«Fireworks over the Neva»
The Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University hosted Days of Remembrance dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade.
The event was opened by Leonid Sumarokov, Advisor to the Rector of KRSU on the preservation of historical and cultural heritage. He noted that the theme of the siege of Leningrad is still alive to this day. This is the most important example of the heroism and resilience of the people, and world history does not know a feat equal to the feat of the defenders and residents of besieged Leningrad. They suffered unimaginable trials: hunger, cold, bombing and shelling, the bitterness of losses. But the Leningraders showed the world the strength of the human spirit, which became an insurmountable obstacle for the enemy.
Those who died during the Great Patriotic War and during the blockade of Leningraders we observed a minute of silence.
She shared her memories about the years of the siege of Leningrad and about life in the city, 94-year-old resident of besieged Leningrad Galina Tolskaya. During the blockade years, in two days she lost her mother and two sisters, who died of starvation.
«It turned out that I was among the three dead. Then they sent me to an orphanage, then they crossed Ladoga by ferry. Of course, there were shellings», – said Galina Tolskaya.
Songs and poems from the war years were performed at the event, as well as lines from Tanya Savicheva’s diary.
The audience was given "Siege Bread" - a 125-gram piece that everyone felt the hardships of the time. Such rations were relied upon for one day by the residents of Leningrad during the siege. People valued every crumb of bread to keep them alive.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade, a photographic documentary exhibition «Salute over the Neva» was opened within the walls of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University. It also took place in many CIS countries.
The exhibition includes more than 100 digitized materials from the collections of the Victory Museum. Photographs, documents, maps, newspapers, posters and works of art that captured scenes from the life of the besieged city. The materials cover events from the beginning of the city's defense in July 1941 to the fireworks display in honor of the complete lifting of the blockade on January 27, 1944.
The exhibition ends with information about the operation «Iskra», thanks to which the blockade was broken in 1943, about the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, the successful implementation of which made it possible to completely lift the blockade of the Northern capital, and about the fireworks over the Neva.
On January 27, 1944, the sky of the city was illuminated by fireworks — 24 salvos from 324 guns marked the victory of the great city on the Neva, which fought to the death against the enemy for 872 days and nights.
The exhibition was prepared with the participation of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution «Leningrad Zoological Park», the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Government of St. Petersburg, the Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal State Budgetary Institution «Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve».
The main goal of the Days of Remembrance dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade – tell the youth of Kyrgyzstan, the descendants of the winners, about the feat of the great city and the contribution of Kyrgyzstanis to its salvation.
During the years of the blockade, according to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million people died. The number of 632 thousand people appeared at the Nuremberg trials. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling, the rest died of hunger.
