The Great Patriotic War

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. L. Piankevich. LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

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.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. Yu. Stefanenko. HARVESTING VEGETABLES IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

After the end of the first winter of the blockade in 1941–1942, the Leningrad leadership was faced with the problem of finding new sources of food. One of the most important areas became the organisation of the harvest of agricultural products, especially vegetables and potatoes. The city’s leaders launched mass campaigns to create individual gardens and send Leningraders to plant, weed and harvest crops and vegetables on the subsidiary farms of enterprises and state farms in the Leningrad region. At the same time, the authorities had to solve a number of organisational and social problems. Throughout the blockade, there was an acute shortage of equipment and supplies. The irrational use of available human resources led to the loss of vegetables through spoilage and theft. Nevertheless, the mobilisation campaigns helped to supply Leningrad with food and to prevent a repetition of the tragedy of the “time of death”.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — E. Yu. Zubkova. «VICTORY AND THE GREAT FAREWELL»: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE POLICY OF REMEMBERING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. 1945–1965

In the Russian context, multiple memories of the war coexist, with one type forming spontaneously as a “living” experience of what was lived through, and the other emerging as the result of a targeted state project, driven by a policy on constructing memory. To what extent did the state commemorative project take into account the public demand for remembrance of the war? Furthermore, what objectives did the state memory policy pursue in creating the image of the Great Patriotic War? In what ways did this image manifest itself in various memorial formats? The present article is devoted to these and other issues of the formation of memory of the war — from Victory Day 1945 to Victory Day 1965.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – V.L. Piankevich. Review of the collection of documents: Blockade in the decisions of the leading party bodies of Leningrad. 1941–1944. Parts I–III. STPb. 2019–2022

The collection of documents is a continuation of the work on the publication of official documents on the World War II and the blockade. Together with published documents of personal origin, the new edition significantly expands the source base for research on the history of the defense and Leningrad blockade. This is a unique, first, complete, specific publication of the most important documents of the highest regional authorities and administration, almost all of which (98%) were previously kept in secret. The published documents make it possible to study the most important issues of military production, the supply and distribution of food, the management of Leningrad and the Leningrad Region, the economy and urban economy, etc.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – V.Berednikova. Materials of the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg as a source for the study of the partisan movement on the territory of the Leningrad Region

In article the information possibilities of the documents postponed in funds of the Central State Archive of the Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg which reflect the history of creation and work of the Leningrad headquarters of the partisan movement on the organization of partisan formations and control of their activity in days of the Great Patriotic War is analyzed. The analysis of archive materials will allow to estimate in a new way a role of the partisan movement in the battle of Leningrad and also degree of its efficiency, the reason of failures and disorganization at the initial stages of existence of the partisan movement and success achieved in 1943–1944.

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – V. V. Zdanovich. The history of everyday life in the Nazi-occupied territory of Belarus in the works of Belarusian historians

The article analyzes the works of Belarusian historians devoted to the life history of urban and rural residents of Belarus during the Nazi occupation in 1941–1944. The analysis carried out shows that in the Soviet period, according to the party guidelines, the life of different categories of the population in the occupied territory was considered in Soviet historical literature as a daily battle with the enemy. A characteristic feature of the Belarusian period was the development of new directions in the study of the problem, detailed coverage of various aspects of the occupation regime, the consideration of which in Soviet historiography was determined by brevity.