St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPC RAS) acted as a platform for the international round table "The Memory Culture" that commemorated the Day of Complete Liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade. The event was organized by the international public organization «The Victory Immortal Regiment», the meeting was held in online - format, and its participants represented eight countries of the world.
"We have gathered on this day sacred for all Leningrad families to pay tribute to the memory of our relatives and friends, whose fates and lives were tied to the defense and siege of Leningrad. We have chosen "Pages of Family Memory, places and roads of Memory" as the theme of the round table," Sergey Borodulin, Chairman of the Victory Immortal Regiment NGO in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, said at the opening of the event.
The objective of this round table was a kind of reflection on the Leningrad defenders and blockade runners, about labor veterans, about war children, as well as about all those who dedicated their lives to preserving memory, developing a culture of remembrance of the heroes and victims of World War II, about the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Another task of the event was announced as creative understanding of the issues of developing the culture of historic and family memory at the level of municipalities and rural settlements, through the recreation of the fates of soldiers' families, literary understanding of memory, the formation of creative portraits of the generation.
“We are honored to act as a platform for such an important event. St. Petersburg SPC RAS pays special attention to the historical memory of the siege of our city. Every year we get our staff members together, and those who have already retired, but lived in Leningrad during the siege. The pandemic has complicated the meetings lately, and we are holding this event remotely. The most important purpose of such meetings is that eyewitnesses of those events share with young the memories about their life during the dramatic years of siege, when they strived for survival and eventually succeeded. This is how we do our best to keep generations connected” says Andrey Ronzhin, Director of SPC RAS.
Additionally to honoring the complete lifting the siege of Leningrad, the roundtable at St. Petersburg SPC RAS was timed to several important dates and projects. Firstly, the event was held within the framework of the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2012-2022). Secondly, the round table was timed to coincide with the International Holocaust Memorial Day and the beginning of "The Year of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Russia" announced by the President of the Russian Federation.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the international community from Australia, Israel (Deputy Mayor of Ashdod Eli Naht), Bulgaria (the Russian Consul General in Varna Vladimir Klimanov took part in the round table), Spain, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Republic of Moldova, and by over 40 participants from different subjects of the Russian Federation.
Historical reference:
The siege of Leningrad began on September 8, 1941 and lasted for 872 days. It claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of the city dwellers, historians cannot name yet the exact number of losses (estimates vary from 500 thousand to 1.5 million people). The Battle of Leningrad has gone down in history as one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Second World War. Since the autumn of 1941, five attempts have been made to break the siege, but only the sixth was successful - Operation “Iskra” in January of 1943. The siege was completely lifted by the Soviet Army only a year later, on January 27, 1944, now considered the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade.