Moscow’s Circle of Light festival shows scenes from Russian history

On Saturday, Moscow residents and visitors got to see scenes from Russian history during the second day of the Circle of Light festival. Thousands of people have come to see the light show on the facade of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill, a TASS correspondent informed.

The first part of the show is called "Moscow - the heart of Russia", presenting the way Russian lands unified around Moscow. St. George became this part’s protagonist, stepping off Moscow’s coat of arms and giving the spectators a tour of Russian history from ancient times to the present day.

"The museum’s front is a panoramic screen, 270 meters long and 25 meters high. The show is impressive, bearing in mind the scale of our platform. The guests saw an illuminating presentation of events from Russian history, from the times of Kievan Rus’ until the construction of the Kerch Straight Bridge," head of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War Alexander Shkolnik told TASS.

"Of course, festivals like this make the capital more beautiful. We came here with kids. We definitely need shows like this, that give us an overview of history," Moscow resident Olesya said.

Another Moscow citizen Maria brought her 7-year-old son to the show. "This is our first time at the festival, my son is fond of military topics, and he watches the show without taking his eyes off it, so it means he likes it," she said.

Engineers of victory
The second part of the show is devoted to technological achievements of the Second World War that gave a boost to the country’s economy during the 20th century. The show honored Russian engineers: aircraft designer Sergey Ilyushin, naval engineer Alexey Krylov, automotive engineer Vitaly Grachev.

"People can see many models of equipment shown in video projections in our museum’s expositions of military equipment, armaments and engineering structures. The Museum of the Great Patriotic War is the biggest military and historical museum in the world. Only the area open to the public shows about 400 types of artillery, aviation, armored and marine vehicles of the countries that participated in the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. In total, the museum’s collection reaches 300 thousand articles," Shkolnik reminded.

The show ended with a medley of wartime songs, presented against a video sequence. The presentation will be shown on Moscow’s Poklonnaya Hill until September 25.

About the festival
The eighth Circle of Light festival will be held at The Museum of the Great Patriotic War, as well as six other venues - the Krylatskoye Rowing Canal, the parks of Tsarytsyno Palace and the Kolomenskoye Estate, Teatralnaya Square, the Mir concert hall and the Digital October center.

Entrance will be free but those wishing to see the indoor shows will need to pre-register.

The first Circle of Light Festival took place in October 2011, featuring more than 360 installations. The major venues of the event were the Red Square, the Manezhnaya Square and the Gorky Park. Some 300,000 people attended the show.

According to the show’s organizers, over five million people will attend this year’s festival.