“The date of the beginning of the blockade is a sad day for our city, which brought a lot of pain. Looking at these photographs we can evaluate both that moment and the risks to which the correspondents were exposed,” said the vice president. of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Pavel Itkin.
The exhibition, organized by the St. Petersburg branch of the Union of Journalists of Russia, is dedicated to the memory of Soviet photojournalists who worked at the front and in the rear between 1941 and 1945. The creators of the exhibition note that few people They know the names and faces of the authors of the photographs, which represent the daily life of the war, the hard work of the soldiers and the work of those who forged victory in the rear.
“Now not a single correspondent of those who worked at the front is alive. Our exhibition is so that you and I remember these wonderful journalists and worthy people,” said journalist and political scientist Yuri Svetov.
The exhibition presents photographs of the front and of besieged Leningrad. They all reflect that terrible life, of which nothing reminds us today. For example, in one of the frames, a battery of anti-aircraft guns fires at night. A little further away there is a photograph in which the residents of the besieged city listen to the Sovinformburo report. Next to it is a photograph of relatives carrying the body of a man who died of hunger. And there are dozens of such penetrating photographs.
“To take photographs, journalists went into the thick of the situation. Almost every photograph is a threat to their lives. There are many photographs that you look at and think about how the journalist took them when there is a battle next door.” him,” said Yuri Svetov.
In addition to scenes from the war days, the exhibition includes portraits of front-line Soviet photojournalists: Vsevolod Tarasevich, Boris Utkin, Nikolai Khandogin, Boris Kudoyarov and many others.
The exhibition is organically complemented by the works of photojournalist Sergei Kompaniychenko, taken in the post-war years. They are dedicated to the celebration of Victory Day in Leningrad and are made in the same style as other photographs.
The exhibition will be open until September 22, 2023.
