"How the Shawl Strengthened the Defence" Was Told at the Orenburg Museum of Fine Arts

On 15 May, the Orenburg Down Shawl gallery hosted a festive event devoted to the symbol of our region – the Orenburg down shawl. The organisers chose a special theme: the shawl and its role in wartime. The exhibition was called "How the Shawl Strengthened the Defence". Its idea is to recreate the artistic image of the war years through objects. The museum's collection has preserved shawls from the 1940s–50s, which are presented at the exhibition.

The atmosphere of the war years

Footage from films of 1940–1945 helped visitors immerse themselves in the atmosphere of those years: the costumes of Lyubov Orlova, Marina Ladynina and Lidia Smirnova invariably include a knitted down shawl – a familiar everyday detail of the time. Inga Tevs shared memories of her wartime childhood.

The well-known Orenburg down knitter Minnur Ishmukhametova, a participant in many all-Russian and international exhibitions, presented her new shawl with a Victory symbol, knitted for the 70th anniversary of Victory. Her works are recognisable: the craftswoman skilfully introduces inscriptions, anniversary symbols and pictorial motifs into the openwork composition, often using coloured metallic thread – lurex.

Guests were also shown special three-fingered mittens that Orenburg craftswomen knitted for soldiers at the front: such mittens made it convenient to fire a submachine gun.

A tribute to the down knitters

The exhibition "How the Shawl Strengthened the Defence" is a tribute of respect and memory to the Orenburg knitters who, during the war years, stood together with the whole Soviet people. The craft continued to work, which shows that the home front and the battlefront were one: everyone contributed what they could to bringing Victory closer.

More than 200 of our down knitters were awarded the medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War".