Camouflaging Leningrad

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 85 years since the start of World War Two.

During the conflict, the Russian city of Leningrad came under siege in 1941.

To camouflage the landmarks from enemy attack, a small group of mountaineers climbed up high with paint and canvas.

Mikhail Bobrov was just 18 years old when he first got sent up the city’s spires.

Mikhail was speaking to Monica Whitlock in 2017.

He died in 2018.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Leningrad. Credit: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Kim Ketrau and I want to tell you about my new podcast a new audio drama telling the history of the CIA from the inside out.
0:09.0	The United States of America was suddenly its worst domestic attack.
0:14.0	He's got to convince Congress to give him an open checkbook now.
0:18.3	America has suffered its worst domestic attack of the 20th century at Pearl Harbor.
0:23.0	How do we make contact with the NKGB?
0:27.0	Central Intelligence, starring me, Kim Ketrau, Ed Harris, and Johnny Flynn.
0:31.0	There's $50,000 in it for you if you say yes.
0:34.7	Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello you're listening to the Witness History Podcast on the BBC World Service.
0:47.7	This month marks 85 years since the start of World War II.
0:52.2	Today, Monica Whitlock takes us back to the 1940s and to the Russian
0:56.9	city of Leningrad, which was under siege by German forces. In a bid to protect historical landmarks from enemy fire, Mountaineers scaled
1:06.5	the churches and palaces with paint and canvas. Mikhail Bobrov was 16 when he made the trip that set the course of his life.
1:17.0	He planned to train as a mountaineer.
1:20.0	My long time, My longing to climb began when I first set eyes on the mountains. As a boy in
1:29.4	Leningrad I won a skiing competition. The prize was a trip to the Elbours Mountains. Those
1:35.2	mountains were so beautiful they stole my heart. So I trained and I learned to
1:41.1	climb. But a year later in June 1941, Nazi Germany launched its lightning
1:49.6	advanced on the USSR, smashing its Western frontiers and descending on its principal cities.
1:55.6	Mihai was called up and wounded in those very first weeks. He was invalided home to his parents
2:08.0	when the Leningrad authorities decided to disguise the city's golden domes and spires, both to spare the historic
2:15.0	buildings and to stop the German bombers using them as bearings. And so a small band
2:21.0	of climbers, two women and two men were summoned to the headquarters of the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.