the online Posts of the project can be divided into three parts. First part: stories about the priests who had served during the blockade of Leningrad, the churches that were opened during the war in the besieged city, about temples-monuments to victims of war and blockade, built in our time. Second part: stories about the priests of the veterans of the great Patriotic war. Third: the stories of diocesan priests and parishioners about their relatives-veterans. Also published excerpts from a documentary film “Blockade of temples”, filmed in 2018 the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad.
As explained by Natalia Rodomanova, head of the communications sector, the project has attracted great interest. Although the number of subscribers to the page is not so great, views and reaction to the post showed that the project demanded. Citizens began to send stories about relatives, to thank for actually open unknown pages of history of great Patriotic war.
of Particular interest was the film “the Besieged temples of St. Petersburg”, created by creative Studio “Image” with the support of communications of the diocese and the grant of Saint-Petersburg. The film is about acting in the besieged city of Orthodox churches, about the fate of the priests, whose personal Affairs preserved in the archives of the diocese of spiritual and Patriotic work of the Russian Orthodox Church, about faith in the besieged Leningrad.
In fact, this is a film about the siege of those pages, which for decades held back in a country where the citizens are supposed to be atheists. Meanwhile, during the war, during the siege, many people not previously conceived about the faith, this faith came. According to historical facts, the attendance of churches in the blockade have increased three times! And even the question was raised about the installation of the loudspeakers so that services could be broadcast outside of the temple: temples sometimes could not accommodate all comers.
Interestingly, about half active in the blockade of the temples were at the cemetery. Not by chance: it was here were brought dead to their burial service. For example, in the temple at bolsheokhtinskoye cemetery used to simultaneously read the burial service over 200 dead.
People went and closed the temples. For example, to the chapel of St. Xenia of Petersburg in the Smolensk cemetery. In the crevice of the masonry had slipped the note. Some of them miraculously survived. This is a very simple request: to not bombed the house to add to the bread. “Dear Xenia, arrange it so that I got a worker’s card for 250 grams,” says one of the Leningrad.
And in the fall of 1943 for the first time in the history of the Soviet state government award – medal “For defense of Leningrad” were received by the Orthodox clergy. Together with Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky in the future – Patriarch Alexius I) that the entire siege had together with his flock in the besieged city, was awarded 11 of the conthe priests and one lay person of the Sexton, Regent and Chairman of the parish Council, the Prince Vladimir Cathedral lion Parijskij.
Online project was supported by visual advertising on the streets of St. Petersburg.
