Exhibition “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years” marking 71st anniversary of victory in Great Patriotic War was opened in People’s House

May 9, 2016

Mikhail Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, underlined in his welcome address, “The idea of this exhibition is to show the war through the history of Kirillov’s residents, through the eyes and souls of those people who lived here. The war turned to be that landmark that changed the life of local residents forever. We are opening this display on the 71st anniversary of the victory and the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and it will tell how the war started, how and where Kirillov’s residents – participants of the Great Patriotic War – saw it, where they learnt about it and what happened then”.

S.V. Usov, head of the Kirillov district, and S.A. Nazarov, head of the Military Registration and Enlistment Office in the Kirillov, the Belozersk and the Vashki Districts, participated in the solemn opening ceremony of the exhibition.

“Opening of the display-memory of the Great Patriotic War is a wonderful present to local people on Victory Day”, noted S.V. Usov.

S.A. Nazarov stressed that the visit to the exhibition “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years” would certainly help in patriotic education of the younger generation.

The structure of the display is unusual. Several complexes telling about the events in our town and district before the war, the everyday feat of our fellow-townsmen on the fronts and in the rear in those difficult years (1941-1945), celebrations of Victory Day in the Kirillov district and significance of this event for our country can be seen in the exhibition halls.

The general chronology of the events of the Great Patriotic War contains materials about the heroes - natives of the Kirillov district: pilots, seamen, ground fighters and women who were front-line soldiers.

The display presents the feats of the Heroes of the Soviet Union – natives of the Kirillov district: V.N. Kalachyov, A.M. Lelekov, A.G. Obukhov, A.V. Andreev, and Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory A.M. Konovalov and A.P. Rogov.

A separate complex of the exhibition tells about Yevgeny Nikolayevich Preobrazhensky. Visitors can see personal things (high fur boots) of our heroic fellow-townsman that are kept in the holdings of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. Besides, there is his uniform coat, a cap and flying gloves given by the Museum of Y.N. Preobrazhensky in Volokoslavinskoye. It is the native village of the famous pilot. It is interesting to note that the 75th anniversary of the first bombing strike of Berlin conducted by the Soviet pilots under the command of Y.N. Preobrazhensky will be celebrated this year.

The complex “Town Plan of Kirillov” consisting of a map and pictures of the town taken in the 1930s and nowadays tells about the strategic sites and military elements located within the town during the war.

Technological infrastructure of the exhibition naturally complements the presented complexes. Thematic documentary chronicles are demonstrated on the video monitors. Besides, visitors can listen to the recollections of the local residents - homefront workers and children born in the wartime – that were recorded when implementing the museum project "Voices of Winners”.

Visiting the exhibition “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years”, you will be able to see reconstruction of a military dug-out shelter, elements of the uniform, documents, personal belongings of the participants of the battles, photos of the veterans, anniversary awards of different years and materials collected by the participants of the motocycle agitation tour “Victory” and pupils and teachers of the Kirillov Secondary School within the framework of the project “Immortal Regiment”.

Employees of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve conducted tours of the new exhibition for residents and guests of the town on that day. Young visitors of the People’s House took part in the master-class and painted a scraperboard greeting card on Victory Day.

Materials of the exhibition complex “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years” left nobody cold. One of the visitors V.I. Moskvina recognized her relative G.S. Semyonovskaya in one of the displayed pictures. During the war, G.S. Semyonovskaya was a switchboard operator in the operating platoon of the 13th Separate Battalion of the Air Warning Forces.

When leaving the People’s House, many residents and guests noted, “Visiting the exhibition and touching the history of life and operational record of our fellow-townsmen, you feel pride that we live on the earth that has raised great people – Heroes of the Motherland”.

The exhibition “Let’s Bow to Those Great Years” will be open till June 22, 2016.

For further information, please, call: +7-921-232-54-03