Jointly organizing the event were the Russian Embassy to China, the Chinese People's Society for Friendship with Other Countries, the China-Russia Friendship Society, RIA Novosti, the Roszarubezhcenter (Russian organization for contacts with ethnic Russians abroad) and the Rosoboronexport federal arms dealer company.
"The photographs on display tell about hard tests the Soviet Union withstood. Those trials and tribulations demonstrated the human spirit in all its grandeur, which gave ample instances of martial valor. The exhibits portray ordinary people who laid down their life for the Victory cause," Igor Rogachev, Russian Ambassador to China, said at the opening gala.
"The show that opened today fully reflects a glorious victory of sixty years ago in a sanguinary war," Niui Yingli, Executive Secretary of the Chinese People's Society for Friendship with Other Countries, said to Novosti.
She does not think Beijing has ever hosted such an extensive show-Novosti alone is offering 160 items out of its photo archives.
The Armenian and Moldovan ambassadors attended the opening gala, alongside other spokesmen of many countries, among them Argentina, Brazil, Mongolia, Romania and Turkmenistan.
RIA Novosti is active in other photograph expositions on the same topic, arranged elsewhere in China-at the University of Foreign Economic Contacts and Commerce, and the Foreign Languages University, both Beijing-based, and the Fudan University of Shanghai.
Novosti is expected to have another extensive exposition, to open mid-June, in Chongqing, one of China's largest cities.
