Presidential Library invites to watch film "Poems of Victory"

In the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland, the Presidential Library invites you to watch the film "Poems of Victory," produced in collaboration with the Eurasian Library Assembly (ELA). It is available on the Presidential Library's Rutub channel and can be viewed from anywhere in the world.

The film includes a series of videos featuring poems by poets in the national languages of the former Soviet republics, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The poems are read by library staff participating in the project and invited professional performers, announcers, journalists and others. Among them are Nikolai Tsiskaridze, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Russian ballet dancer and teacher; Ruslan Chernetsky, Belarusian actor and Minister of Culture of the Republic of Belarus; David Akopian, actor from Armenia; and others. The poetic lines are accompanied by Russian subtitles and visual imagery: portraits of participants in the Great Patriotic War of different nationalities, archival footage, soldiers' letters, newspaper clippings, photographs of memorable places and museum exhibits.

Poems about war are not only artistic heritage, they are testimonies of the times. The lines written by Soviet national poets during the war or immediately after became a source of strength for soldiers, workers on the home front, mothers and wives. They contain the truth about hunger, fear and loss, but at the same time about dignity, courage and love.

The initiative to create the film "Poems of Victory" to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War and introduce people to history through the lines of national poets was put forward in 2024 by Yuri Nosov, Director General of the Presidential Library and co-chair of the BAE working group on preparations for the 80th anniversary of Victory Day. The second co-chair of the working group was Vadim Gigin, Director General of the National Library of Belarus. The national libraries of the CIS, members of the ELA, took part in the project.

In the 21st century, such projects serve as a bridge to young people through audiovisual storytelling, the theme of national identity, and emotional sincerity. The Victory Poems project can be incorporated into school and university programmes on literature, history and languages, used in patriotic education lessons, and become part of online courses on the culture of the peoples of the USSR.