Musée du Blocus et de la Défense de Leningrad

Государственный мемориальный музей обороны и блокады Ленинграда

Guerre de Continuation
1941-1944

Créé pendant la guerre, ce musée unique est ouvert trois mois après la fin du blocus de Leningrad. Mais il est fermé en 1949 par les autorités staliniennes, qui veulent cacher les conséquences du terrible blocus. Les collaborateurs du musée sont emprisonnés, le directeur est exécuté, et de nombreux objets sont détruits. Le musée a rouvert ses portes en 1989. Le musée comprend un grand hall d’exposition, avec un espace consacré aux affiches en temps de guerre. Également, une exposition sur la vie artistique au temps du blocus. On voit que malgré le manque terrible de ressources, en particulier durant l’hiver de 1941-1942, beaucoup de salles de concert et de théâtre ont continué à fonctionner. Le point central de l’exposition est la reproduction d’un appartement du temps du blocus de Leningrad, avec fenêtres calfeutrées, murs noircis par la fumée, et un mobilier réduit au strict minimum car la plupart des meubles étaient brûlés pour se réchauffer.

Le musée a pour but de présenter les forces en présence, avec des mannequins finlandais, allemands et bien évidemment soviétiques, mais également d'aller plus loin qu'un simple musée militaire en présentant aussi les conditions de vie dans la ville pendant le siège de Leningrad.
Le siège de Leningrad est  l'un des plus longs sièges de l'époque moderne. Il va durer quasiment 3 ans de Septembre 1941 à Janvier 44, pendant lesquels la ville est cernée, bombardée, affamée car la population civile ne sera que partiellement évacuée, du fait de l'impréparation, et parce qu'évacuer cette ville, capitale historique de la Russie, serait un signe de défaitisme.

This small but extremely moving museum commemorates perhaps the most harrowing period of the city's history - the 900-day Blockade of Leningrad which lasted from 8 September 1941 to 17 January 1944. For two-and-a-half years, the citizens of Leningrad suffered chronic privations and constant bombardment. Although the precarious Road of Life brought supplies across the ice of Lake Ladoga in the winter months, food was woefully short, fuel was scarce in winter, and in summer the dire state of sanitation spread disease at epidemic levels. In all, over 700,000 civilians died during the Blockade. Their sacrifice and the extraordinary endurance of the survivors is etched on the conscience of the city, a source of immense pride and profound sorrow.

A memorial museum was established around the current site immediately after the end of the blockade, and covered an area over thirty times the size of the present exhibition. A number of 'trophy' Nazi tanks and aircraft were among the 37,000 exhibits, many of which were donated by citizens. Fearing the unifying power of such a monument, Stalin ordered its destruction during his purge of the Leningrad Party in 1948. The museum's director was shot, the larger exhibits were disbursed and destroyed in secret, and the rest were burnt until there was nothing left. It was not until the late eighties that it became possible to re-establish the museum. Once again, Blockade survivors and their families provided most of the exhibits, and the museum reopened on 8 September 1989.
Marked by two anti-aircraft guns flanking its entrance, the new museum is considerably more modest than its predecessor, but still contains some fascinating exhibits. Occupying a long hallway on the third floor of the building (the second floor hosts temporary exhibitions on a variety of connected, normally military, themes), the main exhibition chronicles both the military and the civilian aspects of the blockade. The displays running round the walls tell the story of the advance of the combined German and Finnish forces and their eventual repulsion by the Red Army through photographs, arms and the personal effects of soldiers of all nationalities. Of particular interest are several diaries kept by German officers and the newspaper articles chronicling the feats of Soviet snipers.

The central displays document the even more harrowing civilian experience of the Blockade, and include a wealth of fascinating propaganda material (including anti-Bolshevik leaflets dropped by the Finns and the Nazis into the besieged city), a mock-up of a typical apartment interior of the time, an example of the pitiful daily bread ration (125 grams for a civil servant and his family), and numerous handwritten and drawn testaments to the privations and horrors of life under siege.
Although most of the displays are in Russian, and there is no English-language labeling, it is possible to organize a translator for group tours, and the extremely obliging babushki who work in the museum (many of them children of the Blockade) have enough English to explain the basics of the exhibition, and will do their very best to help out individual travelers who show an interest. To better understand one of the defining events in the city's history, this museum is well worth visiting.

Escalier d'entrée, puis galerie de portraits

Une veste de Maréchal de l'Union Soviétique, avec ses pattes d'épaules si reconnaissables...

L'une des vitrines présentant les rations alimentaires au plus fort du blocus.
A droite, la ration de pain pour un jour, et c'est tout !

Tickets: jusque  

1 janvier

Langues