The biography of my mother is unusual and amazing. Especially in the first half of her life. She was born on September 25, 1909, when her parents were in an illegal position as participants in armed uprisings in Krasnoyarsk in 1905 and in Vladivostok in 1907. After the first of them, her father, Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky (my Grandfather), one of the leaders of the rebels, was arrested and was awaiting a death sentence. However, he managed to escape, and in the future, the Shumyatsky spouses carried out underground work in different parts of the Russian Empire, in China (Harbin), and from 1911 to 1913, fleeing police persecution, they spent together with my mother in Argentina.
Throughout my childhood, my mother wandered around with my parents in safe houses. On a ship to Argentina, observing secrecy, Grandfather traveled separately from his wife and daughter, he was like a stranger to them. Liya Isaevna Shumyatskaya (my grandmother - Baba, as I called her) had documents of some noble lady.
During the October Revolution B.Z. Shumyatsky became the leader of the Bolsheviks in Siberia and the Far East, Chairman of CENTROSIBIR, Prime Minister of the Far Eastern Republic, organizer of the Mongolian People's Republic and the Buryat-Mongol ASSR, and then Ambassador of the RSFSR (USSR) to Persia. In his last post, he led the cinematography and film industry of the USSR. In this capacity, in return for his cooperative apartment, he received an apartment in the House on the Embankment, in which my mother and her family had a room.
During the civil war, as a child, my mother took part in the work of the underground in Biysk, where Baba had a secret apartment. Documents and printing equipment of the underground workers were hidden there. Once, when Baba's house was being searched, my mother saw through the window that a messenger was coming towards them. She asked those who were searching the apartment to take a walk in the yard, ran out to meet the messenger and sang: “You can’t come to us, we have a search.” He heard and passed by.
Mom adhered to Bolshevik beliefs until the end of her days. And the terrible thing that happened to the country and the family, she considered either a necessity or a mistake of individuals. Apparently, it could not be otherwise. Grandfather, one of the participants and organizers of the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia, an active participant in the construction of a new statehood, was a very bright figure. Everything that her parents did, her mother considered fair and the only true one.
In January 1924, in Tehran, where B.Z. Shumyatsky was the ambassador of the RSFSR, the news came of Lenin's death. Mom, a student of the Russian-Persian school, organized a mourning demonstration in the center of the Persian capital. There was a scandal. Grandfather had to expel mother from Persia with the first opportunity. He sent her to the family of his comrade in the Siberian and Petrograd underground in 1917, Ya.M. Sverdlov, who died about 5 years before, entrusting his mother to the care of his widow Claudia Timofeevna Novgorodtseva (Sverdlova). There she also met the children of the Sverdlovs, one of whom, Andrei (Grandfather helped him a lot at the turn of the 30s when he got into trouble), tormented her sister, Ekaterina Shumyatskaya, on the Lubyanka in 1951.
Mom took part in the creation of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, and she even has some kind of publication: a brochure on this topic. After graduating from high school, my mother entered the Mining Academy in Leningrad, and she graduated from the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold with a rare specialty: metallurgical engineer - concentrator.
I was born in some privileged maternity hospital named after Clara Zetkin on Sunday 04/04/1937 in the morning. Father - Shapiro Lazar Matveevich - Chairman of the Central Committee of the USSR Fire Protection Trade Union - brought a bouquet of roses to his mother and from there went to Gnezdnikovsky Lane to Grandfather. “Nora and I decided to name the boy after you – Boris,” he said. To which Grandfather allegedly replied: “Let him be Boris Shumyatsky. I won't be here soon." My grandfather was barely 50 years old. He was well.
The father did just that. He wrote me down in the metric as Grandfather asked, and when it was issued, an extra letter was stuck in my middle name - a soft sign. And I officially became "Lazarevich". So I was later recorded in my passport. And in other documents, such as various diplomas, I am written in Russian correctly - Lazarevich.
From the maternity hospital, my father brought me and my mother to the apartment of Grandfather and Baba in the House on the Embankment, where we lived almost until the end of the summer, leaving for the weekend, when Grandfather could, to Morozovka, a country state-owned apartment in Lyalovo along the Leningrad highway. In the house of Grandfather and Baba, they put me on a huge ottoman, which was covered with a carpet of the Persian Qajar dynasty, brought from Tehran, descending along the wall from the ceiling. It became the first living space I mastered. And we moved to my parents' apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard, house 29, apt. 44, when one of my father's friends warned him about the impending arrest of Grandfather.
Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky and his wife Liya Isaevna, my mother's parents, were arrested on January 17, 1938, and eight months later my father, Lazar Matveyevich Shapiro, was arrested. Mom, without completing her studies, had to go to work at the GIREDMET Institute and continue to study on the job, as it was then called. Immediately, an unimaginable life began now without rights, without sufficient means of subsistence and the need to carry parcels in prisons, while continuing to work to support me and my schoolgirl sister.
Left without protection in a hostile society, completely exhausted by the difficulties that have fallen on her, my mother did not manage to escape from a rapist colleague. She had nowhere to look for protection. In February 1940, her son Andrei was born from him.
My mother received her diploma in 1939, and now I keep it. She was approved at the rate of an engineer at the Enrichment Laboratory of the GIREDMET Institute, where she worked before the war. From there, she was sent to work in the Urals as a technologist at the Gumbeyredmet enrichment plant, which produced tungsten-molybdenum concentrate, used as an additive in the production of high-alloy steels (armor, etc.). In the mid-1950s, I worked with her at the same factory. Mom had a reputation as a very skilled engineer. She worked as a foreman in the hydrometallurgical department. It enriched silver concentrate, and the productivity of its technologies was, as colleagues said, one and a half times higher than that of others.
On October 19, 1940, my mother had more dependents. A special meeting under the NKVD of the USSR sentenced her mother to 2 years and 9 months in prison, i.e. for the time she has already spent in prison. The lightness of the sentence was explained by the fact that my Baba was mortally ill. She was sent from the prison hospital to die at home. Mom called and offered to pick her up. Father, who had also been released from prison shortly before, carried Baba in his arms to the 5th floor of our house, to apartment 44, building 29 on Gogolevsky Boulevard. Among the papers that she was given upon release was a certificate. It became the basis for obtaining a civil passport, in which there was an entry “The passport was issued on the basis of a commission certificate from the Butyrka prison.” With him, she, having already been rehabilitated and restored to the CPSU with experience since 1905, died on November 16, 1957. Too bad we couldn't save it. And before rehabilitation, she did not receive even a penny general civil pension.
In the evacuation, mother with three dependents (mother and two sons; husband and sister were at the front) spent from early morning until late in the evening at the factory, the children were in the garden and the nursery, L.I. Shumyatskaya. I remember such a case. Returning somehow from kindergarten, for the umpteenth time I conveyed to my mother the teacher’s demand to cut my hair, I was too overgrown. Our neighbor had a mechanical hair clipper, but she demanded a half liter jar of millet to cut my hair. Mom returned from her in tears, took the scissors and began to cut my head while crying. The next day I came into the garden with a motley, shaggy head, and until I was overgrown, I was subjected to ridicule and mockery. My mother was very sorry for me, and I understood that she was suffering too.
In the winter of 1942-43, my mother got into trouble at the mercy of kind Soviet people, practically because she and her employees made an important contribution to the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk. Then a proposal appeared to supply the shells of the cannon guns of the T-34 tank with highly alloyed tips (based on tungsten-molybdenum additives), which ensured the flashing of the armor of the German Tiger tanks. This required a sharp, literally by an order of magnitude, increase in the plan for the production of tungsten-molybdenum concentrate. Which was done. But at my mother's plant there were not enough containers - bags in order to deliver the concentrate to the Iron and Steel Works in Chelyabinsk by rail. The mother and one of her subordinates put a barrel of soda on the children's sled, took a half-liter can, and they dragged it around the village in the terrible frost of the Urals, offering to exchange a can of soda for a bag. They collected the required amount of container, loaded it with concentrate and dragged it to the station on a sled. The task was completed. And after a while, an investigator from the prosecutor's office from Chelyabinsk appeared. Someone knocked that my mother squandered state property - a barrel of soda. I remember how my mother went about black and in the evenings smoked almost non-stop and whispered with Baba. It seems that they thought that this was a continuation of the terrible thing that fell on the family in 1938. Interrogations were going on in the village. They also questioned my mother. And then from Moscow came gratitude from the Supreme for the implementation of the most important government task. The investigator left. And I remember how my mother sobbed, telling Baba about this, shaking some pieces of paper. So she sobbed in front of us twice. The second time in the autumn of the same year, when we received a money transfer from the front with her: money was transferred according to the will. Baba reassured her, saying that it could be a mistake. But my mother knew that my father was no more. And soon the funeral came - a message that my father - Captain Shapiro Lazar Matveevich - had died.
At the factory and in the village, my mother was a very respected person, and before leaving for Moscow, as I, a preschooler, could judge, everything was quiet. We had a garden, a woman grew potatoes and herbs. We were full. An unforgettable shock for me was an event already in Moscow, when, due to a misunderstanding, I was wildly beaten by a neighbor, a lieutenant colonel, recently demobilized, and when I came home with a roar, my mother took me to him so that I, not yet washed, covered in blood, apologized. Mom did this so that the neighbor was frightened of what he had done and did not “hit”. What was the shock to her? Now this indicates to me the measure of the lack of rights and defenselessness she felt then, in which we then lived.
In Moscow, my mother worked at the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, where she was called from the evacuation. The three of us arrived: mother, Andrey and I, and Baba stayed on Gumbeyka. In order to reduce the then penny expenses for paying for an apartment, my mother let her cousin, Aunt Ida, into our apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard, and she, having received a business trip to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where she then worked in the canteen, on a trip to the Urals for her aunt, brought my Baba to Moscow.
When the persecution of Jews began in Moscow towards the end of the 1940s, my mother was fired from the Ministry for Reduction of Staff, and for some time she was unemployed. The family lived on my pension for my father, who died at the front, and a small, slightly larger than my pension, salary of Katya's mother's sister, who returned from the war, a proofreader in the Izvestia newspaper. Where and to whom only mother did not write, where she did not go. She was not hired. Now I understand that the same Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, with which I lived until December 2004, hung on it. And some kind of high intervention was needed. Desperate, my mother wrote a letter to Himself. Apparently, from there an order came to the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, and my mother was assigned to work as a foreman of the Hydrometallurgical Shop of the Moscow Plant of Secondary Precious Metals (VDM). This abbreviation at our house was deciphered: "a very profitable place." My mother's salary barely exceeded 1,000 rubles. When I entered the same plant in 1954 after graduating from school as a revolver apprentice, I was paid 280 rubles a month, and when I ceased to be a student, I earned about the same thousand or a little less. As I said, my mother was a highly qualified specialist. Very soon, the hydrometallurgical shop, until then almost a failure, became advanced. His workers - pieceworkers - began to be paid well and were regularly given bonuses for saving precious metals, just like my mother. The shop workers recognized and fell in love with my mother. And their leader, foreman Lida Gorbach, having retired, in the second half of the 1960s worked part-time with us, babysitting my son.
Having retired and fearing that her father's printed works would be lost, my mother began to collect them, finding them in libraries and transcribing by hand, and then typing some with one finger on a portable typewriter, distributing them to those who were interested. The latter arose regularly, now the Mongols, then filmmakers, then historians.
Rehabilitation in our family lasted exactly half a century. It began in May 1954, when the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, on the proposal of the VDM plant, awarded my mother with the medal "For Labor Valor", and ended in December 2004, when the father, Lazar Matveyevich Shapiro, who was killed at the front, and his sons Vadim and me were Moscow issued certificates of rehabilitation. This was required in order to write the name of the father who died at the front on the family monument at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. After all, there is no such record either in Lyubavichi, Smolensk region, where his father died and where his front-line comrades buried him, or in Rudna, Smolensk region, where, according to the local military registration and enlistment office, he was reburied.
The rehabilitation process is actually not over yet. The family was not returned illegally, according to the acts of rehabilitation, the property appropriated by the state. And literally a year after my rehabilitation, one of the things illegally confiscated from my family was the coronation carpet of the Shahs of the Persian Qajar dynasty, with an area of about 12 square meters. m., which included images of all the rulers of Iran until the twentieth century, as one of the Moscow museums showed its property at the exhibition. I wrote an article about this in Our Heritage magazine, No. 78, 2006. Apparently, this rehabilitation will have to be completed by my children, and even grandchildren.
Mom died on April 13, 1985 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow next to her mother, Leah Isaevna Shumyatskaya (1889-1957). My grandmother was buried there by decision of the Central Committee of the party ruling in the USSR, with the condition that the monument be used as a symbolic grave (cenotaph) of her husband, Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky (1986-1938), indicating the fake date of his death (1943, to hide the actual date of his execution at the Lubyanka). This monument also became the cenotaph of my father, Shapiro Lazar Matveyevich (1903-1943), captain of the Red Army, deputy political officer of the 1079th regiment of the 312th rifle division, who died at the front. Where he was buried in a mass grave and reburied in Rudna, as we were informed in the official certificate of the Rudnya military registration and enlistment office, from 1965 to 2003 we did not find his grave. And in 2005, they made his symbolic grave, like Grandfather, at the Novodevichy Cemetery, knocking out a corresponding inscription on the monument next to the name of his wife - my mother.
Boris Shumyatsky, October 2009
During the February Revolution of 1917, Boris Shumyatsky was in Krasnoyarsk and became the organizer of the Krasnoyarsk Soviet and deputy chairman of its executive committee. He participated in the publication of the newspapers "Izvestia of the Krasnoyarsk Council", "Krasnoyarsk Worker" and the weekly "Sibirskaya Pravda".
Shumyatsky was a member of the first All-Russian Congress of Soviets, became a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the editorial board of the central press organ. After the unsuccessful July uprising in 1917, he was engaged in the restoration of the defeated organization, the preparation and holding of the VI Congress of the Party. He was sent as authorized by the Central Committee for Siberia and Mongolia, elected chairman of the Siberian Regional Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b). At the first All-Siberian Congress of Soviets (Irkutsk, October 1917), Shumyatsky was elected chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Siberia (Centrosibir) and proclaimed the power of the Soviets from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok on the night of October 15-16. Then he led the liquidation of the rebellion in Irkutsk and was wounded during the negotiations.
During the Civil War, Shumyatsky was one of the leaders of the partisans in Western Siberia. From December 1918 he became chairman of the East Siberian District Military Revolutionary Committee, from July 1919 he was in political work in the army. In October 1919 - January 1920, Shumyatsky headed the Tyumen Provincial Revolutionary Committee and Provincial Committee of the RCP (b), from March 1920 he took the post of chairman of the Tomsk Provincial Bureau of the RCP (b) and the Revolutionary Committee. From July 1920, Boris Shumyatsky was chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Far Eastern Republic, from October - deputy chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, from December - chairman of the Yenisei provincial executive committee. In 1921-1922. he created the first government of the Mongolian People's Republic. Shumyatsky also took part in the formation of the Republic of Buryatia, during which he came into conflict with Stalin, defending his point of view on the issue of future Buryat autonomy. Shumyatsky managed to achieve the creation of an autonomous republic instead of three national districts, but he himself was sent into an honorable retirement for diplomatic work.
In 1923-1925. Shumyatsky was the plenipotentiary and trade representative of the USSR in Persia, the head of the diplomatic corps in Tehran. Since 1925, he became a member of the Leningrad Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and then rector of the Communist University of the Working People of the East, later - rector of the Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov.
He headed the Soviet film industry in 1930, becoming chairman of Soyuzkino. During the leadership of the industry, Shumyatsky created such paintings as "Chapaev", "Merry Fellows", "Maxim's Youth", "Circus" and many others.
On January 18, 1938, Shumyatsky was arrested and on July 28 sentenced to death. In 1956, Boris Shumyatsky was rehabilitated posthumously.
One of the streets in the Soviet district of Krasnoyarsk bears the name of B. Z. Shumyatsky.
One of the memorable characters in the TV series "Orlova and Alexandrov", recently shown on Channel One, was Boris Shumyatsky, chairman of the State Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry. This is truly a legendary person. About how he was in life, "Ogonyok" was told by the great-grandson of the "People's Commissar of Cinema" - also Boris Shumyatsky
- Your great-grandfather became the hero of the series. Doesn't it jar?
- You know, I expected that Stalin, in the spirit of the times, would be presented as an effective manager, and great-grandfather as an enemy of the people or, at worst, a victim of the regime, necessary in the period of building a strong state. Of course, I was glad that my fears were not justified and that my great-grandfather was portrayed as a good person, and Stalin was portrayed as a villain.
- Well, how do the facts in the series correspond to the facts in life?
- I noticed that the authors of the script are well acquainted with the material, there are correct details. Well, for example, from family stories, I know that my great-grandmother cooked wonderful borscht, all of Moscow knew it - this is also mentioned in the series. But there are also many historical inaccuracies. However, I consider it unimportant, you should not demand fidelity to historical details from a feature film.
Something else confuses me: in the series, the absolute villain Stalin and his henchmen are bred, and the rest of the characters are their victims, who are not to blame for anything. With such a view of history, it is impossible to understand what Stalin's time did to the country, to the people, and then it penetrated into everyone. Here is just one example from the life of my great-grandmother, Leah Isaevna. Already after the execution of her great-grandfather, after prison, she once woke up in a great mood and said that she again dreamed of Stalin and that this was a good sign! On the same day, her youngest daughter was taken away and sent into exile as a member of the family of Shumyatsky, an enemy of the people.
- "Orlova and Alexandrov" is a series about the golden age of Soviet cinema. What role did Boris Zakharovich play in its creation?
- He had a concept - the modernization of film production, partly on the Hollywood model. And the misunderstanding that Shumyatsky developed with some directors, primarily with Eisenstein, was connected precisely with this. Great-grandfather wanted to make cinema a mass propaganda genre, a kind of television of that time. He believed that it was necessary not only to process people, loading them with ideology, but to seduce. That is, to make them go to see a movie of their own free will, cry in the cinema hall or laugh, but, of course, not to the detriment of ideology. Quite a modern concept. However, it also implied a certain film language, understandable to the general public. Eisenstein, who made a revolution in the art of montage, was, of course, alien to such a simplified cinematic language. But, willy-nilly, everyone had to "speak" this language. The same Eisenstein, already after the arrest of my great-grandfather, in "Alexander Nevsky", "Ivan the Terrible".
— How about "Russian Hollywood"? Is it true that Shumyatsky dreamed of building it in the south of the country?
- Well, then there were different plans for this. The whole economy was centralized, and the cinema had to work in the same way. Large studios were created, production facilities (for example, film production) were set up. But my great-grandfather dreamed of creating a single cinema center, as it was in America, the Soviet Hollywood in the Crimea. By the way, at that time many claimed for the Crimea, there was even a project to create a Jewish Autonomous Region there. As for the plans for "Soviet Hollywood", it was never built. Some kind of ersatz film city arose nearby, in the Odessa film studio, but then the war began, and it was not up to it.
- How did Boris Zakharovich's relationship with Stalin develop?
- Here we need to make a small digression into history. Shumyatsky was an old Bolshevik who once headed the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Siberia, a kind of Bolshevik government in the region - they say they proclaimed Soviet power there even a day earlier than in Petrograd. Later, Shumyatsky was one of the leaders of the Far Eastern Republic, fought with the troops of Baron Ungern, and contributed to the establishment of ties between Mongolia and Soviet Russia. He was well acquainted with Stalin, they communicated on "you", great-grandfather called him Koba. But the relationship was by no means cloudless. Boris Zakharovich, in defiance of Stalin, then achieved autonomy for Buryatia, as he grew up there and knew the region well. And when he felt cramped in Siberia, he asked to be transferred to the government, but instead he was sent to an honorable exile - a plenipotentiary representative, that is, an ambassador, to Tehran.
- As far as I remember, the legend about the Qajar carpet, allegedly presented to Shumyatsky by the Iranian Shah, is connected with this period ...
- Why supposedly? Indeed, there was such a story. My great-grandmother Liya Isaevna became its main character. I must say that she was also a professional revolutionary and, although she had a gymnasium education, she did not rotate in high society. And the staff of the embassy, left over from tsarist times, did not help the Soviet envoys much to understand the intricacies of the protocol. Once, Shah Reza Pahlavi invited the ambassadors' wives to his palace and began to demonstrate his treasures. Everyone was silent, only nodding with restraint, and Liya Isaevna wondered to herself: why does no one admire such beauty? The shah led them to the most valuable thing from his collection - a carpet depicting all the shahs of the Qajar dynasty, it began to be woven even under the founder of the dynasty. And the great-grandmother could not stand it, she praised this carpet. Then the shah said: "Peshkesh." Roughly translated: "It's yours." It turned out that in the East there is such a custom: if a guest liked something in the house, the owner should give it to him.
The next day, a whole procession delivered the carpet to the Soviet embassy. A scandal erupted. The custom meant that the guest, having received such a gift, should give back. Boris Zakharovich had to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and use his own money to buy back some of the jewels of the royal family confiscated by the new government (then they were sold a lot to the West). The great-grandfather then presented them to the Shah as a return gift, and the carpet remained in the family. It was confiscated during the arrest of Boris Zakharovich, and only in the 2000s did we learn that the Shah's gift was kept in the storerooms of the Museum of the East.
- They say that in Iran your great-grandfather met Sergei Yesenin. Was Yesenin there?
- Yesenin has a famous cycle "Persian motives". In Soviet, and then in Russian literary criticism, it was believed that the poet had never been to Persia, but wrote poems under the impression of being in Baku. But another story is known in our family: Yesenin really went to Iran. And there, as we know from Persian Motives, Yesenin saw a stranger in a veil on the street, followed her. There are no poems about what happened next, but this is what my great-grandfather told: Yesenin began to break into the harem, where the stranger who was praised by him lived, a crowd gathered, the poet was almost lynched. But the police intervened, and then Ambassador Shumyatsky arrived and took Yesenin home. This story has indirect confirmation: after the return of his great-grandfather from Iran, the poet came to Shumyatsky's dacha in Morozovka to thank for the rescue, he did not find him at home, but presented his book with a dedication to my great-grandmother: "To Comrade Shumyatskaya With brotherly love. For tea without dinner, For the plenipotentiary husband." Impromptu published in the complete works of Yesenin. As for the phrase "for tea without lunch", this is a funny detail: neither Boris Zakharovich nor Liya Isaevna drank alcohol in principle, and Yesenin considered lunch without alcohol just "tea".
Was the arrest of the people's commissar a surprise for the family?
- Shumyatsky foresaw his death: critical articles were published against him, intrigues began in the commissariat, besides, it was known that Stalin did not like him. Great-grandfather was arrested in 1938 and shot a few months later. I saw the case and the photo taken a couple of days after the arrest, I read his confession in the archive, where he claims to have been a Japanese, English spy. All the time I peered at the signature under the protocol of interrogation: I tried to understand from it whether he was tortured or not. Perhaps he was blackmailed by his family, or perhaps, as an old Bolshevik, he believed that by his death he would help the cause of the revolution ... In any case, he signed everything and was shot. A characteristic fact: in official documents, the date of his death was 1943, then it was often done, and my father, the grandson of Boris Zakharovich, had to make considerable efforts to establish the real date of Shumyatsky's death.
- And what kind of story was it, that after the beginning of the persecution he refused to drink for Stalin?
- As I said, my great-grandfather did not drink at all. Shortly before his arrest, he was suddenly summoned to the Kremlin for a New Year's reception. These Stalinist methods are well described by Fazil Iskander in Belshazzar's Feasts. Caviar, wine, vodka... Toast. Many drank half to death there, and, of course, great-grandfather looked like a black sheep against their background. So, at the reception they began to drink to the health of the leader, and Boris Zakharovich clinked glasses of water. Then Stalin lowered his glass and asked him: "Boris, don't you want to drink to my health?" To which my great-grandfather replied: "Koba, you know I don't drink." "Well, as they say, if you can't, we'll teach you, if you don't want to, we'll force you," Stalin replied... That's what my great-grandfather used to say when he returned home. And the very next day, he found a dismissal order on his desk.
- Who is your great-grandfather for you personally - a historical figure or a living person?
- Of course, a living person! What he experienced was passed on to the next generations, my father grew up in a family of enemies of the people. Maybe that's why I feel the connection of times more strongly. I see what remains of the Stalin era in our time, in society and in myself. My great-grandfather, as it were, says to me: "The past has not passed."
Interviewed by Kirill Zhurenkov
Great-grandson of the People's Commissar
Dossier
Boris Shumyatsky, great-grandson of Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky, writer and publicist, lives in Munich (Germany). In his book Stalin's New Year, he reproduces the history of his family during the years of revolution, terror, war and de-Stalinization.
On November 8, 1917, the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR was established. All questions of culture, art, cultural and patriotic education of the masses were transferred to his jurisdiction. The first people's commissar of education (November 8, 1917 - September 1929) - publicist, historian of arts and literature, prominent politician and builder of Soviet culture - Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich (1875-1933). The second People's Commissar (September 1929 - October 1937) - statesman and party leader, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Andrei Sergeevich Bubnov.
The main goal of the state cultural policy is that the people become the sole owner and consumer of all cultural values. A state network of cultural and educational institutions was created. The People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR included collegiums and departments, and since 1929, the main departments by industry. Lunacharsky A.V., Pokrovsky M.N., Krupskaya N.K., Bubnov A.S., Makarenko A.S., Lepeshinsky P.K. were members of the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Education. On November 12, 1920, the Glavpolitprosvet was created, which was part of the People's Commissariat for Education. Chairman - Krupskaya N.K., Deputy Chairman - Maksimovsky, members of the collegium Mikhailov (from the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party), Gusev (PUR), Isaev (All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions). Glavpolitprosvet included departments: library, art, national minorities, proletarian culture, museums and monument protection, history and defense, photography and films, etc. Glavpolitprosvet organized clubs, houses of culture, reading huts. He created the House of Theater Education. V.D. Polenov.
In the Narkompros, the theater department was headed by Meyerhold V.E., the literary department - Lunacharsky A.V., then - Bryusov V.Ya., Serafimovich A.M., the film department - Leshchenko D.I., the music department - Bryusova N.Ya. . At the theatrical department there was a section of circuses: the chairman of the section was Rukavishnikov G.S., the section included Erenburg I.G., sculptor Konenkov S.T. Under the People's Commissariat of Education, Glavnauka operated, which was engaged in the development of the local history movement and cultural work in educational institutions.
The People's Commissariat of Education had an Academic Center, which included scientific and artistic sections, with five subsections: literary, theatrical, musical, fine arts and cinematography. Blok A.A., Gorky A.M., Mayakovsky V.V., Grabar I.E., Benois A.I., Ivanov V., Bely A., Andreeva M.F., Fedin K.A. and others. Many of them worked in the apparatus of the People's Commissariat for Education. The People's Commissariat of Education was engaged in state leadership of the entire complex of cultural issues and the content of cultural work. The People's Commissariat of Education did a great job in attracting the intelligentsia to its side, a significant part of which took a wait-and-see attitude, behaved passively, at the same time, to the extent possible, worked in the cultural field. There was an outflow of intelligentsia from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the south of Russia, mainly for material reasons. An important role in the process of "reconciliation" between the intelligentsia and the authorities was played by the All-Russian Union of Art Workers (VSERABIS), created on May 7, 1919. By 1923, the trade union had 70 thousand members (95% of all art workers). At different times, the leaders of the trade union were Kachalov M.M., Pudovkin V.I., Tairov A.V., Pashennaya A.N., Dovzhenko A.P. In general, literary and artistic life was distinguished by the diversity and abundance of various creative groups and movements, there was the possibility of an alternative dialogue of cultures, dissent.
Many outstanding works appeared in various fields of culture (theater, literature, painting).
From the beginning of the 30s. strengthened the policy of strict regulation. On April 23, 1932, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations”. Numerous groups and associations of masters of literature and art were liquidated. In their place, creative unions were created. In 1932 unions of composers, architects and artists were created; in 1934 - writers. An important event in the cultural life of the country was the adoption of the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of December 16, 1935 on the establishment of a committee to hold events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin. Building its state policy in the field of culture, the young state acted taking into account two important circumstances left as a legacy from Tsarist Russia. On the one hand, the great achievements and the noblest traditions of Russian culture that developed in the 18th-19th centuries and at the beginning of the 20th century, on the other hand, ¾ of the illiterate adult population. In 1914, only about 5.5 million people studied on the territory of the RSFSR. About 85 thousand students studied in 75 higher educational institutions. Only 237 clubs were active. There were 29 books per 100 readers, 48 nationalities did not have their own written language. The most important task of cultural construction was the radical restructuring of the former system of education, the elimination of illiteracy of the population, which is the basis of culture. All the means of culture became available to the workers and peasants. The people became the sole owner and consumer of cultural values, a network of cultural institutions, clubs, libraries, museums, theaters was actively created and developed ... Culturologists, artists and educators, including the West, noted the early Soviet experience in regulating culture as one of the brightest , original and effective. All-Union Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
January 1936 - March 1953
By Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 36 of January 17, 1936, the All-Union Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was formed. The Committee was created "In connection with the growth of the cultural level of the working people and the need to better meet the needs of the population in the field of arts, and in order to unite leadership in the development of arts in the USSR." The committee had the rights of a People's Commissariat and was a union-republican body. In the structure of the committee there were 6 Main Directorates: theaters, musical institutions, fine arts, circuses, control over the repertoire and spectacles, educational institutions, departments of architecture, amateur arts, economic and financial divisions. Under the committee, there were: a special purpose faculty (FON) for advanced training of leading personnel, a higher attestation commission, a commission for considering applications for the appointment of personal pensions for artists. Elected methodological commissions were created at each department. Also, under the management of fine arts, there was a state commission for the purchase of works of fine arts and a distribution commission for works of art in museums. Directly subordinate to the committee were: the All-Union Academy of Architecture in Moscow and the Academy of Arts in Leningrad; United Publishing House "Iskusstvo" on issues of theater, cinema, architecture; music publishing house "Music". The committee included the editors of the newspaper "Soviet Art". The Committee controlled all creative unions and the Literary Fund. The staff of the Committee: in 1936 - 226 people, in 1939 - 516 people, in 1940 - 671 people. Committee chairmen: Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev (07/17/1936-01/15/1938), Alexei Ivanovich Nazarov (01/19/1938-07/1939), Mikhail Borisovich Khrapchenko (04/01/1939 - 01/25/1948), Polikarp Ivanovich Lebedev ( 4.02.1948-24.04.1951), Bespalov Nikolai Nikolaevich (24.04.1951-15.03.1953). From 04/01/1939 to 01/25/1948, Khrapchenko M.B., a prominent figure in literature and art, researcher and critic, member VKP(B) since 1928, since 1967 - Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in 1960-1980. supervised philological science, Hero of Socialist Labor. The vice-chairmen of the committee in different years were: Boyarsky Ya.I., Shumyatsky B.Z., Chuzhin Ya.E., Ryabichev N.N., Markelov I.E. The heads of the main departments in different years were: Edelson Z.A. (Fine), Shapovalov L.E. (GUUZ), Solodovnikov A.V., Surin E.A. (theatres), Shatilov S. S., Oreud O.N. (music), Ganetsky Ya.S., Morozov E.S. (circus), Vasilevsky V.I., Vdovichenko V.G., Dobrynin M.K. (Department for control over the repertoire), Eliseev V.T., Tregubenkov F.A. (department of capital construction), Tolmachev G.G., Shivarikov V.A. (architectural department). Under the chairman of the committee, there was an artistic council, consisting of three sections: theater and drama, music, fine arts. The artistic council included 19 prominent artists, including: Nemirovich-Danchenko V.I., Khorava A.A., Tolstoy A.N., Pogodin N.F., Samosud S.A., Dunaevsky I.O. ., Glier R.M., Mukhina V.I., Grabar I.E. Outstanding artists were involved in the consulting and methodological commissions at the main departments: Brodsky I.I., Grabar I.E., Gerasimov A.M., Yuon K.F., Ioganson B.V., Favorsky V.A., Freiberg P.V., Rodionov M.S., Manizer M.G., Domogatsky V.N., Mukhina V.I., Moskvin I.N., Shchukin B.V., Mikhoels S.M., Zakhava B. E., Simonov N.K., Pashennaya V.N., Neugauz G.G., Sveshnikov A.V., Myaskovsky N.Ya., Shostakovich D.D., Glier R.M. and others, totaling over 80 people. The role of the arts committee is great in mobilizing cultural and artistic figures, the entire people for victory during the Great Patriotic War, in organizing the evacuation of cultural property to the eastern regions of the country, in restoring the network of cultural and art institutions, the entire national economy in the post-war period. The Committee, together with the creative unions and the Central Committee of the trade union, assumed the centralized leadership of the military patronage work during the war years. 45 thousand creative workers participated in the artistic service of the fronts. They gave 1,350,000 concerts at the front and in the frontline. During the war years, 3952 artistic brigades performed. There were over 1000 writers and poets at the fronts, 419 of them died. There were 900 artists in the active army. In total, during the war years, about 5 million meters of film were shot, which became an invaluable historical document. The creative intelligentsia occupied leading positions in the life of the country. During the war years, only in the RSFSR, fascist troops destroyed 4 thousand libraries, more than 2 million copies perished in them. books. Destroyed 8 thousand clubs, 117 museums. By 1947, the network of cultural and educational institutions reached the pre-war level. In 1945, the Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was created. Chairman of the committee from 1945 to 1953 - Budaev Sergey Alexandrovich. Deputy Chairmen - Malyshev Yury Vladimirovich, Glina Aleksey Georgievich, Shiryaev Kirill Ivanovich. The head of the theater department is Efremov Viktor Pavlovich, the head of the department of fine arts is Philipp Vasilyevich Kalashnev, the head of the department of educational institutions is Shchepalin Gleb Alekseevich. On February 6, 1945, the Committee for Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was established. The chairmen of the committee from 1945 to 1949 - Zueva Tatyana Mikhailovna, from 1949 to 1953 - Leontyeva E.I. The committee included: library management, management of club institutions, department of educational institutions and centralized accounting. In the difficult pre-war, war and post-war times in the USSR, the state department of culture, although it was somewhat fragmented, nevertheless, a huge amount of work was carried out, which ensured the mobilization of the country's creative forces for the successful solution of state tasks.
Ministry of Culture of the USSR. March 1953 - February 1992
March 15, 1953 The Ministry of Culture of the USSR was created. On June 20, 1953, the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved the regulation on the Ministry. It also absorbed the functions of the liquidated Ministries of Higher Education of the USSR, Labor Reserves of the USSR, Cinematography of the USSR, the Committee for Arts under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Radio Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Main Directorate for Printing Industry, Publishing and Book Trade under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. From March 15, 1953 to May 4, 1960, three Ministers of Culture of the USSR were replaced. The ministers of culture of the USSR were Ponomarenko Panteleimon Kondratievich (03/15/1953-03/09/1954) and Alexandrov Georgy Fedorovich (03/21/1954 - 03/10/1955). For 5 years, the Minister of Culture of the USSR was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Mikhailov (03/21/1955-05/04/1960), in 1938-1952. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of five convocations, from 1952-1954. - Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, First Secretary of the MK CPSU. An attempt to concentrate in one Ministry of leadership of the entire culture was unsuccessful. Gradually, over the course of 4-5 years, the USSR Ministry of Culture retained the general leadership of all types of arts and the direct management of the largest cultural institutions of all-Union significance. The Ministry supervised the activities of creative unions. The Ministry established the Main Directorates: theaters, musical institutions, film production with departments of cinematography and film distribution, economic, circuses, the Collegium for External Cultural Relations, the Directorate of Fine Arts Institutions with the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments and the Department of Fine Arts, the Directorate of Personnel and Educational Institutions , Planning and Financial Department, Department of Cultural and Educational Institutions, Main Library Inspectorate, First Department and Office. The structure was partially changed, but on the whole remained in line with the main activities of the Ministry. The cultural policy in the country was determined by the decisions of the congresses and plenums, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the directives of the five-year plans. The Ministry of Culture concentrated its main efforts on the implementation of the decisions adopted by the XX Congress in 1956 and the XXI Congress in 1959 and the decisions of the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU (September 1953, March 1954, February 1957). In the system of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR in 1953-1959. more than 400 theaters worked, giving performances in 35 languages of the peoples of the USSR. The theaters put on annually from 1700 to 3500 new productions and in total there were over 200 thousand performances, which were annually visited by 75-80 million people. spectators. Outstanding actors performed in the performances: Abrikosov A.L., Astangov M.F., Gribov A.N., Dobzhanskaya L.I., Ilyinsky I.V., Molchanov P.S., Maretskaya V.S., Plyatt R. .Ya., Tolubev Yu.V., and others. Significant success was achieved by theater directors: Vivien L.S., Zavadsky Yu.A., Okhlopkov N.P., Popov A.D., Simonov K.M., Ravenskikh B.I., Pluchek V.N., Tovstonogov G.A., Simonov E.R. Musical life during these years became more diverse, contacts with foreign countries were growing stronger, outstanding composers Shostakovich D.D., Sviridov G.V., novice composers Eshpay A.Ya., Schnittke A.G., Shchedrin R.K. and others. Mass song genres and film music developed successfully. There were 53 musical theaters in the USSR, including 32 opera and ballet theatres, 24 musical comedies, 34 symphony orchestras, 12 folk instrument orchestras, 41 choirs, 32 song and dance ensembles. There were 108 republican, regional and city philharmonic societies, 17 concert and variety bureaus, and the State Concert Association of the USSR. In addition, the system of all-Union and republican radio included 12 symphony orchestras, 10 orchestras and ensembles of folk instruments, 12 choirs. The Union of Composers of the USSR united more than 1200 members, including 940 composers and more than 240 musicologists. Of the 150 operas on the stages of opera houses, 82 operas belonged to Soviet composers. The development of artistic painting in the USSR was distinguished by great intensity and diversity. The Union of Artists united over 8.5 thousand figures of fine arts. The network of art and art-historical museums of the USSR MK system consisted of 96 units. About 400 art exhibitions of various levels were held annually in the USSR. The Ministry of Culture of the USSR was in charge of circus art. In 1947, the Central Studio of Circus Art was established in Moscow, later reorganized into the All-Union Directorate for the Training of Circus Artists. There is a noticeable expansion of the network of circuses. More than 40 circuses have been built. The Ministry of Culture of the USSR developed regulations, charters, instructions and standards for cultural institutions - libraries, clubs, museums. It had great powers to coordinate the activities of cultural and educational institutions of other departments. There were 120,000 clubs, more than 500 parks of culture and recreation, more than 400,000 amateur art groups, uniting over 5 million participants, operating in the system of the Ministry. Methodological guidance was provided by the All-Union House of Folk Art named after N. K. Krupskaya, which was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR until 1958
The Ministry supervised all libraries. This task was carried out by the Main Library Inspectorate of the Ministry and the State Library. IN AND. Lenin. Much attention was paid to the opening and construction of libraries in the areas of development of virgin lands: for 1954-1955. 2.5 thousand libraries and 1300 reading rooms were opened. Every year the country's book fund increased by 1.8 billion copies. Over 7 copies for each citizen of the USSR. Under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry were 8 museums of all-Union significance: the State Hermitage, the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, the State Tretyakov Gallery, etc. The network of art, literary, historical, biographical and memorial museums expanded significantly. Ministry of Culture of the USSR in the 60s - the 1st half of the 70s. 20th century Minister of Culture Furtseva Ekaterina Alekseevna.
From May 4, 1960 to October 24, 1974, the Minister of Culture was Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva, a member of the CPSU since 1938, since 1942 the second and first secretary of the Frunzensky district of Moscow, since 1950 - the second secretary, since 1954 from 1957 to 1957 - First Secretary of the Moscow CC CPSU, from 1956 - candidate member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, from 1957 to 1961 - member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. For many years he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Despite the existing difficulties and contradictions in the state cultural policy, the Ministry of Culture of the USSR in these years vigorously improved the forms and methods of managing cultural construction. In March 1963, the State Committee for Cinematography separated from the Ministry of Culture, and in August 1963, the State Committee for Press was separated. The main efforts of the Ministry were directed to the implementation of the decisions of the XXII, XXIII, XXIV Congresses of the CPSU and the 7,8,9 five-year plans in the field of cultural construction. The Ministry had 11 departments. The management apparatus consisted of about 400 employees. The composition of employees was stable, they worked for 10-15 years or more. Deputy Ministers were Vladykin Grigory Ivanovich, Popov Vladimir Ivanovich, Kukharsky Vasily Feodosevich, Mokhov Nikolay Ivanovich. Theater Department - Head Ivanov Georgy Aleksandrovich, deputies: Korshunov V.I., Kudryavtsev V.A., Sinyavskaya L.P. The management included: repertoire and editorial board (editor-in-chief Goldobin V.Ya.); department for control over the current repertoire (headed by N.V. Shumov); organizational and production department (head Kudryavtsev V.A.). Malashenko V.I., Medvedeva M.Ya., Tsirnyuk V.A., Nazarov V.N., Kochetkova N.V., Shumov N.V., Zhukov Yu.A. and others. Department of Musical Institutions - Head Vartanyan Zaven Gevonrovich, deputies: Mironov S.A., Lushin S.A., editor Sakva K.K. The department included: the department of musical theaters (chief Zhuravlenko I.S. and 46 senior inspectors); department of concert organizations (headed by VN Kovalev and 6 senior inspectors). Department of Fine Arts and Protection of Monuments - Head Timoshin Georgy Alekseevich, deputies: Khalturin A.G., Nemtsov N.G. The management included: artistic and expert board (editor-in-chief Darsky E.N.); department for the protection of monuments, art museums and exhibitions (head Nemirovnik G., deputy Vertogradova M.A. and 8 state inspectors); department of monumental and decorative-applied art (head Bezobrazova T. M. and 4 senior inspectors). Department of cultural and educational institutions - head Danilova Lidia Alekseevna, deputies Lyutikov L.N., Gavrilenko A.Ya.). The department included: the department of cultural education and folk art (head Gavrilenko A.D., inspectors-methodologists Filipchenko N.G., Dementman A.M., Maslin I.I., Kharlamov P.P.); department of museums (head Antonenko Inna Alexandrovna and 5 inspectors and instructors); Main Library Inspectorate (Head Serov Valentin Vasilyevich, Deputy Efimova A.I. and 5 inspectors).
Department of Personnel, Educational Institutions - (Head Ilyina Lidia Grigoryevna, Deputy Heads of the Department A.F. Soptesov and V.N. Minin). The management included: department of management personnel; the department of scientific institutions and educational institutions, the department for working with foreign students and the department for planning and distribution of young professionals. Department of External Relations - Head Kalinin Nikolai Sergeevich, deputies Supagin A.L. and Kuzin Yu.A.). The management included b departments and about 40 employees. Department of Capital Construction and New Equipment - Head Surov I.P.
Planning and production and technical departments.
Logistics department.
Economic management.
In the Ministry, as a district committee of the CPSU, the Party Committee (secretary Tsukanov M.P.) and the local trade union committee (chairman Mikhailov A.N.) operated. The Ministry was in charge of a number of all-Union organizations: the All-Union Association of State Circuses (manager Bardian F.G.), the State Concert of the USSR (director Aleshchenko N.M.), Soyuzconcert (director Konnova P.N.), the record company Melodiya, the All-Union Studio records, Institute of Art History (Krulikov V.S.), Soyuzteaprom, Teomontazh, State Institute for the Design of Theater and Entertainment Enterprises (Giproteksion), Soyuzattraction. A multi-faceted, multi-genre and multinational theater developed steadily. In the USSR in 1970, there were 538 theaters, incl. drama - 327, opera and ballet - 40, musical comedy - 26, young spectator - 35, puppet - 100. By 1975, the number of theaters increased by 30, and the number of performances reached 272 29, theater occupancy 75.5%. The theater on Taganka, the Moscow Art Theater (on Tverskoy Boulevard), the Children's Musical Theater under the direction of Natalia Sats, the Sovremennik Theater, the Circus on Vernadsky Avenue, etc. were built and received new buildings. Every year, dozens of new plays were published at the expense of the Ministry and distributed to the theaters of the country . During these years, new plays by Arbuzov A.N., Aksenov V.P., Rozov V.S., Roshchin M.M., Zorina L.G., Shatrov M.F., Panova V.F., Volodin A. .M., Vampilova A.V., Ibragimbekova R., Dvoretsky I.M., Drutse I.P., Salynsky A.D., Shtok I.V., Pogodina N.F., Kataeva V.P., Stavskogo E.S., Makayonka A.E., Ashkinazi L.A., Khmelik A.G., Polevoi B.N. and others. The repertoire of the theaters was widely represented by Russian and Soviet prose based on the works of prominent writers of that time, as well as foreign classics. Much attention Furtseva E.A. devoted to the Moscow Art Theater, where outstanding actors worked. Efremov O.N. became the main director of the Moscow Art Theater. Successfully developed musical life in the country. The main hallmark of musical art throughout the world was the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre. The theater was experiencing a "golden age". Outstanding singers, ballet masters, directors, conductors worked in it. The theater played the music of the outstanding composers Borodin A.P., Mussorgsky M.P., Tchaikovsky P.I., the operas Ivan Susanin, Prince Igor, Khovanshchina, Carmen Suite, The Nutcracker, ballet "Swan Lake". During these years, there were 80 ballet companies in the country, a younger generation of performers appeared on the stage, a whole galaxy of outstanding choreographers came to the fore. In 1966 in Moscow Moiseev I.A. organized a young choreographic concert ensemble. In the 60s. in the USSR there were 20 folk dance ensembles. A large group of outstanding Soviet composers entered an active musical life. 60-70s - years of successful development of fine arts. Many artists continued to create an artistic chronicle of the Great Patriotic War. The construction of original, expressive sculptures, monuments, ensembles of monumental works was widely developed throughout the country. Many dozens of all-Union and republican exhibitions were held. In 1936, at the congress of the Union of Artists, Gerasimov S.V. was elected the first secretary. The Union of Artists had 7,000 members and 2,000 candidates. There were 108 state art museums in the country, 120 collective and state farm art galleries with a fund of about 9 thousand works of art. The Ministry was in charge of the All-Union Association of State Circuses (State Circus). There were 50 stationary and 14 traveling circuses in the country. More than 6 thousand artists worked in circuses. The Ministry attached great importance to the development of cultural and educational institutions, libraries, clubs, museums, parks of culture and recreation. In the 70s. library work began to be centralized. In total, there were 350,000 libraries of various departments in the USSR, more than 150,000 public libraries were under the Ministry. By the end of the 60s. in the USSR there were more than 130 thousand clubs, in them, together with trade union clubs, there were 762 amateur art groups, and 800 folk theaters operated. The network of museums in the USSR grew from 400 in 1960 to 1259 in 1974.
The output of specialists with higher education increased three times: from 2.5 thousand in 1960 to 7.7 thousand in 1974.
The Ministry paid priority attention to questions of national cultural policy in the union republics. These years were the heyday of the culture of the Union republics. The Ministry paid primary attention to the issues of international cultural relations. In 1974, the USSR maintained cultural ties with more than 70 countries on the basis of government agreements and plans. Over 20,000 Soviet artists and cultural figures traveled abroad during the year. Through the Ministry, 138 artistic groups and 30 artistic groups, about 340 soloists traveled to foreign countries. 130 foreign bands performed in the USSR. "Soyuzconcert" in 1974 held 26374 concerts, performances and other performances.
Ministry of Culture of the USSR in the 2nd half of the 70s - the 1st half of the 80s. Minister of Culture Demichev Petr Nilovich.
On November 14, 1974, Pyotr Nikolaevich Demichev was appointed Minister of Culture of the USSR. Worked until June 18, 1986, born in 1918, candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology. In 1937-1944. served in the Red Army, a participant in two wars. He was the first secretary of the Moscow Civil Code of the CPSU and the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the leadership of the Ministry in different years were: First Deputy Minister - Barabash Yuri Yakovlevich, Deputy Ministers: Chekharin Evgeny Mikhailovich, Golubtseva Tamara Vasilievna, Kukharsky Vasily Feodosevich, Zaitsev Evgeny Vladimirovich, Shabanov Petr Ilyich, Kruglova Zinaida Mikhailovna. The Ministry had 14 departments: theaters, musical institutions, fine arts, protection of monuments, external relations, cultural and educational institutions, libraries, planning and economic and financial, accounting and reporting, capital construction and design, educational institutions and personnel , scientific and technical, supply, economic. The Ministry was guided by the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1975) and the new Constitution adopted in 1977, which determined the main path for the development of Soviet culture. In the management of theaters worked: chiefs: Chausov M.L. (1974-1981), Gribanov M.A. (1981-1985), inspectors: Astakhov S., Baiteryakova D., Mireny V., Ivanov V., Medvedeva M., Danilov A., Pereberina N., Sadovsky S. and others. All-Union reviews and drama festivals were held and theatrical art of the peoples of the USSR, performances on a military historical theme, which, as a rule, were timed to coincide with anniversaries - 55th, 60th anniversaries of the formation of the USSR, 30th, 35th anniversaries of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. In the department of fine arts and protection of monuments worked: chiefs: Khalturin A.Ch., Popov G.P., deputies: Kulchinsky D.N., Bezobrazova T.A., Khoroshilov P.V., employees of the department: Dareny E.N. ., Egorychev V.V., Vertogradova M.A., Andreev A.V., Anikeev A.A., Kuindzhi V.P. The Ministry, engaged in the development of fine arts, closely cooperated with the Academy of Arts of the USSR (President Uvarov B.S.). Several major all-Union exhibitions were held, which demonstrated the major achievements of Soviet artists. The Department of Musical Institutions was headed in different years by Vartanyan Z.G., Fedorovich V.G., deputies Kurzhiyamsky V.M., Kovalev V.G., Lushin V.A. The management included departments of musical theaters and concert organizations and musical groups, a repertoire and editorial board. Zhuravlenko I.S., Krasnov M.V., Shekhonina I.E., Solomatin V.A., Kachanova E.L. and others. The traditional music festivals "Russian Winter", "Moscow Stars", "Moscow Autumn", "Leningrad Spring", the All-Union Festival of Youth Creativity in Minsk, "Kyiv Spring", "Melodies of the Soviet Transcaucasia", "Belarusian musical autumn” and others. In 1975, “Soyuzconcert” held 30,000 concerts, performances and performances. The 200th anniversary of the Bolshoi Theater was widely celebrated. The central place in the activities of the Ministry in the 70-80s. were concerned with the further development of cultural construction in the countryside. In general, in the USSR in the 60-80s. 131 thousand clubs were built for 29 million seats. On average, six new clubs and libraries were built every day, incl. 90% in the countryside. There were 15 institutes of culture, 11 faculties at universities of arts and pedagogical institutes, 130 cultural and educational schools in the country. For 10 years, the output of cultural enlightenment of workers with secondary education has doubled, and three times with higher education. Theaters and concert organizations of the country held about 30% of performances and concerts in the countryside. They served annually up to 55 million collective farmers and workers. The Ministry paid great attention to the development of amateur art activities in all departments, in which 30 million people participated, incl. almost half of the children. In 1977-1979. The 1st All-Union Festival of amateur creativity was held. The grand final concert in the Kremlin was attended by 2,000 participants. The department of cultural and educational institutions was headed in different years by Danilova L.A., Tyutikov L.N., deputy Demchenko A.N., heads of departments Gavrilenko A.Ya., Rodimtseva I.L., Anoshchenko I.L., Filipchenko N. G., Morozov V.O., Dimentman A.M., Greshilova G.N., Selivanov B.A., Skidalskaya N.V. At the end of the 70s. from the department of cultural education institutions, the Department of Museums was separated and created, which was headed by Rodimtseva I.A. The Department of Libraries and Libraries Coordination was headed by Serov V.V., Lesokhina V.S., deputies Nizmutdinov I.K., Fonotov G.P., Silina T.I. Merkulov T.I., Gavrilenko N.V., Rodin V.V. worked in the department. and others. There are 24 employees in total. In 1982 there were over 330,000 libraries in the USSR. Each library had an average of 2,400 readers. In 1982, 317 million books and magazines were issued in public libraries. There were 148 million readers. In the country, books were published in huge editions, for example, a three-volume work by A. S. Pushkin published in 10.7 million copies.
Ministry in the 70s and 80s maintained cultural relations with 120 countries and more than 250 international cultural organizations. In 1984, the Ministry of Culture sent 127 collectives and groups of artists, 430 vocalists, 43 art exhibitions, more than 500 delegations of cultural figures and specialists to the socialist countries alone. The Department of External Relations was headed by V.F. Grenko, Yu.A. Kuzin, V.M. Kondrashov, I.I. Bodyul, Yu.M. Zhiltsov, V.G. Aleksandrov, A.A. Budrova, L. Supagin I., Miradov R.N., Sagittarius A.I., Petrov G.N. The department employed 50 employees.
The state had a powerful personnel potential in culture and art. 1.2 million people worked in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, incl. 680 thousand graduates, 280 thousand of them with higher education. More than 600 people received the title of People's Artists of the USSR, 130 People's Artists of the USSR, 237 were awarded Lenin Prizes, 172 received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. About 200,000 writers, artists, composers, cinematographers, and architects were members of creative unions.
Secondary specialized training was provided by 500 educational institutions of various specialties. Annually released 23-25 thousand people. In the early 80s. 78 higher educational institutions worked in the country, incl. 34 musical universities, 14 theatrical, 13 art, 17 cultural institutions. There was an extensive network of institutes and advanced training courses for managers and specialists in the industry. They included the All-Union Institute for Advanced Training of Leading Personnel, 14 republican institutes and courses, 125 regional and regional courses. More than 55,000 workers of culture and art were retrained there every year.
In different years, the Department of Personnel and Educational Institutions operated in the Ministry, then the Department of Personnel and the Department of Educational Institutions and Scientific Institutions. The heads of the department of educational institutions were: Ilyina Lidia Grigoryevna, Modestov Valery Sergeevich and Chausov Mikhail Lavrenovich. Nazarov V.N., Sukhanov V.V., Medvedeva L.G., Kargin A.S., Zharchinsky O.F., Rudnov Yu.A., Bezrukov A.S. worked in these departments. and others. In order to improve work with the Ministries of Culture of the Union Republics and subordinate organizations and institutions, the Organizational and Inspection Department was created in the Ministry (head - Yairova Lyudmila Petrovna, deputy - Mikhailov Anatoly Nikolaevich, then Bashkardin Vyacheslav Fedorovich). Gamayun L.P., Dankova G.V., Chernosova G.M., Zhukova L.A. worked in the department. and others. Gavrilenko A.Ya., then Likhachev N.T., deputy - Suslov V.I., secretary of the collegium Dukhanina Tamara Vasilievna were the administrators of the Minister of Culture of the USSR. Ministry of Culture in the 2nd half of the 80s - early 90s. 20th century Liquidation of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. The onset of perestroika in the USSR in the late 80s - early 90s. presented new requirements for the leadership of culture. The administrative-bureaucratic methods of leadership, excessive centralization, the imperfection of economic mechanisms in the sphere of culture, shortcomings in the content, and omissions in working with the creative intelligentsia were criticized. At this time, there was a change in the leadership of the Ministry of Culture: on August 15, 1986, Zakharov Vasily Georgievich, Doctor of Economics, Professor, was appointed Minister of Culture of the USSR. In 1978 -1983. - Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU, in 1983-1985. - Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, since 1985 Second Secretary of the Moscow Civil Code of the CPSU. Gribanov Mikhail Alekseevich was appointed First Deputy Minister, Silkova Nina Prokopyevna, Serov Vasily Vasilievich, Shabanov Petr Ilyich, Kazenin Vladislav Igorevich, Khilchevsky Yuri Mikhailovich were appointed Deputy Ministers. A number of specific measures have been taken to improve work with the creative intelligentsia. On October 12, 1986, the Soviet Cultural Fund was established (chairman - Academician D.S. Likhachev). On October 18, the All-Union Musical Society was created, the chairman is the People's Artist of the USSR Arkhipova I.K. At the end of October 1986, the XV Congress of the All-Russian Theater Society took place, at which a decision was made to transfer the WTO to the Union of Theater Societies of the USSR. Chairman - People's Artist of the USSR Lavrov K.Yu., First Secretary of the Board - People's Artist of the USSR Efremov ON. A decision was made to recognize famous avant-garde artists (Larionov M.F., Goncharova N.S., Chagall M.Z., Malevich K.S., Kandinsky V.V., Falk R.R., etc.) By decision The Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 16, 1989, all theaters were transferred to new conditions for organizational, creative and economic activity, a transition was made from state management to state-public management of theaters. It was also decided to transfer concert organizations to new business conditions. In 1987, there was a division of the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR. A.M. Gorky. One part of the team was headed by Efremov O.N., the other - Doronina T.V. In 1987, the Peoples' Friendship Theater was opened in Moscow.
In 1988, the "Concept for building an automated library system of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR" was adopted. A decision was made to expand the rights and powers of the territorial bodies of culture. Since January 1990, the transfer of cultural and educational institutions to new economic conditions began. In 1987, the 70th anniversary of the Great October Revolution was widely celebrated. On a large scale, the country celebrated the 150th anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin. The Ministry paid primary attention to issues of folk art. In August 1988, the I International Folklore Festival was held in Moscow, in which all the Union republics and representatives of 20 countries took part. Measures were taken to improve the quality of international cultural relations. The number of international festivals and days of culture of various countries has increased many times over. Particularly large-scale cultural exchanges were with India, Spain, and the USA. In 1988 there was a change in the structure of the apparatus of the Ministry. Instead of sectoral departments, the following were created: the Main Department of Cultural Work, Library and Museum Affairs. Deputy Minister Silkova N.P. became the head of this department at the same time. Heads of departments: Novikova S.N., Bezbozhny V.T., Mizyukov A.N., Gavrilenko N.V., Kondratieva G.V., Donskikh L.V. The Main Directorate for the Protection and Restoration of Monuments and Capital Construction (Head - Petrov S.G., Deputy Gusev P.V.) with six departments. The main department of external relations (headed by I.I. Bodyul) with six departments.
The main production and technical department (head - Yu.G. Kuznetsov).
Main Economic Department (Head - Galitsky M.M.).
Department of Personnel, Educational Institutions and Scientific Institutions (Head - Tyutikov L.N.).
Case management.
Economic management.
After leaving in June 1989 from the post of Minister of Culture of the USSR Zakharov V.G. the post of Minister was vacant for 5 months. In the wake of Gorbachev's perestroika, democratization and glasnost November 21, 1989 Gubenko Nikolai Nikolaevich became the Minister of Culture of the USSR. He is the first Minister of Culture of the USSR, not from party functionaries, but a professional artist, born in 1941, Soviet theater and film actor, director, screenwriter, creator of six films. From 1987 to 1989 - chief director of the Taganka Theatre. Almost all Deputy Ministers have been replaced. Fokht-Babushkin Yury Ulrinovich, Zolotov Andrey Andreevich, Renov Eduard Nikolaevich, Khilchevsky Yury Mikhailovich, Cherkasov Igor Alexandrovich, Shabanov Petr Ilyich became Deputy Ministers. Almost completely destroyed the structure of the Ministry. Instead of departments and main departments, 4 boards were created: cultural policy, external cultural relations, social and legal regulation, economics and material base. Each college had departments and sub-departments. 340-355 employees worked in the Ministry. Particular attention was paid to the development of the fundamentals of legislation on culture. It was possible to achieve an increase in budgetary funds for culture from 0.8% to 1.2% of the expenditure part of the state budget of the USSR. An Inter-Republican Council for the distribution of funds was created in the Ministry. The ministry became a home for the creative intelligentsia. But there was no time left for the implementation of the outlined plans in the Ministry. With the collapse of the USSR in November 1991, the Ministry of Culture of the USSR was liquidated. On February 4, 1992, all employees of the Ministry were dismissed.
Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR. April 1, 1953 - February 1992
By the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on April 1, 1953, the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR was established. It included the functions of the liquidated Ministry of Cinematography of the RSFSR, the Committee for Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Committee for Arts under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Department for Printing Industry, Publishing and Book Trade under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. The Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, in accordance with Article 52 of the Constitution of the RSFSR, was a union-republican one, subordinated both to the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR and to the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. In 1953, 617 employees worked in the central apparatus of the Ministry. During the 10 years until 1964, the structure of the Ministry was constantly changing. From the Ministry were separated: cinematography, printing, planetariums, etc. By 1964-1965. the following departments remained in the structure of the apparatus of the Ministry: libraries, club institutions, museums, monument protection, musical institutions, fine arts, theaters, educational institutions and personnel, economic, planning and financial, office, central accounting, capital construction and technical equipment. Departments: first, methodical, for the preparation and organization of foreign tours. Basically, this structure was preserved for all subsequent years. The Ministry had a collegium of 15-17 people.
In different years, the Ministry directly supervised from 120 to 180 different institutions: theaters, museums, concert organizations, higher educational institutions, libraries, manufacturing enterprises. More than 40 thousand creative and technical employees worked in them. In the 80s. 57 higher educational institutions, 20 museums, 12 institutes, 11 theaters, 13 creative teams and concert organizations, 5 republican libraries, more than 30 industrial and other enterprises were under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry.
From time to time the structure of the Ministry changed slightly, in 1975. the main organizational and inspection department, the main department of historical and cultural monuments, the main department of educational institutions and scientific institutions were created, the main information and computing center (GIVC) was created. The Ministry had a central safety bureau. 3a 38 years of activity of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, there were 5 Ministers of Culture of the RSFSR: Zueva Tatyana Mikhailovna (1953-1959), Popov Alexei Ivanovich (1959-1965), Kuznetsov Nikolai Alexandrovich (1965-1974), Melentiev Yury Serafimovich ( 1974 - July 1990), Solomin Yuri Mefodievich (1990 - November 1991). Deputy Ministers of Culture in different years were: Zaitsev Evgeny Vladimirovich, Gribanov Mikhail Alekseevich, Striganov Vasily Mikhailovich, Melov Vladimir Vasilyevich, Kolobkov Sergey Mikhailovich, Flyarkovsky Alexander Grigorievich, Zhukova Nina Borisovna, Shkurko Alexander Ivanovich. They worked from 5 to 35 years. The Ministry worked in close contact and interaction with the unions of writers, artists, composers, cinematographers, architects of the USSR and the RSFSR, the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments, the All-Russian Theater Society, the All-Russian Choral Society, the Soviet Socialist Society, the Trade Union of Cultural Workers, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. The Ministry concentrated its main efforts on working with the ministries and departments of culture of the subjects of the RSFSR on the development of culture and art in the republics, territories and regions (16 ASSRs, 6 territories, 49 regions and 2 independent cities of Moscow and Leningrad). Librarianship flourished. The number of libraries increased from 43,300 in 1953 to 50,200 in 1990. Accordingly, the fund of libraries grew from 33 million to 92.1 million copies of books; employees - from 58.2 to 119.2 thousand; readers - from 31 million to 53.2 million people; book lending - from 59.4 million to 117.5 million. Heads of the Libraries Department were: Gudkov N.N. (1953-1963), Serov V.V. (1964-1967), Fenelonov E.A. (1968-1973), Bachaldin B.N. (1974-1985), Ryzhkova N.A. (1985-1990). At a high level in the RSFSR, library congresses, conferences, meetings were held at which the problems of librarianship were identified and measures were developed to solve them. 50-80s - the time of a genuine upsurge of club business and folk art. The development of a network of club institutions and the construction of rural clubs and district houses of culture reached an unprecedented scale. In the 60-70s. 3-5 new premises were put into operation daily, 90% of them in the countryside. In 1981 there were more than 77.5 thousand clubs. A great merit in the development of the club business belongs to the heads of the department of club institutions: Kudryakov V.N., Deineko V.I. Deputies - Zorina T.V., Nemchenko A.M. Heads of departments and employees: Mishustina S.I., Vinogradskaya L.O., Lavrinenko V.I., Lunin Yu.V., Ilina S.I., Demidov G.I., Antonenko V.G., Stepantsov N. I., Pervushin B.F., Maslova T.V. In 1987, 656,000 circles and groups of amateur performances operated within the system of the Ministry of Culture and Trade Unions. 7 thousand teams had the title - people's. From 1953 to 1991 11 All-Russian and All-Union festivals and reviews of amateur art were held. In the 60-80s. museum business developed rapidly. The number of museums more than doubled: from 396 in 1960 to 828 in 1982. They were visited by millions of spectators. Experienced specialists worked in the Department of Museums of the Ministry: Bartkovskaya A.V., Evstigneev V.S., Brazhnikova G.I., Starotorzhskaya G.A., Kainova M.A., Kolesnikova L.I., Polyakova T.A., Shumova A.A., Kotlyarova E.A., Vorontsov V.L. In the 70-80s. The protection and restoration of historical and cultural monuments reached a significant scale. There were 30,000 monuments registered in the Ministry. Workshops for the restoration of monuments were set up in 58 territories of the RSFSR. Budget allocations for the restoration of monuments have increased 3.5 times. In 1966, the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments (VOOPIK) was established. The structure of the Ministry included the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments, which was transformed into the Main Directorate for the Protection, Restoration and Use of Monuments. For many years they worked: Prutsyn O.I., Tarasov N.A., Oreshkina A.S., Kucherov V.V., Krivonos A.A., Agaletskaya N.A., Krivonos G.V., Zhivtsova G. .M., Semenova G.V., Golovkin K.G., Gryzlov T.I. and others. In the 70-80s. the activities of the theaters of the RSFSR successfully developed. In the theaters there were plays of domestic and foreign classics: Ostrovsky A.N., Gorky M.A., Chekhov A.P., Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E., Turgenev I.S., Gogol N.V., Dostoevsky F. M., Shakespeare W., Dickens C.; modern authors: Arbuzova A.I., Abdulina A.Kh., Dvoretsky I.M., Drutse I.P., Solynsky A.D., Rozova V.S. and others. The talent of many remarkable theater directors was especially revealed: Simonova E.R., Tovstonogov G.G., Efremova O.N., Goncharova A.A., Volchek G.B. and others.
All-Union and All-Russian festivals and reviews of dramaturgy and theatrical art were held annually, dedicated to: the 150th anniversary of L.N. The following people worked fruitfully in the theater management: Demin V.P., Podgorodinsky V.V., Svetlakova M.A., Skachkov I.P., Khamaza I.L., Pereberina N.V., Kimlach Yu.I., Smirnov G. .A., Miroshnichenko F.A. and others. In 1983, the All-Russian Theater Society (WTO) had 34,000 members. The society was headed by Tsarev M.I. for many years. and Ulyanov M.A. The fine arts have made significant progress. Weeks of fine arts were held annually. The exhibition activity reached a great scale. Various exhibitions were held: "Soviet Russia", "My Black Earth Region", "We are building BAM", "60 Heroic Years". Thousands of works of art were purchased and donated to art museums and art galleries. Dozens of monuments and monuments were built every year, the network of art museums and art galleries expanded. For many years in the management of institutions of fine arts worked: Kalashnev F.V., Shitov L.A., Gulyaev V.A., Vorobyov V.P., Nikiforov V.N., Fedyushkin B.I., Vladimirova V.I. , Vlasov B.V., Porto I.B., Kurgan V.P., Usachev E.I., Lovchikova E.A., Dremina T.N. and others. Musical art developed successfully. Operas and ballets by G.V. Sviridov, T.N. Khrennikov, A.I. Khachaturian, R.K. Shchedrin, D.D. Shostakovich, S.S. Prokofiev were performed in musical theaters. and others. The traditional music festivals "Russian Winter", "White Nights" were popular. The association "Rosconcert" had more than 30 ensembles, orchestras, VIO. Lushin S.A., Kuznetsova V.P., Ivanova G.N., Ryauzova K.N., Pushkarev A.F., Lyapina T.G., Talanov E.F., Skotarenko V. .FROM.
The primary task of the Ministry was the training of personnel, the network of educational institutions was developing. In 1989, there were 37 higher educational institutions of culture and art, 20 secondary educational institutions in the system of the Ministry. In total, there were 44 universities of culture and art on the territory of the RSFSR. In 1965 there were only 3 institutes of culture in the country. Higher educational institutions in 1982 produced 8.7 thousand specialists, secondary educational institutions - 26.7 thousand. Romanov I.I., Fomichev Yu.K., Tulupov G.P., Monakhov F. .A., Tyshchenko A.K., Ziva V.F., Beletskaya K.V., Barminova O.N., Izmesteva N.V., Ermakovich N.A., Kuvardina D.A., Timoshin I.V. . and others. In the personnel department worked: Shishkin S.M., Samarin G.M., Novitsky V.B., Dubrovskaya L.I., Panferova Yu.N. and others. There were two scientific institutions in the system of the Ministry of Culture: the Scientific Research Institute of Culture and the All-Russian Artistic Research and Restoration Center. I.E. Grabar. A significant place in the work of the Ministry was occupied by economic and financial activities; issues of capital construction, repair and provision of cultural facilities with new equipment and technology. There were 36 production enterprises directly subordinated to the Ministry, incl. 16 mechanical plants, only in the 11th five-year plan in the RSFSR 24 theaters and concert halls for 22,330 seats were built. In these departments worked: Sorochkin B.Yu., Badanov A.N., Agranatov N.B., Drygin I.F., Agapov A.I., Pleskanovskaya I.A., Karlova N.I., Metelkin V. K., Slutsky I.G., Surova N.I., Karpitskaya G.G., Kachalkina Yu.V., Petrosyan L.G., Vasiliev N.S., Antonov E.V., Sergeenko D.M. , Leichenko A.E., Fure G.S. Pryamilov V.I., Bezrukova G.P., Khamidullina L.A., Gorelova V.I., Koronova L.R. worked for many years in the Administration. and others. The legal department was headed by M.I. Zvyagin for more than 15 years.
Since 1975, the Main Organizational and Inspection Department has been operating in the Ministry for 15 years. There were three departments in its structure: Non-chernozem zone; Siberia and the Far East; Chernozem zone, Volga region and southern regions. Ermolaev A.I., Ponko A.D., Glushkov V.K., Nifontov O.N., Morozov N.K., Zhiro M.M., Smiryagina V.V., Kobrin V.V. , Tkachev A.I., Domracheva L.G. and others. Since 1985, the years of perestroika have come in the country, discussions have unfolded on the problems of cultural construction, renewal of all spheres of culture and art. A concept and plans for the development of culture up to 2005 were developed, and specific plans for the development of individual branches of culture were envisaged. The functions of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR were updated. In 1989, the structure of the apparatus of the Ministry was changed, enlarged main departments were created, headed by deputy ministers. New Deputy Ministers came to the apparatus of the Ministry: Anatoly Fomich Kostyukovich, Vasily Alekseevich Rodionov. During all the years of activity of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, the curators in the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR were Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Kochemasov Vyacheslav Ivanovich. On March 27, 1992, by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR was transformed into the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Russian Federation, which operated for six months.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation 1992-2008
On March 27, 1992, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Russian Federation was established by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation. After 6 months, on September 30, 1992, it was transformed into the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The Minister of Culture was appointed critic and literary critic, Doctor of Cultural Studies, rector of the Literary Institute. M.A. Gorky Sidorov Evgeny Yurievich. He worked in this position until August 1997. The Ministers of Culture of the Russian Federation were also: from August 28, 1997 to September 30, 1998 - Natalya Leonidovna Dementyeva; from September 30, 1998 to February 8, 2000 - Egorov Vladimir Konstantinovich First Deputy Minister under Sidorov E.Yu. was Shcherbakov Konstantin Alexandrovich, Deputy Ministers - Volegov Yury Borisovich, Demin Vadim Petrovich, Nikitina Tatyana Kantimirovna, Rodionov Valentin Alekseevich, Shvydkoi Mikhail Efimovich. There were 18 departments in the structure of the Ministry: federal programs (headed by Shishkin S.V.); regional and national policy (Vasilyeva A.V.); for theatrical arts (Podgorodinsky V.V.); for musical art (Lushin S.A.); for fine arts (Bazhanov L.A.); for the protection of cultural heritage (F.M. Mansurova); for Museum Affairs (Lebedeva V.A.); for Libraries (E.I. Kuzmin); on Affairs of Folk Art and Leisure (Demchenko A.N.); for science and educational institutions (Popov V.A.), economic (Sorochkin B.Yu.); accounting (Kulikova N.S.); control and revision (Osokova V.V.); contractual law (Samarin N.A.); international cultural relations (Makarchenkov LL); capital construction (Agapov A.I.); economic (Chernetsov V.A.); case management (G.P. Bezrukova); personnel department (Novoseltsev EN); GIVC (Bogatov B.P.). The members of the Board of the Ministry were: in addition to the leadership of the Ministry, Vedenin Yu.A., Kazenin V.I., Maltsev E.D., Neroznak V.P., Obrosov I.P., Piotrovsky M.B. Under the Minister of Culture, Dementieva Natalia Leonidovna, the former structure of the Ministry was basically preserved. The first deputy was Evstigneev V.S., the deputies were Azar V.I., Antonov V.N. Under the Minister of Culture Egorov Vladimir Konstantinovich, the first deputy was Dementieva N.L., the secretary of state-deputy - Tupikin A.P., deputies Antonov B.N., Egorychev V.V., Khoroshilov P.V. In the structure of the Ministry under the Minister Egorov V.K. were: Department for the Preservation of Cultural Property; management of national and regional cultural policy, arts, museums, public, libraries, science and information, protection of immovable monuments of history and culture, international cultural relations. The main tasks and functions of the Ministry were formulated in the Constitution of the Russian Federation adopted on December 12, 1993, the law of the Russian Federation "Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Culture" and a number of other laws adopted on June 23, 1999, December 27, 2000. Since the beginning of 2000 the state administration of culture is being restructured and a new structure of the Ministry is being formed. In February 2000, Shvydkoy Mikhail Efimovich, Doctor of Arts and Professor, was appointed Minister of Culture. Golutva A.A., Dementieva N.L., Molchanov D.V. are appointed as First Deputy Ministers. Deputy Ministers: Malyshev V.S., Khoroshilov P.V., Rakhaev A.I. and State Secretary - Deputy Minister Chukovskaya E.E. The Ministry had 4 Departments: state support of cinematography; state support for art and the development of folk art; preservation of cultural values; economy; 5 departments: science and education, regional policy, business administration, foreign cultural policy, legal department; seven departments: the state register and registers, libraries, personnel and awards, museums, the inspection for the protection of immovable monuments of history and culture, a special department, and an economic department. The Ministry had 13 cluster territorial departments for the preservation of cultural values. The Minister had 8 advisers and one assistant. The Ministry worked in this form for 4 years, until March 2004. On March 9, 2004, the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications was created in the Russian Federation, formed on the basis of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry for Press, Television and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Media. Alexander Nikolayevich Sokolov (March 2004 - May 2008), Doctor of Art History, Professor, Honored Art Worker, is appointed Minister of Culture. The Ministry included: the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography (headed by M.E. Shvydkoy); Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications (Head Seslavinsky M.V.); Federal Archival Agency (headed by V.P. Kozlov); Federal Service for Supervision of Compliance with Legislation in the Sphere of Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage (Head Boyarskov B.A.), Deputy Ministers were: Amunts D.M., Nadirov L.N., Busygin A.E., and Secretary of State -Deputy Minister Pozhigailo P.A.
The Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications had 4 Departments: administration, public policy, financial and economic and legal. Each department had 4-5 departments. The directors of the Departments were: Drozhzhin Alexander Yuryevich, Bundin Yury Ivanovich, Golik Yury Vladimirovich, Karnovich Kirill Valerievich, Shubin Yury Alexandrovich. In the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, the Deputy Ministers were: Golutva A.A., Malyshev V.S. The agency had 7 departments, each of them had departments. The heads of departments and departments were: Kobakhidze M.B., Kolupaeva A.S., Lazaruk S.V., Ilyina I.F., Kiselev F.V., Krasnov A.D., Sparzhina M.Yu., Luchin A. .A., Furmanova G.G., Blinova S.M., Manilova T.L., Smirnova I.M., Arakelova A.O., Serpensky A.M. The Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation operated until May 12, 2008. By the Decree of the President of May 12, 2008, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation was created on the basis of this Ministry. Avdeev Alexander Alekseevich was appointed Minister of Culture. He served as the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation until May 2012. The Deputy Ministers were: Chukovskaya E.E., Busygin A.E., Golutva A.A., Khoroshilov P.V. The Ministry had 7 departments:
Department of Contemporary Art and International Cultural Relations (Director Shalashov A.A.). The department included 6 departments: musical art; theatrical art; folk art; Europe, Asia, Africa, America; cultural relations with the CIS countries and compatriots abroad, coordinating and analytical.
Department of Cinematography (Director Zernov S.A.). The department consisted of 5 divisions.
Department of Cultural Heritage (Director Kozlov R.Kh.). The department included 5 departments: museums, libraries and archives, accounting of cultural values, fine arts.
Department of Science and Education (Director Neretin O.P.). The department included 4 departments; art education; planning and development of education, science and innovation, targeted programs.
Department of Legal and Regulatory (Director Rybak K.E.). The department consisted of 5 divisions.
Department of Economics and Finance (Director Shevchuk S.G.). The department consisted of 5 divisions.
Department of Construction, Overhaul, Investment Policy and Restoration (Director Cherepennikov K.G.). The department consisted of 2 divisions.
Department of the General Secretariat (Director Yu.A. Shubin). The department consisted of 5 divisions.
The Ministry also had independent departments; public service, personnel and awards (head Egorova E.V.), and a special department (head Pavlov P.V.). The Ministry had a coordinating council for culture, which included the heads of cultural bodies of all subjects of the Russian Federation. The collegium of the Ministry had 29 members. On May 12, 2008, the Federal Service for Supervision of Compliance with Legislation in the Field of Cultural Heritage Protection (Rosokhrankultura) was established, headed by Alexander Vladimirovich Kibovsky. In the structure of Rosokhrankultura there were 4 departments and 13 territorial departments. The Ministry was in charge of the Federal Archival Agency (headed by Kozlov Vladimir Petrovich, Artizov Andrey Nikolaevich). The main efforts of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation were focused on the implementation of the Federal Target Programs "Culture of Russia 2001-2005" and "Culture of Russia 2006-2011." , which contained the strategy for the development of the industry and practical levers for the implementation of programs. The many-sided, multifaceted and multinational theatrical world of Russia has been steadily developing. The number of theaters grew from 568 to 594, the number of performances grew by 4-8% per year, the number of spectators from 27 to 30 million people. The theaters employed about 80,000 workers, including 35,000 artistic and artistic personnel. On average, the country hosted 260 theater festivals in 77 cities. The musical life developed actively. There were 70 theaters of opera and ballet, 12 theaters of musical comedy and operetta. More than 2,000 performances were shown annually by musical theaters. 13 symphony and chamber orchestras, 6 leading concert organizations, 2 academic choirs and 7 professional art groups carried out a great deal of work. More than 30 music festivals were held annually. The main activities of the Ministry carried out in cooperation with the Union of Composers, which has 48 branches in the country, which consisted of 1.5 thousand composers and performers. Visual arts, traditional forms and the so-called contemporary art successfully developed. Every year, cultural bodies and the Union of Artists of Russia on a parity basis held from 1 thousand to 3.5 thousand various exhibitions, works of fine, decorative and folk art were purchased for museums of fine arts and art galleries. Private business, the art market, and art fairs began to play an increasingly important role. In the field of librarianship, the main tasks were focused on the creation of a national electronic library and a consolidated catalog of Russian libraries, the creation of a multi-level system of federal and regional centers for the preservation of library collections. In general, there was a reduction in libraries. For 7 years from 2001 to 2008. the number of libraries decreased by 2.5 thousand, especially in the countryside. A big problem was the reduction in the acquisition of municipal libraries with literature. The popularity of museums grew, and a trend was established for the growth of the main indicators in the field of museum business. The number of museums of all departments increased from 2113 in 2001 to 2468 in 2007, incl. museums of the Ministry of Culture from 2027 to 2281. Museums were visited annually by 70-76 million visitors. From 50,000 to 120,000 museum items were restored annually by museums and entered into an electronic catalogue. The activities of cultural and leisure institutions and houses of folk art are characterized by an increase in intensity, the search for innovative effective forms of work. In 2007, there were 49,572 cultural and leisure institutions of all departments, incl. in the system of the Ministry of Culture - 48399 institutions. 28 thousand formations of amateur artistic creativity were constantly operating. More than 3.3 million creators took part in them, incl. in rural areas 2.3 million. A significant part of the participants are children. At the same time, almost a quarter of the institutions required repair, 32 thousand buildings were in an unsatisfactory condition. There was a high staff turnover. Of the 312,000 personnel, only 45,000 had higher education. The number of parks of culture and recreation has sharply decreased. In 2001-2007 the number of parks decreased by 141. The Ministry paid considerable attention to strengthening cultural ties with other countries. International documents on cultural cooperation were concluded with 35 countries.
In the Russian Federation, there were 74 higher educational institutions of culture and art, 278 secondary specialized educational institutions, more than 5.5 thousand children's art schools of various profiles. Almost 1.5 million people were employed in all educational institutions, incl. Universities - 95 thousand, secondary educational institutions - 15 thousand, in the Children's School of Art - 13 million people. More than 148 thousand teachers worked in educational institutions. There were 44 higher educational institutions and 18 secondary educational institutions under federal jurisdiction.
There were 9 scientific institutions in the system of the Ministry, over 800 researchers with scientific degrees of doctors and candidates of sciences worked in them.
The Russian Federation in 2010 included: 21 republics, 9 territories, 45 regions, two cities of federal subordination (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 4 autonomous districts: a total of 83 subjects of the Russian Federation. All of them were united in 8 federal districts. In the subjects there were: 41 ministries of culture, 24 departments of culture, 10 committees of culture, 12 departments of culture. The work of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation with the regions was carried out through the coordinating council for culture, as an advisory body under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The Council met at least 2 times a year for special meetings. The Council was headed by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.
335 employees worked in the apparatus of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. All of them had a higher education, incl. with the degrees of doctors and candidates of sciences, professors, associate professors - 11, members of creative unions - 6. 84 people had work experience in the Ministry up to 5 years, 51 people up to 10 years, 48 people up to 15 years. There was an active process of personnel renewal. In 2009 alone, 52 new employees were hired and 33 fired, mainly due to age and transfer to another job. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation managed to overcome the negative consequences in the development of the culture of the first perestroika years. The Ministry confidently confirmed the status of the state forming institution in the field of cultural construction.
State Administration of Cinematography 1917-2016
The establishment of centralized state control over film production began in 1919 with the nationalization of the film industry and trade.
In 1919-1922. the All-Russian Photo-Cinematic Department (VFKO) of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR operated. Head of Department Leshchenko D.I.
In 1921, the outstanding film director S.M. Eisenstein created the film "Battleship Potemkin", which triumphantly went around the world.
In 1922, VFKO was transformed into the Central State Photographic Enterprise (Goskino). It received the monopoly right to rent paintings throughout the territory of the RSFSR. Goskino was under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. The leaders of the filmmaker were: Shvedchikov Konstantin Matveyevich (1919-1923), Khanzhenkov Alexander Alekseevich (1923-1926), Kadomtsev Erasm Samuilovich (1926-1929), Rudzutak Yan Samuilovich (1929-1930), Ryutik Martemyan Nikitovich (1930-1931), Shumyatsky Boris Zakharovich (1931-1938).
On June 13, 1924, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR established a joint-stock company for the production and distribution of films in the RSFSR. Later it was renamed into "Sovkino". The film industry is growing rapidly, the network of film installations is expanding, sound films are being mastered. At the same time, the "Film Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR" operates. In the mid 30s. the first sound films were created: "A ticket to life" (dir. Ekk N.V.), "Seven brave" (dir. Gerasimov S.A.), "Chapaev" (dir. brothers Vasiliev S. and G.) February 13, 1930 The All-Union Film Industry Association Soyuzkino is organized, subordinate to the Supreme Council of National Economy and the People's Commissariat of Light Industry. On February 13, 1933, the Main Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created, it is part of the All-Union Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. On March 23, 1938, the Committee for Cinematography under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created. It concentrates all film making. Committee chairmen: Dukelsky Semyon Semyonovich (1938-1939), Bolshakov Ivan Grigoryevich (1939-1946). March 23, 1946 The Committee is transformed into the Ministry of Cinematography of the USSR. Bolshakov Ivan Grigoryevich (1946-1953) is appointed Minister. Cinematography finally formed as an independent branch of culture. All film studios, cinemas and film industry enterprises, as well as the management of film distribution, the construction of film enterprises, and the training of personnel for cinematography, came under the jurisdiction of the committee. The committee carries out general management of the activities of the departments of cinematography under the Council of People's Commissars of the Union and Autonomous Republics, regional and regional executive committees. In 1940, there were more than 12,000 cinemas in the cities and 18,800 in the countryside in the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 150 operators at the front. During these years, 102 feature films of various themes and genres were released. Among them: "Secretary of the district committee", "At six o'clock in the evening after the war", "Pig and the shepherd" (dir. Pyryev I.A.); "Rainbow" (dir. Donskoy M.S.); “Wait for me” (dir. Stolpner A.P.); "Two Soldiers" (dir. Lukov L.D.), and others. During the war years, about 5 million meters of film were filmed, which are an invaluable historical document about the war. The Central United Film Studio was established in Alma-Ata. It released more than 100 all domestic films. In August 1946, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution on the film "Big Life" (dir. Lukov L.D.). Film directors G. M. Kozintsev, V. N. Pudovkin, S. N. Yutkevich, S. M. Eisenstein were criticized. At the turn of the 40-50s. over 100 new films have been released. Trophy films appeared. The films “Kuban Cossacks” (dir. Pyryev I.A.) were released; "Volga, Volga", "Circus" (dir. Aleksandrov G.A.). Since March 1953, the functions of state administration of cinematography have been transferred to the Ministries of Culture of the USSR and the RSFSR. For 10 years cinema has been in the system of the Ministries of Culture. On March 23, 1963, the Union-Republican State Committee of the USSR on Cinematography was formed, since 1978 - the State Committee of the USSR on Cinematography. It acted until 1988. Chairman of the Committee: Romanov Alexey Vladimirovich (1963-1972), Yermash Filipp Timofeevich (1972-1986), Kamshalov Alexander Ivanovich (1986-1991), first deputy chairman Sychev Nikolay Yakovlevich, deputies of the chairman People: Alexandrov Mikhail Vladimirovich, Ioshin Oleg Ivanovich, Moshin Leonid Sergeevich, Pavlenok Boris Vladimirovich, Sizov Nikolay Timofeevich. There were 3 main departments in Goskino of the USSR: the main script editorial board for feature films (editor-in-chief Anatoly Vasilyevich Bogomolov); main directorate of film production (head Sholokhov Gennady Evgenievich); the main directorate of film production and film distribution (headed by Belov Fedor Fedorovich) In the 70-80s. in the USSR there were 40 film studios, where it was possible to create 130 feature films, 100 television films and about 140 documentary films a year. 7 film copy factories. On July 5, 1963, the State Committee of the RSFSR on Cinematography was established (since 1972, the Committee on Cinematography under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR). There were 2 main departments in the committee: the main department of film production (with a script editorial board, head Yury Vladimirovich Simaranov, editor-in-chief Gvarishvili Teimuraz Ivanovich); Main Directorate of Cinematography and Film Distribution (Head Vasily Petrovich Zuev). Committee chairmen: Filippov Alexander Gavrilovich (1963-1985), Sychev Nikolai Yakovlevich (1985-1988). First Deputy Chairman Soloviev Mikhail Afanasyevich, Deputy Chairman Nifontov Oleg Ivanovich. In 1965, the founding congress of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR took place. As of January 1, 1978, there were 5462 members of the Union in it. The first chairman of the Union Kulidzhanov L.A. In 1988-1999 the management of the cinematographic industry was in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR. Anatoly Ivanovich Protsenko was the first deputy minister of culture for cinema. There were: the main directorate of film production (headed by Kazarin Mikhail Nikolaevich), with two departments: planning and economic and financial, production and technical and script editorial board; the main directorate of cinematography and film production (headed by Markov Valery Viktorovich), with five departments: organizing and improving film services for the population, introducing and operating technological equipment, organizing and developing a video network, economics and film and video distribution. There were 11 film studios in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR: the largest of them was the Sverdlovsk Film Studio. All film studios annually released from 80 to 90 full-length feature films, up to 160 documentaries, up to 450 popular science films, over 20 animated films and about 750 issues of film magazines. Over 1500 films were dubbed in the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation. Up to 70,000 film installations operated in the RSFSR. About 3 million spectators visited cinemas every day, there were 5 film technical schools. The following magazines were published: Art of Cinema, Film Script, Film Studies Notes. In 1990-1992 the State Fund for the Development of Cinematography under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. The President of the Fund is Anatoly Ivanovich Protsenko, and Alexander Ivanovich Melekh, Deputy Chairman. On February 5, 1992, the Cinematography Committee under the Government of the Russian Federation was established. From 1993 to 1996 it was called the Committee of the Russian Federation on Cinematography, from 1996 to 1999. - State Committee of the Russian Federation for Cinematography. All these years, Armen Nikolaevich Medvedev was the chairman of the committee, Anatoly Ivanovich Protsenko was the first deputy chairman. In 1996-1999 Chairman of the State Committee for Cinematography - Golutva Alexander Alekseevich. Deputy chairmen - Melekh Alexander Ivanovich and Lazaruk Sergey Vladimirovich.
In 1999-2000 Alexander Alekseevich Golutva was the chairman of the State Committee for Cinematography, the deputy chairmen were Sergey Vladimirovich Lazaruk and Viktor Vladimirovich Glukhov.
From May 2000 to 2016, the management of cinematography was in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
In 2000-2004 In the Ministry of Culture, there was a Department of State Support for Cinematography (Head Sergey Vladimirovich Lazaruk, Deputy Head Yury Mikhailovich Dorozhkin), with two departments: creative expertise and support for the production of national films (Head Sergey Anatolyevich Zernov), a department for the promotion of domestic films (Head Galina Markovna Strochkova). Cinematography issues were supervised by the First Deputy Minister Golutva Alexander Alekseevich. In 2004-2008 The Cinematography Department was part of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. Alexander Golutva was the deputy head of the agency. The Department of Cinematography (headed by Sergei Vladimirovich Lazaruk) had 3 departments: the production of national films (headed by Elena Nikolaevna Gromova), the promotion of domestic films (headed by Galina Markovna Strochkova), and the state register (headed by Yury Viktorovich Vasyuchkov).
From May 15, 2008 to 2013, the Department of Cinematography operated in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation (Directors Sergei Anatolyevich Zernov, Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Telnov, Deputy Director - Igor Aleksandrovich Kallistov) with four departments: state support of feature national films (Head Elena Nikolaevna Gromova) , state support for the production of feature animated national films (headed by Elena Kirillovna Mineva), promotion and distribution of national films (headed by Galina Markovna Strochkova), the state register (headed by Yury Viktorovich Vasyuchkov). In the leadership of the Ministry, this department was supervised by Deputy Minister Golutva A.A. and since 2011 - Chukovskaya Ekaterina Eduardovna. In December 2000, the Government of the Russian Federation created the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of Domestic Cinematography. The mechanism of state support for cinematography was regulated by the federal programs "Culture of Russia (2001-2005)" and "Culture of Russia (2006-2010)". Release of film products for 1996-2002 increased from 110 to 670 units per year, including feature films - from 20 to 105 units. From mid-2004 to mid-2007, the total number of films produced was 250 full-length feature films, 15 short feature films, about 30 issues of film magazines "Wick" and "Yeralash", about 1300 titles of documentaries and about 200 titles of animated films. The films of the leading masters Khotinenko V., Govorukhin S., Godovsky V., Chukhrai P., Khutsiev M., Poloka G., Melnikov V., Ryazanov E., Bortko V., Panfilov G., Balabanova A. ., Sokurov A. and filmmakers of the younger generation: Bondarchuk F., Meskhiev D., Ogorodnikov V., Kravchuk A., Sashaev P. and others. In connection with the celebration of the 60th, 65th, and 70th anniversaries of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, cinema turned to patriotic themes. Many films were devoted to historical issues, reflecting the life of various nationalities in Russia. Russian cinema has received international recognition. In 2006 alone, 128 screenings of Russian films took place at international festivals. 56 films were sent to them. In 2008, the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the release of the first Russian feature film was held.
Russian cinema has received international recognition. In 2006 alone, 56 films were sent to international festivals.
There is an opinion that in the second half of the 20th century there was no woman in our country who would have reached such political heights and made such an incredible career as Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva. She was the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, and for almost 14 years she was the Minister of Culture of the USSR.
Let's remember her life in the format of a biographical photo collection.
Portrait of a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU E. A. Furtseva
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born on December 7, 1910 in a village near Vyshny Volochkom. Mother Matrena Nikolaevna worked at a weaving factory. Father died in World War I.
Ekaterina Alekseevna with her mother
Ekaterina graduated from the seven-year school, at the age of fifteen she entered the weaving factory where her mother worked. But a different fate awaited her. At the age of twenty, the factory girl joined the party. Soon the first party task follows: she is sent to the Kursk region to raise agriculture. But there she does not stay long, she is “thrown” to the Komsomol-party work in Feodosia.
Portrait of a young Ekaterina Furtseva
She is noticed, summoned to the city committee of the Komsomol and offered a new Komsomol ticket. From the blessed South, she is sent to the North, to the very heart of the revolution, to the capital of October, to Leningrad. At the Higher Courses of Civil Aeroflot.
Nikita Khrushchev, Nina Petrovna, Ekaterina Furtseva (third from left in the front row). Moscow region, early 60s
In the new city, Catherine fell in love with a pilot. His name was Petr Ivanovich Bitkov.
At that time, “pilot” was an almost mystical word. Pilots are not people, but "Stalin's falcons". The pilot is irresistible, like Don Juan. To be married to a pilot meant to keep up with the times. Live almost like a myth. Everything could be shared with the pilot - even love for Comrade Stalin.
Ekaterina Furtseva with her husband Peter Bitkov and daughter Svetlana
In Moscow, Furtseva becomes an instructor in the student department in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. A year later, she was sent on a Komsomol ticket to the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology. The future process engineer plunges headlong into Komsomol work.
Kliment Voroshilov, Anastas Mikoyan, Ekaterina Furtseva
The war began, my husband was mobilized. She was left alone, with her mother, whom by that time she had discharged to Moscow. Land mines are exploding in Moscow, she, along with everyone else, is on duty on the roof, extinguishing incendiary bombs - saving the capital. And suddenly - a protracted news after a meeting with her husband: she is pregnant.
Ekaterina Furtseva with her daughter Svetlana
Svetlana was born in May 1942. Only four months after the birth of her daughter, her husband came on a visit. He announced that he had been living with another for a long time. Disappointment followed disappointment. After graduating from the institute, as a political activist, she was offered to enter graduate school, after a year and a half she was elected party organizer of the institute. Science was done away with forever.
Now they lived together: her mother, Svetlana and she. Ekaterina received a room in a two-room apartment near the Krasnoselskaya metro station. From the institute, she was sent to work in the Frunzensky District Committee of the Party. Furtseva's immediate superior - the first secretary of the district committee - was Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky. She developed a special relationship with him.
In 1949, during a party concert backstage at the Bolshoi Theater, Nikolai Shvernik gave her an audience with the leader. Stalin liked her. She saw him for the first and last time, but that was enough for her.
Ekaterina Furtseva speaking at the Plenum of Creative Unions. 1967
In December 1949, she speaks at an expanded plenum of the city party committee, where, harshly criticizing herself, she talks about the district committee's shortcomings.
In early 1950, she moved to a building on Staraya Square, to the office of the second secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. A couple of months later, her faithful friend Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky fell victim to the struggle against cosmopolitanism - he was removed from all posts and expelled from the party. The novel ended by itself.
The family of Ekaterina Furtseva: daughter Svetlana, granddaughter Marina, son-in-law Igor Kozlov - with cosmonaut Adrian Nikolaev
From 1950 to 1954, Furtseva came into close contact with Khrushchev. There were rumors about their romance. Immediately after Stalin's death, she became the first secretary of the city party committee. Now all of Moscow was under her command.
N.S. Khrushchev, writer K. A. Fedin, Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva (right), and others talking at a country dacha during a meeting of party and government leaders with figures of Soviet culture and art.
She made a strong impression on Khrushchev: both by the fact that she spoke at meetings without a piece of paper, and by the fact that she was not afraid to confess and repent of imaginary sins, and by the fact that she was a "specialist." It was her favorite word. When meeting new people, the first thing she asked was: “Are you a specialist ?!”
N. S. Khrushchev and E. A. Furtseva at the opening of the exhibition. 1950s
Furtseva, until the end of her life, retained a respectful attitude towards professors and important old men, associate professors, whom she had seen in graduate school. The "specialist" knows more than she does, this conviction was very strong in her. And in her team, she - a former weaver - wanted to see just such people.
It was a happy time for Furtseva. And not only in public life. While still working as a secretary in the Moscow City Party Committee, she met Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin, one of her subordinates.
Ekaterina Furtseva with Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin
Nikolai Firyubin was a professional diplomat, a short, slender brown-haired man with a thoroughbred and expressive face. Spoke English and French. For those who knew both of them well, it was amazing how such different people could come together.
Outwardly, she behaved inappropriately. At every opportunity, she flew to him in Prague, then to Belgrade, where he was transferred as an ambassador. All this was in front of everyone, but she was not going to hide. It flattered him. Firyubin was looking for a reason to break off the previous marriage, threatened to renounce everything.
Five years later, when he returned to Moscow and became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, they signed. And only then Ekaterina Alekseevna realized how wrong she was. However, it was no longer possible to change anything.
Khrushchev did not forget what he owed her. Soon, Ekaterina Alekseevna was introduced to the Presidium of the Central Committee and overnight turned from a party Cinderella into a party Queen.
Khrushchev's gratitude, however, was not eternal. The fact that the first time served a good service - the telephone, the second time played against Ekaterina Alekseevna herself.
Participants of the 1st All-Union Congress of Journalists; among those present: 1st row from left to right: Director General of TASS under the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. G. Palgunov (2nd from left), Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Court K. E. Voroshilov, editor-in-chief of the Pravda newspaper P. A. Satyukov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. S. Khrushchev, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU M. A. Suslov (6th from left), member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU E. A. Furtseva, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU N. A. Mukhitdinov.
It was 1960, the second half of Khrushchev's reign. Many were unhappy with it. Including Furtseva. This discontent was vented on steam. Just washing the bones. Once, in a telephone conversation, Furtseva "walked" on Nikita Sergeevich. The next day he read the transcript of her private conversation with Aristov, a member of the Central Committee. His reaction was lightning fast. At the next, extraordinary, plenum of the Presidium, Ekaterina Alekseevna was removed from the post of secretary.
Her reaction was as open-hearted and sincere as Khrushchev's "trip". On the same day she came home, ordered not to let anyone in, lay down in the bath and opened her veins. But she didn't want to die. That is why she did not cancel the meeting with one of her friends, who was assigned the role of an angel-savior. And this friend played her part.
There was surprise at the silence outside the door, then bewilderment. Then fear. Then - a call to the special services and the arrival of a special team, which broke the door and found Ekaterina Alekseevna bleeding. Khrushchev did not respond to this "cry of the soul". The next day, at a meeting of the expanded composition of the Central Committee of the party, of which Furtseva remained a member, he, laughing wryly, explained to the party members that Ekaterina Alekseevna had a banal menopause and should not pay attention to it. These words were carefully conveyed to her. She bit her lip and realized: the second time women's games in a company that plays only men's games do not work.
Gina Lollobrigida, Yuri Gagarin, Marisa Merlini, Ekaterina Furtseva
The procedure for removal from power was worked out to the smallest detail. No one burst into the office, defiantly did not turn off the phone. The renunciation of power was marked by silence. They suddenly stopped greeting you, and most importantly, the turntable fell silent. She was simply turned off. However, a month later a message came that Furtseva was appointed Minister of Culture. And it was then that the nickname that stuck to her for a long time began to walk all over the country - Catherine the Great.
She considered tens of thousands of cultural workers in Moscow and the Moscow region to be her team. And another three or four million ordinary "army of cultural studies" throughout the USSR: modest librarians, museum scientists, arrogant employees of theaters and film studios, etc. All this army called her Great Catherine.
Delegates of the 24th Congress of the CPSU, Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva (right) and soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, People's Artist of the RSFSR M. Kondratyeva talking during a break between sessions.
Furtseva's office was decorated with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, with a laconic inscription: "Catherine from Elizabeth." There was a legend that, after talking with Furtseva for half an hour, the queen turned to her with a request: “Catherine, don’t call me Your Highness, just call Comrade Elizabeth.”
Ekaterina Furtseva and Sophia Loren
The Danish Queen Margrethe once said that she would like to do the same for her country as Furtseva did for hers.
Speech by Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva at the opening of the II International Ballet Competition at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR.
According to her note addressed to Suslov, the Taganka Theater was established, and at the same time, with her light hand, the reviling of abstract artists took place in the Manege. With her blessing, Shatrov's play Bolsheviks went to Sovremennik. It was she who initiated the construction of a sports complex in Luzhniki and a new building for the choreographic school.
Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva and Hero of Socialist Labor, foreman of shipbuilders of the Baltic Plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze V. A. Smirnov
Everything ended with Firyubin. She didn't get divorced, but she didn't love either. Became closed. It revived, perhaps, only during noisy feasts, with a glass of good wine. In recent years, this tendency has been already noticeable to everyone. Her daughter Svetlana gave birth to Marishka, the granddaughter of Ekaterina Alekseevna.
Ekaterina Alekseevna with her daughter Sveta and granddaughter Katya
Svetlana and her husband really wanted to have a dacha. Furtseva did not want to build it, but under pressure from her daughter, she turned to the Bolshoi Theater - it was possible to buy building materials there inexpensively. The deputy director of the Bolshoi Theater for construction helped her, and then a scandal erupted. She was reprimanded, almost flew out of the party.
E. A. Furtseva, A. I. Mikoyan, L. I. Brezhnev, K. E. Voroshilov
Furtseva has been alone for the last two years. Almost no one was in her house, Firyubin had an affair on the side, and she knew about it.
On the night of October 24-25, 1974, a bell rang in the apartment of Svetlana Furtseva on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin, her mother's husband, called. He cried: "Ekaterina Alekseevna is no more."
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