The House of N.P. Likhachev (House of the postgraduate school of the USSR Academy of sciences) and the fate of its residents during the defense and the siege of Leningrad

Abstract

The period of the defense and blockade of Leningrad is an important but little-studied page in the history of the house of the outstanding historian and collector N. P. Likhachеv (St. Petersburg, Petrozavodskaya str., 7, now the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located in the building). After the revolution, the building was transferred to the Archaeological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and a Museum of Paleography was established in the house, of which Likhachev himself became director. In 1930, as a result of the fabrication of the “Academic Case”, the researcher was arrested, and the museum was soon closed.In 1931–1966, the building housed a dormitory for graduate students. The article reconstructs the tragic events of 1941–1944 on the basis of archival materials, memoirs and diaries of the residents of the house. Before the war, 88 people lived in the building, most of them were graduate students, researchers, and technical workers. In addition, relatives of N. P. Likhachеv lived there. With the outbreak of the war, the house gradually began to empty – some of the residents left for evacuation, 10 people voluntarily joined the Red Army, more than 50 people died of exhaustion. Since August 1942, only two families lived in the building:
Danilenko (the caretaker and her children) and the Likhachevs. After the end of the war and the blockade, new residents began to appear in large numbers in the house.