Russian Culture Abroad: “The Russian Community in Rome” Exhibition opened in Italy

The National Central Library in Rome is hosting a big book and documentary exhibition "The Russian Community in Rome (1900-1940), dedicated to little-studied aspects of the stay of our compatriots in the Apennines in the first half of the 20th century.

The exposition, curated by Slavic researchers as Bianca Sulpasso, and Laura Gardzonio and  Stefano Piccolo, was prepared in collaboration with leading Italian universities - the universities of Rome, Salerno, Venice, Milan, the Vyacheslav Ivanov Rome Research Center. At the stands there are publications, posters, artwork and photographs from local public and private archives, describing the Russian emigration in the Italian capital before the start of the World War II.

The documents, describing the cultural and social life of the vast Russian diaspora, are of particular interest, especially, the richest collections of the Gogol Russian Reading Room (1902-1979), most of which are now stored in the National Library of Rome, as well as cultural associations, which bore the name of Lev Tolstoy, the publishing house and "Word" bookstore. Russian immigrants among who are politicians, writers, artists, journalists, actors, singers, musicians, dancers have left an imprint on the social and cultural life of the Eternal City.

Many of the artifacts as well as other  exhibits of this collection have already been shown to the Russian public at the International scientific conference "Images of Italy: Russia - St. Petersburg - Pushkin House", which was held in St. Petersburg on 16-18 February 2012 at the Institute of Russian Literature, the Russian Academy of Sciences. This action completed the literary part of an extensive program of the cross-culture Year of Russia and Italy. As part of the St. Petersburg forum there was a presentation of a unique research project "The Russians in Italy, 1900-1940", on which Italian researchers have been working since 2005, having created an open interactive site. Among its sections there is a Dictionary of the Russian Emigration in Italy (more than thousands of names), a bibliography of Russian publications and translations in Italy, information about Russian places in the Apennines; a science chronicle.