In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from Leningrad.
With the beginning of the blockade - September 8, 1941 - about 400 thousand children of preschool and school age remained in the city.
At the end of October, the children began classes in the bomb shelters of schools and went to kindergartens.
Drawing helped, if not distract, then cope with the horror of the blockade, the constant thoughts of family and friends - and the incessant feeling of hunger.
These drawings, collected by employees of kindergartens, orphanages and schools during the blockade, preserved the direct view of children at wartime events, reflected their feelings and hopes.
The film, released as part of the War: Children's Drawings in VR Animation series, is based on drawings from the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.
Children's drawings were brought to life using VR animation technologies by an international team of artists - Denis Semyonov from Russia (Sa1ntdenis), Stuart Campbell from Australia (Sutu), Vladimir Ilic from Germany (VRHUMAN) and Rosie Summers from the UK.
In addition to drawings, Denis Semyonov used historical photographs taken during and after the blockade.
The series of works "War: Children's Drawings in VR Animation" was first presented in 2020 as part of the #Victory Pages project launched by RT in honor of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War.
All works can be seen on the project's Facebook page.
Also on russian.rt.com "Incredible experience": how the drawings of children of the besieged Leningrad got a second life in VR animation
The project #PagesVictory, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, was released from January to May 2020 on five social media platforms: “Endless letter” on Instagram, mini-documentaries on YouTube, podcasts on VKontakte, mini art projects on Facebook and an hourly chronicle of the final months of the war on Twitter.