State Memorial Museum of Leningrad Defense and Blockade (Siege)

The exhibits showcased in this museum are dedicated to the tragedy that befell St. Petersburg ("Leningrad" in Soviet times), which survived an 872-day blockade during World War II. Here, you can see documents, photographs, and unique material evidence of mass starvation, everyday life, and how the main stages of the blockade developed. The museum took shape hot on the heels of the blockade itself, before the end of the war, and was the first witness to the tragedy, as well as an attempt to make sense of it.
 
The museum itself also had some bad luck, and was in a “blockade” for several decades – after the war, Stalin and the party did not like the excessive frankness and truthfulness represented by the evidence in the museum. Already back then they started to mythologize and ideologize the war’s history. The museum was shut down, and part of its exhibits were destroyed.
 
The museum was only given life again in 1990, at the end of the perestroika period.