On the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, on June 16-17, 2021 St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Military Medical Museum will host the International Scientific Conference “1941. The Northern border”. The organizers of the conference are St. Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Military Medical Museum, the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), the Political Encyclopedia Publishing House (ROSSPEN) with the support of the Norilsk Nickel company.
Since the beginning of the war, the northern front was one of the most important for the opposing sides. For the Third Reich and its allies, the seizure of the Soviet northern and northwestern seas and coast would largely mean the success of the “blitzkrieg”, since it would open the way to Leningrad (with its largest military-industrial complex enterprises in the country), Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and the Taimyr Peninsula (with gigantic sources of raw materials). At the cost of colossal efforts and losses, Soviet troops and civilians managed to delay the enemy’s advance, and then defend the northern borders of our country. The agenda of the conference (in Russian)