Date: 18.11.2020

The Exhibition ‘Survive to Create. Dedicated to the Children of War’ Opened on 3 November in the Centre of Moscow, on Strastnoy Blvd

One of the main events of the citywide cultural action ‘Night of the Arts-2020’ was the exhibition on Strastnoy Blvd, ‘Survive to Create. Dedicated to the Children of War’, which was opened by the Russian State Art Library (RSAL) and the Moscow Library of the Arts named after A.P. Bogolyubov.

The exhibition was the first partnership between the two libraries with a similar profile, that of collecting, preserving, and popularising the country’s cultural heritage.

At the opening of the exhibition, RSAL Director Ada Kolganova noted that, ‘the specialists of the two art libraries have strived to illustrate the theme of the Great Victory over Fascism, which is important for every Russian, in a rather unusual manner. The depiction of the experiences of war is presented with the aid of photographs of children and brief memoirs by prominent cultural figures. The exhibition invites the viewer to take a fresh look at the magnificent generation that survived the war.’

Vladimir Semyonov, Director of the Art Library named after A.P. Bogolyubov, drew the audience’s attention to the fact that the opening of the exhibition had been scheduled from 5 May to Victory Day. Events this year prevented the implementation of that plan. Nevertheless, in the Year of Memory and Glory, as in every other year, this subject does not lose any of its topicality and relevance.

The heroes of the exposition, all of whom are familiar to us from the media, were born in the 1930s. They not only survived the most difficult wartime conditions, but managed to maintain and develop in themselves a thirst for creativity and to become useful to their compatriots. Their generation gave Russian culture an enormous number of outstanding masters of the arts. This exhibition introduces the stories of 58 of them, who have become an example for today’s young people.