Великая победа под Ленинградом
About Великая победа под Ленинградом
The documentary runs from the spring of 1942 to January 1944. It shows barricades in Leningrad, Andrei Zhdanov speaking in the Kremlin, a railway and a pipeline laid across Lake Ladoga, children and factory equipment taken out, and raids, fires, and people clearing rubble. Workshops keep making arms. Women gather firewood. Ships, artillery, infantry, and partisans fight, and goods move back over the ice road. Soldiers and civilians receive the medal For the Defense of Leningrad. The film then follows the offensive that breaks the blockade: German dead and prisoners, people in the streets, and a salute.
Cast & crew
More about Великая победа под Ленинградом
Nikolai Komarevtsev, Pavel Palley, and Valery Solovtsov directed. It was the last film made by the Leningrad United Newsreel Studio, using crews from the newsreel studio and from Lentekhfilm. From the spring of 1942, processing and editing were based at Glukhozerskaya 4. Dmitry Astradantsev wrote the music. Ruvim Vygodsky narrates. The off-screen text is by Nikolai Tikhonov, who is not in the credits. Lieutenant General Alexander Gvozdkov was the military consultant.
Themes
Background
The siege ran from September 1941 to January 1944. The film starts after the worst winter, when the Ladoga road and a pipeline under the lake were already supplying the city, and ends with the offensive that opens the land route.
Making
Some cameramen stayed in the besieged city. Others were attached to the 42nd, 67th, and 23rd Armies, the Neva group, the naval group, and the Volkhov Front. Assistants were Lidiya Kikaz and T. Prokofyeva. Sound was by B. Kartavenko, V. Kotov, and E. Kashkevich.
Look
A group of newsreel cameramen shot in the city and with the armies. Winter work on Panchrom stock was limited to about five hours of usable light a day.
Music
Dmitry Astradantsev composed the score. Ruvim Vygodsky reads the narration written by Nikolai Tikhonov.
Preservation
A copy is in the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents in Krasnogorsk. In 2020 a digital copy went to the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad. Russian television showed the film in May 2019 and January 2020.
Notes
- It continues the 1942 documentary Leningrad in the Struggle (Ленинград в борьбе).
- Russian Wikipedia traces the title to Stalin's order of 23 February 1944, which called the lifting of the blockade a great victory under Leningrad.
- Cameramen named in the records include Anatoly Pogorely, Efim Uchitel, Vladimir Stradin, Sergei Fomin, and Pavel Palley, among a much larger front-line group.
- Domestic low-sensitivity Panchrom stock, used because imported film was short, allowed about five hours of shooting a day in winter.
- Zhdanov reviewed the cut in late March 1944 and asked for episodes, text, and music to be reordered. Russian Wikipedia says it did not reach screens in 1944.
- A digitized copy was given to the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad in 2020.
Scenes
- A railway and a pipeline are laid across Lake Ladoga while children and machinery are taken out.
- Medals For the Defense of Leningrad are pinned on soldiers and civilians.
- After the breakthrough, captured German soldiers are shown, and the city fires a salute.
Influenced by
- Leningrad in the Struggle (1942)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1944. Великая победа под Ленинградом.webm)
- Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, Krasnogorsk
