Educational Media Reviews Online

Blockade consists of footage from Soviet archives depicting the siege of Leningrad. There is no voice-over. The only thing that has been added to the black-and-white footage is sound: the case says that the original footage was silent, and Sergei Loznits added sound effects. The sound helps transport the viewer to the scene—you hear cars as they drive by, footsteps, sirens, and occasionally voices. It’s very well done, and most viewers will not realize the sound is not original. The film quality is what you’d expect from World-War-II-era film, but you can always tell what’s going on.

Since it refrains from presenting any information besides the visual footage, the film is not particularly suited for classroom viewing. It is evocative rather than didactic. Nonetheless, it is important as a record of life in besieged Leningrad. Near the end, there is some ghastly footage of corpses in a pit, but most of it, while sad, is not the stuff of nightmares: you see observation balloons, salvage operations, ships firing, and water-dipping, as well as frozen corpses covered by blankets. Blockade is a valuable contribution to those studying the impact of war, as well as this particular siege.

Recommended for collections supporting classes on World War II or Russian history.