On display are rare and archival photographs, frontline snapshots, posters and propaganda materials dating back to the WWII years. Among the photographs featured here are ones from Khatyn, a Belarussian village that the Nazi invaders reduced to ashes.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent a message of greetings to the organizers of the memorial exhibition. In it, he pointed out that "the heroism, gallantry and self-sacrifice that the Russian people displayed during WWII are widely known. India, too, contributed its bit in the victory over Nazism. Please accept my very best wishes in the days when [an anniversary of] this heroic event is being celebrated." Baliram Bhagat, Chair of the India-Russia Friendship Society, read Mr Singh's message out at the opening ceremony today.
Speaking at the ceremony, Arjun Singh, Indian State Minister for Human Resources Development, emphasized the significance of PM Singh's planned participation in the forthcoming V-E anniversary celebrations in Moscow. He said this was especially important in the light of the strategic partnership between India and Russia.
As he addressed the gathering, Russian Ambassador to India Vyacheslav Trubnikov pointed out, for his part, that in the Second World War, the battle was not between nations or blocs of nations, but between two ideologies, and that this war ended with a triumph of the forces of life over the forces of death.
Fyodor Rozovsky, Director of the Russian Center of Science and Culture, reminded the audience that India, too, had taken part in World War II-Indian soldiers fought on battlefields of North Africa, Italy, and Myanmar.
Given its complicated and controversial character, the Second World War holds a very special place in the history of world military conflicts of recent time. It prompted the rise of national liberation movements all across the world, leading to the emergence of new sovereign states, including the Republic of India, said Mr Rozovsky.
