DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_3_198

V. L. Piankevich. Light and Darkness in Besieged Leningrad // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 3,
2025, pp. 198–211


Abstract:

As part of the study of the sensory experience of war and blockade, the article attempts to analyze sensory impressions, the experience of residents of besieged Leningrad staying in conditions of darkness for a long time, the perception and reflection of light and darkness in written and visual sources. Among them are testimonies from the war and blockade time: diaries, letters, regulatory documents of state authorities and administration, works of artists, architects, photographers, as well as transcripts of oral testimonies collected shortly after the blockade and the war, interviews and memories of city residents of a later time.

Key words: The Great Patriotic War, the siege of Leningrad, urban space, perception, historical memory, light, dark.

Author:

Piankevich, Vladimir Leonidovich — Dr. of Sci. in History, Professor at St. Petersburg State
University; Leading Researcher at St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences
(St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: v-pyankevich@yandex.ru

References:

Barskova, P. Chernyi svet: problema temnoty v blokadnom Leningrade [Black Light: the Problem of Darkness in Besieged Leningrad. In Russ.]. In Neprikosnovennyi zapas. 2010. No. 2, pp. 122–138.

Ivanov, V. A. Leningradskii gorodskoi sud v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. 1941–1945 [Leningrad City Court during the Great Patriotic War. 1941–1945. In Russ.]. In Noveishaya istoriya Rossii. 2013. No. 2 (7), pp. 48–69.

Melnikova, E. O. Zhizn’ tresta “Lensvet” [Life of the “Lensvet” Trust. In Russ.]. In Belozerov, B. P. (ed.). Zhizn’ i byt blokirovannogo Leningrada. St. Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya, 2010. P. 93–102.

Piankevich, V. L. “Eto bedstvie, pozhalui, huzhe bombezhki”: Pozhary blokadnogo Leningrada
v vospriyatii leningradtsev [“This Disaster is Perhaps Worse than the Bombing”: Fires of Besieged Leningrad in the Perception of Leningraders. In Russ.]. In Voprosy istorii. 2020. No. 12–2, pp. 50–59.

Sobolev, G. L. Leningrad v bor’be za vyzhivanie v blokade. Kniga tret’ya: yanvar’ 1943 — yanvar’ 1944 [Leningrad in the Struggle for Survival during the Blockade. Book Three: January 1943 — January 1944. In Russ.]. St. Petersburg, Publishing house of St. Petersburg University, 2017. 748 p.

Yarov, S. V. Povsednevnaya zhizn’ blokadnogo Leningrada [Everyday Life of Besieged Leningrad.
In Russ.]. Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya, 2018. 313 p.

Yarov, S. V. Svet i temnota blokadnogo Leningrada: o zapiskax N. Dunaevskoi [Light and Darkness of Besieged Leningrad: about the Notes of N. Dunaevskaya. In Russ.]. In Zvezda. 2015. No. 2, pp. 143–147.

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