Stalin's boots and victory price

State joy and grief replaced real stories about the war from Russian museums

With the approach of May 9, in the vast majority of Russian museums and galleries, exhibitions dedicated to the 70th anniversary of victory over fascism are opened. These projects are under tough ideological control by government officials. In their opinion, the main task of such exhibitions is to demonstrate the power of the country and the inviolability of its foundations.

Stalin tunic at the exhibition in the Historical Museum

On the eve of the celebration of Victory Day, the little-known Russian Military Historical Society , the leader of which is the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky , intensified until the time being. The right sign: if, among the organizers of any exhibition, in addition to the museum itself, this society is listed, wait for the dominance of emblem. Of course, orders, banners, ceremonial uniforms and ceremonial portraits of marshals and generals are directly related to Victory Day, but the main, tragic theme of war as a national disaster, that is, the victory prices are increasingly obscuring by a St. George ribbon.

In the paradigm of state -owned joy and state sorrow, many real plots became inappropriate. Therefore, in Bryansk they banned the historical and local history exhibition of photographs shot during the German occupation of 1941-1943. A certain citizen from a certain patriotic movement at the vernisage made a scandal. Say, there are smiling children in the pictures, the exhibition rings the occupation regime.

In Bryansk, a historical and local history exhibition of photographs shot during the German occupation was banned. There are smiling children in the pictures, which means that the exhibition is chanting the occupation regime

In Yekaterinburg, it did not reach direct accusations. There, under a far -fetched pretext, they simply closed the photographic museum "Metenkov House" in exactly the opening of the exhibition "Triumph and the tragedy: allies in the Second World War." Although, according to the official version, the reason was an inappropriate state of a dilapidated building, no one doubted: local officials did not like that all the pictures were provided by US and UK consulates. Well, how will anyone think that the decisive role in the victory over the enemy did not belong to the USSR?

"Metenkov’s house" had to balance the exposition by pictures of Soviet photographers, so that the exhibition has now opened. True, her curator Artem Berkovich reports in another place:

- The exhibition was opened at the Cosmos Theater Theater. This is simultaneously a cinema and a place where various solemn events are held, one of the main ones, if not the main in Yekaterinburg.

“ But is this suitable for the exposure?”

- Any space has advantages and disadvantages. Of course, this room was not created so that there are exhibitions, but there is a free entrance, there is a sufficient number of people to various other events, including those related to the holiday. And these people involuntarily become visitors to the exhibition, this has their advantages.

If we made up the top ten, the most famous photoeonese filmed by Russian, American or British photographers during the Second World War, then many of these images are hanging today.

- Why did you need to expand the exposition? It was previously assumed that it would be more compact, related only to the allies.

Evgeny Haldey. Flag

-A change in the concept of the exhibition always brings some additional meanings. And when we supplemented the exhibition with the works of Soviet photojournalists, we involuntarily appeared the topic of comparison, comparison of how American, British photographers and Soviet photographers worked. It turned out that there was a lot in common. First of all, a sense of inner freedom. Because the war has become really a star hour of our domestic photojournalism, paradoxically sounded. I think that in general in Russian photography of the 20th century there are two outstanding achievements-this is the avant-garde photographic of the 20s and reporting photography of the war years. In the war, photographers boldly violated many taboos, maybe even without counting on the publication of photographs, but taking these photos.

Today, decades later, when archives have already been raised, we see that our photographers were almost inferior to American and British photographers. The desire for truth, sometimes in a very ruthless photograph, and the idea of the war as a tremendous human tragedy is at the works of all military photographers, no matter what form they wear.

British, American and our photographers was characteristic of what can be called humanism, that is, attention to the tragedy of a single person. Because for the photographer it is not available to imagine all the grandeur of military phenomena, his attention is always focused on a particular hero. War through a photograph is always a war through a particular person. Literally the photographer works in the eyes with his hero. And these tragic fate of people, by and large, are the main thing in this exhibition.

We were allowed to supplement this exhibition by the Moscow House of Photography, providing its materials. But this addition to the general concept of the exhibition does not contradict. There was even some kind of additional and very important component. So I, as a curator of both the first version of the exhibition, and the second, in general, am satisfied.

- You have now talked about the reliability of documentary military photography. Meanwhile, I heard, at least about several plots, when these pictures were not at all reporting, but staged. The most famous story is a picture with a flag over the Reichstag. Have you given this moment when you formed an exhibition?

Joe Rosental. Flag hoisting over Ivodzima

- Yes, sure. You see, there are two things. There is a truth of life, and there is a truth of art. And very many photos, not only, say, “Banner over the Reichstag”, but also the famous photograph of Joe Rosental “The flag hoisting over the Ivodzima” is also a staged photograph. Clint Eastwood made a whole film on this subject. These are the placat photos, these are photos with a concentration of meaning. And they are documentary or staged - by and large, specifically in relation to these photographs, it does not matter.

But there are other photos, and maybe they are even more important. There are photos about human tragedies, and they are not staged. When we see in the famous photograph of Eugene Smith a man who received a terrible wound who has lost his vision, a person who prays, and, by and large, he has nothing more to hope for in this life, except for God, we understand that this is the contact of a photographer with a great human tragedy, a very individual, personal tragedy.

Through such images, all the horror of war as the phenomena of history is revealed. We can also say about this exhibition that there is more war in it than victories. Maybe this photograph with a banner of Berlin is the only pathos photograph. Well, not the only one, there are a few more. But in general, this is a very tragic exhibition. At least, I would like her to be like that, and she is such that people who look at these works understand what war is. That war is not a computer game, it is not a blockbuster, not a detective plot. This is, first of all, violence against the body of man, and the war deforms his consciousness forever. That is, we made an anti -war exhibition.

- Is it not that you have not a pathos exhibition, it has a lot of suffering, explains that it could not be opened from the first entry, that is, directly in the premises of your museum of photography?

- You know, all cultural institutions have their own internal problems that I would not want to comment on now. The main thing is that the exhibition, in spite of everything, took place. It is more important to me. And that she has spectators. And all those problems that arose around this exhibition, I think, have already become a kind of history.

-Your building will open in some visible time or is there a reconstruction, repair, and so on?

- I think that we will open the building for the "night of museums" after appropriate repair work.

- That is, by May 18?

- Hope. "Night of Museums" is the main event of the year for any museum. "Metenkov’s house" is not closed at all, he will continue his work, ”says Artem Berkovich .

Your browser does not support HTML5

Artem Berkovich about the photo exhibition "Triumph and Tragedy" in Yekaterinburg

One of the main projects in Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Victory is an exhibition in the historical museum. This is exactly the case when the Russian Military Historical Society participated in the organization of the exhibition. At the opening, they talked a lot about the fact that no one was allowed to distort the story that everything is genuine and reliable here.

"Arrival of I.V. Stalin to the front." A.M. Gerasimov, 1944

Among the "reliable" exhibits is the picture of the artist Gerasimov "Stalin's arrival at the front." And no additional explanations, at least on the label, that the picture is false. In fact, when the Supreme Commander -in -Chief made a short visit to Rzhev’s suburbs, the city was already liberated. However, the visitor is not reported about this. But he was invited to admire Stalin’s tunic, Stalin's cap, Stalin's boots. Without these boots, the story of a great victory, of course, would not be complete.

In the area of responsibility of one of the creators of the exhibition of the head of the department of the Historical Museum Andrei Matveev , everything related to metal. From award signs to weapons. So the initiative to remove the Stalinist portrait from the storerooms, moreover, is extremely nasty written, belongs to other people. However, Andrei Matveev, his colleagues-exposure colleagues:

-The picture of Gerasimov was painted precisely during this period, this is a tribute to time, the desire to somehow reflect the era. For example, the exhibition contains the work of the Kukryniks, where the Germans are shown so funny, so stupid, comical, and this was far from the case, otherwise what did we fought for four years, so long and bloody? The same goes for Stalin. Indeed, his cult was, and this cannot be deleted from history. On banners, on medals, on orders, there is also a profile of Stalin. "For the victory over Germany," for example. And you won’t get anywhere, you won’t throw it away.

Your browser does not support HTML5

Andrey Maveev about the exhibition "Victory" in the Historical Museum

We all the time rush from extreme to extreme. Now many people blame that we pay a lot of attention to Stalin. But let's not forget that, for example, after 1953, in general, Stalin was mentioned in passing. Because of this biased look, due to the fact that they were afraid of such a thing as Stalinism, not even pronouncing such a concept as mass political repressions, tried to completely forget the name of Stalin.

Stalin's boots. Historical Museum

This led to the opposite effect. Around the Great Patriotic War they wound up so many rumors and speculations that, for example, some were very much exalted, others, on the contrary, were trampled into mud. There was no objective gaze to the questions of the Great Patriotic War. The fact that we really have a whole set of Stalin’s personal belongings is completely natural, because this person was the head of state at this very difficult moment. The same, in principle, as Roosevelt and Churchill, says Andrei Matveev .