Veterans who survived the siege of Leningrad visited the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Gora

A group of 30 veterans of the siege, on the eve of the Day of the Complete Liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade, on January 26, visited the Victory Museum located on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow: its members studied the exhibits as part of a tour specially organized for them, and also laid flowers at the sculpture "Sorrow", observing a minute of silence in memory of the dead residents and defenders of the city on the Neva.

Representatives of the museum recalled that the siege of Leningrad was one of the most tragic events of the Second World War. The city, which was constantly subjected to enemy air strikes, was de—energized for 872 days - from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. The people living there, as the staff of the institution emphasized, despite the hunger and cold, not only did not give up, but also showed the world an example of incredible perseverance, courage and faith in Victory.

The veterans of the siege, many of whom had orders and medals on their chests, came to the museum accompanied by their loved ones and relatives. In the process of familiarizing themselves with the large-scale exposition "The Path to Victory", located on an area of 4.4 thousand square meters and dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, they listened to their guide, who became the general director of the Victory Museum, Alexander Shkolnik.

"The exposition made a huge impression. Everything is very reliably shown. After all, we are all participants in those terrible events," Mark Umansky, a resident of besieged Leningrad, shared his emotions.

He added that he was only three years old when the Nazis surrounded the city. Mark and his mother had a terrible winter in 1941 — they, as the man said, went through 125 grams of bread before being evacuated in 1942, as well as thousands of others. Among the participants of the meeting was Ninel Nesterova, who also witnessed those terrible events — in 1941, she was 11 years old, she was going to the fifth grade, but after the beginning of the siege of Leningrad she began to work in the hospital, which was located right in the building of her school.

During the meeting, the veterans, who were shown footage of the documentary chronicle, as well as multimedia installations, talked to each other and talked with the museum staff.

The story of the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade: how the townspeople survived the blockade and learned about the lifting of the siege

In mid-January 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive operation that ended on January 27.

The Chairman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, said on January 18 that one should not forget either the sacred courage shown by the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad, or the monstrous crimes of the Nazis that they committed during the Great Patriotic War. Later, on January 26, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would take part in events on January 27 to mark the anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad.

The Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, during a working meeting held on the eve of the 82nd anniversary of the city's complete liberation from the Nazi blockade, conveyed to the President of Russia words of gratitude from veterans for their support of initiatives to preserve the memory of the siege of Leningrad. According to the governor of the city, 44.9 thousand veterans live in St. Petersburg, including participants and invalids of the Great Patriotic War, residents of besieged Leningrad, home front workers and former minor prisoners of fascism.

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