VietNamNet Bridge – As the wives of Russian leaders, the country’s first ladies were more than just partners and mothers, but had important political, social and economic influence on this great nation.

Russian dolls: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova and Emperor Nicholas II and members of the royal family along with the escort during the march in procession at the Kremlin, Moscow, in 1900.

Witness to history

Two hundred photos and documents are currently on display at the Viet Nam Revolution Museum in Ha Noi, aiming to present the influence of these Russian women in the political, economic, cultural and social spheres. The items come from both Russian museums and personal family collections.

“They are wives and important people with a huge influence on their husbands who were state leaders. If it is said that men make history, their wives are the witness of that history,” said Kazakova Tamara Ivanova, deputy director of the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia which brought the exhibition to Viet Nam. “They are all very close to us and I believe the public will find at least one common point with those women.”

Ivanova said that many of the documents on display are being presented to the public for the first time.

Some of the documents include a letter by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova to Moscow’s General Dubasova to thank him for his wishes on the occasion of her royal family’s celebrations in April 1906. The exhibition also shows a drawing of the house where former Soviet leader Vladimir I. Lenin and his wife lived when they were in in Shushencki Village, Eniseiski Province from 1898 to 1900.

A touching photo, rarely seen by the public, shows Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee, and his wife, Nadezhda Sergeyevna Alliluyeva.

Photos of the wives of Vladimir Putin and the now Russian President Medvedev are also on display.

“The photos help me relive Russia’s history. I love the photo of Nina Kuharchuk, [wife of Soviet political leader Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev], with Iuri Gagarin and his wife taken at the Kremlin at the greeting ceremony of the world’s first astronaut in 1961,” says Le Thanh Hoa, a visitor to the show.

While collecting documents to research these women’s lives, Russian experts also found some of the women’s diaries and their clothes, but these personal items couldn’t be brought to Viet Nam.

“We display at the exhibit all the truth that we know about them,” noted Ivanova.

“We are proud that Viet Nam is the first foreign country to host the exhibition,” said Trieu Van Hien, director of the Viet Nam Revolution Museum that is hosting the show. “It’s an occasion for the Vietnamese public to understand more about Russia’s country and people.”

The exhibition is the first phase of a long-term Russian project entitled Faces of Russian Women, which aims to explore the potential capacities of Russian women and their profound influence in the society’s development.

The exhibit is running at the Viet Nam Revolution Museum, at 25 Tong Dan Street, Ha Noi, until January 20 next year.

(Source: Viet Nam News)