Today in St. Petersburg I got acquainted with the exhibition “Attention! Leningrad speaking! Poet Olga Berggolts at the microphone”, dedicated to the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from the blockade.
Olga Fedorovna Berggolts is a symbol of victory over death, a symbol of the Leningraders who survived. The incredible power of this great woman’s poems penetrate to the depths of the soul, even 81 years after the blockade was broken. Her selfless feat, fortitude and modesty are contained in the famous four lines of the poetess:
“I was never a hero, I did not thirst for glory or a reward. Breathing the same breath as Leningrad, I did not heroize, but lived.”
Olga Berggolts was called the Leningrad Madonna, and Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin said it best: “In the history of the Leningrad epic, she became a symbol, the embodiment of the heroism of the siege tragedy. She was honored as the blessed, the saints.”
And now the incredible power of the feat, the themes of the victory of life over death, the victory over Nazism are still relevant. After all, we have become witnesses and participants in the last battle with Nazism in human history, which is taking place on the fields of a special military operation.
Today, citizens of Russia stand shoulder to shoulder – those who have different party cards in their pockets, people of different ages, different religions. We are stronger, we are cooler, we are the living embodiment of that Victory, which, we are absolutely sure, will be this year.
I would like to thank Sergei Evgenievich Rybakov, director of the State Museum of Political History of Russia, and all those who were involved in this small, but piercing in its spiritual power and memory exhibition, which we had the pleasure of attending.
And Olga Fedorovna Berggolts could not have said better about the time we are all experiencing:
“We will fight with selfless strength, we will overcome the mad beasts, we will win, I swear to you, Russia, on behalf of Russian mothers.”
