On the back of my recent obsession with the Leningrad symphony, find myself at a museum called ‘And The Muses Were Not Silent’, way down in the nether regions of the Moika canal. A middle-aged woman with an encyclopedic memory shows us the original copies of the symphony manuscript, instruments that were played during the Leningrad blockade recital and then to my surprise a whole other wing to the museum completely unrelated to Shostakovich. The many other rooms of the museum (which were locked up and seeing some remont/repairs work) were devoted to art, poetry and theatre during the blockade. They have an incredible collection, but it’s completely inaccessible if you don’t know Russian.
Please someone help these guys out and translate some of their documents into English! I fear my Russian will always bee too poor to translate all the great stories in these museums. It could be an incredible place, makes me sad every time to see museums that are a few good translations away from tourist heaven.
So what did I do to make myself feel less guilty? I bought an over-priced book that I will never read of course.
This museum has no website and they're not actually really open during the summer (I was there on special arrangement) as it's not even strictly speaking a museum. It's a school. Can you imagine studying in a school that has a whole floor dedicated to artists of the Leningrad blockade? Crazy! Russia still surprises...
06/07 And The Muses Were Not Silent
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