The chronicle of the Siege holds special significance for the residents of St. Petersburg — Leningrad, a city that was defended at the cost of immense heroism and enormous loss over the course of 900 days and nights.
The online exhibition presents more than 100 original photographs created in Leningrad between 1941 and 1944. These include works by well-known photojournalists as well as amateur photographs, studio portraits taken “as a keepsake,” ID photos, and mass-produced printed materials.
Together, these images allow us to reconstruct a comprehensive portrait of life under the Siege and to grasp the scale and depth of both the tragedy and the human courage it revealed.
Boris Pavlovich Kudoyarov was born in Tashkent. Before the Revolution, he completed his studies at a gymnasium. From 1917 to 1920 he served in the Red Army in Central Asia.
Having become passionate about photography, he began shooting sporting events. In 1925 he started working as a photojournalist for the magazine Physical Culture and Sport. From 1926 he collaborated with the agencies Russfoto and Unionfoto, and from 1931 he worked as a photo correspondent for the Soyuzfoto agency.
In 1933 he became a photojournalist for the newspaper Izvestia, and a few years later for Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Throughout all 900 days of the Siege, serving as a war correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda, Boris Kudoyarov remained in the besieged city, constantly working on the front line, shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers defending Leningrad. Many books dedicated to the Siege have been written and illustrated using Kudoyarov’s photographs. His “Leningrad Cycle” has become a classic of historical wartime photojournalism.
Kudoyarov’s personal photo archive contains about 3,000 images devoted to the Siege. The thematic sections of the archive include: “The First Days of the Siege ,” “The Hanko Peninsula,” “The Hard Days of the Siege,” “The Izhora and Kirov Factories,” “Active Defense,” “The Rear Supports the Front,” “Ladoga — The Road of Life,” “The Breaking of the Siege ,” and many others. This photographic chronicle of the Hero City recounts historical events consistently and in detail. The distinguished photojournalist understood that:
“…one must photograph as much as possible. In addition to key shots, an extensive, detailed chronicle of events is needed. Every reporter is obliged to keep such a record, for he is responsible for ensuring that the event is preserved for people. One day they will be grateful for such a precise documentary account of what has long passed…”
Kudoyarov’s work is characterized by complex visual solutions and carefully refined compositions. The stylistic approach reflects the photojournalist’s direct and natural response to unfolding events. Boris Kudoyarov created a documentary photographic narrative about the unparalleled courage of the people of Leningrad and the harrowing realities of life under the Siege .
During the Great Patriotic War, many photojournalists from different regions of the country were sent to the active army, where they took part in creating the wartime photographic chronicle.
Among them were several Leningrad photographers whose images are presented in the online exhibition: Boris Vasilyevich Utkin, David Mikhailovich Trakhtenberg, Boris Pavlovich Kudoyarov, Semyon Grigoryevich Nordshtein, Mikhail Anatolyevich Trakhman, and Georgy Ivanovich Lugovoy.
Over the four years of the war, these photojournalists produced thousands of negatives capturing the bitterness of retreat and evacuation, the aftermath of the first bombings of Leningrad, the daily frontline life of soldiers, and the harsh scenes of the city's everyday existence under the Siege. The central figures of their photographs were ordinary people with whom the photographers shared the hardships of war.
The largest body of Siege material was created by photojournalists of the TASS Photo Chronicle: Aleksandr Ivanovich Brodsky, Vladimir Illarionovich Kapustin, Sigismund Evstafyevich Kropivnitsky, Boris Semyonovich Losin, Mark Mikhailovich Redkin, and Vsevolod Sergeyevich Tarasevich. Their photographs show how the besieged city of Leningrad lived, worked, and fought.
The photographs that regularly appeared in the TASS Windows played a major role in the life of the Blockade city and served as an effective form of visual propaganda. The TASS Windows displays were installed throughout the city, and Olga Bergholz was an active contributor to the early editions. The Windows documented the daily heroism of Leningraders and the soldiers of the Leningrad Front, inspiring people to continue their labor and giving them confidence in victory. They created a chronicle of the city’s defense and a documentary testimony to the great courage of its citizens.
It was here that images first appeared which would later become symbols of the Blockade: residents exhausted by starvation holding their bread ration; civilians killed during artillery shelling; townspeople holding weapons in their hands.
At times, the life-threatening conditions in which photographs were taken, combined with the overall situation in the city and the restrictions of censorship, shaped a distinctive visual style and a particular mindset among photojournalists—one defined by an understanding that above all stood the paramount task demanded by the moment. The technical limitations of small-format Leica and FED cameras, the low quality of available film, the lack of sharpness, and the field conditions of developing, all of which significantly affected the quality of negatives and prints, imparted a special authenticity to the vast majority of the photographs.
Celebrated photographers, along with many others whose names remain unknown, fought at the front shoulder to shoulder with soldiers. It is through their efforts that true visual records of the heroic moments of the Great Patriotic War have endured, allowing modern audiences to step into the great and tragic events of that era.
Text by: Anastasia Matushkina, Ekaterina Vodostoeva (Scholarly Archive of the Russian Academy of Arts)
The documentation of destruction is one of the most frequently encountered types of images in Sciege photography. Images of ruins are a powerful visual symbol, revealing the scale of the tragedy as familiar buildings collapse like matchboxes under the impact of bombs and artillery. The online exhibition presents photographs from a report documenting the inspection of the building of the Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov (today the Mariinsky Theatre). Often the authors of such images remained unknown, as this work was considered utilitarian. The fate of Sergei Gavrilovich Gasilov, however, was different.
The photographer, known for his experimental work, was born in St. Petersburg. In 1915 he graduated from school and enrolled in the electrochemistry department of the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. After returning from the Civil War, he resumed his studies in the chemistry department, but did not complete the program.
Sergei Gasilov was actively involved in organizing photographic laboratories for various institutions in Leningrad and Moscow, and he also served as director—on a part-time basis—of the first Laboratory of Scientific and Applied Photography and Cinematography in the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In August 1935, Sergei Gavrilovich established a photographic laboratory at the All-Russian Academy of Arts and assumed the position of its artistic director. The laboratory served both educational and research purposes and, in terms of equipment, was among the best in the country.
During the Siege of Leningrad, Sergei Gasilov and the staff of the laboratory continued their work in the besieged city. They not only managed to preserve the photographic laboratory but also to carry on their professional activities under the most difficult conditions.
In his “Report on the Use of the Photographic Laboratory of the All-Russian Academy of Arts during Wartime,” Sergei Gavrilovich wrote:
“It is well known that modern photography can be used in many different and highly useful ways in military affairs and in the work of the headquarters of large military units, where it can facilitate, refine, and speed up operations. At the present time, when all the forces and resources of our great Motherland are being used intensively in the struggle against the enemy… the photographic laboratory of the All-Russian Academy of Arts can take on tasks that become especially necessary under wartime conditions.”
The photographic laboratory of the All-Russian Academy of Arts took an active part in creating visual propaganda materials for the troops of the Leningrad Front. Hundreds of traveling exhibitions were prepared. The laboratory’s work in photographing destruction and assessing damage, carried out within the framework of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Investigation of the Crimes of the Nazi Invaders, was of enormous importance.
Sergei Gasilov created a series of photographs documenting the everyday life of the staff and students of the Academy of Arts in besieged Leningrad. His images show living conditions in the dormitory located in the basement of the main building, the process of setting up vegetable gardens in the inner courtyard and garden of the Academy, and the damage to buildings caused by bombings and artillery shelling.
After the war, for many years, Sergei Gavrilovich Gasilov continued to refine his professional skills and improve methods of scientific and applied photography. His particular achievement was the introduction of the three-color printing process.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Kalashnikov was a literary contributor and photo correspondent for the divisional newspapers Voroshilov Salvo and The Motherland Calls. He served for nearly the entire duration of the war near Leningrad and preserved an invaluable archive of film documenting the everyday frontline life of Red Army soldiers and officers, as well as that of the residents of the besieged city.
He was born in the village of Nekrasovskaya in the Ust-Labinsk District of Krasnodar Krai. At the age of 17, he moved to Leningrad. He worked at one of the city’s factories. In 1929, he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. After his second year, he transferred to the military technical aviation school as a cadet. In 1931, he was admitted to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
From 1935 to 1937, he served as a flight engineer in the 15th Heavy Bomber Brigade of the Kiev Military District. In 1939, he completed the Higher Military-Political Courses of the Red Army. Until October 1940, he worked as head of the newspaper department of the 11th Army’s administration.
From October 1940 to January 1943, he served as an instructor for the newspaper Voroshilov Salvo of the 125th Rifle Division of the Leningrad Front. He then worked as the editor of the newspaper The Motherland Calls of the 23rd Breakthrough Artillery Division, with which he remained near Leningrad until 1944. From 1944 to 1946, he fought in the Baltic states, Poland, and Germany, reaching Berlin.
Over the course of the war, he captured thousands of images of the daily life of Red Army soldiers and officers with his Leica. He preserved a vast archive of more than 70 rolls of film, which were later transferred to the ROSPHOTO collection by his relatives.
Kalashnikov’s photographs depict the Leningrad Front, the districts of Lyalino and Kolpino, the work of radio operators, a howitzer artillery regiment, the operations of an artillery headquarters, and the mobile editorial office and printing press. Five rolls show the Soviet Army in Berlin. Nikolai Alexandrovich photographed these events as a direct participant, working on the front lines alongside the soldiers.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, and the medals For Battle Merit, For the Defense of Leningrad, For the Capture of Königsberg, and For the Victory over Germany.
Georgy Ivanovich Lugovoy was the oldest photographer in St. Petersburg. He became interested in photography in 1910, at the age of ten, when his father gave him a vest-pocket Kodak 4.5 × 6. On 23 February 1919, Lugovoy photographed a Red Army parade on Palace Square. One of these images was later reproduced throughout the USSR in school history textbooks.
After the Civil War, he graduated from the Cinema and Photography Technical School. For 20 years before the Great Patriotic War, he worked with the agencies Press-Klishe-Photo and Unionphoto, predecessors of TASS. He met the outbreak of the war in Leningrad and survived the horrors of the first winter of the Blockade. In the autumn of 1941, he volunteered for the front and became a military photojournalist for the divisional newspaper For the Motherland! of the 85th Rifle Division, which took part in the defense of Leningrad.
His surviving negatives depict scenes of the daily life of soldiers and the suffering of people in occupied territories. Much of his archive vanished without a trace after being confiscated by NKVD officers. In 1944, Georgy Lugovoy was awarded the medal For Battle Merit. After the war and until his retirement, he worked for the Leningrad newspaper Smena.
Igor Mikhailovich Nikitin was born in the village of Listovka in the Shimsk District of Leningrad Region (now the Utorgosh District of Novgorod Region). From the age of three he lived in Leningrad and attended School No. 77 in the Petrograd District.
In May 1941, he completed eighth grade. He did not continue to the ninth grade and instead, in October, began working as a milling-machine operator at Factory No. 209 (the A. A. Kulakov Factory). In January 1943, he was drafted into the army. Before being drafted, during the Blockade, he lived with his mother, Antonina Anatolyevna Nikitina, a worker at Factory No. 209, on Edison Street (now Yablochkova Street).
At the age of 18, Red Army soldier Nikitin served in the 519th Howitzer Brigade. He took part in the operations to break through and lift the Siege of Leningrad. In March 1945, he was seriously wounded in Poland and spent six months in hospitals. In October of that same year, he was demobilized with the rank of Senior Lieutenant of Technical Service. Igor Mikhailovich was awarded the medals For the Defense of Leningrad and For the Victory over Germany, and in April 1985 he received the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class.
Throughout his life, he was an avid photography enthusiast. He had his first cameras even before the war. In October 1941, Igor Mikhailovich bought a FED camera at the Passage department store and continued to photograph in the streets and at home, despite the official ban. In his diary, he describes various subjects he photographed, though only a few of his wartime images have survived.
He kept a diary from July 1941 to January 1943, not missing a single day.
“On March 8, 1942, I bought on the way: two packs of photographic paper 13 × 18, one pack 18 × 24, 15 developers, one 9 × 12 film holder, alum, two projector bulbs, three rolls of bandages, four packs of cotton wool, pyramidon for headaches, and adhesive plasters.Went to Comrade Tonya, waited for her. If anything, I could go to Liza. Talked with Liza about photography. She gave me two FED rolls of film. Tonya arrived—we talked [illegible]. Went home. The weather is nice. On Nevsky I photographed [illegible] people working on breaking ice during the Sunday volunteer labor day. Got home at 3 o’clock. <…>” “August 12, 1942 In the garden I photographed on August 11: 300 [illegible] 6.3 1/25 with a filter, me and [illegible], 6.3 1/25 with a filter; the street, 18 1/25 without a filter; mother and me.”
“On March 8, 1942, I bought on the way: two packs of photographic paper 13 × 18, one pack 18 × 24, 15 developers, one 9 × 12 film holder, alum, two projector bulbs, three rolls of bandages, four packs of cotton wool, pyramidon for headaches, and adhesive plasters.Went to Comrade Tonya, waited for her. If anything, I could go to Liza. Talked with Liza about photography. She gave me two FED rolls of film. Tonya arrived—we talked [illegible]. Went home. The weather is nice. On Nevsky I photographed [illegible] people working on breaking ice during the Sunday volunteer labor day. Got home at 3 o’clock. <…>”
“August 12, 1942 In the garden I photographed on August 11: 300 [illegible] 6.3 1/25 with a filter, me and [illegible], 6.3 1/25 with a filter; the street, 18 1/25 without a filter; mother and me.”
Even during the Siege, Leningrad residents needed photographs for documents — when receiving passes or registering Red Army ration cards. Such photographs were also used as keepsake portraits: there are examples where a tiny 3 × 4 cm print includes a date, a name, and a dedication written on it.
Document photography provided photo studio workers with a means of survival. The diary of Ivan Ivanovich Zhilinsky (1890–ca. 1942) contains references to how this work helped him stay alive in Leningrad: people paid for photographs with bread.
“9 February 1942 <…> After midnight I went to sleep. Olya scolded me. Olya has stomach pain; she took 20 drops of Inozemtsev’s tincture. No tobacco. Smoked sage, now smoking chamomile. Today there were two clients for passport photos (100 grams of bread each). My arm hurts (the right one), a strained tendon; I rubbed it with iodine and camphor oil. Tried to barter something at the market—no luck. No bread.”
“4 March 1942. Frost, −15° with strong wind, a harsh day. Terribly cold. In the morning I was assigned to Novoderevensky store No. 44 on Moskovskaya Street. Received bread there as well. Slipped them my photo cards and got 600 grams of meat for February and 450 grams of cranberries for three people. They did not give me grain, as they discovered I wasn’t originally assigned there. Ate raw meat for the second time in my life, and I really liked it. With mustard, pepper, and salt. Cooked part of it in a frying pan, boiled the rest for 5 minutes. I’m full. During the day there were 4 clients for photos, each brought 100 grams of bread. So the day is secured. <…>”
“4 March 1942.
Frost, −15° with strong wind, a harsh day. Terribly cold. In the morning I was assigned to Novoderevensky store No. 44 on Moskovskaya Street. Received bread there as well. Slipped them my photo cards and got 600 grams of meat for February and 450 grams of cranberries for three people. They did not give me grain, as they discovered I wasn’t originally assigned there. Ate raw meat for the second time in my life, and I really liked it. With mustard, pepper, and salt. Cooked part of it in a frying pan, boiled the rest for 5 minutes. I’m full. During the day there were 4 clients for photos, each brought 100 grams of bread. So the day is secured. <…>”
“22 March 1942. In the sun +2°, in the shade −2°. Came home. Clients for photos saved me with bread. Took orders worth 600 grams of bread. Today I’ll be full (200 grams for two photo cards). The radio started speaking again on 20 March 1942.”
“22 March 1942.
In the sun +2°, in the shade −2°. Came home. Clients for photos saved me with bread. Took orders worth 600 grams of bread. Today I’ll be full (200 grams for two photo cards). The radio started speaking again on 20 March 1942.”
Text by: Yulia Buyanova (Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad)
On December 4, 1943, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front adopted a resolution to open, within a very short timeframe, an exhibition titled “The Heroic Defense of Leningrad.” The future exhibition was initially planned for the premises of the Engineers’ Castle, but ultimately the building of the former Agricultural Museum in the Salt Town district was chosen.
On January 20, 1944, work began on assembling the exhibition. Dozens of real airplanes, cannons, and tanks, along with thousands of firearms, were brought in. Historians and museum professionals who had remained in the city participated in preparing the materials, as did artists, architects, sculptors, and model-makers who were recalled from the front. The chief designer of the exhibition was appointed to be the renowned artist Nikolai Mikhailovich Suetin.
The deputy director for academic work, and later the director of the exhibition, became Lev Lvovich Rakov, a lecturer of the Political Administration of the Leningrad Front — a prominent figure within the Leningrad intelligentsia. Before the war, he had been the scholarly secretary of the Hermitage. In July 1941, he joined the people’s militia, but two weeks later he was recalled to the army’s political department and tasked with giving lectures to military units. In 1943, he took part in the battles to break the Siege of Leningrad, and in the summer of 1943, in the fighting near Sinyavino. From the autumn of 1943 onward, he worked on the exhibition “The Heroic Defense of Leningrad.” It was to him that Nina Savicheva brought the small notebook containing her sister’s blockade diary. Lev Lvovich was the first to recognize the profound significance of this small object, which later became known worldwide.
Some Leningrad museums began collecting materials on the history of the Great Patriotic War immediately after it began. For example, the State Museum of the Revolution (now the State Museum of Political History of Russia) provided 4,000 objects for the 1944 exhibition. A similar situation developed at the Artillery Historical Museum (now the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers, and Signal Corps). Its staff who remained in Leningrad continued to gather materials. On November 10, 1943, the museum opened the exhibition “Relics of the Soldiers and Commanders of the Leningrad Front.” In 1944, a significant portion of the objects from this exhibition was also transferred to the Salt Town complex.
The ceremonial opening of “The Heroic Defense of Leningrad” exhibition took place on April 30, 1944. It was the first exhibition dedicated to World War II and the only one in the world to open while the war was still underway. On the first day alone, it was visited by 16,000 people. In 37 halls with a total area of about 40,000 square meters, 37,865 objects were displayed—from a modest soldier’s letter and a ration card to military aircraft and tanks.
Two exhibits caused the greatest excitement among visitors. In the trophy hall stood a pyramid made of 520 German helmets, reminiscent of Vasily Vereshchagin’s painting “The Apotheosis of War.” Visitors could also see, suspended from the ceiling, the long-range bomber of Hero of the Soviet Union M. N. Plotkin, a pilot of the 1st Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, who took part in the bombing of Berlin in August 1941. Additional trophies were displayed in the partisan halls. Alongside weapons, visitors could examine personal belongings of the enemy: passports, identification cards, German dog tags, ration cards, medals, and photographs found on fallen German soldiers.
The largest number of exhibits consisted of photographs, paintings, panels, and dioramas. Various theatrical techniques were used to heighten the emotional impact on visitors. For example, electrified models impressed audiences through dramatic lighting effects. In the section “The Ladoga Route — The Road of Life,” a model of the ice road was displayed. Visitors saw a traffic controller and a line of vehicles carrying evacuees from Leningrad. Dusk gradually fell, a lantern lit up in the controller’s hand, and the headlights of the trucks switched on.
Similarly, the sculpture “The Foundry Women” came to life in the hall dedicated to Leningrad industry in 1943. The sculpture depicted female foundry workers tipping a ladle; the flowing molten metal was represented by small red bulbs attached to the plaster.
The most elaborate lighting effect was used in the Victory Hall: its vast arches were decorated with thousands of light bulbs that created a solemn atmosphere and, with their shimmering glow, evoked the image of celebratory fireworks.
The first visitors to the museum were frontline soldiers and survivors of the Siege. The poet Pavel Luknitsky described his impressions of the exhibition in his book Through the Entire Siege:
“I wandered through the exhibition for four hours, examining all the objects with great interest and attention. Each one stirred memories within me, evoked associations. Everything the exhibition recounted was familiar to me — everything had been experienced, endured, measured by my own steps, hardships, deprivations, hopes… Of course, we Leningraders know far more than the exhibition conveys, for example, about the deprivations and horrors of the Blockade. Hunger is shown very sparingly and modestly in the exhibition. Ladoga and the Road of Life are presented in great detail. Artillery bombardments and air raids are shown well… A strange, pleasant feeling overtook me: everything that only yesterday had been our everyday life, ordinary and routine, now, having already receded into history, appears before us as exhibition objects. One can clearly sense that we Leningraders are now living in a different era.”
“I wandered through the exhibition for four hours, examining all the objects with great interest and attention. Each one stirred memories within me, evoked associations. Everything the exhibition recounted was familiar to me — everything had been experienced, endured, measured by my own steps, hardships, deprivations, hopes…
Of course, we Leningraders know far more than the exhibition conveys, for example, about the deprivations and horrors of the Blockade. Hunger is shown very sparingly and modestly in the exhibition. Ladoga and the Road of Life are presented in great detail. Artillery bombardments and air raids are shown well…
A strange, pleasant feeling overtook me: everything that only yesterday had been our everyday life, ordinary and routine, now, having already receded into history, appears before us as exhibition objects. One can clearly sense that we Leningraders are now living in a different era.”
The exhibition's success exceeded all expectations. In the first six months, it was visited by about 250,000 people, and by 1949, by more than a million.
On October 5, 1945, by order of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR, “The Heroic Defense of Leningrad” exhibition was transformed into the Leningrad Defense Museum of republican significance. In the early postwar years, in terms of visitor numbers, the museum was second only to the Hermitage. Yet despite its enormous popularity, the museum was closed in 1949, initially temporarily, and in 1953, permanently.
Last updated on 19.12.2025
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