The Presidential Library showcases “postcards of mercy”

The multimedia exhibition “Postcards of Mercy”, opened on November 12, 2018 in the Presidential Library, showcases the images of “an angel in white” which allowed soften and romanticize the harsh reality of wartime. The project is timed to the centenary anniversary of the end of the First World War and implemented jointly with the Union of Deltiologists of Russia - the All-Russian public organization of collectors and lovers of postcards.

These illustrated postcards reveal the topic not so much of war as peace during war, mercy during the years of large-scale and tragic conflict, the activities of Red Cross organizations and medical institutions, the care of the wounded, publicity of the heads of state – the participants of the confrontation to humanitarian issues.

The exhibition also covers the extremely high role of postcards in the reflection of historical events. The number of postcards dedicated to the events of the First World War, is tens of thousands of items. On the one hand, the postcard acts as a means of information confrontation. On the other hand, in the illustrations on the topic of mercy, it is the humanistic meaning that is reflected in the cards from different countries that belonged to the opposing camps. Even if some people printed such postcards for propaganda purposes: they say, helping a wounded enemy is “true German virtue” or “true Russian”. Still, the images of the Red Cross and the Sisters of Charity were similar almost in all countries.

“The multimedia exhibition is dedicated to the activities of physicians during the First World War”, - acting Director General of the Presidential Library Valentin Sidorin told at the opening of the exhibition. - The profession of a military medic then connected a lot of different people, representatives of various classes. The daughters of Nicholas II worked as sisters of mercy. The great Russian poet Sergey Yesenin was brother of mercy”.

Acting Director General of the Presidential Library informed that short-term plan of the institution is the digitization of the funds of the Military Medical Museum in St. Petersburg, and also thanked the President of the St. Petersburg Club of Lovers of the History of Postcards Vitaly Tretyakov for the long-term cooperation. He was solemnly given a library card of the Presidential Library.

“We have been friends for five years now”, - said V. P. Tretyakov in his reply. “During this time, several thousand postcards from the fund of the Children's Museum of Postcards have already been scanned, and now these illustrations participate in various exhibitions and projects of the Presidential Library”. 

Speaking about the phenomenon of postcards during the armed conflicts of the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, he noted that “at that time the postcards acted as a TV”.

Consider the case of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905б few people have been to Japan at that time and often could have imagined what and how is happening there only through a themed postcard.

Other participants in the opening of the exhibition in the Presidential Library compared the pre-revolutionary postcard with MMS, a message that “made it possible to present this or that key news or thought to the people relatively quickly”.

"Any war causes a huge number of postcards", - concluded V. P. Tretyakov.

This fully refers to the First World War. I should say that the Russian postcards devoted to the events of 1914-1918 are no less in number than English, French or German.

It is worth noting that at the exhibition in the Presidential Library you can not only look at the postcards, but also read a lot of interesting things about their history and features. For example, to learn that postcards were one of the most effective ways to raise funds for charity events. Or that there was a fashion for the images of children in white coats and with red crosses - showing war as a child's game, probably served as one of the ways to reconcile society with the harsh reality, which has already become the norm for everyone.

The multimedia exhibition at the Presidential Library has been organized by the Union of Deltiologists of Russia using materials from the collection of the Russian State Library of Art, the collection of the Igor Pugachev Philatelic Studio, and also from private collections of V. Krepostnov, A. Medyakov, A. Melitonyan and V. Palagniuk. The project partners were the Department of Culture of the German Embassy in Russia, the St. Gregory the Theologian Charitable Foundation, the Russian State Library of Arts, the Igor Pugachev Philatelic Studio, the Krepostnov Publishing House, the St. Petersburg Club of Lovers of the History of Postcards and the Moscow Branch of the Russian Military Historical Society.