Stories of 16 keepers who worked in the Pushkin Museum to them. A.S. Pushkin in the war years, will become part of the Victory Museum project "Victory Faces" Automatic translate

The Pushkin Museum, within the framework of the “Another War” project, will transfer materials about the custodians who worked at the Pushkin Museum during the Great Patriotic War to eternal storage at the National Historical Depository of the Victory Museum “Persons of Victory”. Photographs and biographies of museum employees will become part of the exposition of the memorial hall with the Wall of Memory.

The Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin with great attention and respect for his military history. The museum staff in 1941-1945 survived many trials. It was urgent to evacuate over 100 thousand exhibits of various shapes, sizes and materials, literally on the go inventing packaging and fastening methods. The museum’s self-defense group desperately put out firebombs. On October 14, 1941, a blast wave from a high-explosive bomb that fell in the courtyard of a neighboring house broke museum windows and glass ceilings. This catastrophe for three years determined the life of the museum. The temporary roof of the boards and roofing, which was installed only in mid-December 1941, could not withstand snow, rain and melt water. The housekeepers for cleaning the museum were year-round. The heating did not work and the electric lighting was damaged.

In July 1941, there were fewer and fewer employees in the museum: they went to the front on call and volunteers, and were evacuated by families; Museum staff has been reduced by 70%. On August 1, 13 researchers and three restorers remained in the museum. They saved a badly wounded museum, fighting to preserve buildings and collections. They strove to revive normal museum life - they organized exhibitions, gave lectures, and held scientific meetings.

The first incendiary bomb, breaking through the roof of the Greek courtyard, was put out by N. N. Pogrebova, a researcher at the Department of the Ancient East, although this day she was not on duty at the museum. At the front of snow removal, N. N. Vodo, head of the graphic department, and D. S. Libman, researcher at the Western European art department, were especially distinguished. The guide M.V. Nikiforova at the Kazan station daily gave lectures and conversations with fighters leaving for the front. Senior researcher of the antique department N. M. Loseva and restorer E. A. Bolotnikova worked for several months in logging in the Tver region. The head of the department of Western European art K. M. Malitskaya in 1943 defended her thesis.

The last 15 years, a scientific study of the museum’s life in wartime has been particularly active. To the 75th anniversary of the Victory, the museum published a book - “The Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin during the Great Patriotic War. “We were a little daddy on the ice…“ Memoirs, diaries and letters of employees ”, launched the online project“ Another War ”, which continues the study of this topic and talks about the museum universe that lives by military rules, and also introduced the project“ Twice Saved ”, representing the results of many years of work by museum restorers on affected art from the fund of displaced values.

Participation in the project “Faces of Victory” and the transfer of materials about employees for storage is another important step towards preserving the memory of people who, in the most difficult conditions of cold, hunger, lack of necessities, have shown an example of a guardian deed, human nobility and museum fraternity. Visitors to the Victory Museum will be able to see faces and read stories of people through interactive access to the depository database in the memorial hall with a wall of memory.

Materials prepared for transmission by N. V. Alexandrova, a leading researcher in the manuscript department of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, the author of the book "We were a little daddy on the ice…".