In the Line of Defensive. Photo.

N.p., [ca 1942-1950s?].
Photo of besieged Leningrad are very rare.

During the WWII Aleksandr Brodsky (1903-1984), an officer, photojournalist and poet Joseph Brodsky's father, was a press photographer for the army newspapers at the Leningrad front and served tours of duty in several hot battles. Most likely, this photo was taken in the Fort Reef in Kronshtadt. The main bases of Leningrad/Kronshtadt were under siege from 1942 to the autumn 1944. The coastal forces had to try to keep the route from Kronshtadt to the advanced base of Lavansaari open and to defend them from German-Finnish intrusions.
After the war Aleksandr Brodsky served at the Leningrad Naval Museum. 'In 1948, Zhdanov signed a law that forbade officers of Jewish origin to hold high positions in the Soviet Navy. It was a secret law, you could not read about it in newspapers – but it was the law all right. Aleksandr Ivanovich was discharged from the Navy without a pension and for the rest of his life worked as a freelance photographer for small-circulation newspapers that belonged to different organizations and ministries. This was anything but a lucrative job, and the family relied on Maria Moiseevna's [Joseph Brodsky's mother – A.S.] meager salary and on whatever Iosif would earn when he dropped out of high school at fifteen years of age' (Shtern, L. Brodsky: A Personal Memoir. Baskerville Pub, 2004).
The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest and most destructive siege of any city in the world. Photography in the besieged Leningrad was strictly controlled.