Culture and art during the Great Patriotic War. Painting during the Great Patriotic War

Kuleva Yulia

History essay with presentation

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Municipal educational institution

"Melekhovskaya basic secondary school No. 2"

ABSTRACT

"When the guns fired..."

(literature and art during the Great Patriotic War).

Kuleva Yulia

Teacher:

Kuleva

Natalia Victorovna

Melekhovo 2009

Plan

1. Introduction.

2. Literature during the Great Patriotic War.

2.1 Poetry of the war years.

2.2 Military journalism.

2.3 Stories and novels about the war.

3. Art during the Great Patriotic War.

3.1. Cinema.

3.1.1. War chronicles and film novels.

3.1.2. Art films.

3.2. Art.

3.2.1. Propaganda poster as the main form of fine art during the war.

3.2.2. Painting, sculpture, graphics.

3.3. Wartime music.

4. Conclusion.

Bibliography.

1. Introduction

The Great Patriotic War is one of the brightest and most tragic pages in the history of our country. The war became a terrible test for the entire Soviet people. A test of courage, resilience, unity and heroism. To survive the confrontation with the most powerful of the developed countries of that time - Nazi Germany - became possible only at the cost of enormous effort and the greatest sacrifices.

During the war, the ability of our people to endure severe social overloads, developed by thousands of years of Russian experience, was clearly demonstrated. The war once again demonstrated the amazing “talent” of the Russian people to reveal all their best qualities, abilities, and potential precisely in extreme conditions.

All these popular feelings and sentiments were manifested not only in the mass heroism of Soviet soldiers at the front, but also in the rear. The flow of volunteers to the front did not dry out. Tens of thousands of women, teenagers, and old people took to machine tools and mastered tractors, combines, and cars to replace the husbands, fathers, and sons who had gone to war.

The war with its grief, loss of loved ones, suffering, enormous strain on all the spiritual and physical forces of the people and at the same time an extraordinary spiritual uplift was reflected in the content of works of literature and art during the war years. My essay talks about the enormous contribution to the great cause of Victory made by the artistic intelligentsia, who shared the fate of the country along with all the people. While working on the abstract, I studied a number of articles and publications. I learned a lot of interesting things for myself in the book by P. Toper “For the sake of life on earth...”The book is a broad study of world literature devoted to the military theme, talks about the works of this period, their ideological orientation and heroes. The collections “The Second World War: Cinema and Poster Art”, as well as “The History of Moscow during the Great Patriotic War and the Post-War Period”, which introduced me to famous film masters, artists, musicians and their works, aroused great interest. The textbook for preparing for exams “Russian Literature of the 20th Century” gave me the necessary theoretical basis. Internet resources also contributed to successful work on the abstract.

2. Literature during the Great Patriotic War

The Great Patriotic War was a difficult test that befell the Russian people. The literature of that time could not remain aloof from this event.

So on the first day of the war, at a rally of Soviet writers, the following words were spoken: “Every Soviet writer is ready to devote all his strength, all his experience and talent, all his blood, if necessary, to the cause of the holy people’s war against the enemies of our Motherland.” These lofty words were justified. From the very beginning of the war, writers felt “mobilized and called upon.” About two thousand writers went to the front. Five hundred of them were awarded orders and medals. Eighteen became Heroes of the Soviet Union. More than four hundred of them did not return. These are A. Gaidar, E. Petrov, Y. Krymov, M. Jalil; M. Kulchitsky, V. Bagritsky, P. Kogan died very young.

Front-line writers fully shared with their people both the pain of retreat and the joy of victory. Georgy Suvorov, a front-line writer who died shortly before the victory, wrote: “We lived our good life as people and for people.”

Writers lived the same life as the fighting people: they froze in the trenches, went on the attack, accomplished feats and... wrote.

Oh book! Treasured friend!

You're in a fighter's duffel bag

I went all the way to victory

Until the end.

Your big truth

She led us along.

We went into battle together.

Russian literature of the Second World War period became literature of one theme - the theme of war, the theme of the Motherland. The writers felt like “trench poets” (A. Surkov), and all literature as a whole, in the apt expression of A. Tolstoy, was “the voice of the heroic soul of the people.” The slogan “All forces to defeat the enemy!” directly related to writers. Writers of the war years mastered all types of literary weapons: lyricism and satire, epic and drama. However, the first word was spoken by lyricists and publicists.

Poems were published by the central and front-line press, broadcast on the radio along with information about the most important military and political events, and sounded from numerous improvised stages at the front and in the rear. Many poems were copied into front-line notebooks and learned by heart. The poems “Wait for me” by Konstantin Simonov, “Dugout” by Alexander Surkov, “Ogonyok” by Mikhail Isakovsky gave rise to numerous poetic responses. The poetic dialogue between writers and readers testified that during the war years a cordial contact unprecedented in the history of our poetry was established between poets and the people. Spiritual closeness with the people is the most remarkable and exceptional feature of the lyrics of 1941-1945.

Homeland, war, death and immortality, hatred of the enemy, military brotherhood and camaraderie, love and loyalty, the dream of victory, thinking about the fate of the people - these are the main motives of military poetry. In the poems of Tikhonov, Surkov, Isakovsky, Tvardovsky one can hear anxiety for the fatherland and merciless hatred of the enemy, the bitterness of loss and the awareness of the cruel necessity of war.

During the war, the feeling of homeland intensified. Torn away from their favorite activities and native places, millions of Soviet people seemed to take a new look at their familiar native lands, at the home where they were born, at themselves, at their people. This was reflected in poetry: heartfelt poems appeared about Moscow by Surkov and Gusev, about Leningrad by Tikhonov, Olga Berggolts, and about the Smolensk region by Isakovsky.

Here are lines from Nikolai Tikhonov’s poem dedicated to Leningrad:

More than once, like waves, enemies came,

So that it breaks on granite.

Disappear in a foamy whirlwind of spray,

Drown without a trace in the black abyss

And he stood there, big as life,

Not like anyone else, unique!

And under the fascist guns howl

The way we know him

He took the fight like a sentry,

Whose post is forever unchangeable!

During the blockade of 1941-1943, Olga Berggolts was in Leningrad besieged by the Nazis. In November 1941, she and her seriously ill husband were supposed to be evacuated from Leningrad, but Nikolai Stepanovich Molchanov died and Olga Fedorovna remained in the city. After a very short time, the quiet voice of Olga Berggolts became the voice of a long-awaited friend in the frozen and dark besieged Leningrad houses, became the voice of Leningrad itself. This transformation seemed almost a miracle: from the author of little-known children's books and poems, Olga Berggolts suddenly became a poet personifying the resilience of Leningrad. She worked at the Radio House throughout the days of the siege, conducting radio broadcasts almost daily, which were later included in her book “Leningrad Speaks.” During the difficult days of the blockade, the poetess wrote with hope:

...We are now living a double life:

In dirt, in darkness, in hunger, in sadness,

We breathe tomorrow -

A free, generous day.

We have already won this day.

Love for the fatherland and hatred for the enemy is the inexhaustible and only source from which our lyrics drew their inspiration during the Great Patriotic War.

In the poetry of the war years, three main genre groups of poems can be distinguished: lyrical (ode, elegy, song), satirical and lyrical-epic (ballads, poems).

One of the widely known poems is “Son” by Pavel Antokolsky, dedicated to the memory of junior lieutenant Vladimir Pavlovich Antokolsky, who died a heroic death on June 6, 1942. Here are its final stanzas:

Farewell my sun. Goodbye my conscience.

Farewell to my youth, dear son.

Let the story end with this farewell

About the most deaf of the deaf loners.

You stay in it. One. Detached

From light and air. In the last torment,

Told by no one. Not resurrected.

Forever and ever, eighteen years old.

Oh, how far are the roads between us,

Coming through centuries and through

Those coastal grassy spurs,

Where a broken skull gathers dust, showing its teeth.

Goodbye. Trains don't come from there.

Goodbye. Planes don't fly there.

Goodbye. No miracle will come true.

But we only dream dreams. They dream and melt.

I dream that you are still a small child,

And you’re happy, and you trample your bare feet

That land where so many lie buried.

During the war, A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” enjoyed enormous popularity, chapters of which were published in front-line newspapers and passed from hand to hand by soldiers. The collective image of the Russian soldier, brave, hardy, never discouraged, who marched with the liberating army to Berlin, became a true favorite, taking a strong place in front-line folklore.

During the Great Patriotic War, not only poetic genres developed, but also prose. It is represented by journalistic and essay genres, war stories and heroic stories. Journalistic genres are very diverse: articles, essays, feuilletons, appeals, letters, leaflets.

The Great Patriotic War found Alexei Tolstoy already a famous writer (in 1941 he completed the third book of his famous novel “Walking Through Torment”), at the age of 58.

The attack on our country by the fascists evoked an angry, protesting response from the patriotic writer. On the fifth day of the war, A. Tolstoy’s first article, “What We Defend,” appeared in the Pravda newspaper, in which the writer called on the Soviet people to stand up in defense of their homeland. Tolstoy wrote in it: “To defeat the armies of the Third Empire, to sweep away all the Nazis with their barbaric and bloody plans from the face of the earth, to give our homeland peace, tranquility, eternal freedom, abundance. Such a high and noble task must be completed by us, the Russians, and all the fraternal peoples of our Union.”

This article was followed by many other striking appearances by him in our press. In total, A. Tolstoy wrote more than 60 journalistic articles in the period 1941-1944.

In these articles, the writer often turns to folklore, to Russian history, notes the traits of the Russian character, the dignity of the Russian people. Articles often refer to Russian folk tales (in Army of Heroes, Alexey Tolstoy compares Hitler to a fairy-tale wolf). In “Russian Warriors,” the writer quotes “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Other articles mention the struggle with Khan Mamai, the victories of Alexander Nevsky and Mikhail Kutuzov. Alexey Tolstoy, in his military journalism, consistently deduces a certain “Russian character”, noting certain features characteristic of the Russian people. This includes “detachment from the familiar in difficult moments of life” (“What We Defend”), “Russian intelligence” (“Army of Heroes”), “the aspiration of the Russian people for moral improvement” (“To the Writers of North America”), “disdain for his life and anger, intelligence and tenacity in a fight" (“Why Hitler Must Be Defeated”).

Describing the Germans, Alexey Tolstoy often laughs at them, exposes them as “lovers of sausages and beer” (“What We Defend”, “Blitzkrieg” and “Blitz Collapse”), calls them cowards and fools, while giving relevant examples. He ridicules the psychological methods of warfare of the fascists (“Brave Men”), comparing “skull and bones ... in buttonholes, black tanks, howling bombs” with the horned masks of savages. Thus, Tolstoy tried to combat various myths about the enemy that circulated among the soldiers. Alexei Tolstoy writes a lot about the exploits of Russian soldiers.

The theme of hatred is extremely important for Alexei Tolstoy, as well as for all other Soviet wartime publicists (“I call for hatred”). Horrible stories about no less terrible atrocities of the fascists also serve as a call to hatred.

In the context of the turbulent, tense events of the war, journalism as a combat, operational genre received special development and distribution in Soviet literature. Many of our writers wrote journalistic articles and essays during these years: I. Erenburg, L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov, Vs. Ivanov, B. Gorbatov, N. Tikhonov and others. With their articles they instilled high civic feelings, taught an uncompromising attitude towards fascism, and revealed the true face of the “organizers of the new order.” Soviet writers contrasted fascist false propaganda with great human truth. Hundreds of articles cited irrefutable facts of the atrocities of the invaders, quoted letters, diaries, testimonies of prisoners of war, named names, dates, numbers, and made references to secret documents, orders and instructions of the authorities. In their articles, they told the harsh truth about the war, supported the people's bright dream of victory, and called for perseverance, courage and perseverance. Patriotic journalism during the war days played a large and effective role in instilling the fighting spirit of our army and in the ideological arming of the entire Soviet people.

Journalism had a huge influence on all genres of wartime literature, and especially on the essay. From the essays, the world first learned about the immortal names of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Liza Chaikina, Alexander Matrosov, and about the feat of the Young Guard. Very common in 1943-1945 was an essay about the feat of a large group of people. Thus, essays appear about the U-2 night aviation (K. Simonov), about the heroic Komsomol (V. Vishnevsky), and many others. The essays dedicated to the heroic home front are portrait sketches. Moreover, from the very beginning, writers pay attention not so much to the fate of individual heroes, but to mass labor heroism. Marietta Shaginyan and Elena Kononenko wrote most often about people on the home front.

The defense of Leningrad and the battle of Moscow were the reason for the creation of a number of event essays, which represent an artistic chronicle of military operations. This is evidenced by the essays: “Moscow. November 1941” by V. Lidin, “July - December” by K. Simonov.

During the Great Patriotic War, works were also created in which the main attention was paid to the fate of man in war. Human happiness and war - this is how one can formulate the basic principle of such works as “Simply Love” by V. Vasilevskaya, “It Was in Leningrad” by A. Chakovsky, “The Third Chamber” by B. Leonidov. A. Chakovsky’s novel “It Was in Leningrad” was created hot on the heels of the war. It was based on what the writer personally saw and experienced.

Simply, restrainedly, with documentary accuracy, A. Chakovsky tells about the feat of Leningrad, about the harsh, heroic everyday life of the blockade years, combining the great and the tragic, the immortal and everyday care for our daily bread.

The writer managed to recreate, in isolated, sometimes very individual actions, events, and experiences of people, many essential features of the people’s character and people’s morality, explore the spiritual potential of the defenders of Leningrad, and learn the secrets of their perseverance and perseverance.

“It Was in Leningrad” is a book about the courage of daily exploits, about devoted, uncompromising love, about the innermost and best that the harsh reality of war revealed in people.

In 1942, V. Nekrasov’s war story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” appeared. This was the first work of a then unknown front-line writer, who rose to the rank of captain, who fought at Stalingrad all the long days and nights, who participated in its defense, in the terrible and back-breaking battles waged by our army

The war has become a big disaster for everyone, a misfortune. But it is precisely at this time that people show their moral essence, “it (war) is like a litmus test, like some kind of special manifestation.” For example, Valega is an illiterate person, “...reads syllables, and ask him what a homeland is, by golly, he won’t really explain. But for this homeland... he will fight to the last bullet. And the cartridges will run out - with fists, with teeth....” The battalion commander Shiryaev and Kerzhentsev are doing everything possible to save as many human lives as possible in order to fulfill their duty. They are contrasted in the novel with the image of Kaluzhsky, who thinks only about not getting to the front line; The author also condemns Abrosimov, who believes that if a task is set, then it must be completed, despite any losses, throwing people under the destructive fire of machine guns.

Readers of the story invariably feel the author’s faith in the Russian soldier, who, despite all the suffering, troubles, and failures, has no doubts about the justice of the liberation war. The heroes in V.P. Nekrasov’s story live with faith in a future victory and are ready to give their lives for it without hesitation.

3. Art during the Great Patriotic War

The Great Patriotic War revealed to the artist’s gaze a wealth of material that concealed enormous moral and aesthetic riches. The mass heroism of people has given so much to art as human studies that the gallery of folk characters that was started in those years is constantly replenished with new and new figures. The most acute collisions of life, during which the ideas of loyalty to the Fatherland, courage and duty, love and camaraderie were revealed with particular vividness, are capable of nourishing the plans of the masters of the present and future.

3.1. Cinema

243 documentary cameramen captured for us the chronicle of the war. They were called “soldiers with two machine guns” because in their arsenal, in addition to military weapons, the main weapon remained a professional one - a movie camera.

Newsreels in all its forms were brought to the fore. The work of front-line operators is a constant creative search, selecting from a huge amount of footage the most important things in the harsh everyday life of the Great Patriotic War.

In the first months of the war, the Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk newsreel studios were put out of action. What remained was the Moscow Film Studio, which became the organizing center and was able to quickly staff front-line film groups and send them out to the active army. And already on June 25, 1941, the first front-line filming was included in the 70th issue of Soyuzkinozhurnal, and from the beginning of July 1941 it already had a permanent column “Film reporting from the fronts of the Patriotic War.” The consolidation of newsreel materials into newsreels and films was carried out at the main headquarters - the Central Newsreel Studio in Moscow.

For the needs of the film crews filming the combat actions of our pilots, the Air Force command allocated a large number of special narrow-film film cameras. Together with aircraft designers, the best places were found to install them on airplanes: the devices were paired with aircraft small arms and turned on simultaneously with the shot.

About 250 cameramen worked on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. The main core of front-line newsreels were cameramen, seasoned on the labor fronts of the first five-year plans - R. Carmen, M. Tronevsky, M. Oshurkov, P. Paley. But there were also many talented young people who later entered the golden fund of Russian cinematography - V. Sushchinsky, Ya. Leibov, S. Stoyanovsky, I. Belyakov, G. Bobrov, P. Kasatkin, B. Nebylitsky... She filmed for about six months in a partisan unit operating behind enemy lines in the Moscow region, cameraman M. Sukhova. Without looking up for a minute from the camera lens, cameraman B. Pumpyansky filmed the battle for the liberation of the Chop station by Soviet troops, which lasted 5 hours...

Each major battle, which had a landmark significance for the course of the Great Patriotic War, was dedicated to a separate full-length documentary film, and especially important events - short films or front-line releases.

Thus, the days and nights of the heroic defense of Moscow were recorded on film by operators of the Central Newsreel Studio. In November 1941, the studio began producing the film magazine “In Defense of Native Moscow.” The first battles with fascist aviation in the skies of the capital were filmed day after day by a group of cameramen led by director M. Slutsky. The result was the film "Our Moscow", created in the summer of 1941. The same director repeated the technique suggested by M. Gorky for the pre-war film “Day of the New World”. On June 23, 1942, 160 operators recorded the main events of the 356th day of the war on all fronts, as well as the work of the rear. The footage was combined into the film "Day of War".

The first journalistic film about the war was the film “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow” directed by I. Kopalin and L. Varlamov, which was a triumphant success on screens all over the world (more than 7 million viewers watched it in the USA alone) and was awarded the highest award of the American Film Academy - the Academy Award Oscar for Best Foreign Documentary Film of 1942.

The last documentary film of the war years was the film “Berlin” directed by Y. Railman, created in 1945. Its demonstration opened the first post-war international film festival in Cannes. The French newspaper “Patriot de Nisdus Sud Est” wrote then: “The realism of “Berlin” borders on hallucination. Photographs from nature are mounted with amazing simplicity and create the impression of reality, which only Soviet cinema achieved... In “Berlin” victory is achieved mainly thanks to patriotism, courage, self-control of man. "Berlin" gives us a wonderful lesson in cinematic art, and the incessant applause of critics and the public is the best evidence of this."

In total, during the war years, 34 full-length documentaries, 67 short films, 24 front-line issues and more than 460 issues of the Soyuzkinozhurnal and the News of the Day magazine were released. 14 documentaries - among them "The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow", "Leningrad in the Struggle", "Berlin" - were awarded the USSR State Prize.

For the creation of a film chronicle of the Great Patriotic War, the Central Newsreel Studio was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1944. For the documentary and journalistic epic "The Great Patriotic War", which consisted of 20 full-length films, a large team of its creators, led by the artistic director and chief director R. Carmen, later a Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the USSR, was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1980.

More than 40 front-line documentary filmmakers died a brave death during the years of the last war... Their names are inscribed on memorial plaques in the buildings of the Central House of Cinema, the Central Studio of Documentary Films, the Central Studio of Children's and Youth Films named after M. Gorky. A marble pylon with the names of the deceased documentarians of the Mosfilm film studio rises on the territory of the studio. And next to it is a sculptural composition, which is a ragged concrete block with high relief images of heroic episodes of the war, made by sculptor L. Berlin, architects E. Stamo and M. Shapiro and installed here in May 1965.

Different than before the war, but still a powerful means of ideological education of the masses, art cinematography became. The masters of artistic cinematography sought to tell about the heroes of the front and rear in such a way that their exploits would inspire thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers, officers, partisans, and home front workers to new heroic deeds.

The war posed difficult challenges for Soviet cinematography. In solving them, film workers showed great courage and soldierly valor. Already on June 22, 1941, documentary filmmakers made the first combat footage, and on June 25, the first military episode was included in Soyuzkinozhurnal No. 70.

The Moscow Chronicle Film Studio played an outstanding role in documenting the events of the war, in creating operational military film reports and large documentary-journalistic films about battles and campaigns. The studio brought together many creative workers in feature films. Having created a kind of headquarters in Moscow - the Central Studio of Chronicles - documentary filmmakers organized film groups at each front.

The theme of the defense of Moscow and the heroic deeds of Muscovites occupied a prominent place in the work of documentarians. Already in the summer of 1941, director M. Slutsky released the film “Our Moscow”. In the fall, a film was made about the festive parade on Red Square and a special issue “In defense of our native Moscow.” The full-length journalistic film “The Defeat of German Troops near Moscow,” edited by directors I. Kopalin and L. Varlamov from the filming of dozens of cameramen, became a stage in the development of documentary cinema. This film was followed by works about the defense of Leningrad, about the epic on the Volga, about partisans, about the battle for Ukraine, and later, in 1944-1945, about the liberation campaign of the Soviet Army, about the capture of Berlin and the defeat of imperialist Japan. These and many other films were created overwhelmingly by Moscow directors and cameramen. Many famous “fighters with movie cameras” died at the front.

The Moscow Film Studio of Popular Science Films also carried out a lot of fruitful work. Carrying out the high mission of promoting scientific and socio-political knowledge, during the war the film studio was reorganized on a military basis and renamed Voentekhfilm. Directors V. Suteev, V. Shneiderov and others created the films “German Defense and Overcoming It,” “Infantry in Battle,” “Destroy Enemy Tanks!”; directors P. Mosyagin and I. Svistunov made many useful military-medical films. Instructional films were made for the population on fighting fires, behavior during enemy raids, and providing first aid to bomb victims.

In the very first days of the war, the Moscow Mosfilm studio began filming short film novellas, a kind of film posters about the war. Among them were satirical (Hitler's Dream about defeated dog knights, Napoleon, the occupiers of 1918 and other would-be conquerors), and heroic (about the exploits of Soviet intelligence officers, border guards, tank crews). The heroes of some of the short stories were well-known movie characters beloved by the people: Maxim, postman Strelka, three tank crews; in others, new heroes appeared who were destined for a long screen life: the brave soldier Schweik, the deft and fearless soldier - cook Antosha Rybkin - the “brother” of Vasily Terkin. The film novellas widely used material from pre-war films about Alexander Nevsky, Peter I, and V.I. Chapaev. These film novels, filmed in the very first months of the war at the Moscow film studios Mosfilm and them. A. M. Gorky, as well as at Lenfilm, were then combined into full-length “Combat Film Collections” under the general title “Victory is Ours!”

The art cinematography faced a second, no less important task - to complete, despite the war, all valuable feature films that had begun production before the Nazi attack on the USSR. And such paintings were completed. These are “The Pig Farmer and the Shepherd”, “Mashenka”, “Romantics” and other films.

All these films reminded the viewer of peaceful labor, of the achievements of national culture, which must now be defended with arms in hand.

The vigorous cinematic activity did not stop in Moscow for a single minute. However, in the most difficult days, when the fighting took place several tens of kilometers from our capital, it was decided to evacuate the art film studios from Moscow. In Almaty, Moscow filmmakers created their main wartime works.

The first full-length feature film about the Great Patriotic War was “Secretary of the District Committee,” directed by I. Pyryev from a script by I. Prut. In the center stood the image of the party leader. The authors of the film, with great propaganda power and artistic skill, revealed on the screen the popular origins of the image of a communist who raised people to mortal combat with the enemy. The secretary of the district committee, Stepan Kochet, performed by the wonderful actor V. Vanin, rightfully opened a gallery of large-scale, bright characters of Soviet cinema of the war years.

Art cinema took a new step towards understanding the truth of war in the film “She Defends the Motherland” (1943). The importance of this film, directed by F. Ermler from a script by A. Kapler, lay primarily in the creation of the heroic, truly folk character of the Russian woman - Praskovya Lukyanova - embodied by V. Maretskaya.

An intense search for new characters, new ways to solve them was crowned with success in the film “Rainbow” (1943) with actress N. Uzhviy in the title role, directed by M. Donskoy from the script of Wanda Vasilevskaya and filmed at the Kyiv film studio. This work showed the tragedy and feat of the people, a collective hero appeared in it - the entire village, its fate became the theme of the film. Subsequently, this film receives worldwide recognition and becomes the first Soviet film to win an Oscar. Natalya Gebdovskaya, actress of the film studio named after. Dovzhenko said in her memoirs that she “cryed while listening to this story on the radio,” and that the actors were happy to at least somehow participate in the production of this film. A few months after the film's release, American diplomat Charles Bohlen translated Rainbow for Roosevelt at the White House. Roosevelt was extremely excited. His words after watching the film were: "The film will be shown to the American people in its befitting grandeur, accompanied by commentary by Reynolds and Thomas." After that, he asked: “How can we help them now, immediately?”

The best films of the Central United Film Studio were dedicated to the partisan struggle, to the brave and proud Soviet people who did not bend before fascism, who did not stop fighting for freedom and independence: “She Defends the Motherland,” “Zoya,” “Invasion,” “Man No. 217,” “ In the name of the Motherland."

A significant role in mobilizing the spiritual forces of the people to fight fascism was played by the film adaptation of the works of K. Simonov, carried out by director A. Stolper (the film “The Guy from Our City”), and the play by A. Korneichuk “Front” (directed by G. and S. Vasiliev).

The films “Big Land” directed by S. Gerasimov, “Native Fields” directed by B. Babochkin based on the script by M. Padava, and “Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl” told about the labor feats performed by Soviet people, especially women, in the rear, in factories and on collective farms. "directed by V. Eisymont.

In 1943, studios began to gradually return to their Moscow pavilions. The first big feature film shot during the war years at Mosfilm was “Kutuzov” (directed by V. Petrov) with A. Dikiy in the title role.

To familiarize active army units with the latest achievements of the performing arts, the genre of concert films was developed and gained popularity, in which musical, theatrical, ballet and pop numbers were combined according to thematic, national or other principles. Work continued on the film adaptation of literary works (“Wedding” and “Anniversary” by A.P. Chekhov, “Guilty Without Guilt” by A.N. Ostrovsky). Several historical-revolutionary films were produced.

So, the war was a difficult but fruitful period in the life of filmmakers. The masters of Mosfilm and Soyuzdetfilm promptly responded to the requests of their viewers, truthfully and passionately reflected the images of the heroes of the great war in their films, and continued and developed the traditions of Soviet cinema. The widespread development of chronicle-documentary cinematography, with its truthful, accurate and at the same time truly artistic depiction of all the most important military events, helped a special type of film art - figurative journalism - to take an honorable place in Soviet culture.

3.2. Propaganda poster as the main form of fine art during the Great Patriotic War

During the Great Patriotic War, a high national upsurge and the unity of the peoples of the USSR were felt. In all sectors of the economy and culture, as well as the military industry, good results were achieved, society mobilized and worked for victory. The artists, together with all the people, stood in military formation. Young craftsmen headed to the military registration and enlistment offices to sign up as volunteers for the Red Army. 900 members of the Union of Artists fought on the fronts and were soldiers. Five of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In the twentieth century, nowhere in the world was political poster given such great importance as in the USSR. The situation required the poster: revolution, civil war, colossal construction, war against fascism. The authorities set great tasks for the people. The need for direct and quick communication - all this served as the basis for the development of the Soviet poster. He addressed millions, often solving problems of life and death with them.

The poster achieved great success during the Great Patriotic War. This period, in terms of the scale of what was done, is comparable to the development of poster art during the October Revolution and the Civil War, but there were hundreds of times more poster sheets created, many posters became classics of Soviet art. In its spirit, in its ability to respond mobile to the events of today, the poster turned out to be one of the most effective means for expressing the feelings of the entire population, for calling to action, for the defense of the Motherland, for announcing urgent news from the front and rear. The most important information had to be conveyed using the simplest and most effective means and in the shortest possible time.

Each period of the war had its own tasks, all of which required urgent solutions. The poster served as a means of transmitting information to those areas in which there were no communication lines, which were occupied, but where Soviet partisans operated. Posters have gained extraordinary popularity. Their contents were retold from mouth to mouth and became popular rumor.

"...Night. Local residents come to help the scouts. Quietly, sneaking in the darkness along village streets and alleys, carefully avoiding German guards and patrols, fearless patriots paste up, and if this fails, lay out colored panels of Soviet posters and “TASS Windows” on the ground. Posters are glued to fences, barns, and houses where the Germans are stationed.

Posters distributed deep behind German lines are news of the great Motherland, a reminder that friends are close. The population, deprived of Soviet radio and the Soviet press, often learns the truth about the war from these posters that appeared out of nowhere...,” this is how a veteran of the Great Patriotic War talks about the poster.

Due to lack of time, not all the posters were made with high quality, but, despite everything, they conveyed a great and sincere feeling, because in the face of death and suffering it was impossible to lie.

The largest centers for the mass publication of posters in 1941-1945 were the Moscow and Leningrad branches of the state publishing house “Iskusstvo”. Posters were also printed in large cities of Siberia, the Far East, the Volga region, Central Asia, and Transcaucasia, published by political agencies of the Red Army and the Navy, and by newspaper editors. Just as often, posters were made by hand and using a stencil, which speeded up their production, but made it impossible to distribute in thousands of copies.

During the Great Patriotic War, many artists worked in the genre of poster art who had not worked with posters either before or after the war.

Poster artists quickly responded to the events of the first days of the war. Within a week, five poster sheets were released in mass circulation, and publishing houses were preparing to print over fifty more. By the evening of June 22, 1941, the Kukryniksy (M. Kupriyanov, P. Krylov, N. Sokolov) created a sketch of the poster “We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy.” Later, the first poster of the Great Patriotic War was reproduced in print more than once and published in England, America, China, Iran, Mexico and other countries.

“In the original version,” says the book “The Second World War: Cinema and Poster Art,” “the Red Army soldier’s bayonet pierced Hitler’s hand, so the poster sounded more like a warning. But it was already printed with a different plot. The bayonet stuck straight into Hitler's head, which fully corresponded to the ultimate goal of the unfolding events. The successful combination of heroic and satirical images in the poster's plot also corresponded to the spirit of the times. A similar combination was often used by the Kukryniksy and other artists.

It should be noted that the Soviet Army soldier is located on the right side of the poster, and Hitler is on the left. Interestingly, many Soviet military posters depict opposing forces in a similar way. The results of psychological experiments indicate that the viewer, looking at a picture, newspaper page or poster, first notices the upper right square, and from here his gaze moves to the rest of the image. Thus, the upper right square, and in general the right side of a picture or poster, from the point of view of the psychology of visual perception, occupies a special place. On many military posters, it is in this place that Red Army soldiers are depicted rushing to attack the Nazis, whose figures are placed on the left side of the poster, in the lower part. Such a solution helps to reveal the content more deeply and increases the expressiveness of the work.”

In addition to the above, from June 22 to 29, 1941, N. Dolgorukov’s posters “So it was... So it will be!”, “Let’s sweep away the fascist barbarians from the face of the earth”, Kukryniksov’s “Napoleon was defeated, the same will happen to the arrogant Hitler”, and Kokorekin “Death to the fascist vermin!”

The satirical poster was very popular during the war. He combined the traditions of the Civil War poster with the achievements of political newspaper and magazine cartoons of the 30s. The artists skillfully used the language of metaphor, satirical allegory, and the flatness of a white sheet of paper, on which the silhouette of the figures was clearly visible and the slogan was clearly legible. Stories of confrontation between forces were popular: evil aggressive and fair defending.

Especially many satirical posters were created during 1941. Among them we can list a number of interesting posters: Kukryniksy “Cannibal Vegetarian, or Two Sides of the Same Coin”; B. Efimov, N. Dolgorukov “They performed - they had fun, retreated - they shed tears”; N. Dolgorukov “So it was... So it will be!”; Kukryniksy “We will cut off all the paths of the evil enemy, from the loop, he will not escape from this!” The satirical poster showed the enemy in a funny light both when he was formidable and dangerous at the beginning of the war, and at the time when the German army began to suffer its first defeats. In the poster “The devil is not as terrible as he is painted,” the Kukryniksy presented a scene from Berlin court life. In reality, the Fuhrer was thin, but on the canvas he is a strong man with large biceps.

Bright posters were created by I. Serebryany “Make it, bite it!”, N. Dolgorukov “He hears menacing tunes”, V. Denis “To Moscow! Hoh! From Moscow: oh”, “The Face of Hitlerism” and others. Most of the satirical posters were produced by TASS Windows.

Poster by A. Kokorekin “Death to the fascist vermin!” resemble the work of the Kukryniksy in plot and artistic execution - similar color scheme, use of the heroic image of a Soviet warrior. A successful symbolic characterization of fascism has been found. The enemy is shown as a writhing huge snake in the shape of a swastika, which is pierced with a bayonet by a Red Army soldier. The work was done using a typical poster technique: no background, using only black and red colors. The image of the struggling forces - aggressive and reflecting aggression - is given in sharp opposition. But both figures have a flat silhouette. The limitation in paints was caused by necessity - for quick reproduction in printing, the paint palette had to be small.

In N. Dolgorukov’s poster “So it was... So it will be!” a limited palette of colors is also used, the image is silhouetted. In general, it should be noted that in the first year of the war, artists created many silhouette posters with little color, where the heroes were presented in a generalized, non-individualized manner. The historical topic was very popular. At the first stage of the war, the main efforts were aimed at explaining the nature of the war and the goals of the USSR in it.

The independence and strength of the people, who began to create their own socialist state, were rooted in the heroic past of Russia. Just as our great-grandfathers drove out Napoleon, so the current generation will drive out Hitler, just as our fathers fought for the revolution and freedom, so we will fight - similar slogans were written on posters and leaflets, and there was hardly any doubt about it.

From the first days of the war, artists of the older generation continued to work actively: D. Moor, V. Denis, M. Cheremnykh. The spirit of revolutionary posters was also present in their work. Often old methods were used by artists to depict new events in a new era. Not all works were successful. For example, Moore repeated his famous poster “Have you signed up as a volunteer?”, slightly changing the character in it and replacing the inscription with “How did you help the front?” However, this work did not have the success that the master’s first poster had. Because, as the poster artist V. Ivanov writes, “in art there are no exact rules, but there are strict laws. And the most ingenious move cannot be repeated,” since it is with repetition that it loses its freshness and sharpness of impact.

Let's compare the previous poster with the famous work of I. Toidze “The Motherland is Calling!” It was published in millions of copies in all languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, and its popularity is not accidental. Just like Moore, Toidze places a complete monolithic silhouette on the plane of the sheet, using a combination of only two colors - red and black. Thanks to the low horizon, the poster is given a monumental feel. But the main force of influence of this poster lies in the psychological content of the image itself - in the expression of the excited face of a simple woman, in her inviting gesture.

In the first months of the war, the subjects of heroic posters were filled with scenes of attacks and single combats between a Soviet soldier and a fascist, and the main attention, as a rule, was paid to conveying the movement of violent striving towards the enemy. These are the posters: “Forward for our victory” by S. Bondar, “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated!" R. Gershanika, “The Nazis will not pass!” D. Shmarinova, “Forward, Budenovites!” A. Polyansky, “We will crush the enemy with a steel avalanche” V. Odintsov, “Cut the reptiles!” M. Avilova, “Let’s show the despicable fascist murderers how a Soviet sailor can fight!” A. Kokorekina. The multi-figure composition of these posters was supposed to emphasize the idea of ​​the nationwide nature of resistance to the enemy. A. Kokosh’s poster “A fighter who finds himself surrounded” called for stopping the invasion at any cost. Fight to the last drop of blood!”

Quite often, the subjects of posters were episodes of mobilization and the creation of a people's militia. For example, “The Mighty People's Militia” by V. Tsvetkova, “Youth, go to battle for the Motherland!” V. Pravdina, “Defense of the Fatherland is the sacred duty of every citizen of the USSR” by Z. Pravdina. The photo poster “Our forces are innumerable” by V. Koretsky carried the idea of ​​​​creating a single people’s militia to fight the enemy. The artist turned to the symbol of Russian national patriotism - the sculpture of I. Martos “Minin and Pozharsky”, which on the poster personified Moscow and the entire multinational Soviet people. Then, in June, V. Koretsky created the composition “Be a Hero!” This poster, enlarged several times, was installed along the streets of Moscow, along which columns of mobilized city residents passed in the first weeks of the war. The defenders of Leningrad were led into battle by V. Serov’s poster “Our cause is just - victory will be ours.”

In the posters of 1941, the content was often deepened by the presence of a second symbolic plane, a historical parallel. The artists resorted to comparing modern warriors and generals of the past, scenes of modern battle and conventional allegorical images symbolizing the Motherland. The posters repeatedly depicted Russian national heroes calling on descendants to fight the enemy. Sheets were issued depicting Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov, Kutuzov, as well as the heroes of the civil war Chapaev and Shchors. Such posters include: “So it was: So it will be!” N. Dolgorukova, “Our land is glorious for its heroes” V. Govorkova, “To arms, Slavs! Let's defeat the fascist oppressors" by V. Odintsov, "Breasts to defend Leningrad" by A. Kokorekin.

One of the most common subjects was the image of a woman replacing a man who had gone to the front at a machine tool, driving a tractor, or at the helm of a combine harvester. The best posters of this topic “More bread for the front and rear. Harvest the crop completely!” N. Vatolina and N. Denisova, “Girls boldly sit on a tractor!” T. Eremina, “We swore to our husbands” M. Bri-Bein, “The stronger the rear, the stronger the front!” O. Eiges. Many posters touched on the topic of labor discipline: “Absenteeism must be eliminated completely!” S. Igumanova, “Marriage-Enemy” B. Clinch, “Car Drivers! Uninterruptedly deliver goods to the front” Y. Beketova, “Collect scrap”, “How did you help the Front?” and others. One of the most famous home front posters is “Don’t Talk!” belongs to the Moscow artist N. Vatolina.

Wartime posters are not only original works of art, but also truly historical documents.

1941 and 1942 brought the first significant successes to Soviet easel art during the war. The artist A. Deineka with great artistic expressiveness captured Manezhnaya Square with its houses covered with camouflage paint. In 1942, he created the wonderful landscape “Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941” - Moscow with streets blocked by anti-tank obstacles, wary and stern.

During the same period, graphic works appeared in large numbers. Among them were drawings by A. Laptev and engravings by M. Pikov, telling about the construction of defensive structures, a drawing by P. Sokolov-Skal “At the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1941”, engravings by two of the largest Moscow masters of color engraving I. Pavlov and I. Sokolov . The first belongs to the dramatic sheet “Fire of the Book Chamber”, completed by the artist in 1946, the second - a whole series of engravings, united under the general title “Moscow in 1942” (1943).

The first war winter brought to art a keen sense of the drama of the great battle, the heroism of the people, the remarkable qualities of the Soviet man who took up arms to defend his Motherland. This feeling was revealed in a whole series of paintings, sculptures and graphic works created in 1942 and which were, as it were, the result of the artists’ comprehension of the first stage of the war. These works appeared for the first time at an exhibition in the cold halls of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1942. In the same year, an exhibition of Leningrad artists was shown in Moscow, and on November 7, 1942, the exhibition “The Great Patriotic War” was launched in the capital, which was essentially the first All-Union wartime art exhibition. A large place at the exhibition was occupied by paintings dedicated to the heroic battle of Moscow (“The feat of 28 Panfilov heroes” by D. Mochalsky, “Parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941” by K. Yuon, etc.), as well as the life of wartime Moscow (P Konchalovsky, “Where do they donate blood here?”, etc.). At this exhibition, Muscovites saw for the first time the work of artists who were at the front.

At the same time, the artist O. Vereisky created his magnificent illustrations for A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”, inspired by the battle of Moscow.

Large works of a general nature that appeared in 1942 carried a keen sense of the tragedy of the struggle, an angry protest against the inhuman cruelty of fascism. It was in this tone that A. Plastov painted his painting “The German Flew Over”. The savage cruelty of the fascists is exposed by the Kukryniksy’s painting “Tanya”. It is characteristic that in both paintings the feeling of the beauty and greatness of the Russian land and Russian nature resounds with particular force.

D. Shmarinov’s graphic series “We will not forget, we will not forgive!” is close to these paintings in its ideological structure. (1942).

Among the works about the first stages of the war, about the strength of the people growing stronger in the brutal struggle and suffering, was the statue “Unconquered”, made in 1943 by E. Balashova. In a generalized form, the ideals of courageous heroism were embodied in the sculpture “Partisan” by V. Mukhina and in the statue “Zoya” by M. Manizer, executed in 1942.

During 1943-1944. There was an exhibition of artists of the Soviet Union “Heroic Front and Rear”. At the exhibitions, graphics and, above all, front-line drawings occupied a large place. A large number of drawings dedicated to the partisans were created by N. Zhukov, who in those years headed the studio of military artists named after. Grekova. The studio's masters have visited almost all fronts. The natural conclusion to the work of Greek artists in the field of graphics during the war years were the drawings of V. Bogatkin, A. Kokorin and other artists dedicated to the capture of Berlin.

During the war years, book graphics continued to develop successfully, represented by the works of Kukryniksy, D. Shmarinov, B. Dekhterev, E. Kibrik. Painting in the last years of the war acquired new strength and new themes. Paintings by Muscovite artists “After the departure of the Nazis” by T. Gaponenko (1943-1946), “Mother of the Partisan” by S. Gerasimov (1943) revealed the strength and resilience of the people’s character. The monumental painting by F. Bogorodsky “Glory to the Fallen Heroes” (1945) sounded like a solemn requiem to those who died for the freedom and independence of the Motherland.

A large number of wartime paintings are imbued with a lively and acute sense of the truth of ordinary, but filled with deep patriotic content, events in the life of the Soviet people. These are the works of Yu. Pimenov, depicting front-line roads, scenes in vegetable gardens near Moscow; works by A. Plastov, dedicated to the hard work of peasants; painting by a young artist from the Greek studio of B. Yemensky “Mother” (1945). A significant number of paintings on historical themes by artists E. Lanceray, M. Avilov, N. Ulyanov, A. Bubnov appeared. Other genres of painting continued to develop widely during the war years. In portraiture, the courageous image of the Soviet patriot was revealed with particular force (works by A. Gerasimov, P. Kotov, etc.). In landscape painting, the idea of ​​love for the Motherland, ardent attachment to the Russian land was expressed in numerous canvases created by V. Baksheev, V. Meshkov, M. Nesterov, N. Krymov, I. Grabar, S. Gerasimov, N. Romadin and others. B. Rybchenkov and K. Kupetsio worked in Moscow landscapes in those years. Works of mosaics and monumental painting continued to be created in Moscow during the war years. Let us remember the mosaic dedicated to the military exploits of the Russian people at the Avtozavodskaya metro station (1943, artist V. Bordichenko and others). The development of monumental sculpture was also associated with the construction of the metro in those years. G. Motovilov dedicated his reliefs at the Elektrozavodskaya station to the work of Muscovite workers. In general, two trends emerged in the field of sculpture in the last years of the war. The first of them is the creation of portraits and sculptural groups, where a person is captured as if in a minute of break between battles. The portraits of Colonel Yusupov (1942) by V. Mukhina, and the poet A. Tvardovsky (1943) by S. Lebedeva are imbued with living spontaneity. The second trend is monumental-memorial. Large teams of Muscovite artists worked on sculptural portraits for monuments. In the development of this type of sculpture, which has a generalized heroic character, great contributions were made by such masters as E. Vuchetich, the author of the temperamental-romantic bust of I. D. Chernyakhovsky (1945), N. Tomsky, the author of the portrait of twice Hero of the Soviet Union M G. Gareeva (1945). Glorifying the exploits of the people and their army, helping to better understand the events that took place, awakening hatred of the fascist invaders, strengthening the people's sense of Soviet patriotism, fine art played a huge educational and mobilizing role during the war.

1. Wartime music

The war period was one of the most fruitful in the history of Soviet music. During these years, composers created many outstanding works, full of faith in the victory of a just cause. Among them were large symphonic works, and cantata-oratorio, and chamber, and operas, and, of course, first of all, songs.

The battle song and march walked alongside the soldiers throughout the war, rousing them to heroic deeds. And a warm, soulful song adorned leisure time during the quiet hours between battles and brought the warriors together. From the very first days of the war, the song became a truly folk art, the voice of the heroic soul of the people. It is noteworthy that in just the first two days of the war, Moscow composers wrote 40 songs, and four days later there were already more than 100.

One of the most remarkable songs from the early days of the war, “The Holy War” by A. Alexandrov, immediately won universal recognition. Her epically stern demeanor contained a truly national awareness of patriotic duty. Monumental in content, laconic in expression, this song already in those days became “the musical emblem of the Great Patriotic War.”

Other wartime songs also gained great popularity. There was, perhaps, no person who did not know the songs of M. Blanter (“In the forest near the front” to the words of M. Isakovsky, “Wait for me” to the words of K. Simonov). The golden fund of Soviet song culture also includes “Song of the Brave” by V. Bely (text by A. Surkov), “Oh, my fogs, foggy” by V. Zakharov (text by M. Isakovsky), “The harshly noisy Bryansk forest” by S. Katz (text A. Sofronova), “Song of the Dnieper” by M. Fradkin (text by E. Dolmatovsky), “Treasured Stone” (text by A. Zharov) and “Song of the Defenders of Moscow” (text by A. Surkov) by B. Mokrousov, “Samovars-Samovars” ", "Vasya-Cornflower", "Where the eagle spread its wings" (text by S. Alymov) by A. Novikov, "In the dugout" by K. Listov (text by A. Surkov) and many others.

During the harsh years of the war, military brass music acquired great importance. In units of the Soviet Army, popular marches were constantly heard in radio broadcasts: “Captain Gastello”, “People’s Avengers”, “Native Moscow”, “Victory March” by N. Ivanov-Radkevich, “Victory is ours”, “The enemy will be defeated”, “ Fighting Friends" by M. Starokadomsky, "March of the Mortar Guards", "Counter March" by S. Chernetsky, "Heroes of the Patriotic War" by A. Khachaturyan, "For the Motherland" by N. Rakov, etc.

In an effort to artistically and philosophically generalize the events of our time, Soviet composers, along with the mass song genre, created a number of monumental symphonic works.

The works of symphonic music revealed the remarkable features of the Russian national character, the rich spiritual world of the Soviet man, his courage and heroism. During the war years, people became acquainted with D. Shostakovich's 7th symphony; with the 22nd, 23rd and 24th (1941 -1943) “military” symphonies of N. Myaskovsky; S. Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony (1944), which the author conceived as “a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit.” The 2nd symphony of V. Muradeli (1944) was dedicated to “Our struggle and victory”; the monumental 2nd symphony of A. Khachaturian (1943) aroused great interest.

Chamber vocal music has been significantly enriched, and its genre scope has expanded. Expanded forms became predominant - ballad, arioso,

monologue, cycles of romances, united by a common theme. The basis of the content, the range of their themes and plots were heroic and lyrical motifs. These are the vocal cycles of A. Aleksandrov “Three Cups” (text by N. Tikhonov), Y. Levitin “My Ukraine” (texts by M. Golodny, S. Gorodetsky, S. Golovanivsky), V. Nechaev “About valor, about feat, about glory" (texts by A. Akhmatova, E. Dolmatovsky, K. Simonov and M. Isakovsky), romances by A. Alexandrov, N. Rakov, T. Khrennikov, etc.

In the genre of choral music, the bright works of D. Kabalevsky have gained great popularity: the suite “People's Avengers” (1942) to the text of E. Dolmatovsky, the choral suite by M. Koval “Ural-Bogatyr” (1943) to the texts of V. Kamensky, M. Matusovsky, choirs A. Novikov.

The modern theme, images of the heroes of the Patriotic War, the theme of love for the Motherland have widely penetrated the genre of cantata and oratorio. During the war years, such significant works were created as the oratorio by Yu. Shaporin “The Legend of the Battle for the Russian Land” (1943-1944) based on texts by K. Simonov, A. Surkov, M. Lozinsky and S. Severtsev, cantatas by N. Myaskovsky “Kirov is with us” based on the poem of the same name by N. Tikhonov (1943) and “On the banks of the Volkhov” (1943) by M. Chulaki to the text by V. Rozhdestvensky - both are dedicated to the hero city of Leningrad, cantata “The Great Motherland” (1942 d.) D. Kabalevsky to texts by S. Stalsky, A. Prokofiev, G. Tabidze, R. Rza and others.

In 1941-1945. saw the release of the opera “Emelyan Pugachev” (1942) by M. Koval, “Suvorov” (1942) by S. N. Vasilenko, “War and Peace” (first edition, 1943) by S. Prokofiev, the main character of whom were the heroic Russian people. And it is no coincidence that the best episodes of these operas are associated with the embodiment of the image of the people. For the first time, S. Prokofiev’s opera “War and Peace” was performed in concert in Moscow on June 2 and 11, 1943 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Heroic and fairy-tale-fantastic themes have developed in ballet music. Interesting and fundamentally new performances of the war period were S. Prokofiev’s ballet “Cinderella” (1941-1944), staged on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in December 1945, and Yu. Yurovsky’s ballet “Scarlet Sails”, which was staged by a branch of the Bolshoi Theater theater in Moscow in December 1943

Moscow composers have done a lot of interesting and new things in the field of film music. Music for films was far from being limited only to songs: it was in films dedicated to war that music acquired a self-sufficient significance, expressing through generalized symphonic means the main dramatic conflict of the film. This is the music of S. Prokofiev for the film “My Ukraine”, G. Popov for the film “She Defends the Motherland”, D. Shostakovich for the film “Zoya” and A. Khachaturian for the film “Man No. 217”, where vividly artistic , contrasting images of two worlds: on the one hand, images of the Motherland, its glorious heroes, and on the other, fascist invaders. The music created by T. Khrennikov for the film “At six o’clock in the evening after the war”, N. Bogoslovsky for the film “Two Fighters”, songs by A. Lepin for “Combat Film Collection” No. 7, etc., gained great popularity.

However, the meaning and role of musical art during the war years was determined not only by creative achievements. Musical figures made a great contribution to the organization of musical life both at the front and in the rear. Artists of the capital's musical theaters and philharmonic societies, united in front-line brigades and theaters, often performed in front of soldiers in the active army. Artists of the Musical Theater named after. K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko formed the front-line theater of musical comedy, whose performances were a huge success among the soldiers. The famous artists of the Bolshoi Theater V.V. Barsova, M.D. Mikhailov, E.K. Kruglikova, the famous quartet named after. Beethoven was often sent to the front; The so-called trench ensembles, performing at the forefront, were popular.

The activities of professional and amateur concert teams serving the soldiers acquired a huge scale. Along with the concert brigades, army song and dance ensembles also performed at the fronts.

The international role of Soviet music increased enormously during the war years: the best foreign performers and conductors included works by many Soviet composers in their repertoire. In July 1942, under the baton of the famous conductor A. Toscanini, D. Shostakovich's 7th Symphony was performed for the first time in the United States. The symphony was widely included in the programs of the best orchestras in Europe. The works of D. Kabalevsky, N. Myaskovsky, S. Prokofiev, A. Khachaturian, T. Khrennikov and other Soviet composers were often performed abroad. Soviet musical culture, the basis of which is humanism, the struggle for peace, for a better future for humanity, played a big role during the Great Patriotic War. The works of Soviet musicians instilled in the people love for their Motherland, courage, heroism, and hatred of enslavers and enemies of culture. Soviet musicians fulfilled their duty to their Motherland with honor.

1. Conclusion.

The struggle for freedom and independence of the Motherland during the war years became the main content of the life of Soviet people. This struggle required them to exert extreme spiritual and physical strength. And it was precisely the mobilization of the spiritual forces of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War that was the main task of our literature and our art.

The Great Victory became a common, national cause. She worked day and night at the front and in the rear. And without any exaggeration, we can say that cultural figures also made their important contribution to the common cause: writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers.

References:

1. For the sake of life on earth. P. Toper. Literature and war. Traditions. Solutions. Heroes. Ed. third. Moscow, "Soviet Writer", 1985

2. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Ed. "Astrel", 2000
3. "The Second World War: Cinema and Poster Art." M., Mysl, 1995
4. Golovkov A. “Yesterday there was war.” Magazine "Ogonyok", No. 25 1991
5. History of Moscow during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period Nauka Publishing House, M., 1967.

The Great Patriotic War revealed to the artist’s gaze a wealth of material that concealed enormous moral and aesthetic riches.

The mass heroism of people has given so much to art as human studies that the gallery of folk characters that was started in those years is constantly replenished with new and new figures. The most acute collisions of life, during which the ideas of loyalty to the Fatherland, courage and duty, love and camaraderie were revealed with particular vividness, are capable of nourishing the plans of the masters of the present and future.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, artists took an active part in the fight against the enemy. Some of them went to fight at the front, others joined partisan detachments and people's militia. Between battles they managed to publish newspapers, posters, and cartoons. In the rear, artists were propagandists, they organized exhibitions, they turned art into a weapon against the enemy - no less dangerous than the real thing. During the war, many exhibitions were organized, including two all-Union ones (“The Great Patriotic War” and “Heroic Front and Rear”) and 12 republican ones. In Leningrad, surrounded by the siege, artists published a magazine of lithographic prints, “Combat Pencil,” and, together with all Leningraders, showed the whole world unparalleled courage and fortitude.

A major role in the development of art, starting from the first war years, was played by the theatrical dramaturgy of A. Korneychuk, K. Simonov, L. Leonov and others. Based on their plays “Partisans in the steppes of Ukraine”, “Front”, “The Guy from Our City”, “Russian People”, “Invasion” and later films were made based on these plays.

Cinema, the most popular art form of those years, played a huge role in the spiritual life of the fighting people. Documentary films, film reports, newsreels of combat and labor everyday life, created, among other things, directly at the front or in partisan detachments, raised the resilience and dedication of Soviet soldiers, and the patriotism of the workers of the rear.

The masters of feature cinema also made a significant contribution to the victory over the enemy. Such films they created during the war as “Secretary of the District Committee”, “She Defends the Motherland”, “Two Soldiers”, “Zoya”, “The Guy from Our City”, “Invasion”, “Wait for Me” and others are memorable to all veterans front and rear and did not lose their patriotic significance even after the victory over fascism.

Mosfilm stars dug trenches and extinguished incendiary bombs, like other Soviet citizens. When the war began, Lyubov Orlova and Grigory Alexandrov were in Riga. They immediately hurried to get to Minsk, which was already being bombed from the air, and then left for Moscow. Orlova immediately began digging trenches near the Mosfilm studio, while Aleksandrov lay unconscious, having suffered from an air bomb explosion during night duty in an air defense detachment.

Lydia Smirnova at that time was busy filming a film based on Simonov’s play “A Guy from Our Town,” which was already half filmed. She also went on night shifts and had to grab lighters with asbestos-gloved hands. And when she was free from duty and filming, she, together with other actresses, collected woolen gloves and socks for the soldiers. When the men from Mosfilm went to the 21st Kyiv Militia Division, the actresses, seeing them off, organized concerts at the military registration and enlistment offices.

Another rising star, Maria Ladynina, starred in the musical comedy “The Pig Farmer and the Shepherd,” directed by her husband Ivan Pyryev. In May 1941, filming began in the Caucasus. On the way back to Moscow, the conductor came into their compartment and said that the war had begun. They began to discuss the question: is it right to now film and release a comedy when people are fighting and dying at the front? They decided to stop filming, and some intended to volunteer for the front.

But the management decided to continue filming the film. People experienced a lot of anxiety in those days. After the capture of Vyazma, Ladynina’s parents were captured by the Germans. When bad news came from the front, actresses often walked around with red, tear-stained eyes, and Pyryev swore: “Don’t cry, damn you! It’s impossible to make a comedy if the actresses are all crying.” The film “The Pig Farmer and the Shepherd” was first released on November 7, 1941, on the day of the parade on Red Square, it was a huge success among the soldiers at the front and has since remained one of the most popular Soviet films...

Art cinema took a new step towards understanding the truth of war in the film “She Defends the Motherland” (1943). The importance of this film, directed by F. Ermler from a script by A. Kapler, lay primarily in the creation of the heroic, truly folk character of the Russian woman - Praskovya Lukyanova - embodied by V. Maretskaya.

An intense search for new characters and new ways to solve them was crowned with success in the film “Rainbow” (1943), directed by M. Donskoy from a script by Wanda Vasilevskaya with S. N. Uzhiviy in the title role. This work showed the tragedy and feat of the people, a collective hero appeared in it - the entire village, its fate became the theme of the film.

“The Unconquered” film by M. Donskoy (1945) is the first film that was shot in the newly liberated Kyiv. The truth about fascism came to M. Donskoy not only through literature; Cinema came close to the war.

“In the logical chain: war - grief - suffering - hatred - revenge - victory, it is difficult to cross out the big word - suffering,” wrote L. Leonov. Artists understood what cruel pictures of life the rainbow illuminates. They now understood what was behind the rainbow-like fireworks.

The patriotism of the people, their love for their homeland and hatred of the enemy, however, required more than just dramatic or, especially, tragic colors. The war sharpened the thirst for humanity. Lyrical and humorous collisions arose on the screens. Humor and satire often took center stage in mass media. Comedy films were recognized and desired at the front and in the rear, but there were few of them. Several short stories from the “Combat Film Collections”, “Antosha Rybkin” and “The New Adventures of Schweik” (1943), created at the Tashkent studio, and film adaptations of Chekhov’s “Wedding” (1944) and “Anniversary” (1944).

Theater workers also did not remain aloof from the events. The new performances they created in creative collaboration with playwrights (“On the Eve” by A. Afinogenov, “Russian People” by K. Simonov, “Invasion” by L. Leonov, “Front” by A. Korneichuk, and others) showed the heroism of the Soviet people in the war, their resilience and patriotism. During the war years, a huge number of theatrical and artistic performances by concert teams and individual performers took place at the front and in the rear.

During war years, fine art makes its contribution to bringing victory closer. On the front line between battles, newspapers, posters were published, and cartoons were invented. In the rear, two all-Union exhibitions were organized (“The Great Patriotic War”, “Heroic Front and Rear”) and 12 republican ones. In besieged Leningrad, artists published the magazine “Combat Pencil”.

The main propaganda role was assigned to posters and political cartoons. Soon after the start of the war, on the initiative of M. Chernykh, the series “TASS Windows” began to be published. In the first two years, the poster had a dramatic, even tragic sound (V.G. Koretsky “Warrior of the Red Army, save me!”). After the turning point in the war, the mood of the poster also changed (L. Golovanov “Let's get to Berlin!”). For 1941-1945 the central publishing houses alone produced over 800 posters with a total circulation of more than 34 million copies.

The works of the Kukryniks (M.V. Kupriyanov, P.N. Krylov, N.A. Sokolov) became widely known. On June 24, Muscovites saw the poster “We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy!”, which was reproduced on their pages by many Soviet and foreign newspapers and magazines. Sokolova N. “Kukryniksy” On the left, from below, as if from a hole, Hitler with a clawed paw and the bared muzzle of a predator crawls out. He tore a sheet of paper - a non-aggression pact concluded between the USSR and Germany, and is preparing to grab the prey, next to him is a discarded mask. The path to the contender for world domination is blocked by a Soviet soldier pointing a bayonet at the monster.

The Kukryniksy created one of their best paintings, turning to the image of antiquity - Sophia of Novgorod as a symbol of the invincibility of the Russian land (“Flight of the Nazis from Novgorod”, 1944-1946). Against the backdrop of the majestic facade of the cathedral, wounded by shells, the scurrying arsonists seem pitiful, and the pile of twisted rubble of the “Millennium of Russia” monument cries out for vengeance. The artistic shortcomings of this picture are made up for by its sincerity and genuine drama.

In historical painting, images of heroes of the glorious past of our Motherland appear, inspiring Soviet soldiers to fight the enemy, recalling the inevitability of death, the inglorious end of the conquerors. Thus, the central part of P. Korin’s triptych is occupied by a full-length figure of Alexander Nevsky, in armor, with a sword in his hand against the backdrop of Volkhov, St. Sophia Cathedral and a banner with the image of the “Savior Not Made by Hands” (1942-1943, Tretyakov Gallery). Later, the artist would say: “I painted it during the harsh years of the war, I painted the unconquered, proud spirit of our people, which “at the judgment hour of its existence” stood up to its full gigantic height.”

The work of artists and sculptors was imbued with the spirit of wartime. During the war years, such forms of operational visual propaganda as military and political posters and caricatures became widespread. Thousands of copies of these posters, memorable to the entire military generation, were published: “Warrior of the Red Army, save us!” (V. Koretsky), “Partisans, take revenge without mercy!” (T. Eremin), “The Motherland is calling!” (I. Toidze) and many others. More than 130 artists and 80 poets took part in the creation of the satirical “TASS Windows”.

Poster artists quickly responded to the events of the first days of the war. Within a week, five poster sheets were released in mass circulation, and publishing houses were preparing to print over fifty more: Already on June 24, a poster with the following plot was published in the Pravda newspaper. The bayonet stuck straight into the Fuhrer's head, which fully corresponded to the ultimate goal of the unfolding events. The successful combination of heroic and satirical images in the poster's plot also corresponded to the spirit of the times. Later, the first poster of the Great Patriotic War was reproduced in print more than once and published in England, America, China, Iran, Mexico and other countries. Among the poster sheets of June 1941 is the work of A. Kokorekin “Death to the Fascist Reptile!” A successful emblematic characteristic of fascism has been found. The enemy is shown as a vile reptile, in the shape of a swastika, who is pierced with a bayonet by a Red Army Warrior. This work was made with a unique artistic technique without a background using only black and red colors. The figure of the warrior represents a red planar silhouette. “Soviet Propaganda” Catalog of USSR Posters 1941-1945 This technique, of course, was dictated to some extent by necessity. It's wartime, tight deadlines. For quick reproduction in printing, the palette of colors had to be limited. Another famous poster by A. Kokorekin “Beat the Fascist Bastard!” -- varies from the one described above, but it is drawn in a more voluminous manner; in total, during the war years, the artist completed at least 35 poster sheets. Among the first military posters is the work of N. Dolgorukov “There will be no mercy for the enemy!” This is one of those posters where the image of a person plays a subordinate role. The correct selection of details, the wit of the plot, the dynamics of movement, and the color scheme are important here. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the production artist of the Mosfilm film studio V. Ivanov created a poster sheet dedicated to the Red Army. It depicted soldiers rising to attack, advancing tanks, and planes flying across the sky. Above all this powerful, purposeful movement the Red Banner fluttered. The fate of this last pre-war poster received an unusual continuation. The poster “caught up” with the author on the way to the front. At one of the railway stations, V. Ivanov saw his drawing, but the text on it was already different: “For the Motherland, For Honor, For Freedom!”

A week after the start of the war, one of the most famous posters of the war years appeared - The Motherland is Calling. It was published in millions of copies in all languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR. The artist talentedly presented a generalized image of the Fatherland full of romance. The main force of influence of this poster lies in the psychological content of the image itself - in the expression of the excited face of a simple Russian woman, in her inviting gesture.

In the first months of the war, the plots of heroic posters were full of scenes of attacks and combat between a Soviet soldier and a fascist, and the main attention, as a rule, was paid to conveying the movement of violent striving towards the enemy.

These are the posters: “Forward for our victory” by S. Bondar, “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated!" R. Gershanika, “The Nazis will not pass!” D. Shmarinova, “Forward Budenovites!” A. Polyansky, “We will crush the enemy with a steel avalanche” V. Odintsov, “Ruby GADOV!” M. Avilova, “Let’s show the despicable fascist murderers how a Soviet sailor can fight!” A. Kokorekina. The multi-figure composition of these posters was supposed to emphasize the idea of ​​the nationwide nature of resistance to the enemy. A. Kokosh’s poster “A fighter who finds himself surrounded” called for stopping the invasion at any cost. Fight to the last drop of blood!”

"Do not chat!" belongs to the Moscow artist N. Vatolina. Poster artists did not ignore the theme of the partisan movement. Some of the most famous posters include: “Partisans! Beat the enemy without mercy! V. Koretsky and V. Gitsevich, “The enemy cannot escape the people’s revenge!” I. Rabicheva, “Kind up a partisan war in the fascist rear!..” A. Kokorekin. A successful experience of a deep psychological solution to a patriotic theme in a poster were the works of V. Koretsky “Be a hero!”, “The people and the Army are invincible!”, “Rise in the ranks of your friends at the front. The warrior is a fighter’s assistant and friend!” The Great Patriotic War: 1941-1945: Encyclopedia for schoolchildren I.A. Damascene, P.A. Koshel

Wartime posters are not only original works of art, but also truly historical documents.

It should be noted that the country's leadership reoriented the activities of historians, philosophers, and lawyers to the propaganda of patriotism, which became a powerful means of mobilizing the spiritual forces of the people to fight the enemy. New elements were introduced into propaganda methods. Class and socialist values ​​were replaced by the generalizing concepts of “Motherland” and “Fatherland”. Propaganda stopped placing special emphasis on the principle of proletarian internationalism (the Comintern was dissolved in May 1943). It was now based on a call for the unity of all countries in the common struggle against fascism, regardless of the nature of their socio-political systems.

On the eve of Victory Day.

In the photo on the right is L. Utesov, 1942.

It is impossible not to touch upon the time of the Great Patriotic War. During these years, art did not stop developing. The profession of an artist has acquired a new social significance and has found application in the line of fire.
In the most difficult conditions, often in close proximity to the enemy, artists gave hundreds of thousands of concerts, walking together with soldiers along the difficult roads of war. Almost 4,000 concert teams, including about 45 thousand singers, dancers, and musicians, went to the fronts of the Patriotic War. “It’s hard to believe, but on April 15-16, 1942, the army held a review of amateur performances, 320 numbers were shown at its final concert,” you can read in the newspaper “Soviet Culture”, published in the post-war period.
Amateur and professional song and dance groups, ballet and theater artists, musicians, composers, students of art educational institutions - they all served three directions: service and combat functions, social and ceremonial functions, cultural and educational activities, which developed directly in military ensembles, orchestras and choirs throughout their development. Some concert brigades performed for soldiers in cities and accompanied marching companies going to the front with music and songs, others constantly gave concerts at the fronts themselves, in hospitals, while others participated in military ceremonies, socio-political events, parades and funerals of fallen soldiers.
During the Great Patriotic War, many different cultural trends that existed in the Soviet country “intertwined” with each other. This is due to the fact that many prominent composers, famous artists, choreographers, and musicians linked their fate and creativity with the army and navy during the war years. A striking example characterizing this period is M. Slutsky’s film “Concert to the Front” of 1942.


Composers: V. Muradeli - led the song and dance ensemble of the Navy during the war; N. Budashkin - headed the song and dance ensemble of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. During the war years, A.V. Alexandrov continued his active creative work, being the author of two of the most important and most widespread works of the service and combat repertoire of the war period: “The Anthem of the Soviet Union” and “The Holy War”; as well as S. Chernetsky, who wrote over 50 marches during the four years of war. Among the participants in the front-line concert brigades, one can single out such soloists of the Bolshoi Theater as M. Mikhailov, I. Kozlovsky, S. Lemeshev, and many soloists of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov. Among the performers of Russian lyrical pop songs and romances are L. Ruslanova, K. Shulzhenko, G. Vinogradov. Among the choreographers who staged in amateur and professional military ensembles, the most famous are: R.V. Zakharov, who introduced into his productions a combination of choreographic fragments with non-dance, staged scenes, and P.P. Virsky, who created a generalized image of the liberating army, multinational in composition . Particularly interesting is the creativity and activity of pop-jazz orchestras (popular at that time as performers of waltzes, tangos and foxtrots): Y.B. Skomorovsky (in 1941-45, he led the jazz orchestra as part of the Central Ensemble of the Navy), V. F. Coralli, N.G. Minha (who led the Baltic Fleet Theater during the war), A.N. Tsfasman (who headed the jazz orchestra of the All-Union Radio Committee).
Famous pop singers performed to the music of military ensembles. Jazz orchestras began to accompany dancers from military organizations. Ballet dancers, dancing in front of ordinary people and warriors, filled their choreography with a heroic and patriotic orientation. Pop dancers, working together with artists of military ensembles, introduced into their choreography various forms of dance expression through virtuoso movements, acrobatic lifts, and complex technical techniques that developed before the war on the Soviet stage.
In connection with these phenomena, the repertoire and expressive means of dance in amateur and professional military ensembles have significantly expanded and enriched. In the song and musical repertoire of military ensembles, along with marches, folklore and classical music, romances, Soviet tango (combining the culture of romances and march music), foxtrot began to be performed, close, inextricable ties appeared between the genres of symphonic, opera, chamber and brass music. The dance repertoire began to be built not only on the basis of folk dance, but also on a combination of elements of classical and various genres of pop dance, which is clearly visible in the appearance of many numbers and dance suites on a military theme in military ensembles and in amateur groups after the war.
The Great Patriotic War laid the main “foundation” for the creativity of military song and dance ensembles.

"The hall is crowded." Performance by the branch of GAMT “Guilty Without Guilt”

August 13, 1941 Concert of front-line brigade artists in the field army. Photo by V. Malyshev

1942 Front-line acting team of the F. G. Volkov Theater

Ensemble of border troops of the Leningrad district in 1942, which served military units of the active army. Head teacher of the Conservatory A.V. Mikhailov

Theater artists Evg. Vakhtangov at the front-line soldiers


Balloon on Sverdlov Square in Moscow

Performance of the front brigade

G.F. Fesechko acting Director of the Conservatory (1943-1944) at the site of a shell explosion in the Conservatory building on September 25, 1943. Foyer of the Great Hall

Classes in besieged Leningrad

Kazan front artists near Moscow

Kantele.

Composer Blanter M., poet Svetlov M., composer Khrennikov T., editor of the corps newspaper Kozlovsky M.

Maly Theater

Disguise of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater

Makhmud Esambaev (sitting on the left) front brigade

Writer K.M. Simonov, artist V.V. Serova and artist A.S. Vishnevitskaya

Festive pop concert of the Mosconcert front brigade. 1943

The play “Wedding Journey” for the bedridden wounded of the front-line branch of the theater named after. E.Vakhtangova

Vakhtangov Theater near the front-line soldiers

Three tanks built at the expense of the team of the Sverdlovsk State Musical Comedy Theater

At the Brandenburg Gate. Poet Dolmatovsky E performs

Front brigade of the Leningrad Conservatory. Bryansk front. 1942

Front conc. brigade in Sevastopol. In the center - V. Kozin

Kukryniksy artists at the front

Circus at the front.

K.I. Shulzhenko

Yakhontov V.N. speaks to a team of Red Navy men on board a destroyer.

After the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, all cultural institutions of the Yaroslavl region reorganized their work taking into account wartime.

Watercolor by Sergei Svetlitsky "Yaroslavl. Krestyanskaya Street". 1942

War museums

Museums, which were the most important cultural and educational centers in the region, curtailed their research programs after the outbreak of the war. New expositions and exhibitions stopped being built. The reasons for this state of affairs were, first of all, that staff numbers were reduced, museums gave up their premises for military needs. The remaining employees in the first years of the war continued to engage only in lecture work.

In 1943, the Yaroslavl Regional Museum of Local Lore (now a museum-reserve) began to restore the permanent exhibition. The nature department resumed its work. It presented the works of Darwinian scientists: Michurin - on the breeding of new varieties of plants; Lysenko - about vernalization and potato cuttings, as well as the works of Derzhavin, Tsitsin, Ivanova. The exhibition presented the diversity of flora and fauna of the Yaroslavl region, minerals, sedimentary rocks, and geological sections. Mammoth bones found in the region were also exhibited.

In 1943, an exhibition on the history of Yaroslavl in the 17th century was presented in the Church of Elijah the Prophet. This was not done by chance: a historical parallel was drawn with the events of the Polish invasion. Samples of clothing, furniture, and utensils were presented, introducing the life of that era. Such events as the formation of the people's militia, as well as the applied art of the era, were also reflected.

During the war, fund work did not stop at the Yaroslavl Regional Museum. In 1944, many new exhibits were purchased: paintings from the early 19th century depicting birds and made of feathers, porcelain products from the Kuznetsov factory, released for the 100th anniversary of the War of 1812 depicting Napoleon’s entry into Moscow, photographs with views of the cities of the region at the end of the 19th century.

Art collections have been replenished with collections of paintings: drawings by Academician Nikolsky on the theme “Leningrad in the days of the siege”, works by graphic artist Yudovich on the theme “Leningrad in 1942.” and “The estate of the poet Nekrasov in Karabikha.” Many paintings with views of corners of the Yaroslavl region were received.

Many modern documents, photographs, things, letters, portraits of Yaroslavl order bearers, and trophy items were collected.

In 1945, the museum prepared the exhibition “Yaroslavl Region in the Days of the Great Patriotic War.” The exhibition featured 2,500 exhibits. Among them were samples of products from neck factories, shoemakers, artels engaged in the manufacture of knitwear, and the work of homeworkers. Portraits of leading production workers were presented. Many children's toys were exhibited. The work of Yarenergo, Yarstroy, and Glavlessnab enterprises was presented in layouts, diagrams, and maps. Samples of products were presented in the agriculture department.

Work continued to restore the activities of the museum departments. Already in the fall of 1946, the department of socialist construction, the historical department and the department of the Great Patriotic War began work. N.V. Kuznetsov, A.K. Sakulin, A.A. Romanycheva and others played a major role in restoring the work of the museum.

During the war years, other museums in the region also operated. Thus, in 1943, the Pereslavl Museum of Local Lore received 148 works of artists - students D. N. Kardovsky. Most of the paintings were dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In the art gallery at the museum, it was decided to create a special section “Honored Artist of the Republic, Professor D. N. Kardovsky and his students.” Materials were collected about him and his activities at the Academy of Arts.

In 1944, the Pereslavl Museum again resumed the exhibition, curtailed in 1941, on the topic “Russian sewing and textiles of the 18th-20th centuries.” ", which presented samples of Russian prints, fabrics, embroidery, and paintings embroidered with silk. Military conditions dictated the appropriate topics. A new exhibition “Patriotic War of 1812” was opened in the historical department, where weapons and uniforms of soldiers and officers were presented. A collection of Russian and English caricatures on military topics, portraits of war heroes, including the Povalishins, natives of Pereslavl, was also presented.

In 1944, the Uglich Local History Museum was also replenished with new exhibits. At the exhibition dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, 12 watercolor paintings by the artist Buchkin on military themes were exhibited. Like other museums, exhibitions about the country's military past were built here. The Seven Years' War and the events associated with the capture of Berlin in 1760 were presented, in connection with which a rare exhibit was exhibited - a Prussian officer's broadsword, on the hilt of which was the monogram of Frederick II.

The events of 1812 were also presented in the museum. This exhibition was located in the Church of Demetrius on Blood, where the funeral chariot in which the body of Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov was transported to St. Petersburg, and the original banner of one of the Russian infantry regiments was displayed. A portrait of Kutuzov’s wife was also exhibited here, as well as a mantel clock that belonged to him.

The attention of the authorities to historical and cultural monuments did not wane during the war years. The Commission for the Registration and Protection of Art Monuments continued to work.

A survey of the cities of Yaroslavl, Tutaev, and Rostov the Great, carried out by the Commission in the spring of 1943, showed that many monuments here were in a threatening condition and required urgent restoration work.

Libraries

The forms of work of libraries did not change even in wartime; their activities were regulated by the order of the People's Commissariat for Education “On the work of public libraries in wartime.” Library workers held lectures and conversations, introduced the population to the situation at the fronts, and organized patriotic exhibitions.

The regional library formed mobile libraries for hospitals and even for prisoner of war camps located in the vicinity of the city. In 1942, a collection of books was carried out for the areas of the Kalinin region, liberated from the Germans. Interest in literature on defense topics has increased noticeably. The library replenished its holdings by 2,500 copies with just such books.

Interest in such books as “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, military notes of Denis Davydov, “Napoleon” by E. Tarle, “Chapaev” and “Mutiny” by D. Furmanov has increased. The library organized special exhibitions on the theme of the Great Patriotic War, where there were sections dedicated to the heroic past of the Russian people, Russian commanders, and modern military events. In 1942, for example, 18 patriotic conversations were held with readers at such an exhibition.

The library helped readers who studied military affairs. A corner dedicated to air defense was created. In addition to books, there were also models on display that provided information about the structure of a grenade and a fire extinguisher. Samples of explosives were shown. Posters told about the behavior of the population during air raids.

Employees of the reading room of the regional library gave lectures on the international situation and events on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. By the spring of 1942, more than two thousand people had attended such lectures.

Library workers in the Yaroslavl region, with the help of Komsomol organizations, collected books from the local population for military units, hospitals, and sanitary trains. In 1942, activists of the Yaroslavl libraries named after. Krylova, them. Chekhov, libraries of the Zavolzhsky district. Over 6 thousand books were transferred from Rybinsk. Mobile libraries for military units were formed from these books.

Club work

Workers' and rural clubs, cultural centers, and reading rooms also carried out great cultural and educational work, aimed primarily at the patriotic education of the region's population. This work was carried out by both professional workers and volunteer Komsomol assistants, students, and local intelligentsia.

In 1942, a collective farm defense-anti-fascist film festival was held in the regions of the region, the program of which included feature films, newsreels and films on scientific and defense topics. Viewers saw films about the great commanders A. Nevsky, A. Suvorov, Minin and Pozharsky, as well as about the heroes of the civil war. The anti-fascist film “The Oppenheim Family” was shown.

Among the educational films on defense, “Fighting Enemy Tanks”, “Hand-to-Hand Combat”, “Fighter Skier”, etc. were shown. Military newsreels and combat film collections were shown in the chronicles. The audience saw the ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Soviet on November 6 and the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.

In 1943, a film festival dedicated to Constitution Day was held in the Yaroslavl region. It was headed by G. Grishin, head of the department of film production of the Yaroslavl region. Before the start of film shows, party and Komsomol workers gave reports and conversations. Most of the films presented were on military themes.

Much attention in the clubs was paid to lecture work. Thus, the intelligentsia of the Bolsheselsky district gave about 150 lectures and reports on defense topics in just three months of 1941. Defense clubs, drama and choral groups were created at 19 reading rooms in the region.

During 1944, rural reading rooms and clubs held 19,300 lectures and 21,148 conversations on agricultural, political, and cultural topics. In addition, amateur artistic groups that organized mass cultural work played an important role in their work. First of all, we are talking about performances in military units, hospitals, as well as at enterprises and collective farms.

Quite regularly during the war, amateur art shows were held. In Yaroslavl, such shows were held in 1942 and 1943. Teams from the plant took part in the latter. Red Perekop“, where the song and dance ensemble, created in 1941, was very popular, as well as the clubs “Giant”, “Severokhod”, and the locomotive repair plant. These were the most professionally strong teams. The concert teams of these clubs gave from 200 to 500 concerts in the first months of the war alone.

Similar reviews took place in rural areas. Amateur activities developed especially actively in the Myshkinsky district. Here in 1944, several dozen creative groups took part in the show. The best were presented at the regional Olympiad. The Myshkin House of Culture initiated socialist competition between houses of culture. The People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR approved and supported this initiative.

Houses of culture competed in several areas: the best production of cultural and educational work, organization of lecture groups, meetings with front-line soldiers, discussion of films, visual propaganda, exhibitions, etc.

Komsomol members actively participated in establishing cultural and educational work. In the Rybinsk region in 1943, Komsomol members created more than a hundred creative circles at clubs, reading huts and red corners. Particular attention was paid to military training.

Similar work was carried out by the team of the House of the Red Army in Yaroslavl. Primarily, the house served military units through tours of concert brigades. A methodological office for amateur performances was created at the House of the Red Army, in which professional theater actors, composers, and other artists worked as consultants.

Literary life

During the war, most writers found themselves at the front. They continued their activities in front-line newspapers or became political workers.

Despite the difficulties of wartime, in 1942 the Yaroslavl House of the Red Army and the House of Folk Art prepared for publication a collection of songs about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. The collection was compiled by Yaroslavl poets and composers. It included 17 songs with words and notes. Thus, the Red Army soldier M. Zharov wrote the song “Sailors Go to Battle,” the music for which was written by A. Nuzhin. The collection also included a song about the Yaroslavl hero-pilot M. Zhukov, “Yaroslavl Militia.” It was planned to release 10 thousand leaflets with song lyrics and notes.

Many Yaroslavl writers joined the active army, among them V. A. Smirnov, M. S. Lisyansky, A. A. Kuznetsov, A. M. Flyagin and others. Many became war correspondents. Thus, A. Kuznetsov was a correspondent for the newspaper Izvestia. The editor of the newspaper of the 243rd division, “Into the Battle for the Motherland,” was V. Smirnov. Then this newspaper was edited by M. Lisyansky, who wrote many poems at the front and published them in two collections. The editor of the front-line newspaper was P. Losev. A. Kuzmin, who wrote a book of poems “A Word about Courage” at the front, worked as a correspondent for the newspaper of the 234th Infantry Division “For the Fatherland.”

Sometimes front-line poets came to Yaroslavl for a short time. In July 1944, A. Zharov and S. Vasiliev performed at a literary evening held at the Theater. Volkova. They shared their impressions of front-line life with listeners and read their works. Then they performed at city enterprises, met with party and Komsomol activists, writers and journalists.

Yaroslavl writers A. Kuznetsov, A. Flyagin, V. Shuldeshov did not return from the front.

Theater during the war

During the war years, the Yaroslavl Volkov Theater did not remain aloof from new challenges. Many actors went to the front. Directors S. M. Orshansky, D. M. Mansky, actors V.K. Mosyagin, S. P. Avericheva, V. P. Mitrofanov, V. E. Sokolov and others.

The theater began to prepare front-line concert brigades. The first trip to the front took place in 1942. Yaroslavl residents gave 40 performances in military units, for which the brigade was awarded the Guards badge. In the next two years, three more trips to the front took place.

Similar work was underway in Yaroslavl itself. The artists gave concerts and performances, participated in raising funds for the construction of the “Soviet Artist” squadron and a special aircraft “Volkov Theater”.

In addition to the Volkovsky Theater, other groups also went to the front: the Rybinsk Drama Theater, the Yaroslavl Mobile Theater, the Rostov Drama Theater. Together they gave about 4 thousand performances and concerts during the war years. The Rostov theater traveled to areas liberated from the Germans and was transferred with all its personnel and property to the city of Yelets, liberated from the Germans.

During the war years, such patriotic plays as “Front” by A. Korneychuk, “Invasion” by L. Leonov, “Russian People” by K. Simonov were staged on the stage of the Volkovsky Theater. The director played a special role in their production I. A. Rostovtsev. In addition to these plays, the repertoire of the war years included the performances “Field Marshal Kutuzov”, “Commander Suvorov”, “General Brusilov”. The latter was first shown on the theater stage.

In 1944, studios were created at many theaters. Such a studio also appeared at the Volkovsky Theater. She became a source of young actors for various theater groups. It taught Russian and foreign literature, theater history, French, and a number of professional subjects: plastic arts, fencing, etc. Anyone with at least a 7th grade education could enroll in the studio.

The studio also began to serve schoolchildren. The first performance was the production of “The Crystal Slipper” based on the fairy tale “Cinderella”. It was a musical performance, for which composer B. M. Nazimov, artist A. G. Novikov, and choreographer O. G. Sudarkin were involved.

In addition to trips to the front, active theater work also took place within the region. Thus, the Rostov City Theater staged 52 performances in 1942 alone. These were plays by Ostrovsky, Gorky, Gerasimov. The theater traveled to Borisoglebsky, Gavrilov-Yamsky, Petrovsky and Rostovsky districts, where 40 productions were shown. These performances were watched by about 35 thousand spectators.

Despite wartime, the cities of the region exchanged theater groups. In 1942, the Rybinsk Theater came to Yaroslavl. He showed the musical comedy “Mutual Love”. A response to the military events was the appearance on the theater poster of Lipskerov’s play “Nadezhda Durova” and the play “The Day Will Come” - about the German occupation of France. The premiere of the play “The Jester Balakirev” based on the play by A. Mariengof took place in Yaroslavl.

The Yaroslavl Regional Collective and State Farm Theater also visited the region's districts several times. His repertoire included productions of one-act plays on defense and anti-fascist themes. In 1942 alone, the team visited 200 collective farms, state farms, MTS and orphanages. He gave more than 300 performances, which were watched by over 100 thousand spectators. During the trips, combat leaflets were issued, conversations were held, and assistance was provided to amateur art groups.

During the war years, the Yaroslavl Puppet Theater presented 1,638 performances - they played in hospitals, factory workshops, schools and orphanages. 13 new productions were carried out.

Amateur theater groups also took part in theatrical life. Thus, the productions of the theater group of the Davydkovsky House of Culture in the Yaroslavl region were very popular among viewers. In addition to the club, they showed performances in neighboring village councils. In 1942, for example, the team donated money from its productions to the construction of a tank column.

The drama group of the Myshkin House of Culture gave about 50 performances in 1942. His repertoire included plays by Simonov and Korneychuk, reflecting military-patriotic themes. From their ranks, they formed propaganda teams that spoke to agricultural workers during field work.

Music life

Musical groups from the region were also active. The Yaroslavl Philharmonic played a leading position in this area of ​​culture. She formed several concert brigades for performances in the active army. In addition, military trains and hospitals were served by musicians. The Philharmonic helped many amateur musical groups.

Many concerts were given in the region. In 1942 The Philharmonic concert brigade traveled along the route of the Northern Railway. The artists performed at the stations of Berendeevo, Beklemishevo, Petrovsk, Kosmynino and others. She gave a number of concerts in the villages of peat miners and lumberjacks.

In 1944, the Philharmonic ensemble under the direction of Ya. S. Rostovtsev, traveling by rail, gave concerts in the territories liberated from the Nazis. Concerts took place in Bryansk, Orel, Kaluga and other cities. In addition, they gave more than 70 concerts for railway workers of the Moscow-Kyiv railway and the Czechoslovak military brigade located on the territory of the USSR.

During the war, a music lecture hall was opened at the Philharmonic, which was visited mainly by residents of the rubber plant areas, the Krasny Pereval and Krasny Perekop factories. Listeners came from some rural areas. Then it was transformed into a university of musical culture.

At the beginning of 1945, the All-Union Review of Amateur Choirs and Vocalists was announced. Yaroslavl groups were also actively preparing for it. New choirs and vocal groups were created in factories and factories. The song and dance ensemble of the Krasny Perekop factory, the folk choir of the automobile plant, the Tutaevsk Tulma factory, and the Gavrilov-Yamsky choir of veterans of the Zarya Socialisma factory were especially active in preparing for the show.

A noticeable role in the musical life of the region was played by groups evacuated from the occupied territories. For example, in 1942, Estonian musical groups carried out extensive concert work. These were a song and dance ensemble, a jazz orchestra, a symphony orchestra, working in hospitals and military units.

Since November 1942, artistic musical ensembles of Lithuania have been working in Pereslavl: a symphony orchestra, a jazz orchestra, a dance group, and a choir. These groups performed with special programs not only in Pereslavl, but also in other cities in the region.

The Belarusian song and dance ensemble, created in Bialystok from amateur art circles, was located in Danilov. His repertoire included Belarusian songs, songs of the peoples of the USSR, songs about the Great Patriotic War. In January 1944, the group gave a big concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Belarusian SSR.

Artistic life

During the war years, many artists went to the front. In the active army were A. A. Shkoropad and N. I. Kirsanov. P. S. Oparin and I. A. Zhukov died at the front.

But at the same time, art exhibitions were regularly held in the region, the purpose of which was to show military events and the heroism of Soviet soldiers at the fronts and in partisan detachments.

In 1942, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, an exhibition of paintings by Yaroslavl artists dedicated to the Great Patriotic War was opened in Yaro-Slavl. Works by artists Grishin “Under Direct Fire”, “They Came” were presented; Druzhinin “The defeat of the German convoy by the partisans”; Shindykov “Partisans in Ambush”; Efremov "From the battlefield." Kostroma, Leningrad, and Estonian artists participated in the exhibition. The works of the Leningrad graphic artists Yudovich and Khiger, the watercolorist Svetlitsky, and the sculptors Kozlovsky and Voinova stood out at the exhibition.

In 1943, the Yaroslavl branch of the Union of Artists opened an exhibition dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. Artists from different cities also took part in it. Leningrad graphic artist Yudovich presented at the exhibition a series of engravings on the theme “Leningrad in the days of the siege.” Kostroma artist Shlein - a series of landscapes of the city during the war and portraits of heroes. (Until 1944, the territory of the current Kostroma region was part of the Yaroslavl region.) The artist Druzhinin, a direct participant in the war, also took part in the exhibition with the painting “To the Front Line.”

Yaroslavl artist Shindykov presented his works in 1944 at an exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery. For the painting “Behind Enemy Lines” he was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the Komsomol Central Committee.

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During the Patriotic War, artists, graphic artists, sculptors, like the entire Soviet people, fought with the bayonet and pen. From the first days of the declaration of war, cartoons and posters appeared in newspapers, magazines, propaganda leaflets and leaflets calling for a fight against the fascists. Artists and sculptors also did everything they could for the front and for victory. During the war, works of fine art that were vibrant in artistic and emotional perception were created, which even today appeal to patriotism, not leaving viewers indifferent.

The heartfelt language of a war poster

The patriotic poster has become an effective ideological weapon. Vivid artistic images were created with a minimal set of graphic tools in a short time. The images on the poster were accessible and understandable to all citizens. The heroes of the posters evoked empathy, hatred of the enemy and love for the Motherland, an ardent desire to defend the Fatherland.

The creators of the posters and their works have become classics of Soviet patriotic graphics. Textbook examples:

• artist I. Toidze and his “Motherland Calls”;
• D. Shmarinov demanding “Revenge”;
• V. Koretsky, calling “Warrior of the Red Army, save!”

The classics of Soviet patriotic posters are V. Ivanov, V. Kasiyan, A Kokorekin, L. Golovanov and others.

Sharp feather cartoon

During the Patriotic War, artistic graphics were most clearly represented by satirical caricature. The classics of Soviet caricature, the Kukryniksys, work for the Pravda newspaper and other printed publications. Almost every day, caustic caricatures of fascists appear, calling on citizens to resist, telling how cruel and insidious the enemy is and how to fight him.

In besieged Leningrad, cartoonists maintain morale by publishing the magazine “Combat Pencil.” In Georgia, cartoonists publish the almanac “Bayonet and Pen”, in which master L.D. drew. Gudiashvili. Cartoonists Boris Efimov and M. Cheremnykh collaborated with TASS Windows, promptly responding to everyday events on the fronts. Humor and satire inspired the fighters and directed the just anger of the people towards the sacred struggle.

Military easel graphics

During the war period, easel graphics actively developed. This type of fine art, dynamic and laconic in its artistic means and techniques, did not require special artistic materials. Pencil and charcoal were always at hand and allowed the artist to make drawings, documenting what he saw and his impressions on paper.

Sketches by M. Saryan, lithographs by Vereisky, watercolor drawings by A. Fonvizin, and engravings by S. Kobuladze became classics of the genre. The life of besieged Leningrad is reflected in gouaches by artists Y. Nikolaev and M. Platunov, and in watercolor and pastel drawings by E. Belukha and S. Boym. A series of graphic sketches by Dm. Shmarinov “We ​​will not forget, we will not forgive!” was started in 1942 in cities liberated from the Nazis. Made with charcoal and black watercolor.

Military everyday life and everyday life were captured in the drawings of L.V. Soifertis in black watercolor. The series “Sevastopol”, “Crimea”, “Caucasus” were created from 1941 to 1944. Genre pictures are filled with pride for the Soviet people, optimism, and glorify the fighting spirit of the people.

The Patriotic War and its heroes in works of art

Military painting, including battle paintings, at the initial stage of the war was not distinguished by the depth of detail. However, these paintings captivate with the depth of feelings and vividness of impressions that the artist wanted to convey. The portrait genre is receiving particular development. Artists, inspired by the heroic deeds of the soldiers, sought to capture the inspired and expressive faces of the heroes.

One of these paintings was “Portrait of a Partisan Commander” by F. Modorov, 1942. The artist painted a whole gallery of portraits of ordinary partisans and military commanders. In a combat situation and in the office, war heroes are focused and decisive, they are confident in themselves and in future victory. Also in 1942, the portrait of Major General Panfilov was painted by the artist V. Yakovlev. The commander has a field coat on his shoulders and binoculars in his hands. It seems that he is just back from the front line, but is already ready to go into battle again.

Battle scenes and heroic resistance to the enemy were depicted in the monumental canvas by A.A. Deineka “Defense of Sevastopol” 1942. For a moment, the figures of sailors repelling enemy attacks froze. Now bunches of grenades will fly at the fascists, some of the enemies have already been killed. The intensity of the battle is enhanced by the red sunset that serves as the background. Sunlight fights black clouds of smoke just like sailors in white fight fascists in dark green uniforms. The contrast of movement - a swinging sailor and a lying fascist and the contrast of color - a red-black sunset and the bright white uniform of the sailors give the canvas a special artistic expressiveness. It also inspires the viewer, who is confident of victory over the enemy.

Household and genre painting of the Second World War period

Painters from besieged Leningrad V. Raevsky, V. Pakulin, N. Rutkovsky, N. Timkov managed to capture with documentary accuracy the life of Soviet people in the besieged city. From the painting by Y. Nikolaev “Queue for bread”, 1943. Cold and frost blows over the viewer along with the hope of waiting for the bread ration. Hope never left the townspeople, and they managed to survive!

Kuryniksy M.V. Kupriyanov, P.N. Krylov, N.A. Sokolov, having learned about the execution of partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, came to the place of her death. Based on fresh impressions, they painted the canvas “Tanya”. An exhausted girl, a moment before death, looks disobediently and with hatred into the eyes of the executioners. Zoya is not broken, she holds her head straight, it seems that the girl will speak. Her confidence and fortitude are conveyed to the audience.

Monumental art during the Patriotic War

During the difficult period of the war, monumental art was also in demand. Sculptors went to the front, creating sketches and portraits from life in difficult combat conditions. Soviet monumentalists sought to depict the patriotic upsurge of the people: military scenes and heroic work in the home front. This gave a new impetus to the development of genre and monumental sculpture.

The bronze bust of General Chernyakhovsky, 1945-1946, made by E.V. Vuchetich, became canonical. The statue “Politruk” was created by him in 1942. The political instructor rouses soldiers to attack, his heroic impulse is transmitted to everyone present. Many sculptors who visited the front created busts and portraits of ordinary soldiers and military commanders. Among them:

• works by L. E. Kerbel - portraits of heroic pilots;
• I.G. Pershudchev - portrait of General Kovpak, medical instructor Masha Shcherbachenko, soldiers with the Victory Banner Sergeant M.A. Egorov and Sergeant M.V. Kantaria;
• V. and Mukhina - portraits of colonels B. A. Yusupov, I. Ya. Khizhnyak;
• N.V. Tomsky - portrait of twice Hero of the Soviet Union M.T. Goreev.

During the Patriotic War, artists not only reflected the military realities and the struggle of the Soviet people, but also developed and improved artistic culture, supported the fighting spirit of the people, faith in victory, and inspired them to exploits.