Exhibition "Bear, Bunny and War" at the St. Petersburg Museum of Toys

War brutally plays with children’s destinies. A toy is a child’s friend and spiritual protector, it shares its fate and becomes a document of crimes against the innocent and defenseless. The photographs and display cases show mass-produced toys typical of the late 1930s - 1940s: celluloid and papier-mâché dolls, plush, rag and plastic animals. In the photographs they are embraced by the small victims of the Holocaust, the children of the besieged Leningrad, and the kids on the ruins of the streets of London and Berlin. The native doll and the good beast are children’s amulets from pagan times, and the genetic memory of Russian, English, French, German, Jewish children recognizes them unmistakably. Genuine, original, sincere - that is what is necessary for both children and adults in times of trial. The exhibition "Bear, Bunny and War" helps to better understand the nature of the toy. The catchy effects and everything that today is called a “joke” reveals all its falsity and uselessness when compared with the simplicity and seriousness of those real toys that helped.

Modern parents and teachers are sometimes afraid to acquaint children with the terrible pages of their native history. This “vaccine against evil” is painful, but necessary. There is no victory without suffering, and if our children are heirs to victory, then they are heirs to sorrow. If their heroic inheritance is concealed, they will not be able to comprehend the meaning of the Great Victory, nor its price, nor their own strengths.

The exhibition was prepared jointly with the Museum of the History of Photography.