The exhibition “Wartime Letters and Photographs” was opened in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve yesterday, on May 7. It is based on the articles kept in the museum holdings.
The letters sent to the native region from different places are presented on several stands. These yellow sheets of paper are united with one word – front. There are letters of those who went through the war and those who didn’t return home. The lines written in a hurry tell more than any official information. Today we can learn how natives of Kirillov lived at the front, what they felt and what they dreamt of. The letters are supplemented with the photos of front-line soldiers.
After the opening ceremony of the display, guests of the museum enjoyed Elena Antonova’s program “From Parting to Parting” marking the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. It gave a chance for people to look at the war through the eyes of the usual woman whose husband had gone to the front. The tragedy of millions of Soviet families appeared before the eyes by the example of two fates.
The subject was simple, true and therefore even sadder. Seeing him off to the front, she didn’t cry – she should be merry in his recollections. The years of separation and anxious expectation were relieved with rare and dear letters. The songs performed by Elena Antonova alternated with the images of wartime chronicle and fiction films, reports of the Soviet Information Bureau, poems, monologues and those letters that the heroine received. Spectators couldn’t help crying and didn’t leave the hall at the end of the program for a long time: they gave flowers and thanked Elena Antonova for the emotions they got.
The solo programs of Elena Antonova are very popular with local residents. She often performs on various concert grounds of Russia as a member of the Cossack Ensemble “Silver Horseshoe”. But she presented such a program for the first time. Several persons were working on it. When making the script, its author, Sergey Belyashov, used the materials of the book “Letters From and To the Front”. Thus, the lines from the 1940s were reflected in the present.
