An exhibition titled “The Image of Musa Jalil in the Works of Contemporary St. Petersburg Artists,” dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of the poet-hero Musa Jalil, has opened at the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities.

Artists from St. Petersburg and Kazan presented their works. The paintings and sculptural compositions tell the story of the life, work, and heroic feat of Musa Jalil.

The multifaceted image of the poet — a war correspondent and Red Army soldier — is conveyed through painting, graphics, and sculpture. Some of the works are dedicated to his imprisonment in Moabit prison, where the writer was sent after being captured, accused of participating in an underground organization and spreading Soviet propaganda. He dedicated a cycle of poems to this period.

“Despite the fact that he was executed in ’44, a criminal case was opened, accusing him of treason. But thanks to his comrades, and the poems he wrote — three notebooks of Moabit poems appeared in our country. One of them ended up with Konstantin Simonov, who saw that he was a true patriot and that the man could not have been a traitor,” said Igor Zhukov, Director of the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities.

“Each work is unique; I don’t want to offend or single anyone out. Here are works by artists from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, as well as from the Republic of Tatarstan. We are actively working with the Ministry of Culture of Tatarstan, and such exhibitions are taking place across the country this year,” noted Shamil Shayakhmetov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tatarstan in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

According to the organizers, representatives of the Tatar people are actively involved in the cultural life of the city. Holding the exhibition in the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia highlights the contribution of cultural figures of various nationalities to the common Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Source: tvspb.ru