Exhibition "Red Cross. Humanitarian Photography 1865 - 2015"

The State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Russian Information Agency TASS and the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, presents a unique exhibition of photographs from the photo archives of these organizations, which will be held at the Pushkin Museum of Contemporary Art from August 18 to September 30 2016 year

More than 100 rare archival photographs documented the tragic events of Russian history of the 19th – 21st centuries.

The Danish Armed Forces ambulance, 1878. The Geneva Convention of 1864 established a single distinctive emblem - a red cross on a white background - for ambulances, hospitals and medical personnel.

Since its creation (1863), the ICRC has been photographing its humanitarian, ascetic activities. More than 120 thousand photographs are a story about the sufferings of an ordinary person who was involuntarily torn out of civilian life and drawn into the maelstrom of armed conflict; This is a story about the asceticism of those who, often with a risk to their lives, come to the rescue. Each photograph is evidence that as long as wars exist, the need for independent organizations such as the ICRC will continue. The Committee of the Red Cross states: today this need is more than ever due to the growing number of international and domestic conflicts around the world. As a result, the ICRC, guided by the principle of neutrality and impartiality, is looking for ways out of crisis situations, providing assistance and protection to people affected by armed conflicts and other situations of violence. The camera lens allows the viewer to see the events of the First and Second World Wars, military conflicts in Vietnam, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Rwanda, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines and recent events in Libya, Syria. And each time, the ICRC and the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies do everything to save the wounded, look for and return prisoners of war to their homeland, train volunteers of sanitary squads, help with donation, organize food points, provide clean drinking water for people suffering from hunger and lack of civilian water supply population. The photo exhibition recalls pain and tragedy, calls for a better and kinder world.

Photographs from the funds of the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia tell about the almost forgotten tragedy of the First World War and the feat of the sisters of mercy of the Russian Red Cross Society.

The period between world wars. Nancy, France. A group of nurses during an air raid alert exercise

Most of the photos from the archive of the TASS news agency relate to the period of the Great Patriotic War. The history of those years cannot be imagined without front-line photographs taken by TASS war correspondents M. Alpert, B. Utkin, L. Dorensky, L. Velikzhanin, P. Bernshtein, V. Faminsky, M. Redkin, M. Markov-Grinberg and many other reporters agencies whose names are entered in the annals of military journalism. Their work is the story of the feat of medical workers - doctors, nurses, who saved hundreds of thousands of human lives.

Each photograph is a reflection of true humanism, mercy, dedication and service to humanity, to which the ICRC, the Russian and Soviet Red Cross societies have dedicated themselves.

Exhibition “Red Cross. Humanitarian Photography 1865 - 2015 Of the TASS photo archives, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia ”organically complements the collection of open letters“ Soldiers of Mercy of the Great Patriotic War ”from the private collection of V. G. Palagnyuk (St. Petersburg).

The mode of operation of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Pushkin Museum of RT:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 10.00-18. ; Thursday: 10–20.
The cash desk closes half an hour earlier. The day off is Monday.
Last Tuesday of every month The gallery is closed (sanitary day).

Website of the Pushkin Museum of RT: www.izo-museum.ru