[1][2] Anna Ivanovna Zelenova had a profound love for Pavlovsk, considering it a true temple of art and feeling as though she couldn’t live without it.
From September 1941 to January 1944, she endured the Siege of Leningrad, where she continued working tirelessly on preserving materials from Pavlovsk.
After the German retreat, Zelenova returned to Pavlovsk to find devastation: the palace burned, the park partially destroyed, and anything that couldn’t be evacuated looted.
Will Pavlovsk be nothing more than a painful memory?” The state commission’s grim assessment left little hope, concluding, "No architectural ensemble around Leningrad suffered as severely; there’s no foundation for restoration."
She mobilized organizations and individuals, securing resources, traveling to Moscow, and tirelessly advocating for funds—even meeting with Kliment Voroshilov, who finally allocated additional funds.