During the Great Patriotic War, the city of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg suffered some of the most brutal hardships. However, the Hermitage has valiantly endured the test of time along with those who have lived in the city.
At dawn on June 22, 1941 the German forces invaded the Soviet Union. The evacuation of the Hermitage's treasures began two days later with the help of museum staff and citizen volunteers: artists, scientists, actors and students who hadn't been conscripted into the army. The packing was carried out round the clock and the Hermitage theatre was turned into a dormitory for those involved. Staff members were instructed to take down the museum's priceless masterpieces, yet leave the frames hanging empty on the walls as a symbol of the artworks' eventual return.
Due to the heroic effort of the staff, over a million it
ms were packed in two trains and deployed to the Urals to the city of Sverdlovsk, now Ekaterinburg. But before the third train was prepared, the Nazis surrounded Leningrad, leaving it to the curators and other members of personnel who weren't able to evacuate to protect the remaining treasures.
During the 900 day Nazi siege of Leningrad, the museum was bombed 19 times. Equipped only with first-aid kits, wearing helmets and gloves, the Hermitage wardens cleared away heaps of broken bricks after each shell hit the building. They have also helped dig out the living and the dead and bandage the injured in the surrounding area. Twelve air-raid shelters were constructed in the museum’s basement, and at one point 12,000 people were housed there. To feed themselves they planted vegetables in the Hanging Gardens. Around 100 members of the Hermitage’s staff died of starvation and severe cold.
Yet even in such unbearable conditions, the museum continued its preservation work and scholarly activities. Curators passed on their knowledge to younger colleagues by word of mouth. The Hermitage opened its first post blockade exhibition in November 1944. In October 1945, the evacuated collections, to which a single item was not lost, returned to Leningrad. A month later, the museum opened its doors for the visitors. So next time you look at the masterpieces of the Hermitage, don’t forget about those who gave their lives to save these treasures for generations to come.
