65th Great Victory anniversary: “Theatrical Moscow 1941-1945" exposition

The exhibition “Theatrical Moscow 1941-1945” will open at the Alexei Bakhrushin Central Theatre Museum. On the threshold of the Victory anniversary celebrations visitors are offered to plunge into the atmosphere of those four long and hard years together with those who raised spirits of soldiers, encouraged new decisive actions against the enemy.

The exposition spans the whole biography of theatre front troupes – from their creation during the first days of war up to the Victory Day, which finished with a concert by the walls of subdued Reichstag. The main characters of the exhibition are front theatres: “Spark” (“Iskra”), “Happy landing force” (“Vesyoly desant”), “Light” (“Ogonyok”), the branch of the Ye. Vakhtangov theatre etc, which are represented in photographs, theatre sketches, billboards, stage scenery layouts, and installations. These war-time creative brigades courageously stepped into the front “stage”, which had been hastily built out of logs and planks, and accompanied by whistling bullets and roaring guns, were performing classical plays and just written war plays “On the eve” by Alexandr Afinogenov, “Russian people” by Konstantin Simonov, "Front" by Alexandr Korneichuk.

Many theatres were keeping front diaries. These “chronicles of war” preserved comments of soldiers and commanders. "Meetings with art became a genuine holiday among the infernal hell of war. During those years the art was living one military life with the whole nation, sharing its woe and sufferings, its impulse and hope", - participants of bloody battles wrote.

"Theatrical Moscow 1941-1945" – it is not only the exhibition, but a peculiar stage, which by May, 30 will hold evenings with participation of Moscow theatres’ actors, musicians of the Gnessin State Musical College, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, members of front concert brigades.