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  The Hermitage During the Years of the Siege A memorial exhibition has opened in former bomb shelter number 3, one of the 12 shelters that were set up in the cellars of museum buildings. In his introductory address at the opening, Hermitage Director Mikhail B. Piotrovsky said: "I would like to believe that after all the troubles and adversities, it is not hate or anger that people harbor the longest, but the feeling of gratitude and admiration for those who have preserved and salvaged the pride and cultural continuity of the nation amidst the horrors of death and destruction. "The wartime history of the Hermitage symbolizes the invincible might of our culture. The Hermitage fought for its survival both in Leningrad under siege and in the remote city of Sverdlovsk: both in the city built by the first Russian emperor, and in the city where the last emperor met his death. The entire glorious history of Russian culture, the pride and traditions of its former imperial capital, behooved the Hermitage to survive. "The museum not only withstood the bombings, but continued its routine work, safeguarding its exhibits and buildings, hosting surrealistic tours of its vacant halls and no less surrealistic anniversary research conferences dedicated to the memory of oriental poets, whom there was never time enough to honor in the world at large outside the Siege. "The starving defenders of the Hermitage found solace in the thought that core collections would survive though they themselves might die." The exhibition recreates a typical Hermitage bomb shelter from the Siege era. Next to a simple iron bed stands a museum armchair; on an ordinary wooden table rest an abacus, some old books, oil lamps, and wedding candles, which Hermitage staff started using when electricity went off. Scanned reproductions of drawings by A.S. Nikolsky, an architect who lived in a museum shelter, show what Leningrad and the Hermitage looked like in the days of the Siege, both from the outside and inside the halls of the museum. These drawings are extremely valuable as few documentary photographs have survived. Only press photographers were allowed to take photographs during wartime, but few of them visited the museum. Of particular interest are a lacquer box with cover and a goblet painted with motifs from the poems of the great Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi by the artist M.N. Mokh for the 500th anniversary of the poet's birth, which was marked by the Hermitage. The exhibition also displays a small vodka tumbler Mokh gave to B.B. Piotrovsky for his birthday on 14 February 1942, painted with the artist's initials and an oriental motif with a grapevine and a bird. The Hermitage School Center has developed a multimedia software program called The Hermitage During the Siege dedicated to those who preserved the art treasures of the museum during the war. The program, which runs on a large screen in the Fieldmarshal's Hall of the Winter Palace, consists of documentary material: wartime photographs and drawings as well as eyewitness accounts. There are statements by O.A. Orbeli, B.B. Piotrovsky, M.E. Matie, A.V. Bank, V.F. Levinson-Lessing, P.F. Gubchevsky, and many other heroes who saved the Hermitage in besieged Leningrad, and also by those who looked after those parts of the collection which were moved to the evacuation center of Sverdlovsk. The Research Library of the State Hermitage has contributed a book exhibition dedicated to the feats of the Hermitage during the Siege. The exhibition includes original Siege-era film footage. The exhibition was prepared by the State Hermitage in collaboration with the Hermitage Bridge Studio and with contributions from the National Academic Mariinsky Theater, the Hermitage Music Academy and the publishing house Slavia. The general sponsor is Gazprombank, the bank of the gas industry. The exhibition is open to the general public from 27 January through 7 February daily except Mondays. Documentary viewings are held at 12.00, 14.00, and 16.00. For invitations, please contact the administrator in the Main Lobby. Entrance to the exhibition is from the Small Entrance. |
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