The Presidential Library’s Poetry Club marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War

The Presidential Library's Poetry Club, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, was held on June 22, 2021 at 15:00. Poetry readings were organized jointly with the "Savina House of Veterans of the Stage (boarding house)" of the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation and St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution Petersburg-Concert.

Everyone was able to join the live broadcast on the Presidential Library's YouTube channel, as well as on the page of the Poetry Club on the VKontakte social network.

The event was attended by members of the Presidential Library’s Poetry Club, who read out author's poems dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War, remembered their relatives and friends who defended the Motherland. Among them were those who had experienced the hardships of the war for themselves. So, a resident of besieged Leningrad, a bard, a polar explorer, a landscape painter, an academician of the International Academy "Information, Communication, Management in Technology, Nature, Society" Alexander Timofeev performed his songs.  

Poetry readings were accompanied by visual materials on military topics from the Presidential Library’s electronic collections. These were rare book collections, albums, visual materials, as well as articles from periodicals.

Much attention was paid to the classics of Soviet poetry. Representative of the Savina House of Veterans of the Stage actress Elvira Isaeva presented poems by Vadim Shefner, Rimma Kazakova, Yulia Drunina, Gennady Shpalikov and others. Lyrics by Evgeny Yevtushenko and Konstantin Simonov were performed by Dmitry Efimenko, actor of the State Philharmonic for Children and Youth.

Creative laboratory "Formula of literary talent" at the Gorky Volgograd Regional Universal Scientific Library provided video recordings of poetry recitation against the background of the city's military monuments, which have become part of the Battle of Stalingrad Museum-Reserve.

The program included performances by the artists of the Petersburg-Concert - laureate of international contests, soloist of the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakova Alexey Popov, diploma winner of the international contest, accompanist Nina Sidorovskaya and soloist Natalia Krivenok (mezzo-soprano, laureate of the 2009 contest in Italy, laureate of the Russian romance contest "Romansiada" in Moscow 2012, participant of contests and festivals in Finland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic). Classical pieces of music and songs by Soviet composers were also performed.