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Culture news, 23.01.2004 14:58

Dolls reflecting the child's view of Siege

One of the dolls on display at the exhibition More than 70 dolls and soft toys that children played with during the Siege of Leningrad are displayed at the city's Doll Museum.

"These dolls were probably the nicest part of our harsh and hungry childhood," Maya Rudnitskaya, who brought to the exhibition the two of her favorite dolls Ira and Yura, said on Thursday. "Children are children in any situation," Rudnitskaya said. "And they play with toys even during wars."

The exhibition is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the end of the 900-day siege, which will be celebrated on Tuesday, and runs until March 7. Rudnitskaya, who was 10 when the siege began and lived right through it, has 66 items of clothing she made for her dolls during the long hours she spent in air-raid shelters in the exhibition. "These dolls are dressed exactly as Leningrad children dressed in those hard times," Rudnitskaya said. "Their clothes are like the clothes we wore. So looking at the dolls you can see how we lived." The exhibition also features dolls that had been carried by entertainers who performed concerts to raise the spirits of Soviet soldiers on the front line. One such doll is Nastya, who also performed for wounded soldiers in Leningrad hospitals together with her owner, Klavdia Razdolskaya, a teacher at the puppet studio. Twelve other glove puppets in the exhibition were used for children's puppet performances during the siege.

News source: www.sptimes.ru

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