Battle of Moscow

The ‘Battle of Moscow’ exhibition is dedicated to the 75th anniversary since the outbreak of one of the most extensive and bloody engagements in the Second World War. This battle proved to be a turning point. The courage shown by Soviet soldiers and Moscow residents destroyed the myth that Hitler’s army was invincible. Despite terrible losses they gained a vital strategic triumph, inspiring hope for outright and unconditional victory in a war that had already lasted four long years.
The MAMM exhibition displays works by classics of Soviet photography and eminent war photographers Ivan Shagin, Arkady Shaikhet, Dmitri Baltermants, Alexander Ustinov, Emmanuil Yevzerikhin and Mikhail Grachev, as well as newsreels from that time.
The ‘Battle of Moscow’ exhibition shows decisive stages in the fighting. Photographs and newsreels allow us to see how city defences were organised and how the Red Army mounted their offensive, and moreover to feel the emotions of those defending the city, including women, children and the elderly, all unable to join the war as volunteers.
Among the thousands of press photographers that participated in the Second World War, working on various fronts, it was Soviet photographers that left us with the most striking testimony of that fearful time, revealing incredible acts of heroism in conditions where simply focusing the lens seemed impossible, both physically and morally.
The Battle of Moscow not only took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, volunteers and civilians, but also the lives of war photographers. Their immortal frames have survived and will live on, reminding us and future generations of a ghastly tragedy that must never be repeated, helping to keep the memory of those who managed to preserve these invaluable documentary photographs for us today.