The event is part of activities opening the programme on Vietnam Year in Russia and Russia Year in Vietnam in 2019, which was approved by President Vladimir Putin on October 3, 2018. 

The exhibition consists of two parts – Vietnam in war and Vietnam in peace, with the first part reflected through the eyes of a historical witness – military doctor Matvey Voitenko, who headed a Russian expert group sent to Vietnam in 1969.

On the sidelines, there will be a series of activities, including meetings with Vietnamese war veterans and scientists, historical classes, as well as book and film debuts.

Evgeny Grigoriev, Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg, said both Vietnam and Russia had fought fierce wars for independence with great losses, and shared the wish to preserve their common experience. Many Russian doctors and servicemen came to Vietnam to help the country during the war, he said, considering the assistance as a reflection of true friendship between the two nations.

Understanding the loss and pain Vietnam had been through, the St. Petersburg authorities decided to mount the exhibition, the official stressed.

Anatoly Budko, director of the Russian Museum of Military Medicine, said the event will introduce the destruction of the war, the impacts of which still linger even after five decades.

Many documents will be exhibited for the first time, portraying the use of illegal chemicals and napalm bombs, the vast land that has not been revived many years after the war, and injuries left on human bodies, he unveiled, adding that the name of the exhibition was the feeling of young staffers at the museum when they prepared for the event.-VNA