Po raznye storony linii fronta (On opposite sides of the front line)
St. Petersburg: Herm, 2020. Sewn pb. The Hermitage as the richest repository of Russia's artistic heritage — its core collections consisting of great works of world art collected by the ruling family, court, and gentry over several centuries — was after the human toll the most significant target and victim of the Nazi onslaught of 1941 and two-and-a-half-year siege. This Hermitage catalogue marking seventy-five years since the end of World War II publishes drawings of Hermitage interiors during the blockade, archival photographs, books published during the war, engravings of Leningrad 1941–44 and — a singular aspect of the book — illustrations from German sources such as photos taken by occupying forces in the outskirts of Leningrad and German propaganda posters inciting Red Army soldiers to switch sides. Holes blasted in the wall of the Winter Palace, the Hermitage's chief curator in coat and fur hat working indoors on a sculpture damaged by a shell, drawings of the Rembrandt Hall the frames on the wall all empty, the basement of the Hermitage converted into a bomb shelter, and eminent scholars like Vladimir Levinson-Lessing and Alisa Bank keeping, saving, and caring for works of the Hermitage evacuated to Sverdlovsk. 123 p., approx. 100 color and b/w illus., Rus. with title page and summary in ENGLISH. Item #3826
ISBN: 9785935729042
Price: $48.00