Russian Calendar

may 16 

1847

The art scholar Ivan Tsvetaev (1847-1913) was born on this day. A graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology at St. Petersburg University, Tsvetaev developed a passion for the ancient world and spent a good deal of time in Italy, studying and deciphering old letters and transcripts, which he brought together in his book, Italian Manuscripts. After defending his doctoral degree in Roman Letters, Tsvetaev went on to teach in this subject, first at Warsaw University, then at Kiev University. In 1889, he became Chair of the Theory and History of Fine Arts Faculty at Moscow University. In parallel, he worked on what would become his life project: the creation of new type of museum. Starting in 1894, he focused all his efforts on this museum. He sought out sponsors at home and abroad, meticulously and patiently gleaned art from private collectors and then spearheaded the construction of the future Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts on Moscow’s Volkhonka street. He became its first director in 1911; construction was completed in 1912. Last but not least, this outstanding art personality was also the father of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva.

may 21 

1872

In Rudyard Kipling’s fairy tale, “When the First Letter was Written,” Teffi was the name of the daughter of the first primitive man. It was also the pen name of Russian poet Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya (1872-1952), born on this day. From 1890-1918, Teffi wrote for the humorous magazines Satirikon and New Satirikon, where her talent as a writer of short, humorous stories shone. Her special ability was finding humor in the mundane. Her tragedies are farcical and her farces tragic, but all of her writings are full of a compassion and sympathy for the “little man.” In 1919, Teffi emigrated to France, settled in Paris, and went on to publish over 30 books, including her very interesting Memoirs (1931).

may 30 

1937

Actor Alexander Demyanenko (1937-1999) would have turned 65 today. In 1959, Demya-nenko graduated from the State Institute of Theater and Arts (GITIS). In his early years, he starred in Wind, directed by the team of Alov and Naumov. But his fame was won in Leonid Gaiday’s hit film, Operation “Y” and Other Adventures of Shurik (1965). The following year’s comedy, Prisoner of the Caucasus (1966), in which he played the hapless Shurik, only cemented his fame. Yet this success also typecast him and, as he later said, diminished his acting career. But his “comic specialization” proved not to be so narrow. In 1973, Gaiday offered him the starring role in the classic comedy, Ivan Vasilievich is Changing Profession.

may 31

1862

One of Russia’s most gifted painters, Mikhail Nesterov (1862-1942), was born on this day. A leading light in the Abramtsevo Art Colony (see Russian Life, March-April 2002), Nesterov’s life and work is the focus of an article that will appear in the next issue of Russian Life.

may 31 

1892

Konstantin Paustovsky (1892-1968), Russia’s master of landscape description, was born 110 years ago on this day Before entering the world of literature, Paustovsky decided, as he put it, to “penetrate life,” in order “to be able to know it all, to feel it and figure it out.” During WWI, he worked as a stretcher carrier for railroad “hospitals-on-wheels.” After the war, he worked at an industrial plant, then as fisherman. From 1925-1929, Paystovsky wrote several books, but only his short novel Kara-Burgaz (1932) gained him renown. He also touched on historical themes such as the Decembrists, to whom he dedicated his Northern Novel (1938). He also wrote about artists—e.g. Isaac Levitan, and Orest Kiprensky, (both novels written in 1937). In the mid-1930s he moved to the Meshyora area, Moscow region, which inspired him to write many beautiful short stories. “There I understood for the first time that the magical images of Russian literature are in some elusive way tied to nature,” he wrote. One of his most poetic books is The Golden Rose (1956), where he explored the difficult life of a writer. 

june 8

1927

Opera singer Artur Eizen, one of the brightest artists ever to perform on the Russian stage, was born three-quarters of a century ago. He made his debut at the Bolshoi in 1959 and acted in a whole series of roles: Boris Godunov in the eponymous opera by Modest Musorgsky, Farlaf in Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, Mephisotopheles in Charles Gunots’ Faust and Voltan in Richard Wagner’s Rheingold. Reizen presently serves as a professor at the Russian Academy of Music.

june 10

1922

Boris Brunov (1922-1999) would have been ninety on this day. Russia’s most popular stage artist, Brunov began touring Russia with his humorist sketches in 1953, also traveling to 70 foreign countries. Critics said of Brunov: “Here is a moderator who can do it all.” From 1982 until his death, Brunov was director of Moscow’s prestigious Teatr Estrady (Vaudeville Theater), located across the Moskva river from the now-resurrected Savior’s Cathedral. Brunov was one of the first to spot (and help grow) the talent of the young Maxim Galkin (see Russian Life, Jan/Feb 2001).

june 11 

1902

Soviet composer Vissarion Shebalin (1902-1963) will have his centenary celebrated this month. After graduation from the Moscow Conservatory in 1928, Shebalin defended his master’s degree with a symphony he had composed. The feat earned him a line in golden letters on the honorary marble plaque at the conservatory. Shebalin wrote five symphonies, several string ensembles and pieces for piano, the cantata Moscow (1946), and the opera Taming of the Shrew (1957). Dmitry Shostakovich acclaimed Shebalin’s music “for its freshness and for the brightness of its musical language, [it shows] a superb knowledge of the form, and has inventiveness in the means of artistic expression.”

june 17 

1882

Composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was born on this day. See Russian Life, June 1997.

june 18 

1812

The writer Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891) was born on this day. See Russian Life, June 1997.

june 22 

1947

Actor Natalia Varley was born on this day. “Athlete, komsomol leader, student, finally, simply a beauty”—so was her famous character Nina from the comedy Kavkazskaya Plennitsa (“Prisoner of the Caucasus,” 1966) described. Director Leonid Gaiday found Varley in the Soviet circus, where she was working as an equilibrist. After the film, she took up acting full time, going on to star in 30 films and providing voice-over for more than 2,000 roles in fiction films and cartoons. Varley later took up a third career, graduating from the faculty of poetry at the Moscow Literary Institute and publishing several collections of poems, including Love and Making the Rounds of Golden Cupolas. 

june 23 

1802

The famous admiral and fleet commander Pavel Nakhimov was born on this day 200 years ago. A detailed profile of Nakhimov was published in Russian Life, July 1997.

june 24

1912

Comic actor Sergei Filippov (1912-1990) would have turned 90 this month. His comic appearance and speaking manner were enough to evoke laughter with the slightest remark. Cinema-goers loved to mimic his mannerisms and quote his lines. Filipov’s fame soared in the 1950s after he played the role of Almazov the lion tamer and the drunken lecturer on space in the film comedy Carnival Night. But he is even better known for his role as the colorful Kisa Vorobyaninov—companion of Ostap Bender in Leonid Gaiday’s film, The Twelve Chairs, based on Ilf & Petrov’s novel. 

june 30

1922

Actor Vladimir Druzhnikov was born on this day. At the age of 23, he performed the role of Neznamov in V. Petrov’s film, Guilty Without Guilt, based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play of the same name. He played alongside MkhAT theater star Alla Tarasova and earned high marks for his performance. There was something in Druzhnikov‘s features that suggested an aristocratic bearing, and it distinguished him from the “common” faces of Soviet stars. Subsequent roles included Danila-Master in Stone Flower and the lead role in Legend of the Siberian Land, with costar Marina Ladynina. In the 1960s and 1970s Druzhnikov enjoyed success in supporting roles in such films as Officers and Bagration. In 1974, he was awarded the title of USSR’s People’s Artist.

Arkady Volsky, chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), was born on May 15, 1932, 70 years ago. Volsky’s RUIE is arguably the most influential business organization in Russia, playing an important role in both the political and economic spheres. 

The very definition of a moderate centrist, Volsky is a shrewd and experienced politician who began his career working at the Central Committee of the Soviet communist party, as a staffer under future KGB chief (and future Soviet General Secretary) Yuri Andropov. During perestroika, Volsky was a supporter of Gorbachevian reforms. 

On July 2, 1991, Volsky, along with Eduard Shevardnadze and the late Anatoly Sobchak, founded a new pressure group called the Movement for Democratic Reform. In June 1992, Volsky participated in a new centrist block, Civic Union. Positioned between the radical liberals of Yegor Gaidar on the one hand and the nationalists and unreconstructed communists on the other, Civic Union professed support for a market economy, criticized Gaidar’s ‘shock therapy’ and took a strong line in the defense of the integrity of the Russian state. Of late, he has teamed up with former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to create Media-Sotsium, which recently won the license for TV-6 (see page 8). 

May 1: Labor Day

May 9: Victory Day

June 1: International Children’s Day

June 12: Independence Day

June 13: Ascension

June 23: Saint Trinity Day

j  j  j

Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts officially opened 90 years ago, on June 13, 1912. Designed by architect Roman Klein, it was the brainchild of Ivan Tsvetaev (see page 16). Russia’s best architects and artists—Vasily Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Fyodor Shekhtel—worked on the decoration of the museum halls. It contains Russia’s second largest collection of foreign art after the Hermitage.

Russian rock legend Yuri Shevchuk was born on May 16, 1957. The lead singer of the St. Petersburg-based “DDT” group is one of a handful of superstars of early Russian rock & pop, on a par with Aquarium’s Boris Grebenshchikov (see page 21) or Time Machine’s Andrei Makarevich. Known for an uncompromising stance in his art, Shevchuk could be compared with Bruce Springsteen, and not only because of his hit song, “Born in the USSR.” His songs are pensive, lyrical and moving, making his rock ballads such as “Rain,” “Fall,” and “This is All,” all fitting for singing on stage or in the warm company of friends gathered around a fire.

Painter Mitrofan Grekov (1882-1934), one of the founders of Soviet art, was born on June 15, 1882 (self portrait, above). His canvasses, despite their political bias, are precious pieces of history, especially his depictions of scenes from the 1917-1922 Civil War. Grekov, who knew Red Army commanders Semyon Budyonny and Kliment Voroshilov personally, painted many scenes from Civil War battles and everyday life in the Red Army, as in his “Onward to Budyonny’s Squad,” “Tachanka,” and “Cavalry Attack.” In 1931, Grekov received a huge commission to paint eight large panoramas on the Civil War. He only succeeded in finishing two before his death: “The Trumpeter of the First Cavalry Army” and “The Standard-Bearer and the Trumpeter,” both displayed at the Tretyakov gallery. His name was awarded to an art studio of Soviet war artists created in 1934 and reorganized in 1940 as an art school.  

Film director Valery Todorovsky turned 40 on May 1. The son of Russia’s well-known director Pyotr Todorovsky (Interdevochka, Battlefield Romance and Encore, Encore), Todorovsky Jr. began his career as a scriptwriter. As a film director, he made a name for himself in the 1990s with such films as Love (1992, starring Yevgeny Mironov); Moscow Nights (1995, with Vladimir Mashkov) and especially The Country of the Deaf, a cult film (1997) with Chulpan Khamatova (see Russian Life, March/April 2002), telling  of life in modern Russia against the backdrop of a mafia gang’s settling of accounts. Two years ago, Todorovsky took the post of deputy general director of the Russian TV channel (RTR), where he mostly works as a producer of new, domestic TV movies.