Mikhail Piotrovsky's "philosophy of rest" was first told to me on occasion by his son Boris: you can't make you rest, you can't get out for a walk, a stack of books in front of the sofa and nothing else is needed.

house difference

I don't like cottage? - asks Piotrovsky. - Well, except perhaps a dacha of the late 19th - early 20th century, when it took weeks to get ready, leave the city and start a special life there. A modern dacha for me is about the same as an apartment in St. Petersburg. In the summer I try to spend the night here whenever possible. We don't have any special jobs. Take a walk in the forest (the forest is interesting here), go to the sea. But the main thing for me in the country is to sit by the big window and look at the lawn.

This is a lawn, - his beautiful wife clarifies.

But in my opinion, the lawn, - the owner answers with not so easily surrendered male persistence. - And this is a completely different matter than looking at a tapestry in the Hermitage study. Blueberries grow here. Boris comes here more often. We meet late in the evening, we part. In the city, after all, the beauty of meetings is not the same, but at the dacha the triumph of return is possible: the gates open, and a person is in the gate.

I experienced it myself, the gates opened, you stepped into the kingdom of pines, birches and blueberries, and the owners - with a slight but recognizing nod - are already greeting you from the porch. And for some reason you start to worry.

The Piotrovskys' dacha is located in the famous Komarovo, the site of the old Leningrad academic dachas. After the war and the decision of the Council of People's Commissars "On the construction of dachas for full members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR," a plot of land in the dacha Kellomyaki was transferred "to personal ownership" to 25 academicians free of charge. And the village was soon renamed in honor of the botanist Komarov, who did not have time to live at the dacha of the President of the Academy of Sciences. Akhmatova, Shostakovich, Likhachev, Schwartz, Cherkasov, Srugatsky, Germans lived and rested in Komarovo.

Dmitry Likhachev has an interesting diary entry: I have a friend, he is four years old, his name is Boris. It was little Boris Piotrovsky, the son of Mikhail Borisovich and the grandson of Boris Borisovich, who often, by right of a four-year-old neighbor, came to the Likhachevs' dacha. (“Ira, don’t worry if you don’t have dinner in the evening,” Likhachev’s daughter whispered to the boy’s mother, he ate two cutlets with us with pleasure. ) Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky bought the academic dacha late, it was an apartment in a two-story townhouse with a flower bed in front of the entrance. And at the place where their dacha now stands, the family once went to pick blueberries.

"I can imagine the difference between my house and Piotrovsky's house," the dacha resident who received me before said ironically. "You can't imagine," I laughed. Piotrovsky's dacha is directly perpendicular to the inertia-negative cliche of philistine ideas - it is one-story, organic to the surrounding forest, an optimal haven for an intellectual who has never lost his way in anything unnecessary. And the son's house in the corner of the site is the same.

time to think

The owner is on vacation, and is just busy with the main summer business - he sits at a table in front of a large window, looks at the lawn and continues to justify the cottage in his own eyes.

It's good to think strategically in the country. Leisurely. And write slowly. Something non-urgent. I'm writing "Director's Choice" right now. This is such a project for directors of world museums - to choose 30 things and paintings, but not favorite ones, but those that you want to talk about. There will be one of my favorites. And so, I, for example, have already chosen the "Annunciation" by Simone Martini.

There are so many people in the city near him! - Irina Leonidovna whispers. - And here sometimes - I try - not a single contact.

But "mosquito calmness" is still relative. The absolute is a thing of the past, now they ride motorcycles, they are building something all the time, building fences. Piotrovsky does not like high fences, but when the British begin to point them out to him, he retorts: when we went to such and such a lord, there were no fences, of course, but there were electronic guards for all 40 hectares, try to come in. Nobody wants an invasion of privacy.

At the dacha, of course, there is a partial switch, - continues Piotrovsky. -Switching to think. In general, the most important pleasure for me is to think. And the main problem is that there is no time for it.

At the same time, he has one of the most important modern skills - the ability to quickly resolve issues. He definitely knows how to do it. (In a minute - and without ignoring the opinions of others - he can decide, for example, to do or not to do this or that exhibition). But all the more valuable is the time of slow thought.

He goes to the table, opens the diary - a long blue marker line has already marked "time to think" in it.

But he has heavy thoughts.

The fact that recently for some reason the number of - almost Soviet - bans, and - almost from the 90s - threats, has sharply increased. Threats to museum collections come both from private owners and from the bureaucracy. The number of restrictions and bureaucratic prodding in the search for absolute order is so wild that the remark from the ministry “You underestimated financial risks” has to be directly written that the Hermitage’s main risks are related to receiving money from the state and embezzlement, “sanctified” (if you look closely) just by officials .

The Hermitage is a place where, no matter how dreary, they are ready to give 150 direct and impartial answers to the endless orders of the ministry. For example, about the fact that the reporting required by the ministry is easily falsified, and the theft occurs exactly at the level of bureaucratized state reporting. That the "electronic accounting" imposed from above is the easiest to fake. That not taking into account the peculiarities of such a museum as the Hermitage is dangerous.

Further, his slow "country" thought goes into conspiracy theories - but he definitely has the right to it, because he is well aware of it. Behind the almost toxic (due to bureaucracy) behavior of the state is the pushing of museums towards private forms of existence. Behind the usual "You report poorly, store poorly, your storerooms are bursting, let us arrange it" can't someone's plan for a museum redistribution be hidden? In favor of private owners or poor provincial museums?

And just let me touch the museum collection... In the 1920s, everything started with innocent revisions, but quickly getting into the taste of commanding culture, officials sold thousands of exhibits from the Hermitage abroad. Yesterday it was taboo for everyone, but today it is seizures and sales at auctions.

Throughout the 25 years of his leadership, Piotrovsky sees the main threat in the attempt on the collection, and connects everything with it - both the strange inspections of the Hermitage, and the strange dark theft from the museum, and raids in connection with exhibitions of contemporary art, and attempts to recreate the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow for Hermitage account.

So far, the president's famous joke "even if you come to Piotrovsky with a rifle, he won't give back anything from the museum anyway" - it confirms his correctness and victory.

Do not believe the great danger? But listen - one event, carefully seen by Mikhail Piotrovsky. "Here came the law on import-export. We (the Union of Museums) first took part in its discussion, and then they pushed us aside and very powerfully pushed it through the State Duma (the Duma Committee on Culture objected, but in vain). There are many good things there, but in addition to them, it turned out to be easier ... the export of cultural property from Russia. And besides, when exhibitions from abroad come to us, state museums, we are now forced to pay various customs duties that we did not pay before. The Ministry of Culture gave us a certificate "these are things culture, you can’t take this or that from them, "and the new law has now limited the ministry¸ and the certificate should be given by an independent commission, which does not exist."

And as a result, private museums (which, in principle, Piotrovsky loves and supports) gained something, while the state ones lost what they had. Meanwhile, it is the culture protected by the state that needs privileges - both tax and moral.

So what Piotrovsky thinks about slowly is really hard to think about.

Realizing that Mikhail Borisovich most likely would not let me go to the dacha, if I - in the limit - were only interested in dacha life, flowers, butterflies, I still risk emerging from the regime of his difficult slow thoughts and I ask a simple question to Irina Leonidovna "And the dacha did you come up with?"

Yes, she is, - Mikhail Borisovich is not going to give in to his wife the answer. - All of it - from the idea to the big management of the construction site.

Are you not interfering?

No. Even if she sometimes asks me for advice, she will still do as she sees fit.

But do you like the result of her choice?

Of course I like it. In general, I like everything that Irina Leonidovna does (you should have heard what a beautiful tone it was said. - Approx. Aut.). This is all dictated by the concern that we all feel good. But first and foremost, me. First she takes care of me - then the children. (Calmly, calmly, neutrally, neutrally, Irina Leonidovna is silent.)

Seven things from Piotrovsky's dacha

Wanting to stay at this dacha longer, I ask the owners to show me the 7 most symbolic and characteristic things in it. I would personally be the first to include the picture "Boy in a Scarf" hanging over the stairs in the summer collection of seven symbolic things. ("The work of Alexander Zadorin, - clarifies Irina Leonidovna. - And this is Mishin's portrait").

"The theme of the scarf", yes, is a cult one for Piotrovsky ("Here you are taking pictures of me - but am I without a scarf?"), but not in the country. The fact is that at temperatures above 23 degrees, he takes off his scarf, and today (and often) in the country 29. But Zadorin's picture is wonderful.

Mikhail Borisovich seizes the initiative from us to search for the seven most telling things about him.

Firstly, this is a pile of books that I slowly read at the dacha - page by page. I drop one and start another. Sometimes I watch movies at the same time. I read, for example, "Fima" by Amos Oz and immediately watch "Fauda", the famous Israeli series about terror.

I know one secret of reading Mikhail Piotrovsky for sure: in the pile of books he reads there will definitely be one about economics and finance, last time he called Nasim Taleb's "Black Swan", now - I guessed it, there is a book - this is "Odyssey against ferrets" by Georg von Walwitz - about financial markets.

The dacha is the place where Piotrovsky takes off his scarf. And collects high stacks of books - for reading and slow thinking

- "Mirrors for Sheikhs" by Alexander Kazeruni - an absolutely wonderful book about the creation of museums in the Persian Gulf - I need the next report. The book of the new rector of the European University, Vadim Volkov, "The State or the Price of Order" is also worth reading. "The Suffering Middle Ages" is now read by everyone. "History of the state of Lakhmids" - about pre-Islamic Arabs, that's what I just read on the page. "Cold Summer" - word by word commentary on Mandelstam's prose. And at the very bottom - always! - the book of eternal return, "Petersburg Tales" by Gogol. I have another stack of books on the second floor, would you like me to show you?

In the new pack "Envy" by Olesha, "The Abnormal" by Michel Foucault, "In Memory of Catalonia" by Orwell and ... "Flowers of Francis of Assisi".

Borya then went to Italy and, having got to Assisium, joined the pilgrimage to St. Francis. But we were calm for him: what is possible and what is not possible in Catholicism was explained to him by the former seminarian Sergei Shnurov.

The story turned out to be quite serious. When there was an exhibition of Fabre in the Hermitage and dissatisfaction with the "people" appeared, the museum began to think about who could enter into a dialogue with the people. As a result, Sergei Shnurov was invited to the exhibition, he liked Fabre, he said - not strangers, his own - but the right words, and the exhibition went relatively calmly. The power of a buffoon culture - and a buffoon is almost always smart - is great within a rigorous situation.

And here, pay attention, the only table that I manage to keep empty, - Mikhail Borisovich continues the tour. ("Irina Leonidovna insisted?", "No, Irina Leonidovna does not interfere in such things"). It's good to have, of course, more than one clean table, but it doesn't work. And here only today are the papers, because I am writing. This knife for cutting book pages was given to me by our ambassador in Oman, I was very afraid that it would be taken away from me at the border, it looks like a dagger.

Irina Leonidovna and I propose, as a symbol of the house, portraits of the great mathematicians - Newton, Descartes, Laplace, Euler, which hung in the house of Mikhail Borisovich's grandfather, artilleryman and mathematics teacher, author of excellent textbooks. I'm interested in bright beads. Mikhail Borisovich accompanies each of our finds with a story, a plot.

I brought the Lebanese Christian rosary, and the shell rosary was brought by the Pope from Oceania.

Things of the late father - a separate "topic". On the second floor, in the place of honor, there is an old typewriter given to his father for his 50th birthday, and Piotrovsky asks to include it in 7 symbolic things at home. As well as the restored (Irina Leonidovna was engaged in this) old armchair in front of the table.

And of course - a dollhouse from his office. It was made by a very large art dealer, many famous directors of world museums have such dollhouses.

The desktop Royal Palace in Amsterdam is also dear to him, because once, when the queen came to the opening of the Hermitage exhibition in the Dutch capital, they did not allow her to open it - because of the threat of a terrorist attack. And the queen said "Then let's all come to me", her palace was opposite. The queen did not often live in the palace, did not really know where her glasses were, opened the cabinets with keys. Recently, at a meeting with Piotrovsky (she is now a retired queen), she recalled this. And he keeps the desktop Royal Palace of Amsterdam, given to him as a keepsake. And this is definitely a symbolic thing of his house.

Maybe it doesn't look like this, but a miniature chair, the size of a little finger, breathes its history, one of those that Valery Fokin's theater made, recreating the famous Meyerhold's "Masquerade".

I'm beginning to think that there is nothing in Piotrovsky's house without history - all the rosaries are from Oceania, all the chairs are from Meyerhold. Baskets on the floor, where it is convenient to put both books and a bottle of wine, for example, were "peeped" in the house of the Italian publisher Leonardo Montadori. (“The richest man,” recalls Irina Leonidovna, “but he kept magnificent books like this, in baskets, and we liked this idea”).

Piotrovsky draws our attention to the icon - this is St. John (Steblin-Kamensky), the New Martyr and Confessor of Russia, who was shot in 1930 near Voronezh. He is an ancestor in his youth of Piotrovsky's best friend, the famous linguist, Iranist, academician Ivan Steblin-Kamensky, who died in May of this year.

The icon was given to me by my wife and daughter Vanya. His daughter is an icon painter.

Cult of personality

Here, of course, we have a cult of personality, says Piotrovsky, showing his puppet himself.

It is impossible not to mention the paradoxically ironic line of things in his house - a photograph of a monkey from the zoo who painted (“The Hermitage does not let such crazy things pass”), a comic birthday greeting received by the owner from the European University “To you, the boyar and the chief judge of the Sovereign of Hermitage …"

But the jokes are exhausted quickly, and I want to carefully look at the old notebooks, in which there were his sketches of ancient Yemeni inscriptions and drawings that he made as a member and leader of the famous Yemeni scientific expedition. Judging by the modern war in Yemen, this may be their only repository in the world, and then these notebooks are not worth the price. A book should be written about this. But scientific.

This is actually what slows me down, - says Mikhail Borisovich, sitting down at the table on the terrace. - Scientific work requires deep immersion in all sorts of comparative materials, and there is no time for this.

Irina Leonidovna brings other, no less interesting notebooks - they contain the last drawings of her husband. "This is the 'Sacrifice of Abraham'," he explains, while my eyes are confused in unusual lines, "and this is the 'Madonna'.

I'm trying to challenge his method of "torn reading" - page by page from different books. This is the same "clip thinking", the scourge of the modern world and consciousness.

But when you read a little, you just start to read and think slowly, he objects. - Ira, why is there no sugar on the table?

We don't have sugar in our house. I provided candy.

How is it that we don't have sugar in our house? - goes to the kitchen and returns with a full vase of two kinds of sugar.

Are you hiding sugar from me?! - the wife is surprised, and a calmly loving dialogue begins about the benefits and harms of sugar, which consists half of views and, it seems, is the best test on the topic, you see a happy family in front of you or not.

When, before leaving, we will stand at the gate with Mikhail Borisovich, and Irina Leonidovna will close the house and quietly walk towards us along the path, I will tell him that I will never cease to be amazed at the art of being a wife - to be silent when there is something to say, to remember the most important thing, but concerning her husband, and not you, to give up hers for the sake of her husband’s interests (Irina Leonidovna worked in the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations of St. Petersburg under the then vice-mayor Vladimir Putin, she succeeded, and a stunning career could await her).

I think being a wife is a talent, says Piotrovsky. - And, congenital.

Boris arrives for lunch at a country restaurant on the Sestra River. Fit, cheerful, happy. He says that he gave two interviews, shows a new clip shot on a mobile phone.

Self-confident, says half-admiring, half-shy Mikhail Borisovich after dinner.

Yes, no, just self-confident, - we object.

Yes, perhaps, self-confidence is important, - Piotrovsky agrees already in the car.

My country day with the great museum worker of the world will end absolutely not in the country. The exhibition "Furniture for all the vagaries of the body" opens in the Hermitage. It will be opened by the deputy director, since the director is on vacation, but Piotrovsky at the exhibition with the persistence of wasps, which this year invade the dacha Komarovo, will be surrounded by all kinds of people. But Irina Leonidovna still manages to fight the wasps, but here, like with sugar ...

And then an office where you urgently need to answer the letters of the "brilliant actress" Helen Mirren with a request to allow her to make a film in the Hermitage (rejection, of course) and an old friend, an English museum worker, asking a personal question (the harsh impact of sanctions on human consciousness), is not dangerous whether to go to Rostov-on-Don for a scientific conference. "I write to him: are you crazy?".

And for me, in order not to lose the memory of the dacha, all that remains is to retreat.

It seems that M.B. Piotrovsky did not answer questions about where the disappeared valuables had gone and why the collections of masterpieces went to exhibitions without insurance.
And in general, did the originals or fakes come back from the “exhibitions”? Examination, as far as we know, no one conducted?
We need a selective, and then a total check in 2013 of the Hermitage for the safety of masterpieces and their authenticity, and at the same time all the financial and economic activities of the management of the above-mentioned museum.
After that, it will be clear in what tone and on which topical topics you can talk with this strange director.

(comment by BigNode user)

P.S. - JOKE ON THE TOPIC:

DYNAMITE STORIES

"GOD HIMSELF ORDERED TO STEAL",
or
Temptations of the terrorist

The lackeys [of the Winter Palace], and the palace servants in general, were really "hard-boiled." From the surviving reports of A.I. Zhelyabov and S.N. Khalturin, it is known that upon entering the Winter Palace, Khalturin was struck by the mores and customs of his new comrades. An amazing disorder reigned in the management of the palace. The rampant theft of ministers exceeded all probability. Khalturin's palace colleagues arranged feasts at which dozens of their acquaintances freely passed without control and supervision. While from the main entrances to the palace there was no free access to the highest-ranking persons, the back doors were open day and night for any tavern acquaintance of the last palace servant. Often visitors stayed and spend the night in the palace.

The general theft of palace property forced Khalturin to steal food so as not to appear suspicious. Twice he stole porcelain dishes. However, the servants claimed that God himself ordered them to steal, because, for example, palace lackeys received only 15 rubles a month ...

Theft in the palace reached such proportions that Khalturin (in a conversation with A.A. Kvyatkovsky, member of Narodnaya Volya) wondered why the almost unguarded crown of Catherine II, which was located on the first floor of the palace, was not stolen, which was estimated at a million rubles ... “Like all these crowns and scepters plundered - I’ll never know?”, - said Khalturin.

Preparing the explosion, Khalturin demanded from the Executive Committee of "Narodnaya Volya" assistance with various intelligence information, and most importantly, supplying him with dynamite.

Pavel Kann.
Walk from the Summer Palace to the Winter Palace
along the Palace embankment of St. Petersburg.
SPb., "Petrogradsky and Co.", 1996, pp. 180-181.

WHY THE DIRECTOR OF THE HERMITAGE M. PIOTROVSKY,
SPECIALIST IN ISLAM AND THE KORAN,
DOES NOT ALLOW CHRISTIANS
TO PRAY IN THE CHURCHES OF THE WINTER PALACE?

It has long been known that in the bowels of the State Hermitage Museum, subordinate to the Ministry of Culture of Russia, in the deep underground there is a community of Orthodox Christians, as in the days of the persecutor of Christians, the sadistic Roman emperor Nero, who, on legal grounds - by decree of the President of Russia - demands to be released from "worldly exhibitions" temples of the official residence of the Emperors of Russia (homes of the heads of the Russian state - emperors and empresses) - the Winter Palace.

Christians urgently ask to fulfill the Decrees of the President on the return of the objects of Christian worship to the Russian Orthodox Church. Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky does not pay attention to the legitimate demands of the Orthodox, he does not want to comply with the Decrees of the President of Russia.

Why?

As a former hereditary atheist communist?

Or for some other reason?

Or citizen Piotrovsky M.B., who has ascended “very high”, has no time to pay attention to the “standing below” Orthodox Petersburgers, for he (already or still?) is the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the Academy of Arts, full member of the Academy of Humanities, Head of the Department of Museum Affairs and Monument Protection, Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University, Professor of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Head of the Department of History of the Ancient East of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Dean of the Oriental Faculty Petersburg University, Chairman of the Union of Museums of Russia, member of the International Council of Museums, member of the Presidium of the Russian Committee of UNESCO, laureate of the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art, and so on and so forth and so on ...

But for the time being, he, M.B. Piotrovsky, is not yet a museum emperor! more and more posts...

Is it possible that the former atheist communist comrade, and now Mr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, is so brilliant that while officially in the responsible state service of the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, he can simultaneously perform responsible work in other positions - dozens of times more, than the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin himself?

Does the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Rostislavovich Medinsky know that one of the museum directors subordinate to him, wearing his invariable scarf around his neck and personifying the ideological trend of “elegant scarfism with short lean Caucasian legs” in Russian political thought, can simultaneously, in addition to the general directorate in the State Hermitage Museum, to perform so many other functions and memberships?

It is high time for the famous Russian statesman, chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Grigoryevich Onishchenko, to check why Mr. Piotrovsky does not protect his health, scrupulously performing so many important duties at the same time. Surely this violates the Labor Code of the Russian Federation ...

Doesn't Mikhail Borisovich as the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, being an "editor" and "compiler", the author of "prefaces" and "afterwords", not receive any money? Perhaps he passes them on to pensioners - caretakers of the halls, junior researchers and employees of the Hermitage, who receive a meager salary? Give them a list of those blessed!

But why is this happening?

Is he a very rich man?

The fiftieth anniversary of the reign (1964-2014) of the “Piotrovsky House” in the State Hermitage Museum is just around the corner, about which the doctoral cantor has written a special book, The Hermitage. Piotrovskie” (St. Petersburg, 2004, 170 pp.), timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the removal from the post of Director of the Hermitage in 1964, the outstanding archaeologist Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov (1898-1972).

Artamonov's resignation took place “thanks to” the exhibition activities of the notorious Shemyakin Mishka, who is now abroad, a provocateur from art (that was his name in Saigon).

As is known, professor and academician Piotrovsky was not involved in the death of Larisa Zavadskaya, who robbed the funds of the State Hermitage Museum (this was proved by the court). He, being the general director of the State Hermitage Museum, is not guilty of the death of the thief Larisa Zavadskaya at the working museum post!

A thief or thieves stole exhibits worth hundreds of millions of rubles from the funds of the State Hermitage Museum. Piotrovsky M.B., Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Professor and Corresponding Member, for this largest theft in the history of the Hermitage, which will soon, in 2014, turn a quarter of a millennium, suffered only a reprimand from the talkative on various occasions and occasions on the Kultura channel » former Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy.

By the way, a former relative of Piotrovsky M.B. Dementyeva Natasha (the former wife of his cousin) was the Minister of Culture under Yeltsin and distinguished herself when Yeltsin buried the so-called “Yekaterinburg remains”, which are not recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the authentic bodies of the family of the last Russian emperor.

One of Natasha's deputies was Misha, by the name of Shvydkoi, who swung chairs with Natasha, who, already a minister, announced to Piotrovsky M.B. for the "exploits" of the thief Larisa Zavadskaya, only a reprimand.

But after all, for similar offenses (oversight of theft), Minister of Defense Serdyukov not so long ago lost his high place ... M.B. Piotrovsky is “sitting”! Let's add still...

"World Citizen of St. Petersburg", supporting a small clan in the form of a virtual "World Club of St. Petersburg", an international and Russian order bearer, listed in the list of honorary citizens of St. Petersburg, Mr. M.B. Piotrovsky fools his superiors with unctuous songs, tales and jokes about "the cultural heritage and the unsurpassed role of the Hermitage in the history of Russia."

In general, not Dostoevsky - a symbol of Russian culture, but Piotrovsky!

However, as is known, the concept of culture, like any other category, is a sought-for one, which creates ground for speculations by comrade (former communist) Mikhail Piotrovsky.

It is widely known that Mikhail Piotrovsky is a scientist, a specialist in Islam (and, therefore, a propagandist of the ideas of the Koran - who sincerely does not like his professional knowledge, for which he receives money?).

But for some reason he is also a laureate of prizes, as well as the son of an Armenian woman and a Russified Pole-communist B.B. regional committee of the CPSU, who approved the award lists), a member of the regional committee of the CPSU, fooling around about "the bright future of all mankind - communism"!

I would also like to ask: who maintains the information site of the State Hermitage museum - not a professor or academician Mikhail Piotrovsky, but also Piotrovsky. Isn't he a relative of the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum?

And how can one not recall the words of Adlai Stevenson, who at one time spoke to one gentleman like this:

"IF YOU DON'T STOP LIES ABOUT ME
"I WON'T STOP TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU!"

…SO WILL IT BE ALLOWED
PERMANENT SERVICES
IN DESPITED BY COMMUNISTS
ORTHODOX CHURCHES
IMPERIAL WINTER PALACE?
DOES EVERYTHING STILL DEPEND
FROM A FORMER ATHEIST COMMUNIST
Piotrovsky M.B. ?

Interior view
Great Church of the Winter Palace
in St. Petersburg

The Hermitage is celebrating its 300th anniversary. 240 years - the museum itself and 60 years - its director Mikhail Piotrovsky. In anticipation of these events, Mikhail Piotrovsky kindly agreed to give an interview to FeldPochta.

What are the duties of the director of the Hermitage? What is the range of issues that you deal with?

The widest. From economic to deeply philosophical. It is necessary to deal with management and reconstruction, current repairs and capital repairs. There are, of course, deputies, but the ideology of everything must be kept in hand. It is necessary to provide storage, protection, a security system, to manage science and research. Organize temporary and permanent exhibitions. It is necessary to engage in a struggle with various government agencies in the interests of the Hermitage, to push through the Duma the correct, necessary laws. It is necessary to deal with the prestige and status of the Hermitage, with what is called "PR". Well, and most importantly, to fight for the allocation of money for the museum from budgetary and non-budgetary sources.

Does the Hermitage have patrons, permanent sponsors?

Of course I have. But the main task of maintaining the museum lies with society as a whole. The main share of the expenditures still falls on the state. And there are patrons - both ours and foreign ones. About 1/8 of the budget is funds from patrons.

Why do you have to fight the Duma - in matters of culture, everyone seems to be patriots?

We have to fight everyone because everyone wants to save money and we need a lot of money. Communication with deputies can be called a struggle, or it can be called work. Right now the Duma is preparing the question of new legal forms - state and semi-state cultural institutions. We are preparing a number of proposals so that our culture is not killed, but, on the contrary, is helped to develop. And that the interests of museums be taken into account. Concrete proposals have been sent to the Duma and the ministry.

And what are these proposals?

The main ones are as follows: in the event that these laws provide for relative freedom and shift a significant part of the financial responsibility to institutions, then they should, accordingly, reduce state control. After all, these laws boil down to the fact that the state should give a little - everyone should earn the cultural institutions themselves. But at the same time, the petty, daily control of the state sharply increases, which, of course, leads to a complete catastrophe, because if you are given freedom, then there must be freedom to dispose of the money you earn. Of course, under control, but only according to the results.

How do you make money?

We call it not earning, but generating. We receive money from exhibitions, more and more from patrons and from various foundations. But it's not about how much we can earn. We should not be at the head of the fragility of making money in any way. It is not known what this may lead to.

What's wrong with making money by all means to promote art?

In general, there is nothing wrong with this, but there are ways to earn money that are unacceptable for us. You can't organize discos in the halls of the Hermitage, although you can collect so much money for one disco...

What were the proposals?

We have all sorts of suggestions. Well, something like that. Everyone wants some kind of balls, receptions to arrange in the Hermitage.

Weddings, perhaps?

Anyway, let's not talk. But this cannot be done, although it could bring big money. There are limits.

Maybe you don't have to be so scrupulous? Well, how will the wedding interfere with the Hermitage?

It just gets in the way. There is a certain museum regime that must not be violated - security, air humidity. But the most important thing is the atmosphere of the museum. Even a reception in honor of a museum event, the opening of an exhibition - maybe not in the museum halls, but in other rooms.

That is, non-museum events can still be held in the Hermitage?

Yes, but only those organized by the Hermitage itself - the opening of an exhibition, the presentation of large projects. Right now we will have an evening-meeting of the Hermitage Museum - people who help the museum financially throughout the year, surround us with all sorts of care. In honor of them, on December 8, there will be a reception at the Winter Palace.

And how many friends does the Hermitage have?

I think there will be 250-300 people. And we do not seek to invite the so-called celebrities. Only those people who give money.

Will it be like a ball?

First we will gather at the theater for a small concert. Then words of gratitude, medals, diplomas. Then we will walk around the museum, show different exhibitions, new discoveries. Then there will be a reception at the Jordan Gallery, in a special place where we have big receptions two or three times a year. Once a year is a special reception to raise money for the next project. It is usually timed to coincide with the ball of the Mariinsky Theatre. The other one will be for friends now. Well, the third, on a special occasion, happens during the year.

What will be on the buffet?

As usual - food, refreshments. But not where the pictures are.

How much does the maintenance of the Hermitage cost the state per year?

Every year is different. This year, maintenance and construction (we are doing a lot of capital construction) cost $40 million. Before that, all the years it was less. Of this amount, 60 percent is provided by the state, the rest is sponsors and our earnings from generating funds.

By the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, many monuments and museums, as they say, only the facade was tinted. What is the technical condition of the Hermitage?

Firstly, we paint facades every year, and it costs one million dollars. Our facades are large, it is also roofs. Facade is a very important thing. Because a person, for example, can be very good, but if he changes his shirt every two weeks and does not clean his shoes, then his good (tm) is of little use. (Laughs.) The same is true of our building. Our plumbing and fire systems have been completely reconstructed and replaced. Powerful work is underway with the involvement of international companies to waterproof the walls and basements of the Hermitage. We are working on stabilizing the temperature in the building - we are setting up thermal centers in different parts of the museum. I would say that the technical condition is very decent.

Why don't you say it's good?

You can never say what is good, because, as you say, something will immediately collapse. The work was never interrupted - there were five years when there was no money at all. Now we do something every year. This year we made a new illumination of the courtyard of the Winter Palace, which has now become the entrance to the Hermitage. We will also show patrons the restored Van Dyck Hall, the Picket Hall. All of them will be put into operation by the coming days of the Hermitage.

In theory, can the Hermitage bring profit to the state?

We preserve the cultural heritage of the nation. The most important thing is. This is more important than anything else. This is what makes us different from animals. The duty of the state is to give money to ensure that this is preserved. It is possible to say that a museum can earn money by itself, but one cannot say that a museum can bring income to the state. You can't even put the question like that - say that museums earn money for the state. For this, it collects taxes from us in order to preserve cultural values, to contain what is important for the nation. Yes, now there is such a tendency to expect profit from any state property. We can earn money, but it is not our responsibility. Moreover, we should not give anything to the state. Let the oligarchs share, but we are not supposed to.

Does Vladimir Vladimirovich support you in this matter?

Certainly.

Is it hard to resist the bureaucracy without the support of the first persons of the state?

Well, how does the President support? He will come to the Hermitage with his guest. They will talk there, take a picture here. There is a picture - everything is as it should be. After that, it is already easier to talk - it is not necessary that he himself calls on the phone. We use his kind attitude to culture - it is. He will say something, and we try to develop further.

What kind of new acquisitions does the Hermitage accept? What has been sensational in recent years?

The most sensational is, of course, Malevich's Black Square, which Potanin bought. Literally today I got a call that one of the patrons managed to buy Chernetsov's watercolor painting of our Malachite Hall inexpensively at an auction. For us, this is a priceless gift.

What are the problems with the protection of the Hermitage?

Before the era of terrorism, the main enemy was, as elsewhere, theft. These thieves are always inventing something. Here I am sitting at my desk, and in front of me are three monitors that record how people enter the Hermitage, how they go through all these metal detectors, checks and searches. Unfortunately, this had to be done. We are guarded by both the police and our own security service. Patrols and caretakers walk through the halls. More and more money is spent on technical security, let me not disclose the details.

Does all this guarantee safety?

So far, for several years, it seems that God has been merciful from major troubles.

How are your relations with the new governor - Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko?

Great relationship. She knows the Hermitage well from the time of her previous work in St. Petersburg, she shows every kind of concern, although formally we have a federal level and we do not ask for money from the city.

Doesn't excessive intelligence bother you for doing business in our rude country? - This should not be asked of me, but, in my opinion, it does not interfere. Moreover, my intelligence, I would say, is moderate. I'm not only sitting with books. He traveled a lot around the world, on archaeological expeditions. I do not feel uncomfortable in our rough country, although, of course, sometimes they push each other with their shoulders.

Does it happen that they plot?

From time to time, some stupid fuss begins: supposedly the paintings were changed, something was taken out there. There were some idiotic parliamentary inquiries, and the prosecutor's office has to check all this ... The intrigues are built not so much by officials, but by various spiteful critics. Some want to show that everything is bad in Russia, others don't like something in the Hermitage. Someone else has a personal grudge. But it is all over the world. And with us, and not only with regard to the Hermitage.

Do you have a "sweet" place if they try to sit up?

Not so much me - it's rather against the team that works in the Hermitage. And the place is not so "sweet". There is a lot of work, I sleep with two phones, because everything happens at night. People also work for us for not very big money, but, as a rule, they don’t go anywhere.

They say that you are looking for funds to pay extra to museum workers?

We pay about three times more than museum salaries from extrabudgetary funds. We give allowances to those who are active, and, of course, we strive not to fire museum people. This cannot be done, because then they generally end up on the street.

We are proud of our cultural heritage - but how do you like the talk of recent years about the need to return valuables seized during the last war? What is your position? Why is it that the British, say, Museum does not pay any further attention to such reproaches, while in Russia all this is being discussed?

We are very different from all the British museums and things like that. We, unfortunately, did not rob not in Egypt, not in Mesopotamia. (Laughs) Most of our collection was purchased for money by Russian tsars and aristocracy, which is quite legal. Another part of the collection - things collected throughout the USSR. Very often, cries of robbery are heard from those who themselves did not appreciate what they had. The same marbles of the Parthenon. They were sold to the British, and now they say - give them back. In general, the museum is a special organism. Some kind of Greek vase next to a Scythian necklace, with paintings by Matisse and Rembrandt - all together it becomes a single organism and a cultural monument. Things in the museum become famous, people specially come to look at them and learn world culture through them. We actively advocate that all this talk about the loot should concern only the post-war period, when international laws were already in force. Now a lot of it is being smuggled out illegally. And this must be stopped. And what was before, let it remain and lie in museums. And there is no need to take anything away - neither from the Metropolitan, nor from the Louvre. And there is nothing to take away from the Hermitage - everything is legal.

What event marks the 240th anniversary of the Hermitage?

In 1764, Catherine the Great purchased the first large collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Katkowski, who was collecting them for Frederick the Great. At that time there was a seven-year war, Frederick the Great was at war with Russia, found himself without money, and he could not buy this collection. Catherine bought the collection and brought it here to the Hermitage, although there is no exact date when it was. Therefore, for many years the Hermitage did not have a birthday - that's just the date of 240 years. Then we nevertheless decided that it was necessary to find the birthday of the Hermitage and celebrate it on St. Catherine's Day - December 7th. Therefore, for 6 years now we have been celebrating the Hermitage's birthday in December. And the 9th is Saint George's Day. This is the day of the St. George Hall of the Winter Palace. In these three days, we report to ourselves, to our friends. We arrange all sorts of exhibitions.

I do not celebrate my birthday at the Hermitage. This is a separate conversation...

How is it, 60 years is still an anniversary ...

I am begging you! Anniversary is fifty, and sixty is so. I will never manage. I work - I am at work, therefore, maybe, in the intervals between ceremonies, reports, press conferences, friends will come, well, maybe a glass or two ... But nothing will happen.

Allow yourself a glass or two?

On special holidays, yes. Whiskey, vodka. I don't drink cognac.

They say that the cultural level of our contemporaries has fallen, is that true? What do you see from the visitors of the Hermitage?

It must be divided into parts. For example, everyone is very fond of saying that the cultural level of students and youth has fallen. This is absolutely wrong. We have a wonderful student club, which we recently created, there are special lectures for students - you should have seen how many people rush into the lecture halls, especially when we give lectures on contemporary art. That is, the youth is definitely not degraded. Students, children and pensioners go to the Hermitage free of charge. These free categories make up about a million of our two and a half million visitors. This is a lot, which means that at least half of the citizens really strive for art and enjoy it. Somewhere in the middle there remains some kind of mass, whose level has not really fallen, but which is fond of any mass art that has become available, but ... this too will pass. I would not complain that our cultural level has fallen. Maybe just too many temptations - it distracts from high culture. But we in the museum do not complain at all about the lack of visitors - they go, go, go.

Do you go to non-high culture events yourself?

We have a theater in the Hermitage. Therefore, in the evening we always have either a ballet or a musical concert literally "at home" you can watch. But, unfortunately, this rarely works out for me - I also work in the evening ...

When are you at home?

At ten or eleven, but this does not mean that you can rest. I came, so I have to prepare for the next day, write something. I teach at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Leningrad State University, I read the history of Muslim art, I teach at the Faculty of Philosophy - there I head the department of museology - and I teach at the European University in St. Petersburg, now there is such - I am the chairman of the board of trustees. I write books - I also do my specialty.

When talking about you, your employees proudly said that you knew six languages. And you can even think in Arabic...

I really know many languages, and most importantly, I am an orientalist by profession and have been accustomed all my life to speak several languages ​​every day, especially since I lived in the Middle East for a long time. I do speak different languages ​​and this impresses the guests. When distinguished guests arrive, I drive them myself, without an interpreter.

You are an amazing, unique person!

This is not unique - this is my profession.

Probably, not every curator of the largest museum abroad can speak at least Russian?

In Russian - yes, in Russian, almost no one. Only the director of the Metropolitan Museum speaks a little Russian.

Each director must speak several languages. Thank God, I got it thanks to education, and so - everyone should strive.

You have been in this post for 15 years. Who appointed you?

Government of the Russian Federation. Gaidar was prime minister and Yeltsin was president. Sobchak was the mayor of the city. Putin was the deputy mayor. Make assumptions.

That's the point, it turns out!

Yes, we really knew the President's family very well. And they really worked closely together. These were the years when everything was built in a new way in St. Petersburg.

Petersburgers believe that Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia. And Muscovites believe that Moscow is the cultural and political capital of Russia. So Moscow or Petersburg?

In general, to be honest, with all my love for St. Petersburg, I think that we have one capital - Moscow, and the cultural capital is also Moscow. Petersburg is the cultural capital of Europe and the world. Like this. In fact, this is a ridiculous argument. Petersburg is the greatest city, which is the world's cultural center. On the other hand, St. Petersburg must constantly defend this position. The most important thing is not to say or boast that we are so wonderful, that's all. Every year we must defend this high title of the world's largest cultural center. We must make exhibitions of the highest level, so that every time people in the world hear the word "Petersburg" they don't just say: "Ah, St. Petersburg is a beautiful city!", but understand what it is about. It used to be like this: "Oh, yes, we know - you have an amazing museum, but they say you have all sorts of economic problems and it's hard in the country." For 6 years now, the conversation has been different: "Very nice, listen, you have an amazing website, the best in the world. Where, how did you manage to make it and how did you manage to persuade AIBM?" And we really persuaded AIB- uh invest a few million dollars to make our website so good. This is how you need to do something every time so that people admire something new.

How do you feel about the talk about moving the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg?

For God's sake! I thank Lenin for moving the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow, because if the capital had remained here, everything would have been like in Moscow for a long time. There would be not just compacted buildings, as it is now, but what the hell kind of houses would stand. Moscow, after all, withstood it. The Kremlin withstood the onset of new construction. Petersburg would have been worse. No transfer is needed. Petersburg has the necessary set of capital functions. There may be some federal agencies here. It is absolutely not necessary to bring the Ministry of Culture here, but to develop the cultural institutions of St. Petersburg, to give them more autonomy is wonderful. We have the Maritime Register, the heraldic service, which have existed in St. Petersburg for centuries, and they can be developed, but something like that is transferred from Moscow, starting to move back and forth, lifting people from their place - I think it is not necessary.

What did you do before the Hermitage?

I worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies, at the Academy of Sciences. He was engaged in pure science - oriental studies, was the head of a large expedition in Yemen. Worked here and there for many years. Doctor of historical sciences, wrote books on history.

Tell us more about how you met Putin.

It's hard to even remember. The government was just being created then, my wife worked for him in the committee on foreign relations, then this committee was just being created. We met somewhere in Smolny. Then one of the meetings was when the President of Finland came to visit - we had such an agreement that he walks around the Hermitage, we go to the library, we talk about various "Hermitage" topics, then Vladimir Vladimirovich comes - and they negotiate here, we have. I remember well - then it all turned out beautifully, elegantly and for the benefit of everyone. The situation in the Hermitage always helps our side to negotiate.

But still, it is interesting to what extent the President takes part in the affairs of the Hermitage?

I already said - he has the style that makes it possible to use his good attitude, nothing more. I don't use telephone rights.

Do you have his, how to say, mobile phone?

Of course not.

Mikhail Borisovich, your corporate identity is beautiful scarves. Do you collect them? How do you have so many?

I already said - I don’t have scarves, but a scarf. A scarf is not a scarf. Besides, where from is a question that journalists are not allowed to ask. I buy them, if you like, they give them to me. The best ones are the ones I choose for myself.

Have you created this image for yourself?

Well, I like to wear a scarf. It somehow protects from the whole world...

Some express the idea that the Hermitage works very little, closes early.

You see, the Hermitage works as long as it can, because two thousand people cannot work in two or three shifts. We work all day, six days a week. In addition, there are free days once a month. If we could afford to burn more electricity and hire even more people, maybe we would work longer... Those who live in St. Petersburg buy subscriptions, there are special Hermitage lecture halls when they walk around the empty museum in groups. So there are special programs, and we will do more of them.

Are you going to modernize the museum? Computers, musical films next to pictures...

Modernity is moderate. There are no problems with computers either - we are one of the most advanced users in the field of information technology. But we don’t do too much: we still have amazing architecture and paintings - it all complements each other and interferes with each other. We are introducing any new technology carefully, more as information technology. There are guide screens. There is concert music, its own orchestra, its own theater. There are music festivals in the courtyard of the Winter Palace, on the square. The performance is not very modern, more synthetic. Special technologies will be applied in the restored building of the General Staff - there will be art of the twentieth century, there will be all sorts of frills.

"WE WAITING HERE FOR EVERY KAZAN CITIZEN"

The exhibition was traditionally preceded by a press conference by the Director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky, in which the new director of the State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve "Kazan Kremlin" took part Zilya Valeeva.

Piotrovsky, in his unchanging black scarf, even the hot weather did not allow Mikhail Borisovich to take it off, he had just returned from Amsterdam, where he was opening another exhibition in the Hermitage center. Appearing at night in Kazan, he had already managed to Mintimer Shaimiev see how the restoration of the Bolgars is progressing. Nevertheless, the press conference started almost on time.

The exhibition will run until March next year, and not only every citizen of Tatarstan should visit it, but also our neighbors from Chuvashia and Mari El, because this is our common history. It can be assumed that her attendance will break all records, Valeeva shared her assumptions.

There are no such exhibitions anywhere in the world and never will be. There is one museum in the world that could collect and present such a collection - this is the Hermitage, some of the exhibits are exhibited there for the first time in their lives, - Piotrovsky stressed the uniqueness of the exhibition.

By the way, the director of the Institute of History of the Republic of Tatarstan once suggested holding such an exhibition in Kazan Rafael Khakimov, his proposal was listened to with interest and received implementation within the walls of the Hermitage.

You will see simplicity and luxury - ceramics and golden goblets, this is typical for the nomadic world, - this is how Piotrovsky announced the exposition.

When asked by a BUSINESS Online correspondent about the insured value of the exposition, Piotrovsky replied: “I never name the insured value. But I can say one thing: it is very big here. You can see how much gold is on display.”

According to the director of the Hermitage, about 500 thousand people visited one of the similar exhibitions in St. Petersburg, according to Piotrovsky's forecast, the figure in Kazan may be higher.

“THE PEOPLE HAVE WOKE INTEREST IN HISTORY”

Exhibition “Nomads of Eurasia. On the Way to Empire” is the tenth exhibition in the Hermitage. In general, Kazan has been cooperating with the museum from the banks of the Neva for fifteen years. The initiative of this friendship and cooperation once belonged to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Shaimiev. It is no coincidence that Mintimer Sharipovich was one of the most honored guests at the opening of a new exposition in the Hermitage-Kazan Center.

This year in Tatarstan has been declared the year not only of history, but also of the revival of historical heritage, the people have awakened interest in history, we have become different, - Mintimer Sharipovich emphasized at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

When the ribbon was solemnly cut, according to tradition, the director of the Hermitage himself gave the first tour of the exposition. And Shaimiev became the first excursionist.

ON THE STEPPE

What did the nomads give to the world? How did horsemen interact with agricultural civilizations? These and other questions are answered by the exposition, which occupies all the Hermitage halls, it is built in chronological order.

Temporal coverage - from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. before the formation of the Great Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century. The collection has been collected for more than one year, it includes objects that came to the Hermitage from archaeological excavations of burial mounds, cities and sites, this is one part of the exhibited collection. The second came from the collection of collectors of the late XIX - early XX centuries.

There are items that are exhibited for the first time. These are finds from the Aimyrlyg and Kichmalka burial grounds.

ROYAL JEWELRY

The first hall is dedicated to the culture of the Scythian time, here the earliest monuments of Europe and Central Asia coexist. Here you can see an abundance of luxurious gold items of the finest work from the "royal" graves, they are complemented by the reconstruction of funeral costumes from the only undisturbed monument of this type, it was explored at the beginning of this century, this is the Arzhan-2 mound. drawings. These slabs, examples of nomadic art, are extremely rarely exhibited in a museum.

In the same section, another unique exhibit is presented - the ax from Kelermes, it was made in the 7th century BC and is considered a masterpiece of the Hermitage collection.

« ICE LENSES»

Wood, felt and leather - they can miraculously be preserved in burial grounds, but on one condition. If they are in the so-called "ice lenses". Such products from deep burial grounds, where the nobility were buried, are also on display. These are magnificent and unique products of the Pazyryk culture of Altai.

They are adjacent to the so-called Siberian collection of Peter the Great, it is noteworthy that it was with it that the museum business began in Russia at one time.

A number of European monuments are represented by products of warlike Sarmatians, they replaced the Scythians in the Black Sea steppes. The most striking exhibit of that time at the Hermitage exhibition is the decorations from the Khokhlach mound, where a female priestess was buried. Naturally, the burial is the richest.

THE GREAT MIGRATION OF PEOPLES

Gold items in polychrome animal style, specially shaped bronze cauldrons, weapons and decorations for horse harness are objects that tell about the culture of European Huns. Before us is the era of the great migration of peoples, a new page in the history of the nomadic tribes of Eurasia. At this time, Turkic tribes, the ancestors of many modern peoples, entered the historical arena in the east.

They move to life in cities, accepting all the achievements of settled farmers, but also retaining their originality. Stone sculptures of warriors, weapons, a belt set, horse equipment and other objects of material culture - they come from different places in Central and Central Asia and testify to the spread of Turkic influence over a vast territory.

There is another interesting section at the exhibition, it is dedicated to the state of the Karakhanids, it was formed at the turn of the first and second millennia in the foothills of the Tien Shan. Islam was spread in this state, and this can be clearly seen in art - in the wonderful products of ceramists, copper workers, glassblowers.

And finally, the final section of the new exposition. It is dedicated to the Great Mongol State - the empire that Genghis Khan created. And she, although for a short time, united the vast territories of Eurasia.

The first capital of this empire was Karakorum, materials obtained during excavations in this place are presented for the first time at an exhibition in the Hermitage center.

WHERE ARE WE FROM?

“Our path is the steppe. Our path is in boundless anguish,” the poet once wrote. At the exhibition you will hear this "voice of the steppe", the clatter of the hooves of the nomad's horses and the hubbub of the ancient city.

You will sigh, longing for something eternal with an ancient stone Polovtsian woman who helplessly folded her hands on her stomach. You will hear the ringing of a copper amphora and the roar of dragons and leopards fighting on a golden waist plate. Smile at the touching carved mountain goats.

But the main thing is that you will once again ask yourself the question: who are we, where are we from? Our distant past becomes tangible. Piece by piece, like a kind of mosaic, a picture of distant centuries is recreated for us, and we see its beauty, scope and ... reality.

The State Hermitage is celebrating two anniversaries this year: the 250th anniversary of the museum and the 70th anniversary of its director Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky. Under his leadership, the world-famous museum has been operating for 22 years.

However, Piotrovsky is known not only as the head of the museum, but also as a public figure. His opinion is always listened to, he is able to influence the adoption of any decisions relating to the life of the city. Over the years of his active work, Mikhail Borisovich gave dozens of interviews. On the birthday of the director of the Hermitage, the site collected his statements about literature, art and the legendary scarf, which can always be seen thrown over the shoulders of an oriental historian.

About interest in art

Our task is to teach a person to understand art. The understanding of beauty is formed from childhood. That is why we welcome both children and students who are ready to spend a lot of time in the museum. This is important because humans (as we have seen) have lost the ability to debate. They seek to impose their own opinion and reject someone else's. Because of this, the colorful world becomes black and white, and society requires people with a complex perception of life. I'm not just talking about art: it's a condition for our survival in the 21st century. I am convinced that when people do not see the difficulties, the rockets begin to fall. (Hermitage website)

About efficiency

Learn to see the beauty in the little things. We are used to thinking globally, everyone dreams of earning a million, they don’t agree to anything less, that’s why they sit on the stove and do nothing. This is a true national tragedy! (Results .ru)

About alternative and erotica

It is necessary to give an alternative in the form of good and interesting products. Then nobody will be interested in nonsense. Nobody has been watching pornography for a long time, because it gets boring. But beautiful erotica is loved and watched by everyone. (Interview Magazine)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: "Our task is to teach a person to understand art." Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About the imperial state

In the empire, the peoples, on the one hand, are bad, and on the other, good. They are involved in its great tasks and great glory. Let's not forget that the empire is always proud of the fact that it consists of many peoples and is proud of its real-life cultural diversity. The Louvre, the Hermitage, the British Museum were born by empires and are happy to collect things and objects of art from different civilizations and cultures. The Empire knows how to admire all this. And it is through the imperial museums that people often master "their" culture and understand "their" civilization. The clarity of imperial principles - freedom of faith, language, culture to some extent, and then - the power of the emperor kept the world. (RG.ru)

About the crisis

In a crisis, everyone starts going to the museum, the number of visitors increases dramatically. And so it is everywhere in the world. You can't buy a new car, but you can often go to the museum, enjoy it. They go and go. Either there is nowhere to go, or they are looking for a reason for optimism. (Forbes.ru)

About Literature

I think that the Strugatsky brothers were the best writers of our era, our youth, and in general, all Russian literature then came out of science fiction, because everyone writes famous writers of today, they write science fiction, but only it is so, less interesting than what they wrote Strugatsky. It was both high literature and fascinating literature. (Echo of Moscow)

About the legendary scarf

My wife believes that the scarf came from my predilection for the Bedouin, as if the overalls of the Arabist. I take it off only when they give me orders. And there was another case, at the opening of the session of the British Parliament, where the Queen is. A wife with a scarf is allowed, but not for me. Their vaunted democracy falls short of ours. (Tatler magazine)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: “During the crisis, everyone starts going to the museum, the number of visitors increases dramatically. And so it is everywhere in the world.” Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About the origins of management

Archeology is the discipline that combined management, fundraising, science, and cunning financial reporting in Soviet times. So, with my archaeological experience, it is easier for me to get used to the market, which, for all that, should still be regulated. How? Yes, probably a conscience. (Teacher's newspaper)

About provocations

Provocation, conflict teach to think. And feel. If nothing touched you, there will be no penetration, no connection with art. The museum should teach you to think and make you argue. Avant-garde art was born out of conflict. (News time)

About Art Appreciation

Since a thing is in a museum, it means art. How to deal with art and even what is extremist and what is non-extremist, what is indecent and what is decent - only museums are the final judges here. (AiF)

About Authenticity

People queue for hours at the Hermitage, although any picture can be perfectly viewed on a computer screen or in a book. But in the museum, everyone understands that they see a genuine thing, and this is a special impression. It is very necessary for people in today's world, where you do not know what and how to believe. (IA Rosbalt)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: "Provocation, conflict teaches to think." Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About urban space

The most terrible changes in the city are not even related to architecture. It's a huge amount of cars that are polluting the city. These "cockroaches" that are everywhere and because of which the city is not visible. Sometimes on some day off they are not there, and suddenly you see what beauty is around! (Evening Petersburg)

About tourism

Tourism is generally a very corrupting thing, including for the state. We know dozens of countries, including Egypt, trying to live on the service of visiting foreigners. In this regard, I even like the way Iraq has acted. Monuments, ancient cities were restored there, cultural heritage was preserved, but first of all for its citizens. (Expert North-West)

About icons

An icon in a museum is a work of a talented author, while in a church it is an object and method of worship: there is no time to delve into the nuances and admire the work of the master. The Hermitage, like the Tretyakov Gallery, has thousands of icons. And with each, I assure you, you can make a full copy, and then consecrate it and pray. (AiF)

About public opinion

I am a scientist, and therefore I am skeptical about all kinds of public opinion polls. And I do not believe in the reliability of statistical calculations absolutely. The broad masses, if you work with them correctly, will say what is expected of them. (