The cultural life of besieged Leningrad in V.V. Vishnevsky's “Diaries of the war years”

The paper deals with the cultural life of besieged Leningrad through the prism of the “Diaries of the War Years” by V.V. Vishnevsky. It reveals the social significance of the musical performance “The Sea Spreads Wide” created with Vishnevsky’s active participation and the play “At the Walls of Leningrad”, the main writer’s work about the siege. Of particular interest are the diary entries about the author’s participation in the difficult work on the documentary “Leningrad in the struggle”. The paper characterizes Vishnevsky’s personal perception of various aspects of cultural life in the besieged city, gives his assessment of the events, and describes the stages of the writer’s work on the main wartime plays, the problems of cultural figures, caused not only by the difficult living conditions, but also by the strict control by the party leadership.