When the city falls asleep… art awakens. Twenty years ago, St. Petersburg’s museums were captivated by the White Nights and opened their doors to visitors after sunset. A unique format—the ‘Night of Museums’—emerged, unlike anything else in Russia. Hundreds of venues, thousands of exhibits, millions of guests—and behind the scenes, just a few people create this large-scale cultural project. The film 'Night of Museums. The Beginning' is more than a story. It offers an insider’s view of the creation and creators of the project in St. Petersburg. At its core are the lives, destinies, and emotions of people who, over twenty years, dedicate all their time to the project while representing diverse professions and positions. They unite the city, giving St. Petersburg residents a chance to experience various art forms in a new light.

Even schoolchildren know about the ‘Road of Life’ and its role in saving the residents of besieged Leningrad. But few speak of how the city was supplied in the harshest first months of the war, before the ice on Lake Ladoga froze and convoys of trucks set out over it. What role did Soviet pilots play in rescuing the people of Leningrad? What was the Air Bridge, and how was it created? We embark on a long journey into the Novgorod hinterland, speaking with people who painstakingly reconstructed the events of those terrible years and preserve the memory of the heroism of their ancestors—pilots of special missions.