Memory of Russia: Exhibition "The Soviet Information Bureau Informs", marking the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, launched at the Russian State Library

The Khimki Department of the Russian State Library (Moscow) launched the exhibition "The Soviet Information Bureau Informs". It will run until September 25. The exposition marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The project features newspapers, original dissertations and posters.

The exposition comprises 13 original newspapers from the institution's collections telling about the first period of the war. They illustrate the invasion of German troops, the siege of the Brest Fortress, the defence of Odessa, the battle for Moscow, the Siege of Leningrad, the defence of Sevastopol. One of the exhibits is the issue of Krasnoarmeiskaya Pravda, which published the beginning of Alexander Tvardovsky's poem Vasily Tyorkin at the height of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The second part of the exhibition presents 18 original candidate and doctoral dissertations, including works devoted to the Siege of Leningrad, the Belarusian partisan movement, the battle near Moscow, military and labour exploits of the Soviet people.

The exposition includes dissertations reflecting the role of the media, radio and art that encouraged people to fight the enemy. The authors of many works are participants in the Great Patriotic War.

The library's Art Department provided copies of 15 military posters and photographs by Sergei Nikolayevich Strunnikov, a Soviet photographer, master of reports and portraits. In 2020, the Russian State Library hosted an exhibition of posters and pictures "At War as at War", which featured works by Strunnikov and other war correspondents from its collections.

In August 1941, the Pravda newspaper employed Strunnikov as a photographer. In October, he became a military photojournalist. He captured the defence of Moscow, worked at the German rear and the front lines. His photographs were released in the Pravda newspaper.