Memory of Russia: Historical and documentary exhibition “Great Patriotic War. June 22, 1941 – November 19, 1942” presented in Moscow

On November 29, 2022, the historical and documentary exhibition Great Patriotic War. June 22, 1941 – November 19, 1942 opened in the Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives in Moscow.

The project is a continuation of a cycle of historical and documentary exhibitions, prepared by the Federal Archival Agency and departmental archives in 2018-2021: Munich-38. On the Verge of Disaster; 1939. The Beginning of World War II; On the Eve of the Great Patriotic War. September 1, 1939 – June 22, 1941.

The new exhibition is dedicated to the first most difficult and tragic period of the Great Patriotic War: from the Wehrmacht’s invasion into the USSR on June 22, 1941 until the beginning of the Soviet counteroffensive near Stalingrad on November 19, 1942, which marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the war.

Visitors will have an opportunity to see, for example, military maps of Joseph Stalin, or the handwritten text of Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov’s speech about the start of the Great Patriotic War. Rare photographs, combat plans, intelligence reports – there are hundreds of documents presented. They allow tracing the actions of the higher authorities from June 1941 until the counteroffensive near Stalingrad in 1942, which became a turning point in the war.

Director of the Federal Archival Agency A. N. Artizov noted in his welcoming speech at the exhibition’s opening: “The exposition contains about 400 documents making it possible to understand the role of the front and the rear, the internal and foreign policy of the USSR. For the first time ever, maps are presented in such numbers, including the ones reflecting strategic ideas of the Soviet military and political administration. Ten times more documents than at the exhibition are published in the collection on the history of documents of the Great Patriotic War, World War II, which is formed by historians-archivists by order of the President and is published on the Presidential Library’s portal”.

The exhibition features about 400 documents from the collections of federal archives (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Russian State Military Archive, Russian State Film and Photo Archive, and others), departmental archives of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service and Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as archives of the Republic of Belarus. Visitors to the exhibition have a chance to explore main historical resources of the Great Patriotic War: documents of the supreme state and party bodies, foreign policy and military departments of the USSR, intelligence reports, military maps, photographs, newsreel, etc. Many items are presented in their original copies.

The exposition is complemented by memorabilia, finds from battlefields and other museum objects.

The full-length electronic copies of all archival documents, photographs, maps, newsreel and audio recordings presented in the exposition are featured in the Internet-project of the same name on the Rosarkhiv’s website.

The exhibition is open from November 30, 2022 until February 12, 2023.