Museum projects dedicated to the Great Patriotic War

Museum projects dedicated to the Great Patriotic War have been and remain among the priorities for Russian museums, with their number growing in connection with anniversaries of key events of the war and the Victory.

The Museum of Political History of Russia presents a new international war-related project dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union. The project will involve Russia (the Museum of Political History of Russia), Belarus (the Brest Fortress Defense Museum), Germany (the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst) and Poland (the Council for Protection of Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom) and use the materials from public and private archives and libraries.

 

In fact, the initiative is only partly a "war" project because when referring to war-related issues, expositions and exhibitions of the State Museum of Political History of Russia (as a historical and political museum) do not explore the course of military action or history of battles. The focus is placed on historical and political aspects of the subject and the interpretation of the history of wars, including the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, from the perspective of political leadership behaviors, military leadership, the war outcomes, the cost of the Victory and the fate of man at war. It is these problems that currently attract most attention from specialists and the public. Although seven decades have passed since the war's beginning, many important questions still remain unanswered or are a subject of hot debate and often of political speculation. The war suddenly broke into and destroyed the peaceful life of people, presenting a severe test for social benchmarks and moral values ​​of millions of people in all participating countries.

 

This publication contains materials for all three exhibitions included in the project and united by a common conception: to present the 70 year old events from different perspectives and, in particular, from the perspectives of the warring parties. Its sections give an idea of the content and main storylines of a series of exhibitions taking place in the Museum of Political History of Russia:

 

The Longest Day. 22 June 1941. The central part of the project is the exhibition with the participation of Russia (the State Museum of Political History of Russia), Belarus (the Brest Fortress Defense Museum) and Germany (the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst);

22 June 1941: On a Break. The exhibition of the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, Germany;

General Anders' Army. The exhibition presented by the Council for Protection of Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom, Poland.

 

June 22, 1941 is the first day of a dramatic war — the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. For all countries participating in the project, this date is a tragic milestone which cost them tens of millions of human lives. Two exhibitions of the project are directly dedicated to June 22, 1941, the first day of the initial phase of the war between Russia and Germany which was most dramatic and raises most debate around current opinions on the matter. They touch on issues which have been the subject of debates between Russian and foreign historians, such as the unexpectedness of the attack, the response of the Soviet authorities to numerous warnings of the imminent German attack and military losses of the USSR in the first day of the war. Original documentary sources from the collections of the three museums (Russian, Belarusian and German-Russian) as well as public and private collections will reflect the events that took place on the eve and in the beginning of the war, building the picture of events which in many respects predetermined the fate of nations and peoples of Europe. Among unique materials one can find photographs, documents, personal belongings, weapons of command representatives and leaders of the first cross-border battles. The both exhibitions widely present personal stories of participants in those tragic events — generals,  soldiers and different categories of civilians in the USSR and Germany. They reflect the most important human discourse of the tragedy of war and its consequences. Texts with excerpts from letters, memoirs, orders, reports and special addresses of the state security authorities and intelligence reports reinforce this discourse, debunking many myths and clichés concerning the public attitudes in the prewar period and in the summer of 1941.

 

In pursuance of this approach, the exhibition of the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst presents 24 biographies of people for whom the war became a crucial turning point in life. These are the Russians in Germany and the Germans in Russia, former soldiers, generals and NSDAP functionaries, representatives of the Soviet special services, political officers and partisans.

One of the highlights of the day of June 22, 1941 was the beginning of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress. The real horror of the first day of the war is shown by exhibits from the Brest Fortress Museum, such as items with traces of shell fragments and machine-gun marks. Stories of assault participants and fortress defenders, including those who were taken captive by the Germans and died in captivity or later experienced humiliation in their home country, help recreate the true story of defense of the citadel over the Bug river, which was the first defeat in this war for the German troops and the immortal feat of Soviet frontier guards and Red Army soldiers.

 The third exhibition of the project is dedicated to the Polish army under the command of General W. Anders which was established in the Soviet Union in accordance with the military agreement of August 14, 1941 "to struggle against Hitler's Germany together with the USSR and the allied forces". The exhibition touches on political and diplomatic aspects of the relations between the USSR and Poland, contains fragments of memoirs, statements of former soldiers and officers of the Polish army and texts of official documents presenting the course of the major events associated with the formation of the Anders Army and its participation in military operations.

In general, all three exhibitions of the project are examples of the war's memory and different interpretations of the history of the war between the USSR and Germany in 1941-1945 which exist in different countries and form part of the common European memory of the war. They also provide a new way to understand the history of the most tragic war in human history. The exhibitions of the project are another opportunity to remind the present generation, mainly young people, of the horrors of the past war, thereby contributing to the fight for the assertion of humanistic values in international relations.