On 28 January, SPbGASU first- and second-year students visited the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square and the new exhibition “To Your Heroes, Leningrad!”, which opened in the Commemorative Hall of the memorial.

The exhibition is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad – one of the architectural structures of the “Green Belt of Glory”, which includes a number of monuments erected at the sites of battles of the Great Patriotic War.

After laying flowers, Andrey Kozlov, a specialist in exhibition activities at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, gave the students a tour, telling them about the history of the design and construction of the monument.

The permanent exhibition of the hall was supplemented by drawings and conceptual proposals for the monument, submitted to an architectural competition in 1964. Among the authors of the projects were students and graduates of LISI (SPbGASU).

In addition to the competition entries, the exhibition features sketches of sculptures by Mikhail Anikushin, including a plaster sketch of the legendary “golden boy” sculpture, which was supposed to complete the axial composition of the monument, but was ultimately not approved.

At the end of the excursion, the students talked with the curator of the exhibition and the director of the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, Evgeniya Kulikova. The atmosphere of the museum, permeated with tragedy and the power of the incredible feat of the Soviet people, made an indelible impression on the students.

Anni Avetisyan says: "I learned a lot about the project and the creation of the monument. The tour also made me think about the terrible events that the residents of Leningrad experienced during the siege. It is very important to visit such places, because in this way we honor the memory of the heroes and can better imagine everything that they experienced while defending our city."

In addition, during the celebration of the 81st anniversary of the full liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade, students and teachers of our university took part in laying flowers at the memorial to the militia of the Leninsky district in the square near the Baltic Station and at the monuments to the "Blockade Teacher" and "Blockade Doctor" in Solyanoy Lane, near the Museum of the Defense and Blockade of Leningrad.