Presentation of "Rabindranath Tagore - Indian Culture Messenger" exhibition - a joint project of Consulate General of India in St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg Branch of the International Center of the Roerichs – took place in the Zvyezdny College, St.Petersburg, Russia on 21, May, 2014.

For versatility of talent Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) is compared to the titans of the European Renaissance. He was a novelist, a playwright, and a composer. He is an original painter, and a philosopher, a humanist and a political publicist. But, first of all, he is a world famous poet of India. In 1913, the Nobel Committee awarded himwith the prize "for deeply sensitive, original and beautiful poetry, which reflected his poetic thinking”.

R.Tagore’s poetry is dominated by two main themes. The first is the song of life, admiration for the beauty of the world. Another is deeply humanistic theme: the compassion of the man, protest against his oppression and humiliation. The theme of the acceptance of life in all its fullness and admiration for the beauty of the world, the glorification of happiness, all-conquering love and the good of human emotions was presented in the works of Rabindranath Tagore throughout his life.

Rabindranath Tagore was one of those artists, who opened the East to the world; his lectures and speeches sounded in many countries of the world, including the USSR, where Rabindranath Tagore was in the 30-ies of the last century.

Indian literary critic K. Kripalani wrote about Tagore: "...the main value of Tagore lies in the impetus he gave to the whole period of cultural and spiritual development of India... He gave the Indians the faith in their language and in their cultural and intellectual heritage".

The creative legacy of the outstanding son of India is enormous – more than two thousand lyric poems and songs, hundreds of ballads and poems, eight novels, eleven collections of short stories, twenty plays, articles on literary, social and philosophical topics, speeches and performances. In the last twelve years, he was fond of painting and graphics and created nearly two thousand paintings.

Rabindranath Tagore traveled extensively around the world with friendly visits and various lectures. Among his friends and admirers were Albert Einstein, Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud, Mahatma Gandhi, Nikolay Roerich and many others.

Elena Kucheryavenko, a lecturer of the St.Petersburg Branch of the ICR, who delivered a lecture with an video-presentation, answered questions of the “Zvyezdny” College students.