The film tells about the tragic event of February 14, 1988 in Leningrad - a fire in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, in which thousands of rare books burned. The event is commented on by the Chairman of the Soviet Culture Fund - Academician D.S. Likhachev.
Views of Leningrad in winter, a snowstorm is sweeping.
Glass walls of the greenhouse, palm trees behind the glass.
Panorama of part of the spring park, melting snow.
People are going down a dark staircase.
Workers are raking coal in the boiler room.
Books and manuscripts damaged by the fire on February 14, 1988 in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad.
The interior of the storage facility damaged by the fire, library employees are sorting out the remains of books and surviving publications, laying out the surviving sheets.
Workers are using shovels to clear the storage facility of the remains of burnt books.
Chairman of the Soviet Culture Fund - Academician D.S. Likhachev talks about the loss of the library's main collection during the fire on February 14, tells the history of the library's creation, about the destruction of damp books due to mold, talks about the extent of the damage incurred, about the lost books, about the fire as a national disaster, about the negligence of the library's management and other causes of the fire (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Panorama of the reading room, damp books laid out on the tables.
Books drying on the glass shades of burning table lamps.
View and panorama of the complex of buildings of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad, view of the library building.
Extinguishing the fire in the library building on February 14-15, 1988. Water supply from the Neva to the upper floors, water pours out of the first floor window.
Panorama and views of the burning building, the work of the fire brigades, a library employee carries burned books.
Members of the fire extinguishing headquarters and fire trucks near the library building.
Sign with the name of the library.
Firefighters on a hydraulic lift.
People on the street watching the fire, flakes of foam on the asphalt.
The face of a firefighter.
Clouds of smoke are pouring out of the windows of the library building.
Firefighters are descending the stairs with armfuls of charred and wet books in their hands.
A fire hose on the stairs, water is pouring down the steps.
Firefighters are carrying books out of the storage room.
Damaged and charred books piled up against the wall.
A view of part of the burning library building, clouds of smoke are pouring out of the windows.
A view of part of the Orthodox cathedral, crows above the dome.
Newsreel from 1941-1942: the streets of besieged Leningrad during shelling.
The loading of corpses of people who died of hunger onto sleds.
People on the streets of besieged Leningrad, a man is carrying a relative weakened by hunger on a sled.
Researchers in coats and hats in the reading room of the Library of the Academy of Sciences.
One of the readers, sitting over a book, pinches off and eats pieces of bread.
People read books, make notes.
Panorama of part of the library building.
Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich - philologist
cultural scientist
art critic
1988
Leningrad
Winter
Flashing light of a fire engine, off-camera Academician D.S. Likhachev discusses the danger to domestic humanitarian centers.
Clouds of smoke burst from the windows of the library building.
Likhachev talks about extinguishing the fire and the injured library staff, about the high level of fire hazard of the Pushkin House storage facilities and other scientific and cultural institutions of Leningrad, about the fires that have occurred in recent years, about the irreparable loss of rare books (synchronously and off-camera).
The Pushkin House building in Leningrad.
Cleaning up wet ashes from burnt books in one of the library storage facilities.
A firefighter watches the extinguishing of a fire on the upper floor of the library.
View of the monument to Peter the Great.
View of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the central part of Leningrad (from above).
Unloading decorative structures from the back of a truck.
An artillery piece on the Naryshkin Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress fires a midday shot.
The clock on the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
A traffic light on one of the city streets.
Open iron gates in the library building, the entrance is bricked up.
Library staff in the burnt-out storage facility.
Young people dancing at a disco, a flashing light from a fire engine.
Firefighters in the burnt-out storage facility.
Pages of burnt books.
A firefighter near the library building.
Firefighters in the storage facility pass stacks of surviving books back and forth.
Staff near the library building, a panorama of the street, foam on the asphalt.
Smoke billows out of the windows of the burning library building.
Foam flakes on the street, firefighters walk along the corridor.
Library staff in the underground storage facility begin to assess the damage caused by the fire.
Interior views of part of the underground storage facility, books damaged by water.
View of the corridor of the underground storage facility, the ceiling and walls in frozen foam.
View of the library building.
Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich - philologist
cultural scientist
art critic
1988
Leningrad
Winter Summer