"My Heart Remained in Leningrad, but My Soul Lives in Ashgabat"
A meeting took place in Ashgabat that deserves more than just a brief news item. Here is why...
While on a working visit to Turkmenistan, St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Vladimir Omelnitsky laid flowers at the "People's Memory" memorial and subsequently met at the Russian Embassy with Galina Alekseevna Mammedova—an art historian and survivor of the Siege of Leningrad.
The meeting coincided with the 85th anniversary of the start of the siege, lending a different resonance to every word spoken that day.
The City That Learned Not to Surrender
A long time… A very long time—872 days and nights. For nearly three years, Leningrad lived within the ring of an enemy siege. More than two and a half million people were trapped in the blockaded city, including around 400,000 children.
The winter of 1941–1942 was the most harrowing period for the besieged residents of Leningrad. According to official figures, on some days, between 6,000 and 9,000 people died in the city. Trams froze in the streets. Water in the pipes turned to ice, forcing people to walk to the Neva River, break through the ice, and fetch water.
The bread ration for children dropped to 125 grams—and this was not bread in the usual sense, but a sticky mass mixed with wallpaper paste and cellulose.
Children of the Siege learned not to ask for food. They learned to conserve their breath, for every movement cost precious warmth that was already in short supply. They became little adults—standing in bread lines, fetching frozen water, and standing watch during air raids to knock off incendiary bombs as they fell onto rooftops with a terrifying howl. Children learned not to cry as the lives of their loved ones faded away beside them. Records from that era show that approximately 15,000 children and adolescents were among the recipients of the "For the Defense of Leningrad" medal.
The sacred right to be called a defender of Leningrad was not reserved solely for the military. The "For the Defense of Leningrad" medal was also awarded to factory workers at their machines, firefighters, doctors, teachers, and clergy—to everyone who, through their own hands and labor, kept the city standing.
Leningrad was defended by people of all the nationalities of the Soviet Union. Fighting on the Northwestern Front, which covered the approaches to the city, was the 87th Separate Turkmen Rifle Brigade—the first national unit formed in Turkmenistan.
More than 300,000 residents of Turkmenistan were drafted into the Red Army and fought on every front of the war—from the defense of Moscow to the storming of Berlin. Each of them had their own story, their own path, and their own courage. Only the Book of Memory—whose pages preserve the names of those who never returned—knows exactly how many Turkmen soldiers faced enemy fire near Leningrad.
32,000 Lives
While some defended Leningrad, others saved its residents. Turkmenistan took in over 32,000 people evacuated from the besieged city and frontline regions. This is not merely a statistic; it represents tens of thousands of individual lives. Instead of the biting cold and empty apartments of Leningrad, they found the warmth of a southern home, fresh flatbread, and a language that—though unfamiliar to the ear—was spoken by kind people, making it understood nonetheless.
Vladimir Omelnitsky, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, recently visited Ashgabat. Speaking to journalists at the Russian Embassy, he conveyed a message entrusted to him by Governor Alexander Beglov:
"I wish to express my gratitude to the entire Turkmen people for the warmth with which the evacuees from Leningrad were received. These are 32,000 people who found a second home here. The Turkmen people also faced great hardship during the Great Patriotic War, contending with shortages of food and medicine. Yet, even in those trying times, they shared their last crust of bread with the Leningraders who arrived in Turkmenistan. We remember this, and we hold that memory sacred."
"My Heart Remained in Leningrad, but My Soul Lives in Ashgabat"
Galina Alekseevna Mamedova is among those whose childhood was shaped by the intersection of the Siege of Leningrad and Turkmenistan. She was born in the besieged city on August 5, 1943—six months before the blockade was fully lifted.
Her parents had gone to the front during the very first year of the war. Her mother, Taisia Iosifovna Churina, was a nurse; her father, Aleksey Nikolaevich Churin, was a Senior Technical Lieutenant. In July 1943, her mother was temporarily demobilized and returned to Leningrad via the "Road of Life." Her daughter, Galochka, was born in August. Taisia was then called back to service and assigned to a military hospital in Leningrad. Galina stayed there too, alongside the wounded soldiers. It was there that she witnessed the final lifting of the blockade and, later, Victory Day.
After the war, Galina finished school and then graduated from the Leningrad Art and Technical College. There, she met Mamed Mamedov, a student at the I.E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. A dark-complexioned young man from Turkmenistan and an alumnus of an orphanage, he dreamed of completing his education and bringing his knowledge back to his homeland.
"He was very cheerful, played the guitar, drew beautifully, and was always surprised that I knew nothing about Central Asia," says Galina Alekseevna. "We were just friends for about seven years. But when I invited him over, my mother was absolutely charmed by him."
In 1964, Galina packed her bags and set off for distant Ashgabat.
"I sat on the plane and, through the window, saw the Caspian Sea, the vast expanses of the Karakum Desert, and the slopes of the Kopet Dag mountains for the first time. Bathed in sunlight, Ashgabat welcomed me warmly; its atmosphere of goodwill reminded me of Luga—a small town near Leningrad. It felt as though—just like in Mandelstam’s poetry—I had returned to a city familiar enough to bring tears to my eyes..."
Mamed Mamedov became one of the most renowned Turkmen painters and was a member of the so-called "Magnificent Seven"—a group of artists who rose to prominence in the 1960s. Galina Alekseevna worked at the Museum of Fine Arts of Turkmenistan for many years—a full quarter of a century, or 25 years. The state recognized her contributions by awarding her the title of "Honored Cultural Worker of Turkmenistan." Mamed Mamedov dedicated his artistic work to the theme of the Great Patriotic War. His painting "The Siege: Wartime Orphans" was donated to the Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad in 2021. His final painting — "Spring 1945: Victory", created in 1985—was also donated to the same museum.
The canvas depicts a celebratory fireworks display set against a pale blue sky. Rising toward the fireworks are... paper kites, flown by children.
This composition represents the apotheosis of a new life following the war.
Galina Alekseevna presented the painting to St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov during his visit to Ashgabat in September 2023, and six months later, she personally attended the ceremonial handover of the canvas to the museum collection in St. Petersburg.
At that time, the governor presented her with the honorary badge "In Honor of the 80th Anniversary of the Complete Liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi Blockade."
When asked why she did not return home, Galina Alekseevna replies:
"Not for anything! Ashgabat is my homeland!"
And when asked where she gets such a burst of energy:
"It was my childhood during the blockade and my thirst for life that toughened me."
"Come and See the Collection"
When I asked Galina Alekseevna about her favorite subject—porcelain—during our meeting at the embassy, she lit up:
"The Turkmen people have long possessed their own highly developed ceramic technologies. After all, in the Middle Ages, artisans in Merv, Nisa, and Kunya-Urgench crafted vessels and tiles from a silicate paste..." she explained.
At that moment, I paused for a second, recalling my trips to ancient archaeological sites where I had come across large, glassy lumps that looked like transparent cobblestones. Archaeologists had told me then that, even in ancient times, Turkmen craftsmen had learned to use a special mixture to create exquisite tableware.
Modern specialists call it "fritta." This term—unfamiliar to many—derives from the Italian fritta (from friggere, meaning "to fry" or "to roast"). It seems to me that the dish we all know well as "French fries" (kartofel fri) belongs to this same semantic family.
Where did this name come from? The reason is that the mixture—aside from quartz and special clay—consisted of a fused, glass-like mass that ancient craftsmen literally "fried" at high temperatures before rapidly cooling it. After firing and glazing, these wares—which merchants referred to as "Eastern faience"—acquired a resonant quality, a snow-white or turquoise hue, and thin walls. I have seen such ceramics from Merv, Nisa, and Kunya-Urgench in the world’s major museums—the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and, fittingly, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
As I emerged from my recollections, Galina Alekseevna summed up:
“The production of such pieces of ancient decorative and applied art could be revived and mass-produced today.”
And she added with a smile:
- “Come and see the collection—I can be your guide.”
Looking Ahead to "Scarlet Sails"
Vladimir Omelnitsky presented a number of proposals to the Turkmen side. These included tours by St. Petersburg theaters, museum exchange exhibitions, video conferences for medical professionals to share experiences regarding the use of artificial intelligence, and cooperation in the restoration of art masterpieces and cultural monuments.
There was also an invitation for outstanding graduates from Turkmen schools to attend the "Scarlet Sails" festival in St. Petersburg.
"It is a magnificent event," said Vladimir Vladimirovich. "The Governor of St. Petersburg consistently emphasizes the importance of—and respect for—those taking their first independent step in life. They represent the future of our countries, and I am convinced that the top-performing students from your schools who attend the 'Scarlet Sails' festival will remember it for the rest of their lives."
…At the Russian Embassy, following the official speeches, the flowers, the photographs, and the handshakes, Galina Alekseevna Mamedova reiterated:
"Such was my destiny: my heart remained in Leningrad, while my soul stayed in Ashgabat. I want to go on living."
These words are more than just a phrase—beautiful though it may be. They capture the essence of a story in which cities separated by thousands of miles are bound together by shared memories, shared grief, and the shared joy brought by the Great Victory. It is the story of a girl from besieged Leningrad who, over the years, became a guardian of beauty in a new land that became her home; of Turkmen soldiers who gave their lives defending the approaches to a city they had never seen before; and of the 32,000 Leningraders who found a second home in Turkmenistan.
The memory of this should not be reduced to a brief snippet of information drifting from one website to another. It deserves to be told again and again…
Bekdurdy AMANSARYEV
