The exhibition presents ancient Slavic and West European manuscripts, such as the Service to St. Willigis (the 12th century), The Ladder (the 16th century), the Yelizavetgrad Gospel (1600). Lovers of Russian classics may be interested to see autographs of Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov.
The library offers a rare collection of Giordano Bruno's books published in his lifetime and one of the first Russian printed books, The Apostle, published by Ivan Fyodorov in 1654, as well as The Fountain of Bakhchisarai poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1827 while the poet was still alive. Those interested in Russia's military history may see the History of the Preobrazhensky regiment life guards and of the 44th Nizhni Novgorod dragoon regiment published in the beginning of the last century, as well as the historic chronicles of the 63rd Uglich infantry regiment, which covers 200 years from 1708 till 1908. The library has a unique in volume and composition collection of foreign Russian writers. The exhibition is decorated with engravings, film posters and photos. It is held within the international conference Rumyantsev Readings 2004 organized under the auspices of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Culture and Mass Communications Ministry and the Russian Academy of Natural Science. This year's theme is "Innovation Technologies and Variety of Cultures".
* On April 19th Moscow hosted the opening of the 5th international month of photograph or Photo Biennale 2004. Over 100 photo exhibitions of famous photographers from France, Finland, the USA, Iran, the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden and China, as well as of classics of Russian photo art will be held in Moscow's best exhibition halls, such as Novy Manezh, the Museum of Russia's Modern History, the Central Artists' House, the Moscow House of Photograph, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and others.
Half of the exhibitions were to be held in Manezh, so after the fire that destroyed the historic building a few weeks ago the forum was on the brink of frustration. Yet many organizations offered their halls to host the event that had long ago become the inalienable part of the capital's life.
The photo forum was founded by the Moscow City government together with the Russian Culture and Press Ministry. It is supported by the French Foreign Ministry, the city administration of Paris, a number of foreign embassies in Russia and Moscow cultural centers of France, Germany and Spain.
The first exhibition opened on Monday, April 19th, in Novy Manezh. It is called "Paris through photographers' eyes" and will last till May 5th. The exhibition was arranged by the Georges Pompidou Center, France. It unites works of talented artists of different origins: Hungarians Brassai and Kertes, American Man Ray, Romanian Eli Lotar, Lithuanian Izis. All of them use different artistic methods to convey the city's unique atmosphere.
* On April 20-21 the Rossiya state concert hall, Moscow, will host concerts devoted to the 80th anniversary since the birth of well-known poet and bard Bulat Okudzhava (1924-1997).
The bard band "Pesni Nashego Veka" (Songs of Our Century), which has already released four albums with the best examples of Russia's bard songs of the recent decades, will present to the audience its new disc with 17 songs by Okudzhava.
The band will perform songs from famous films "Belorussky Vokzal" (The Belarussian Station) and "Beloye Solntse Pustyni" (A White Sun in a Desert).
Bulat Okudzhava is a symbolic figure in the Russian culture of the second half of the 20th century. Several generations of Russians grew up with his philosophic lyric poetry. His songs are loved and known by people of all ages.
Okudzhava took part in the Great Patriotic war (WWII). He began writing songs in the 1950s. After the war he graduated from the philology department of the Tbilisi University. In 1957 the whole country was already singing his "Polnochny Trolleibus" (Midnight Trolleybus), "Sentimentalny Vals" (Sentimental Waltz), "Korol" (King) and "Pesenka o Soldatskikh Sapogakh" "Tune about Soldiers' Boots). In 1961 Okudzhava returned to writing prose and published his first story "Bud Zdorov, Shkolyar!" (How are Things, School-Boy?), followed by novels "Puteshestvie Diletantov" (A Journey of Dilettanti) and "Svidanie s Bonapartom" (An Encounter with Bonaparte). He also wrote screenplays for some of well-known films, "Vernost" (Faithfulness) and "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha". His last book of poems, "Chaepitie na Arbate" (Drinking Tea in Arbat) was published in 1996.
* On April 22nd Russia will see the new production of famous film director Karen Shakhnazarov, now head of the Mosfilm concern, "Vsadnik Po Imeni Smert" (Horseman Named Death).
After the musical films "My Is Dzhaza" (We're From Jazz) and "Zimny Vecher v Gagrakh" (Winter Evening in Gagry), as well as the "Kuryer" (The Messenger Boy), which was popular among the young in the mid 1980s, the audience will discover a completely new Shakhnazarov. This time the director took up the subject of terrorism. The film is made after a story of Boris Savinkov, Russian ideologist of terror of the first third of the 20th century. "Bledny Kon" (The Pale Horse) is written in the form of a diary. The author shows inner contradictions that tear a person who is always near death and brings death to others. The main character gradually gets disappointed in the idea of terror he was so fascinated with at the early age. The story is to a large extent autobiographic and thus especially valuable.
The main reason for the director to turn to this book was the problem of terrorism that in recent years has become increasingly topical for the world. The part of Savinkov is performed by famous actor Andrei Panin.
