This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, and in commemoration of the 110th anniversary of the birth of the Russian female poet Bergolitz, the Soka University Russia Center was planning to hold an exhibition at the Russia Center focusing on the encouraging voice of the poet Bergolitz that reverberated through the radio in the besieged city during the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II. However, the unprecedented challenge of the spread of the COVID-19 infection struck Japan and the world. At one point, we considered canceling the exhibition, but decided to try our first attempt at an online exhibition. This online exhibition was co-hosted by the Soka University Russia Center and the Russian Federation Agency for International Cultural and Scientific Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), with the support of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Japan and the Russkiy Mir Foundation, and a special website was opened in December 2020.

In World War II, the former Soviet Union won the war against Germany at the cost of 27 million lives. The tragedy of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the second largest city in the country, being surrounded by German troops for 900 days (September 1941 - January 1944), with one million citizens killed, is still etched in people's memories. Many citizens suffered from hunger, cold, and air raids, and their only contact with the outside world was the radio, and the words they heard on the radio encouraged them to survive. The voice of encouragement was a female poet named Olga Bergoltz. Despite living a life full of hardships, she continued to cheer people on with her own voice and words. This exhibition is being held to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Bergoltz's birth in May this year, and to convey the tragedies that occurred during the war and the living testimony of the people who faced and overcame them.