Kyiv, March 19 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Raichenko) – The painting “For the Great Russian People” is exhibited in the center of Kyiv at the National Art Museum of Ukraine, which is located on Grushevsky Street, the site of recent violent clashes.
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The painting is on display at an exhibition organized as part of a German-Ukrainian project with the support of the International Council of Museums. A significant place in the exhibition is devoted to works of art of the Soviet period, which were previously stored in museum storerooms. Thus, on the wall of the stairwell between the first and second floors there is a painting by Ukrainian Soviet artist Mikhail Khmelko entitled “For the Great Soviet People.”
The impressively sized (3 by 5 meters) canvas depicts a gala reception in honor of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, which took place on May 24, 1945 in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. The picture represents almost the entire top military and political leadership of the USSR. In the center is the head of state, Joseph Stalin, raising his glass and proclaiming a toast, which, in fact, gave the name to the painting.
“I, as a representative of our Soviet government, would like to raise a toast to the health of our Soviet people and, above all, the Russian people,” such words, in particular, appeared in the toast. – I drink, first of all, to the health of the Russian people because they are the most outstanding nation of all the nations that make up the Soviet Union.
“I raise a toast to the health of the Russian people because in this war they have earned and have previously earned the title, if you like, of the leading force of our Soviet Union among all the peoples of our country.”
It is noteworthy that Lavrentiy Beria, who at that time served as deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee, is missing from the picture. Apparently, the artist had to rewrite the work already during the reign of Khrushchev after he initiated the anti-Stalin campaign in the country.
Mikhail Khmelko, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, served as a sapper-cartographer and was wounded. He died in already independent Ukraine in 1996, having a hard time experiencing the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among his most famous works are also “The Triumph of the Victorious Motherland”, “Forever with Moscow, forever with the Russian People”, “The Banner of Victory Over Kiev”, T. G. Shevchenko and M. S. Shchepkin in Moscow", "Forcing the Dnieper", "Miner's wedding", "Meeting of Gagarin".