Yuri Mudrov
Official website of the Pushkin Nature ReserveThe authorities of St. Petersburg have decided to change the director of the State Museum-Monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral". Irada will be replaced in this post by Vitaly Mudrov. The documents confirming Mudrov’s appointment appeared on the vice-governor’s desk on June 15, reports.
“I have received documents for Mudrov, he will be appointed. “He is a respected and experienced art critic,” the deputy mayor described Mudrova.
Reports that the leadership of the St. Petersburg Culture Committee decided to appoint a new director, Isaac, appeared on the morning of June 15, reports.
“Based on the results of the selection of submitted candidates, the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg decided to appoint Yuri Vitalievich Mudrov to the position of director of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral State Cultural Museum, who will begin work on June 15, 2017,” the committee reported.
The St. Petersburg diocese, in turn, called the announcement of the appointment of a new director Isaac sudden.
“For now, the diocese cannot comment on the information because it is too sudden,” said representatives of the diocese.
Two weeks ago, reports already appeared in the media about the intention of the city governor Georgy Poltavchenko to urgently find a replacement for the acting head of the State Museum-Monument “St. Isaac’s Cathedral” Irada Vovnenko.
In turn, the head of the Culture Committee then refused to comment on media reports on this topic.
“I can’t say anything on this topic,” Sukhenko told Interfax.
“I’m leaving myself, now I’m writing a statement. And I’m very happy about it,” she explained.
However, during the day the situation apparently changed.
“She’s not quitting. Now she is working, signing documents,” the museum’s press service said.
Vovnenko herself also denied reports that she had written a letter of resignation.
“I do not confirm this information,” she said.
Vovnenko was introduced to the team at a meeting at the museum on May 31, 2017, after it became known at the end of April that the People's Artist of Russia, who opposes the transfer of Isaac into the ownership of the Russian Orthodox Church, intends to leave the post of director. His term ended on June 5.
Art critic Yuri Mudrov has been appointed director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum. The corresponding decision was made on Thursday, June 15, by the Chairman of the Culture Committee, Konstantin Sukhenko. Thus, acting director Irada Vovnenko was unable to secure a permanent position in this position.
On Thursday, June 15, Chairman of the Culture Committee Konstantin Sukhenko signed an order appointing Yuri Mudrov as director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum. This decision was made based on the results of the “selection of submitted candidates.” From that same day, Mudrov began work.
Yuri Mudrov has been working in St. Petersburg in the field of culture since 1982. Previously, he Mudrov has been working in the field of culture since 1982; in St. Petersburg, he held senior positions in the state museum-reserves “Pavlovsk”, “Oranienbaum”, the St. Petersburg Cultural Foundation, and the State Museum of the History of Religion.
The publication Fontanka.Ru notes that Yuri Mudrov is considered a religious person.“We must not forget about the religious component of the inner world of “our hero,” about faith. Born in Pskov, on a land that can, as Yu. V. Mudrov himself says, be considered “Russian Palestine,” and in those years when the “non-blinding light of Faith” illuminated this land, he touched these lamps. And what were these lamps like - the Valaam elders, Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov), Metropolitan John (Razumov), Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), Father Nikolai Guryanov, Father Sergius Zheludkov, Hieroschemamonk Sampson (Sievers)..." - they describe colleague art critic Svetlana Smirnova.
It should be noted that simultaneously with the appointment of Yuri Mudrov, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised during his annual “direct line” the problem of transferring St. Isaac’s Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church.
“We have a law on the transfer of religious buildings to religious organizations, and we must implement it. At the same time, we have international obligations and other laws that prohibit the transfer of what are architectural monuments and are under the protection of UNESCO. But we will easily get out of these contradictions, ensuring both museum activities and the practice of these religious cults,” said Vladimir Putin.
From May 31 to June 15, the duties of director of “St. Isaac’s Cathedral” were temporarily performed by Deputy Director for Public Relations Irada Vovnenko. Despite the short period of leadership of the institution, she became involved in several scandals.
Immediately after the appointment, the media drew attention to the fact that Vovnenko is the author of not only books for children, but also erotic novels for women. The first work, “Add Love and Happiness to Taste,” was published in 2009. Then the novels “Attraction” and “Dress Code of Inspiration” were published. Vovnenko co-wrote the book “Love and Other Dissonances” with the Polish writer Janusz Wisniewski. A traditional example of her work is the following fragment:“Sergei kissed her tender neck, full breasts, which responsively rushed under his fingers. They did not reach the spacious bed; the anthracite-black skirt and lace piece of linen were discarded right on the windowsill. What is this? How long has it been since she experienced such sensations, this floating sky, this slipping reality..."
Before the St. Petersburg public had time to properly study the work of Irada Vovnenko, the latter found herself at the center of a new scandal. On the morning of June 2, the media reported that Governor Georgy Poltavchenko ordered her replacement with “some man.” Two hours later, the acting director herself confirmed her dismissal. “I’m leaving myself, now I’m writing a statement. And I’m very happy about it,” Vovnenko told RIA. A few minutes later, Vice-Governor Vladimir Kirillov denied information about both forced and voluntary dismissal of Vovnenko. “The Culture Committee is recruiting personnel. Candidates will be presented to me for approval. Maybe Irada will remain the director,” Kirillov said, adding that Vovnenko will work as the director of the museum “for at least another month.” By that time, the press service of “St. Isaac’s Cathedral” had already begun to refute the words of its leader, insisting that Vovnenko was working as usual.
Reasons:
Immediately after the appointment of Irada Vovnenko as acting director, information began to appear in the press about her extensive connections among representatives of the executive branch of St. Petersburg. Due to which, it was believed, Vovnenko would try to establish himself in a new position on a permanent basis. She herself stated that she intended to negotiate with the Russian Orthodox Church in order to reach a consensus on the issue of transferring St. Isaac's Cathedral to her while preserving the museum.
Perhaps Smolny felt that, if necessary, Vovnenko would not be able to show sufficient loyalty in the matter of transferring the cathedral. On the other hand, it is possible that the city government was wary of Vovnenko because of the ambiguity of her professional path.
Yuri Mudrov was appointed director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum. The art critic began work today, June 15. This was reported by the press service of the Culture Committee.
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“Based on the results of the selection of submitted candidates, the St. Petersburg Culture Committee decided to appoint Yuri Vitalievich Mudrov to the position of director of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral State Cultural Museum,” Smolny said in a statement.
Yuri Mudrov has been working in the cultural sphere of St. Petersburg since 1982, he has held senior positions in the state museum-reserves "Pavlovsk", "Oranienbaum", the St. Petersburg Cultural Foundation, the State Museum of the History of Religion and other institutions.
The post of director of St. Isaac's Cathedral became vacant on June 1, when Nikolai Burov wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will; he headed the museum for nine years.
The day before Burov’s departure, on May 31, at a meeting in the museum’s management, Irada Vovnenko, who previously held the position of deputy director for public relations, was appointed acting.
On the second day after Vovnenko’s appointment, various rumors about her departure began to appear in the media. Fontanka.ru made a fuss about Vovnenko’s dismissal; it published the news that Smolny decided to change her to a male candidate by decree of Governor Georgy Poltavchenko.
After this, RIA Novosti wrote that Irada Vovnenko herself was leaving the museum. “I’m leaving myself, now I’m writing a statement. And I’m very happy about it,” Vovnenko said, refusing further comments. As a result, the press service of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum denied media reports that Vovnenko was leaving his post.
At the beginning of January 2017, Governor Georgy Poltavchenko announced that Isaac would be transferred for free use to the Russian Orthodox Church. By June 15, the application for the transfer of the cathedral had not been received from the Russian Orthodox Church. At the same time, Isaac can be transferred to the church only if the appropriate application is received.
Today Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the “straight line” promised to resolve the issue with St. Isaac's Cathedral. Moreover, employees of the Baltic Shipyard asked him about Isaac, which came as a surprise to the head of state.
SAINT PETERSBURG, June 15. /TASS/. The Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg decided to appoint art critic Yuri Mudrov to the post of director of the state museum-monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral". The committee reported this to TASS on Thursday.
“Based on the results of the selection of submitted candidates, the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg decided to appoint Yuri Vitalievich Mudrov to the position of director of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral State Cultural Museum, who will begin work on June 15, 2017,” the committee said.
As the committee reported, Yuri Mudrov has been working in the cultural sector of St. Petersburg since 1982. At various times, he held senior positions in the Pavlovsk State Museum, the Oranienbaum State Museum, the St. Petersburg Cultural Foundation, the State Museum of the History of Religion and other cultural institutions of the city.
The position of director Isaac, which became vacant after Nikolai Burov, who had headed the museum since 2008, resigned at his own request on June 1.
Since May 31, the acting director of St. Isaac's Cathedral has been the writer Irada Vovnenko, who previously worked as deputy director.
The question of transferring the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church was asked on Thursday to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the “Direct Line”. The head of state recalled that the cathedral never belonged to the Church and was always registered with the state, but then the tsar was also the head of the Church.
Museum-monument
The building of St. Isaac's Cathedral was erected according to the design of the architect Auguste Montferrand and opened in 1858. Isaac became a museum in 1928, and since 1990 Orthodox services have been restored there. The complex of the museum-monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral" currently includes two famous St. Petersburg cathedrals - St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Savior on Spilled Blood).
The building of St. Isaac's Cathedral is owned by St. Petersburg, but is protected at the federal level and is included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. In 2016, the Isaacia museum complex was visited by about 3.9 million Russian and foreign tourists.
Yuri Mudrov is considered the creation of the Chairman of the Committee on Culture Konstantin Sukhenko and the Rector of the Repin Institute of Painting Semyon Mikhailovsky
Last director Isaac
By appointing 64-year-old Yuri Mudrov as head of the museum, Smolny made another personnel mistake
15.06.17 St. Isaac's CathedralSt. Isaac's Cathedral today is again in the spotlight. Firstly, what everyone had been waiting for since January happened: Vladimir Putin spoke about the fate of the cathedral. Secondly, a new director has been appointed to Isaac. It was an unexpected character - art critic Yuri Mudrov. But - first things first.
Answering an “unexpected” question from a Baltic plant worker about what would happen to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Putin, emphasizing that Russia is certainly a secular state, spoke in detail about how the Russian Orthodox Church suffered from the Bolsheviks.
“After the October Revolution, the state did everything to destroy our spiritual roots,” the president said. - Many churches were demolished, priests were destroyed. In essence, the Soviet state tried to create a quasi-religion. Thank God, no hand was raised against St. Isaac's Cathedral. But what did they do there? They hung a Foucault pendulum as a symbol of anti-religion. They essentially turned it into a museum of atheism.”
At the same time, Putin pointed out that although the cathedral did not formally belong to the church, it was built precisely as an object of worship. Moreover, before the revolution, the tsar was both the head of state and the head of the church. Therefore, Isaac is, of course, a temple.
“It was built as a temple. Like a church, not like a museum!” - putting an end to the dispute about what Isaac is.
Next, Putin touched on the legal side of the issue: “We have a 2010 law on the transfer of religious buildings. But we also have international obligations prohibiting changes in the status of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.”
And he explained what he planned to do:
“We will easily overcome these contradictions by ensuring both museum and religious activities,” the president concluded. “Building these relationships is not that difficult.”
The president also indicated that the problem needs to be depoliticized: “It should not be used as an instrument of petty internal political fuss.” These words were clearly addressed to the figures of the “St. Isaac’s” opposition and the “democratic” media, who unleashed a real information war against the Russian Orthodox Church.
Let us recall that speculation on the topic that the president is allegedly against the transfer of Isaac to the church, that the decision was not agreed upon with him, continued from January until today. Now opponents of the transfer of Isaac do not have this argument. No objections to the transfer of the cathedral were voiced in Putin’s speech. The phrases “Let's postpone the transfer until 2019” - too (and this is exactly what Burov, Vishnevsky and the like dreamed of). Well, as for combining museum and religious activities, the Russian Orthodox Church has never opposed this.
“The metropolis is certainly pleased with what was voiced by the president on the topic of the status of St. Isaac’s Cathedral,” Natalya Rodomanova, head of the communications sector of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, said in an interview with RIA Novosti. - The President affirmed the fact that Montferrand’s creation, erected as an Orthodox church, should, first of all, remain a temple... We hope that after the President’s position was voiced, the transfer of the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church will be implemented. This is not only a matter of compliance with federal laws, but also historical justice, an important spiritual symbol.”
According to Rodomanova, the Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly stated that it does not claim that Isaac will become its property.
“The cathedral was and remains the property of the state, as it was originally. In modern conditions of international law, this is also supported by the fact that St. Isaac's Cathedral is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, and therefore, according to the state's protective obligations, cannot be transferred to anyone's ownership. The museum’s educational functions of St. Isaac’s Cathedral will be preserved and developed,” she added.
Surprisingly, Boris Vishnevsky also spoke out in support of the president. But, apparently, he did not listen attentively to the speech, because he interpreted it in his own way:
“It’s a rare case when I agree with Putin,” Boris Lazarevich wrote on his Facebook page. - It is necessary to preserve both the museum and religious functions of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. To do this, we need to leave everything as it is.”
Vishnevsky does not understand that everything will not remain as it is under any circumstances. Because now St. Isaac’s is exclusively a museum, where priests and parishioners are allowed in if they want, but if they want, they will be turned out the door. But Putin said the main thing: Isaac is a temple. “Isaakievsky” oppositionists will have to come to terms with this and stop their “petty internal political fuss.”
It’s sad, of course, that Isaac’s problem grew to a federal scale and the president was forced to sort it out. This is yet another evidence of the helplessness of the entire Smolny and personally of Governor Georgy Poltavchenko. For five and a half months, St. Petersburg officials did nothing to transfer the cathedral. They took a wait-and-see attitude, got scared, and actually surrendered under the pressure of Vishnevsky and Burov. Doing nothing, waiting by the sea for the weather - a position of weak power, a weak leader.
As Interestant has already written, just the timely dismissal of Burov, who had recently become insolent to the brim and threatened his employer with court, could have radically changed the situation. But no, they waited until his contract expired.
This is another personnel error: the scale of Mudrov clearly does not correspond to the scale of Isaac. The 64-year-old art critic, who previously worked at the Oranienbaum State Museum and the Pavlovsk State Museum, has recently tried to find employment in various cultural institutions. In March of this year, for example, he was unsuccessfully pushed for the position of director of the Research Museum of the Academy of Arts (read more about this in the Interesting Person article “Imperial Ambitions and the Tale of the Golden Fish”). Well, I finally found a good place.
According to Interestant, Mudrov’s candidacy was promoted by the chairman of the Committee on Culture of the St. Petersburg Administration, Konstantin Sukhenko, and the rector of the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. E. Repin, Semyon Mikhailovsky. Vice-Governor Vladimir Kirillov, in an interview with the online newspaper Fontanka, confirmed that he had already received the documents for Mudrov. “This is a respected and experienced art critic,” Kirillov noted with the air of an expert.
According to Interestant's sources, there was no trace of Mudrov's candidacy a week ago. Another scheme was discussed - the transfer of the State Museum of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the jurisdiction of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. The director of this institution, Alexander Kolyakin, publicly confirmed his readiness to implement such a scheme. But Smolny again, even after Putin’s speech today, did not dare to take this step. But they appointed Mudrov.
Cowardice again?
Another attempt to postpone the inevitable transfer of the cathedral?
In any case, Mudrov will become the last director of Isaac. And the logic of events suggests that he has very little time for directorship. A month or two at most. It is clear that now they will not allow the issue of transferring the cathedral to Smolny to be broached.
Viktor IVANTSOV,
Internet magazine "Interestant"
