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These Monuments Must Be Protected! The Stalinist Turn to the Past and Historic Preservation during the Blockade of Leningrad
Author(s) -
MADDOX STEVEN
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the russian review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9434
pISSN - 0036-0341
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9434.2011.00631.x
Subject(s) - adversary , blockade , history , battlefield , ideology , german , state (computer science) , law , ancient history , archaeology , political science , politics , biochemistry , chemistry , statistics , receptor , mathematics , algorithm , computer science
This article analyzes the methods employed to preserve and restore Leningrad's historic monuments during the 900‐day blockade of World War II. Over the course of the blockade, which lasted from September 9, 1941, until January 27, 1944, city authorities and preservationists instituted measures to protect imperial monuments from enemy bombardment. During this period, nearly one million people died from bombings, extreme cold in the winters, and Hitler's policy of starving the city into submission. As bombs rained down on the city and dystrophy began to affect all people trapped within the blockade ring, Leningraders risked their lives to camouflage golden spires, evacuate museum exhibits from areas threatened with German occupation, take measurements of monuments for future restoration, assess damage, and provide emergency conservation where possible. The article argues that the Stalinist turn to the past in the 1930s endowed the country's historic monuments with ideological significance. Due to their newfound importance as embodiments of the “glorious past,” monuments were afforded protection, even in a state of total war.