A photo exhibition about the contribution of African peoples to the defeat of Nazism has opened in Moscow.
On October 15, 2025, the grand opening of the photo exhibition “Forgotten Pages of the Second World War and the Contribution of African Peoples to the Defeat of Nazism” took place at the Moscow House of Nationalities.
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The exhibition was organised by the Commission on Public Safety and People’s Diplomacy of the Council for Nationalities under the Moscow Government and the Association of Business Communities “United Center for Business Cooperation of the SCO” with the support of the Moscow Department of National Policy and Interregional Relations, as part of the “Heirs of Russian Military Glory” project.
The opening ceremony was attended by historians, diplomats, representatives of national-cultural associations, government bodies, and the diplomatic corps. In their speeches, they emphasized that the Second World War was a truly global conflict, and the victory over Nazism is a shared achievement of all the peoples united in the anti-Hitler coalition.
In his welcoming speech, the Director of the Moscow House of Nationalities, Sergey Anufrienko, noted the relevance of the exhibition in light of the need to combat the falsification of history, its value for preserving the memory of the true scale of the Second World War, and for strengthening mutual understanding between peoples.
Through a series of 59 unique works—archival and contemporary photographs, documents, and personal stories—the exhibition reveals facts little known to the general public. The photographs tell of the feats and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and workers from African colonies who fought and labored on the front lines and in the rear. Special attention is paid to the fates of Russian emigrants and African soldiers of the Allied forces who contributed to the common Victory.
“This exhibition is a tribute and the restoration of historical justice. It breaks the stereotype of the Second World War as an exclusively European conflict and shows it as a worldwide struggle against fascism. It is important to remember that the victory was forged on African soil as well, and that representatives from all continents contributed to it,” said one of the exhibition’s co-authors, historian Nikolay Sologubovsky.
Exhibition visitors were able to learn about the personal stories of individual heroes of the anti-fascist Resistance on the African continent. A significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to how the memory of these tragic and heroic pages of our shared history is preserved today in Africa and around the world.
