberg. After the first shelling. 1941. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Georgy Konovalov, Mikhail Trakhman. Nevsky Avenue. May 1942. The Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Alexander Mikhailov. Shelling. September 1941. Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Nikolay Handogin. Sunday. After the shelling. Nevsky Avenue. August 8, 1943. Central State Archive of Cinema and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg

Unknown author. A resident of the city of Leningrad near the bakery after receiving a bread ration. 1942. The Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg