Museum in Russia Closed Because of Exhibition of War Photos

(Photo on the cover: Landing of the American troops on D-Day, Omaha Beach, Normandy Coast. June 6th, 1944. By Robert Capa.)

On April 9th, due to the technical reasons, Metenkov House Museum of Photography was closed. The head of the museum, Raisa Zorina, confirmed in the “Kommersant” newsletter that the premise needed reconstruction, “For the last seven years we have needed reconstruction and we were waiting in a queue”.

An unnamed source connected with the newsletter drew a correlation between the event and the fact that on April 10th there was a planned opening of the exhibition, “Triumph and Tragedy: Allies of World War II,” which was prepared with both the U.S. and British consulates in Ekaterinburg. “The museum was closed by [Federal Security Service of Russia] following a direct order from Moscow, which was politically conditioned,” said the source. According to him there were no complaints about the project or its content, but the cooperation between the museum and U.S. and British consulates caused the closure. Public relations from the Federal Security Service Directorate in Sverdlov oblast denied that the Federal Security Service is connected to the closure of the museum.

“We set a goal to tell about the war in a wider content and to show it was a tragedy for the whole world. The exhibition will contain iconic war photos from the 20th century made by American and British photographers. We compiled photos made in the Pacific Ocean, North Africa, Europe. We selected the photographs, and the consulates provided support and helped to solve the issue of the author’s rights,” said Raisa Zorina.

{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg01.jpg”, “text”: “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. Mount Suribachi. February 23, 1945. By Joe Rosenthal” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg02.jpg”, “text”: “Dostler tied to a stake before the execution. Italy, December 1, 1945. By a photographer of US Army.” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg03.jpg”, “text”: “Georgi Zhukov, Bernard Montgomery, and Konstantin Rokossovsky in Berlin. July, 12, 1945. By photographer of UK Ministry of Defense” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg04.jpg”, “text”: “Inhumane conditions at Buchenwald, 16 Apr 1945. By H. Miller (US Army).” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg05.jpg”, “text”: ” Winter at the Manzanar Relocation Center. California. Winter, 1943. By Ansel Adams.” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg06.jpg”, “text”: “An American Marine lifts a nearly dead infant. Saipan, June, 1944. By W. Eugene Smith” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg07.jpg”, “text”: “3 year-old blitz victim Eileen Dunne. London, September 1940. By Cecil Beaton.” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg08.jpg”, “text”: “A German SS guard carries an emaciated corpse over his shoulder to one of the mass graves. April 1945. By Oakes, H (Sergeant, British Army)” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg09.jpg”, “text”: “German prisoners of war captured near the town of Geesthacht. The photograph shows a captured German Army major with some of those under his command. All young boys, their ages rage from 13 to 16. April, 1945. By sergeant Lang (British Army).” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg10.jpg”, “text”: “Prime-Minister Winston Churchill. June 6, 1941. By Horton (Capt), British Army” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg11.jpg”, “text”: “Mother and child in Hiroshima, Japan. December, 1945. By Alfred Eisenstaedt.” },
{ “img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ekaterinburg12.jpg”, “text”: “V-J Day in Time Square. New York, August 14, 1945. By Alfred Eisenstaedt.” }

(Photos are provided by Press service of Metenkov House Museum of Photography)