There is not a single personal destiny here, all destinies are merged into one. People in the Great Patriotic War

The events of 1941–1945 will be presented in the exhibition through the prism of history and the destinies of individual people who faced severe trials and made an invaluable contribution to the collective feat of the country.

The multimedia exhibition will feature unique archival materials: audio versions of wartime diaries, video footage and photographs. The curators paid great attention to the general organization of the exhibition space and the creation of an environment that would help the viewer to better perceive and understand the subject of the exhibition.

By June 1941, there were more than 5,000,000 Jews in the USSR who became witnesses or direct participants in military events. Among them were men and women, career officers and people who did not have a military specialty, those who joined the army voluntarily and those who were mobilized. Some ended the war as famous military leaders or heroes, others remained sergeants or lieutenants. The exhibition displays diaries, transcripts of conversations, letters from wartime, which are designed to show the personal contribution of each person on the path to victory.

The exhibition will open with a section dedicated to the defense of Moscow and the battles of the summer and autumn of 1941. A separate chapter tells the story of the formation of the people’s militia and the tragic fate of the writing company, most of which were Jews who volunteered for the front.   

War correspondents were participants in all major battles; they photographed soldiers during battle and short rest, describing the horrors of war and the exploits of heroes. At the exhibition, the viewer will be able to appreciate the significance of their work for victory and preservation of memory. The exhibition will tell about Ilya Ehrenburg, Vasily Grossman, Mikhail Rosenfeld, Jack Altauzen and others.

A unique section of the exhibition is the photo archive of Evgeniy Khaldei, which has not previously been shown in Russia. The archive of one of the main photographers of the Great Patriotic War is in the collection of Alexander Borodulin, to whom the collection was given personally by the author. Evgeniy Khaldei collected it as evidence against fascism: the archive contained photographs found among captured German soldiers and in territories liberated from the fascists.  

A separate section of the exhibition is dedicated to women war heroes.

The last hall of the exhibition will show Berlin in 1945 through the eyes of war participants. Documentary photographs of Ilya Arons and Valery Ginzburg will be supplemented by photographs from the collection of the Jewish Museum and newsreel footage.  

The exhibition project will feature materials from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State Library, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Borodulin Collection, The Blavatnik Archive and private archives.

Curators: Oleg Budnitsky, Maria Gadas, Svetlana Amosova.

Cost: free. Age limit: 18+.