The State Hermitage and the World Club of Petersburgers Presented the Issues, Dedicated to the Great Patriotic War

24 May 2010, the Menshikov Palace hosted the party, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, organized by the State Hermitage and the World Club of Petersburgers.

The attention of the audience was presented two editions: Lev Pumpyansky. The Hermitage: Verses and Poems. Letters to the Relatives (Yekaterinburg, Sredne-Uralskoye Knizhnoye Izdatelstvo. Novoye Vremya, 2009) and Voice of Your Heart (St Petersburg, Publishing House “Petrocentr”, 2010).

The collected volume of works of Lev Ivanovich Pumpyansky (1889-1943), well-known Leningrad art historian, Dean of the Arts History Faculty of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, includes a poetic series devoted to the Hermitage, written in the days of the blockade, as well as live publications of the author and letters to the relatives of 1906-1943.

In the terrible days of the blockade Lev Pumpyansky referred to “timeless values” – poetic thoughts on the masterpieces of the world art. The ground-plan of the series included: Introduction, Antique section, Middle Ages, Flanders and Holland, France. The public reading of a part of verses from the series, written by the summer of 1942, took place on 15 August of the same year. The series “The Hermitage” remained unaccomplished. The section Middle Ages is not complete. The Antiquity section does not have a concluding sonnet. Some parts of Roman Portraits are lost. Lev Ivanovich wanted to add verses about the paintings of Eugene Delacroix and impressionists to the French section. The section Flanders and Holland, which opens manuscript The Hermitage, rewritten by Lev Pumpyansky himself, is appeared to be the most complete.

The second part of the book is composed of letters of Lev Pumpyansky. Addressees are parents, wife, twin-daughters Raya and Sonya, who were in evacuation with their school. The whole range of letters mention widely known cultural figures with who Lev Ivanovich was on friendly terms, communicated or met in person.

Book-album Voice of Your Heart presents creative works of students of the Arts School n.a. N.K. Roerich – painting and sculpture compositions, posters, literary sketches and essays.

The history of the blockade enrolment of 1943-1944 academic year – archive documents, photographs, memoirs of war years opening the book coincide with the works and thoughts of the students of the middle 20th – early 21st centuries about war, about fates of people, about “proud and sorrowful” pages in the life of the blockade Leningrad.

Party in the Menshikov Palace, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, Valentina Orlova, Chairman of the Board of the World Club of Petersburgers, and Yulia Kantor, Councilor of Director of the State Hermitage

Sophia Pumpyanskaya, daughter of Lev Ivanovich Pumpyansky (1889-1943)