Exhibition "From Normandy to Niemen"

The Lefortovo Museum of History, a branch of the Museum of Moscow, is opening the exhibition From Normandy to Niemen, which tells about the history of the French fighter aviation regiment that fought on the Soviet-German front during the Second World War in 1943-1945.

It is no coincidence that the exhibition is being held at the Lefortovo History Museum. In October 2010, a monument to the pilots of the Normandy-Niemen regiment was unveiled in the Lefortovo area (sculptor - Andrey Kovalchuk, architects - Mikhail Korsi, Alexey Tikhonov). The Vvedenskoye cemetery contains the graves of pilots who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and the regiment’s equipment.

The exhibition project "From Normandy to Niemen" will show the history of the formation of the legendary air regiment. The exposition includes items from the funds of the Museum of Moscow, the Oryol Museum of Local Lore and school museums. Among the exhibits are parts of the legendary YAK-3 aircraft (propeller, landing gear and pilot’s seat found during the expedition), a model of the Yak-3 aircraft, a raincoat and an officer’s tablet of Major General Georgy Zakharov, epaulettes of General Louis Delfino - commander of the Normandie-Niemen regiment”, Postcards and letters from the personal archives of the pilots.

As part of a parallel program, the exhibition will include round tables, film lectures, master classes and excursions.