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Normandie-Niemen-75 exhibition opens at Moscow’s Museum of Victory

The awards, personal belonging and documents of French pilot Maurice Guido became the core of the Normandie-Niemen-75 exhibition that opened at Moscow’s Museum of Victory
Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS
Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky
© Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The awards, personal belonging and documents of French pilot Maurice Guido became the core of the Normandie-Niemen-75 exhibition that opened at Moscow’s Museum of Victory on Friday. Russian Culture Minister and Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society Vladimir Medinsky attended the opening ceremony.

"The transfer of the Guido family archive is an important symbolic gesture. Tomorrow will be the 75th anniversary of the signing of the agreement to form the Normandie-Niemen Regiment-a joint international Soviet-French air force formation. Regarding today’s attempts to view the World War II history in different ways, find the allegedly forgotten ‘dark pages’ and ‘revise’ the forfeit of our grandfathers, this story becomes especially important," Medinsky said at the opening ceremony for the exhibition.

In his speech, he also said that the Normandie-Niemen Regiment was one of the most effective air force formations by the number of combat missions. The pilots performed their missions on a round-the-clock basis, showing how real patriots may fight together for a common goal, the minister said.

"This exhibition is devoted to real people. They lived with a common goal to defeat the enemy. We respect the memory of the forfeit of each hero. Each of them sacrificed their lives for the Fascism destruction and the peaceful future of our countries," Medinsky said.

About the exhibition

The Normandie-Niemen-75 exhibition consists of 320 objects and is a joint project of the Museum of Victory and the Russian Military Historical Society. The core of the exposition are things that belonged to Normandie-Niemen fighter pilot Maurice Guido and were given by his daughter, Anne-Marie Guido, on June 22, 2016, as a gift to Russia. The exposition features Guido’s awards, his belongings (an aviation clock, a compass, flying goggles and a canteen), his pilot logbook, military maps and photos.

Deputy Director of the Museum of Victory Fyodor Smuglin said that the exhibition presents the fate of the air regiment and displays exhibits from the Russian State Archive of Films and Photographic Documents, the Central Archive of the Russian Defense Ministry, the Museum of Victory, as well as from four school museums of Moscow, Oryol and the Moscow Region. "Personal belongings of the 1st Air Force Commander, Timofey Khryukin, were given by his son Andrey," Smuglin said.

Visitors will be able to see documents, photos and military kits of pilots Joseph Risso, Igor Eikhenbaum and Konstantin Feldzer, along with portions of the aircraft operated by Jean Louis Tulasne, who was killed in a battle over Oryol.

The exhibition also displays personal possessions of Commander of the 1st Air Force (the Normandie-Niemen Regiment was part of it) Timofey Khryukin and regimental senior engineer colonel Sergey Agavelyan.