This exhibition, held in 1982, the year after the Takanawa Museum relocated to Karuizawa, was of particular importance to the Seibu Museum of Art, not least because it helped fill a significant gap in art history. While the new artistic movements that emerged in Europe in the early twentieth century had already been widely introduced in Japan, Russian (formerly Soviet) art had received little attention. Commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the exhibition brought together 380 works spanning a wide range of fields—including painting, design, architecture, and theatre—from approximately thirty museums and cultural institutions across the Soviet Union.
Originally, the Seibu Museum of Art had hoped to organize an exhibition devoted to the Russian avant-garde, including artists such as Kazimir Malevich. However, the Soviet Ministry of Culture declined the proposal, as the Russian avant-garde—an artistic movement that emerged during the Russian Revolution of 1917—was not officially recognized in the Soviet Union and was regarded as carrying negative historical associations. Later, when the exhibition Paris–Moscow 1900–1930 was presented at Centre Pompidou in 1979, the museum renewed its efforts and ultimately succeeded in realizing the project. However, because the Soviet authorities requested that contemporary works of Socialist Realism also be included, the exhibition came to present works from both before and after the Russian Revolution.