Exhibitions: Exposition “Christmas Greetings from Germany” and “Invitations to the party” are presented in Saint-Petersburg

From December 18, 2012 to January 18, 2013 on the eve of the celebration of the New Year and Christmas the Hall of Korff of the National Library of Russia (Saint-Petersburg) will open two exhibitions: “Christmas greetings from Germany” and “Invitations to the party”.

The exhibition “Christmas Greetings from Germany” present postcards from the private collection of Vadim Mikhailovich Kustov published in different years of the XX century. In a prerevolutionary Russia Germany was one of the main importers of greeting cards. Postmarks, the names and mailing text messages in German indicate that they originally had spread among the Germans, and were intended to Petersburg acquaintances or relatives. In 1920-40s in the Soviet republic such cards congratulated mostly with the New Year.

The exhibition presents also trophy German postcard of the Great Patriotic War. In 1950s to create a greeting card or a photomontage technique there was used photocopies of pre-revolutionary postcards with Christmas scenes in the format of photography. In 1950-70s for the Soviet forces in Germany and their families were produced special Christmas cards. Along with them were used the German postcards as well. The last section of the exhibition is devoted to the period 1970-90s, when greeting cards from the GDR to the USSR fell by correspondence between students and sends the Soviet specialists who have worked in the GDR.

The exposition "Christmas Greetings from Germany" is a part of "The Year of Germany in Russia" and it is a kind of culmination.

The exhibition "The invitation to the party" presents invitations of 1950-80s for children's Christmas tree parties in Leningrad (as from a private collection).