Yamshchikov Savva Vasilievich life line transmission. Saveliy (Savva) Vasilievich Yamshchikov

Remembering the Russian restorer, art critic and public figure S. Yamshchikova

Russia is worth the righteous... Savva Vasilyevich Yamshchikov, of course, was not a saint. He almost ruined himself by indulging in a well-known Russian vice, and as a result, he spent almost 10 years in depression in his apartment in Moscow. Sometimes he easily lost friends and just as easily made powerful enemies. But he was the man on whom our Russia rests - fierce in passions, with the stormy temperament of a fighter, a fierce and fearless defender and propagandist of Russian culture, its Orthodox traditions.

In the fateful nineties, he was almost the only one who loudly and bravely publicly raised his voice against those who tried to destroy and sell off the national treasures of Russia; Savva Vasilyevich revived and saved many masterpieces. He called the scoundrels by name, denounced them and openly exposed them. He passionately hated those who, to the accompaniment of sweet speeches about “democracy and freedom,” destroyed a great country.

“Now even a less intelligent person understands how the velvety perestroika revolution of the end of the last century turned out for Russia,” said Savva Vasilyevich. - In everyday work, the wealth accumulated by our long-suffering people was wasted by the commissars - the executors of the will of the Lenins, Trotskys, Sverdlovs and others like them. A nation torn to shreds managed to short term to recreate state power, surprising the world with achievements in economics, science and culture. And again, the followers of the “faithful” Marxists, brought up by party cells, without a twinge of conscience, grabbed what was left ownerless people's good. Gorbachev and Yeltsin, as if zombified, humiliatedly looked at the flocks of enterprising robbers, proclaiming the terrible motto “Take as much as you can carry.” And they dragged them away, leaving millions of people suffering, dying prematurely, dying in Chechnya or from the knives and bullets of rampant trash, barely making ends meet.”

The then Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy especially got it from Savva Yamshchikov. “His vulgar show “Cultural Revolution” is mediocre,” he thought. - It’s disgusting to even talk about him. The Minister of Culture broadcasts: “Museums are cultural cemeteries”; “Pushkin is outdated”; “The Russian language is impossible without swearing.” And finally, the pygmy agreed to this: “Russian fascism is worse than German.”

S. Yamshchikov was outraged by the minister’s attempts to transfer the Bremen collection “free of charge” to the Germans, and he fiercely fought against this.

“It’s good that Gubenko involved the prosecutor’s office and prevented the crime,” noted Savva Vasilyevich. - Speaking on Russian television, I said: “Mr. Shvydkoy, you cannot participate in disputes about the Bremen collection after your praise of German fascism. You better protect the interests of Hitler, Goering and Himmler!

At the same time, he resolutely rejected accusations of his alleged xenophobia. “If someone tells me about my xenophobic positions, I can answer that I started this morning by calling Ilya Borisovich Rabinovich in Yaroslavl - the man who revived the Rybinsk Museum, who went through the war, was a captain of the first rank,” said Savva Vasilyevich . - He is already nearly ninety years old. He's Jewish, but that doesn't matter to me. First of all, he is a man who served the state as a warrior, and then as a museum worker. And I have a lot of them. No, “sweet gentlemen” is not a nationality, it’s a caste of those who hate our culture.”

Another character in his tireless and passionate denunciations is TV commentator Vladimir Pozner. Talking about the extraordinary metamorphoses of the nineties, S. Yamshchikov noted that what struck him most was what happened to this journalist.

“Having just reviled America to the fullest, having destroyed the foundations of the capitalist world in Moscow News and other fashionable information publications that know how to catch, always finding a job in the most nomenklatura propaganda departments, he selflessly merged in a passionate television ecstasy with a showman who is American to the core Donahue began to implant in Russia, which did not understand anything, the overseas image and style of life with enviable persistence, similar to the violent methods of breeding in the old days the potatoes so unloved by the Russian people, wrote Savva Vasilyevich. “Little by little, the newly minted TV showman completely stopped remembering his Soviet past and so cleverly pretended to be a passionate apologist for the self-proclaimed masters of the world - the Americans, that no one was even surprised when he loudly declared his happiness to be an American subject. Imagine for a moment how, on the main US television channel, a current political program is hosted by a former Soviet or current Russian citizen, while praising his native national values.”

Everything about Savva Yamshchikov - both the appearance of a Russian hero, and his origin - from a family of Old Believers (Vasily Shukshin even wanted to try him for the role of Stepan Razin), and his character - brave and independent, and even his original Russian surname, turned him into a real symbol of Russian resistance " liberal plague."

I remember how, after a temperamental speech at one of the exhibitions, where he mercilessly smashed the newly-minted modernists with “installations” from toilet bowls, someone from the audience muttered in confusion, but with obvious respect, looking at the powerful figure of Savva: “Colorful guy!”

And Savva Vasilyevich was born on October 8, 1938, probably not by chance - on the day St. Sergius Radonezh. He grew up in a working barracks on Paveletskaya Embankment, next door to Andrei Tarkovsky. Later he would become a consultant on the set of his legendary “Andrei Rublev.” Graduated from the art history department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. After an unsuccessful attempt to get a job at the Kremlin museums, he went to work at the All-Russian Restoration Center, in the department for the restoration of icon paintings at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent.

Most Savva Vasilyevich spent his life in the Russian province, primarily in Pskov, studying restoration work works of icon painting, examining museum reserves, compiling a restoration “Inventory of works ancient Russian painting, stored in museums of the RSFSR" and selecting icons for restoration in Moscow. Over forty s extra years he managed to revive hundreds of works of icon painting, unique collections of Russian portraits of the 18th-19th centuries from various museums in Russia, and return many forgotten names wonderful artists. Savva Yamshchikov himself, stubbornly and energetically overcoming all obstacles, organized exhibitions that showed new discoveries of restorers, which became an integral part of Russian culture. They brought up young artists, art historians, writers and all those who cherish artistic heritage Russia.

Savva Yamshchikov managed to Soviet time introduce contemporaries to the treasures of private collections in Moscow and Leningrad - from icons to the best examples of avant-garde art. The owners of personal collections elected him chairman of the Collectors Club of the Soviet Cultural Fund. He published many books, albums, catalogues, published hundreds of articles and interviews in periodicals, conducted regular programs on Central Television, made documentaries in various cities of Russia and about Russian treasures abroad. He was able to put together a unique exhibition of one hundred icons “Painting of Ancient Pskov”, restored under his leadership.

Savva Yamshchikov was one of the first in the USSR to deal with issues of restitution of cultural property exported during the Great Patriotic War.

Largely thanks to his efforts, an Orthodox shrine was returned to Pskov from Germany - the Pskov-Pokrovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. IN last years During his life, he led an active struggle to preserve the historical appearance of ancient Pskov and the Pushkin Mountains nature reserve.

I met Savva Vasilyevich in Greece, where I worked as a TASS correspondent. Together with him, back in Soviet times, we went to Holy Mount Athos and lived in the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon. For Savva, as an outstanding expert on icons and Orthodox art, this trip had special significance. After 1917, ties between Athos - the earthly Destiny of the Mother of God - and Russia were lost. The once rich and prosperous Russian monastery, founded about a thousand years ago, fell into decay and was literally on the verge of destruction. Of the three thousand Russian inhabitants, only 27 monks remained, mostly very old men. The authorities gave them Greek passports, but new inhabitants from Russia were practically not allowed into Mount Athos.

In the atheistic USSR, the fate of a Russian monastery abroad, where enormous treasures of Russian Orthodox culture, no one was interested at the official level.

We arrived at the Panteleimon Monastery on a boat with the characteristic name “It is Worthy to Eat.” We were warmly welcomed and settled in the monastery cells. During the day we explored churches, monasteries and the capital of Athos, Kareya, and in the evenings a pilgrimage of monks began to Savva’s cell, wanting to “have a heart-to-heart talk” - guests from Russia were then a rarity in the monastery. The Svyatogorsk residents brought with them thick monastery wine in bottles plugged with paper instead of a cork - they made it themselves from their own grapes. With the help of such a treat, friendly conversations lasted long after midnight. At night, outside the window covered with grape vines, the surface of the Singitikos Bay glitters under the moon, and Russian monks sit with guests from Russia in a cramped cell and talk, talk... Before the service, which in the monastery began at 4 o’clock in the morning, they lived and still live there since Byzantine time.

Savva willingly told the Svyatogorsk people about Russia, about the state of the church in the USSR, about monasteries and, above all, about Pskov and the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and its legendary abbot Father Alipia, whom he idolized.

A former officer, participant in the war, Father Alipius raised the monastery from ruins and turned it into communist USSR to a prosperous monastery. Moreover, he did this at a time when N. Khrushchev, who launched even more brutal persecutions against the church than even during the times of I. Stalin, promised to soon “show the whole world last priest" On his orders, the remaining monasteries were closed throughout the country, and churches were mercilessly blown up. But when N. Khrushchev’s order came to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery to close it too, Father Alypiy categorically refused. “I have,” he decisively declared to the party functionaries, “half of my brethren are front-line soldiers. We are armed, we will fight to the last bullet. Look at the monastery - what a dislocation there is. Tanks won't get through. You can only take us from the sky, by aviation. But as soon as the first plane appears over the monastery, in a few minutes it will be told to the whole world via the Voice of America. So think for yourself! This is how the incredible happened: the monastery, almost the only one in the USSR, managed to be defended; the authorities did not dare to send police and soldiers against the former front-line soldiers in robes. The Svyatogorsk residents listened to Savva’s stories with their mouths open, shaking their heads in surprise. There was no radio or newspapers in the monastery at that time, and they did not know what was happening in their homeland...

Even then, Savva Yamshchikov had the idea to save the Panteleimon Monastery. Filming on Mount Athos was then strictly prohibited, but we, I confess, committed an offense, smuggled an amateur film camera through customs and secretly shot a film about the Russian monastery. But, alas, when they brought it to Moscow, it turned out that it was impossible to show the film on television - the image quality did not allow it. I had to limit myself to newspaper and magazine publications.

Together with Savva, we visited the legendary collector George Kostakis, who was then living in Greece. Moscow Greek, he managed to assemble the largest in the world private collection Russian avant-garde. His collection included thousands of paintings - Kandinsky, Malevich, Chagall, Rodchenko, Filonov and many others. But the authorities in the USSR, where only socialist realism was recognized, began to persecute the collector, and G. Kostakis - he had a Greek passport - decided to leave.

Having visited it, Savva Yamshchikov, although not a fan of the avant-garde, caught fire, returned to Moscow and soon came to Athens again, but with a television group. A film was made about the ascetic collector, the savior of the Russian avant-garde, an entire layer of our culture. This time it was done by professionals, and the film was shown on central television. The name of the great collector, with the help of Savva Vasilyevich, was brought out of oblivion...

The tireless ascetic died on July 19, 2009 in Pskov, and was buried in the Pushkin Mountains, in the cemetery near the Church of St. George the Victorious, next to the grave of the curator of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve Semyon Geichenko and near the Osipov-Wulf family necropolis.

Monks came from the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and prayed at his tomb all night...

“If they ask me,” emphasized Savva Yamshchikov, “what is most important for me, the work of a restorer, what I have been doing all my life, the work of art history, what I have also been doing all my life, my journalistic activity, what I have been doing in recent years... I will answer: the main thing for me is the memory that I must preserve. The greatest feeling I feel now is gratitude to God for allowing me to live, to the people I met along the way.”

Special for the Centenary

With the saints, may God rest the soul of God's servant Savva. Russia said goodbye to the “restorer of all Rus'” - this title was awarded to S.V. Yamshchikov by popular rumor. So I say goodbye to my close friend.

We met Savely Yamshchikov in 1963, on the set of the film “Blizzard”. This happened in Suzdal, where S. Yamshchikov arrived on his restoration business. We lived in the same hotel. Savely himself came up to me and said that he and I have a mutual friend - Andrei Tarkovsky. I starred with Tarkovsky in Ivan’s Childhood, and Savely began collaborating with him as a scientific consultant for the film Andrei Rublev. Tarkovsky’s name has become a spiritual password for us, a signal for unity. Savva was 25 then, I was 17 years old, the difference was small. Saveliy and I became close instantly and soon became close friends, as they say, “we don’t spill water.”

At the very first steps of our friendship, Savely provided me with an invaluable service: he helped persuade Andrei Tarkovsky to try me for the role of bellmaker Boriska in the upcoming film “Andrei Rublev.” This image stunned me when I read the script. I was eager to play Boriska. But how can I achieve this when Tarkovsky and Konchalovsky wrote the role of Andrei Rublev’s student, Foma, especially for me, and the foundry worker Boriska was written with the thirty-year-old Moscow poet Chudakov in mind. Tarkovsky brushed aside my request to give me a screen test for the role of Boriska, saying that I was too small for this role. The petition of cameraman Vadim Ivanovich Yusov did not help either. Then, as a last chance, I used Savva’s complicity. He chose extraordinary way: told Tarkovsky that Boriska couldn’t be found better than me, and bet Andrei a box of champagne that he would still approve of me. And so it happened. I will always be grateful to Savely for his friendly support.

For many years we met with Savva literally every day. We made nightly raids on the restaurants of creative houses: the House of Cinema, the WTO, the House of Journalists, the House of Writers, the House of Architects... A late at night, when all the “houses” stopped working, the inertia of bohemian gatherings often brought us to visit Savva. He loved to be in company and could not stand loneliness. In bachelor's pauses: after his separation from his first wife, the Bulgarian Velina, and his second, the Latvian fashion model Sarma, I had to live for weeks, brightening up my friend's loneliness, in his one-room apartment on Simferopol Boulevard. We spent summer holidays together: we went to the Black Sea, to Kizhi, to Bulgaria... We traveled in an antediluvian service van on Savely’s museum and restoration work, across the expanses of Holy Russia: Pskov, Ryazan, Pechory, Vladimir, Suzdal, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Kostroma... I saw with what respect my friend Savely was received museum workers all around Russia.

The wild life tired me, but I followed Savva, like my Virgil, through the circles of bohemian hell. Once I read poems to my friend inspired by our life at that time:

Waste of time
With the elite in smoky pubs:
Nauseating night vigils,
Feasts in creative houses.
Company idle fun,
Strange bed, hangover pain,
But they loved picnics
Sons of Soviet classics.

Savva agreed with me in assessing the emptiness of this “elite” existence, but youth took its toll...

However, Savely Yamshchikov devoted most of his life to completely different spiritual pursuits.

It was Savva who began to open up a new, unknown and beautiful world to me: ancient Russian cities... provincial museums... monasteries... temples... icons... The world of Russian, Orthodox culture. We spent the night in run-of-the-mill hotels, rural inns, in ancient belfries, monasteries, in the hut of his friend, a village carpenter-restorer on Lake Onega, and sometimes just in the hayloft... Intersected with wonderful people Russian Land, friends of Savely, who became my friends: scientist Leo Gumilyov, writers Valentin Rasputin and Valentin Kurbatov, great ballet dancers Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Vasilyeva, conductor Maxim Shostakovich, sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov, Pskov blacksmith-restorer Vsevolod Kuznetsov, Kizhi carpenter-restorer Boris Elupov, brilliant film director Andrei Tarkovsky and cameraman V adim Yusov, outstanding actors Ivan Lapikov and Anatoly Solonitsyn, famous figure skater Alexey Ulanov, legendary hockey player Vyacheslav Starshinov... Someone whispered about Savely Yamshchikov that he collects famous friends. However, what a wonderful collection... I would wish everyone to live in such a spiritual flower garden...

Working together on the film “Andrei Rublev” united us even more firmly. Savva brought me to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery for the first time and introduced me to the abbot, Archimandrite Alypiy, with whom we became friends, and who actually became my first confessor. The days spent with Savva in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery will forever remain in memory. Intimate conversations, lavish meals in the house of the rector, a former ordinary soldier of the Great Patriotic War, an icon painter, a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, who revived the fabulous Pechersky Monastery from oblivion. His Tretyakov Gallery: amazing Russian painting that decorated the walls of the long, ascending staircase where Savva and I would retire for a secret smoke break. Blessed nights under icons with a lamp in a monastery cell, immersed in deep silence, like eternity. The velvety hum of a bell, helping the soul to be carried away to the heights of the mountains.

In the second half of our life, Savva was childishly offended at me because in my interviews I talked more and more about Tarkovsky and very rarely about him. Yes, Andrei Tarkovsky was and remains for me the man of my destiny, who determined my creative path and worldview. It was he who, on the set of Andrei Rublev, hung the first Orthodox cross in my life on my neck. He was and remains for me the unattainable pinnacle of creative greatness. However, today, when Savva passed away, I honestly admit that my friendship with Savva and his spiritual guidance had an equally significant influence on my life. spiritual formation. Andrey appeared in my life periodically, like the sun in a window, and my close friend Savva was always there. It was he who led me into the expanses of Holy Rus', helped me take the first steps along a new road for me leading to the Temple, and unobtrusively guided my spiritual, Orthodox ascent.

It was Savva Yamshchikov, by God’s providence, who became the first organizer of large-scale exhibitions of icons in atheistic Russia. It’s impossible to imagine, but it was then, in the sixties of Soviet atheistic reality. It was then that in the most prestigious exhibition halls In Moscow, Saveliy Yamshchikov introduced the capital to the masterpieces of ancient Russian painting, published monographs and albums. At these exhibitions, the best representatives of Soviet culture second half of the 20th century.

In his youth, Savely was similar to the Russian Falstaff: he had a dense figure, and hid his bodily suffering from those around him. As a child, he suffered from polyarthritis. All his life it was difficult for him to move, his legs hurt, but it was difficult even for me, younger and younger, to keep up with him. healthy person. Savely was generous in Russian. I didn’t count the money, I paid for everyone. He loved nourishing, tasty food, drinking, appreciated feminine beauty, friendly feasts, jokes, songs. And at every feast - passionate conversations about world painting, art, literature, poetry, cinema, theater, architecture, politics... He was fundamentally educated and uncompromisingly uncompromising in defending his beliefs. It was impossible to argue with him: he swept away the enemy like a bulldozer and moved forward noisily. In his judgments about art and people, he was strict and categorical. Irreconcilable towards the enemies of Russian culture and his beloved Russia: he rushed into battle with any evil spirits, without comparing their capabilities with the administrative weight categories of their opponents. And he always won.

Saveliy Vasilyevich Yamshchikov spent his whole life making his indomitable, Russian ascent, his spiritual feat: work of a restorer and art historian, exhibitions of icons, books and articles, consultations on feature films and documentaries, hosting television programs about culture and art, collaboration with N. S. Mikhalkov on the battlefield Russian Fund culture. Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the Union of Journalists, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, President of the Association of Restorers of Russia...

A true, fearless patriot of his Motherland, about whom one can say: “and one warrior in the field.” Saveliy Vasilievich Yamshchikov was a true apostle of Russian culture of the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. With his ascetic service, he forever won his honorable place in the pantheon of the culture of Holy Rus' and the grateful memory of his descendants.

Born on October 8, 1938 in Moscow. Graduated from the art history department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. After an unsuccessful attempt to get a job in the Kremlin museums, I received an offer from Viktor Vasilyevich Filatov to start his labor activity at the All-Russian Restoration Center in the department of icon painting restoration. So, at the age of twenty, Savva Vasilyevich began working at the All-Russian Restoration Center in the icon painting restoration department. (The center was located in the Martha and Mary monastery, founded by St. Elizabeth ( Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna), built by A.V. Shchusev and painted by M.V. Nesterov).

S. V. Yamshchikov spent most of his life in the Russian province, first doing preventive restoration work on works of icon painting, and then examining museum storerooms, compiling a restoration “Inventory of works of ancient Russian painting stored in museums of the RSFSR” and selecting icons for restoration in Moscow .

For more than forty years, Savva Yamshchikov managed to revive hundreds of works of icon painting, unique collections of Russian portraits of the 18th-19th centuries. from various museums in Russia, to bring back many forgotten names of wonderful artists. The exhibitions organized by Yamshchikov, which showed the new discoveries of restorers, became an integral part of Russian culture. They educated young artists, art historians, writers and all those who value the artistic heritage of Russia.

In addition to restoration exhibitions, Yamshchikov managed in Soviet times to acquaint his contemporaries with the treasures of private collections in Moscow and Leningrad - from icons to the best examples of avant-garde art. The owners of personal collections elected him chairman of the Collectors Club of the Soviet Cultural Fund. Having published dozens of books, albums, catalogs, published hundreds of articles and interviews in periodicals, Savva Yamshchikov for many years wrote regular columns on Central Television, filmed rare stories in various cities of Russia and abroad.

Art critic, historian, writer, publicist, S. V. Yamshchikov - author of numerous scientific works, books, albums, catalogs about Russian art. Savva Yamshchikov is an organizer of exhibitions, one of those people whose name has been associated in society for several decades with the struggle to preserve the cultural heritage of Russia.

He died on July 19, 2009 in Pskov. Savva Yamshchikov was buried on July 22, 2009 in the Pushkin Mountains at the Voronich settlement, in the cemetery near the Church of St. George the Victorious, next to the grave of the curator of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve Semyon Stepanovich Geichenko and near the Osipov-Wulf family necropolis

Family

He was married for the second time to the Kirov Ballet star Valentina Ganibalova. Daughter - Marfa Yamshchikova.

Memory

• Savva Yamshchikov was not only a regular author, but also a chivalrous defender of Radio Radonezh. Thanks to his help, attempts to take away the radio station's broadcast hours were repulsed. Savva Yamshchikov worked closely with People's Radio (Moscow).
• In the 90s, Savva Yamshchikov suffered from clinically severe depression, and therefore did not leave the house for about 10 years and communicated with practically no one.

Yamshchikov Savva Vasilievich was born on October 8, 1938 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR. Died on July 19, 2009 in Pskov, Russia.

Savva Yamshchikov is a restoration artist, art critic, historian, writer, publicist.

Yamshchikov is the Chairman of the Association of Restorers under the Cultural Foundation of the Russian Federation, a full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN, branch " Russian encyclopedia"), leading specialist of the All-Russian Institute of Restoration (GosNIIR), vice-president of the Russian International Cultural Foundation, member of the Interdepartmental Council on Cultural Property, member of the Commission for considering issues of the return of cultural property, member of the Writers' Union of Russia, member of the board of trustees of the Nikolai Vasilyevich Foundation Gogol", formerly chairman of the Collectors Club of the Soviet Culture Fund.

Savva Yamshchikov - Honored Artist of Russia, laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, holder of the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow and the Order of the Polar Star, highest award Republic of Yakutia (Sakha), he is the first restorer awarded an honorary medal Russian Academy arts

Family, childhood and youth

Savva Yamshchikov's childhood occurred during the difficult and hungry post-war period. He grew up on Paveletskaya Embankment: building 4, barracks 14. As it turned out later, his neighbors were dancer Vladimir Vasiliev, Yuri Luzhkov and Andrei Tarkovsky.

One part of the Yamshchikov family is from peasants, the other from the clergy. My father was a fire platoon commander and died in 1941 from transient consumption. Grandmother baptized little Savva in the Old Believer church on Preobrazhenka. Yamshchikov’s ancestors, Old Believers (bespopovtsy), took part in the construction of this church (architect Bazhenov). When Vasily Yamshchikov brought documents to the registry office and said that he wanted to register his son as Savva, as his grandmother ordered, he was told that a Soviet child could not have such a name. And they wrote it down as Saveliy. And at school they called me Vyacheslav, they said: “Be proud, namesake of Molotov.” In childhood and youth, Yamshchikov regularly attended church services, sang in the church choir, but was also a Komsomol member.

According to Yamshchikov’s recollections, he early felt a craving for books, “from the fifth grade I read voraciously.” In 1952, the centenary of Gogol’s death was celebrated, the famous blue six-volume set was published, which Yamshchikov never parted with throughout his life. He said that Gogol paved the way for him into the world of art. He also really loved reading the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, Aksakov, Khomyakov, Leontyev.

After finishing school, Yamshchikov spent some time deciding where to go to study. He dreamed of acting in films; while still a schoolboy, he was involved in a drama club, led by the actor of the Vakhtangov Theater Viktor Ivanovich Shcheglov. Young Yamshchikov loved to recite poetry, especially “Accordion” from the poem “Vasily Terkin”, he was even teased “Oh, Terkin is coming!” Many years later, Vasily Shukshin visited Yamshchikov’s exhibition “Painting of Ancient Karelia” and unexpectedly invited him to try out for a role in the film “Stepan Razin”. But the restorer refused.

In his youth, Yamshchikov spent a lot of time in the Tretyakov Gallery. He joked that it was “warmer to go out with the girls” in winter. According to him, he wandered into the art history department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University by accident. The competition was 19 people per place, but he easily passed the exams. In the second year, painting and restoration techniques were taught by Viktor Vasilyevich Filatov, who had a great influence on Yamshchikov.

With this outstanding restorer, he made his first trip to Novgorod to restore icons destroyed during the war. The trip was timed to coincide with the 1100th anniversary of Novgorod. Then there was the first trip to Suzdal.

As a student, Savva Yamshchikov, together with his classmates, helped the famous local historian, archaeographer and philologist Leonid Alekseevich Tvorogov equip the Pskov ancient repository. It was Tvorogov who introduced Yamshchikov to the heritage of Pskov culture, fascinated him with Pskov icons and books about Pskov.

Work at the All-Russian Restoration Center

Yamshchikov's initiation into restoration took place in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, founded by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (St. Elizabeth), built by the architect A.V. Shchusev and painted by artists Mikhail Nesterov. The All-Russian Restoration Center was located there. Twenty-year-old Yamshchikov began working in the icon painting department. Real masterpieces fell into the hands of restorers, to which they restored their original appearance. The icons were not only restored but also displayed at exhibitions. IN exhibition center Three exhibitions were opened on Kuznetsky Most, representing ancient Russian painting of Karelia, Pskov, and Rostov the Great.

Yamshchikov devoted twenty years to preventive restoration work on works of icon painting. Examining museum storerooms, he compiled a restoration “Inventory of works of ancient Russian painting stored in museums of the RSFSR,” and also selected icons for restoration in Moscow.

The words of the restorer are widely known: “Moscow is my stepmother, and my mother is the province.” Museums and churches of Novgorod, Pskov, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Karelia, Vologda, Kizhi and many other provincial cities of Russia have always been under the patronage of Savva Yamshchikov; he searched for and restored icons, making real discoveries, returning forgotten and desecrated masterpieces to the world. For 40 years, Yamshchikov managed to revive more than 400 icons, restore unique collections of Russian portraits of the 18th - 19th centuries, and bring back many forgotten names of wonderful artists. Among his numerous articles, one can highlight a whole series entitled: “A new artist has been discovered!”

The exhibitions he organized invariably became events and an integral part of national culture.

Pskov Savva Yamshchikov

Yamshchikov worked for many years for Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov) in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, about which he later wrote a fundamental work. Collected and restored under the leadership of Savva Yamshchikov at the All-Russian Restoration Center, the unique collection of one hundred icons “Painting of Ancient Pskov” formed the basis of the Pskov museum exhibition.

In 2007 in Pskov in big hall in the House of Fan der Vleet was opened Art Gallery, representing a collection of paintings from the 18th-19th centuries. This building, heavily damaged during the Great Patriotic War, once housed creative school famous Pskov philanthropist Nikolai Fan der Fleet. At the opening day, Savva Yamshchikov noted that this was the beginning of a true revival of the Pskov Museum.

At the same time, work began on the restoration and repair of the belfry of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God from Paromenya and the creation in it of a museum of the remarkable Pskov blacksmith Vsevolod Smirnov.

Savva Yamshchikov devoted a lot of effort to developing the concept of restoring the historical appearance of Pskov. On April 15, 2009, he participated in a meeting of the Council for Promoting the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, in which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also took part. According to Yamshchikov, the restoration of Pskov should begin with restoration work of the Mirozhsky Monastery, the Intercession Tower of the 16th century and the Izborsk Fortress. A particularly famous restorer was worried about the fate of the Mikhailovskoye Museum-Reserve.

On July 8, 2009, the presentation of the exhibition “Museum of Friends” by Savva Yamshchikov took place at the Pskov Museum-Reserve.

Restorative activities of Savva Yamshchikov

The famous restorer was one of the first in the USSR to begin to deal with issues of restitution of cultural property taken from the territories of former enemy states during the Great Patriotic War. One of his books about World War II trophies is called “Not Returnable!”

He became seriously involved in the problem of “trophy” art in 1989, as a member of the presidium of the Soviet Cultural Foundation. In the All-Russian Restoration Center, the so-called “Hungarian Collection” was kept under the heading “top secret”: 160 masterpieces of Western European painting and 8 sculptures. Savva Yamshchikov turned to the head of the international department of the Central Committee, Valentin Mikhailovich Falin, with a proposal to declassify, and then restore and exhibit in domestic museums"trophy" masterpieces. So it works greatest painters- El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Titian, Degas, Renoir saw the light of day.

Soon a state commission on restitution was created, which included not only art historians and restorers, but also diplomats, lawyers, and archivists.

In the 1990s, Yamshchikov was involved in the so-called “Bremen Collection”. Her story is this: Captain Soviet army In 1945, Victor Baldin illegally exported 362 drawings and 2 paintings by ancient masters from Germany, kept them in a suitcase under his bed for three years, and in 1948 circumstances forced him to hand over the collection to the Museum of Architecture. In February 1993, a “Statement of Intent” was signed between Russia and Germany regarding the fate of the “Bremen Collection”, but nothing planned was implemented.

Work on Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev" ("The Passion for Andrei")

Savva Yamshchikov and Andrei Tarkovsky met in 1962, in the National cafe, where artists, writers, and actors gathered.

Tarkovsky's film "Ivan's Childhood" just received the Golden Lion - Grand Prize Film Festival in Venice and the director began filming the new film “Andrei Rublev”. Tarkovsky offered Savva Yamshchikov to work as a consultant in this film. Yamshchikov believed that he was too young to act in such a role, because he was then a student at the All-Russian Restoration Center. However, Tarkovsky answered the novice restorer: “I just need a young man, preferably a like-minded person. And as for the lack of experience, when such a need arises, you will turn to your teachers.”

As Yamshchikov recalled, in search of objects for future filming, he had to travel through Karelia, the Vologda region, and examine the churches of Novgorod, Suzdal, Vladimir, and Pskov.

Tarkovsky consulted with Yamshchikov not only when choosing a character, but also when choosing actors. So, one day Yamshchikov drew Tarkovsky’s attention to a photograph of the provincial actor Anatoly Solonitsyn, who was then approved for the role of Andrei Rublev. Thanks to Yamshchikov, the role of bell foundry Boriska was given to Nikolai Burlyaev.

Savva Yamshchikov also became a consultant in Sergei Bondarchuk's film "Boris Godunov" (1986).

Exhibitions organized by Yamshchikov

Over 40 years of work, he organized over 300 exhibitions, including:

"Painting of Rostov the Great", 1973;

"Soligal Findings", 1973;

"Kostroma portraits of the 18th-19th centuries", 1974;

"New discoveries of Soviet restorers", 1974;

"Yaroslavl portraits of the 18th-19th centuries", 1980-1981;

"Master of the Battle of Kulikovo", 1980;

"Yaroslavl icon painting of the XIII-XVIII centuries", 1981;

"Nikolai Mylnikov", 1990.

Educational activities of Savva Yamshchikov

Books were written by him:

"Ancient Russian painting: New discoveries", 1966;

"Treasures of Suzdal" (collection of articles), 1969;

"Russian Museum. Icons from the collection of the Russian Museum", 1970;

"Inventory of works of ancient Russian painting stored in museums of the RSFSR: materials for the restoration catalogue. Part one.", 1970;

"Inventory of works of ancient Russian painting stored in museums of the RSFSR: materials for the restoration catalogue. Part two.", 1972;

"Russian portrait of the 18th-19th centuries in the museums of the RSFSR No., 1976;

"Ancient Novgorod. History, art, archeology: new research", 1983;

"Saved Beauty. Stories about the restoration of art monuments. A book for high school students", 1986;

"Archimandrite Alipius. Man. Artist. Warrior. Hegumen", 2004.

Yamshchikov’s work “My Pskov,” published in 2003, stands out in particular. The book of memoirs tells “about those earthly righteous people, thanks to whom Pskov exists...”: about Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, Archimandrite Alipiya, who did not allow Nikita Khrushchev to close the Orthodox monastery, about the director of the Russian Museum Vasily Pushkarev and many others.

In 2008, Yamshchikov’s book “The Burden of the Russians” was published, in which he outlined his view on the situation of the Russian people and Russian culture in modern Russia.

Savva Yamshchikov is not only the author of numerous scientific works, books, albums, catalogs about Russian art, he has more than once acted as an expert and was a presenter television films dedicated to Russian culture. For example, he was a consultant at documentary film"Pskov alarm. Dreams of the lost city" (2006).

Savva Yamshchikov is the first restorer to receive its honorary medal in the two-hundred-year history of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Personal life

Wife - Ganibalova Valentina Mikhailovna, former prima ballerina Mariinsky Theater, Honored Artist of the RSFSR. The wedding took place in 1972.

Daughter - Yamshchikova Marfa Savichna (born 1974), restorer.

Savva Vasilievich Yamshchikov
(1938-2009)

Chairman of the Association of Restorers of Russia, restoration artist highest category, art critic and publicist, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, member of the Writers' Union of Russia, vice-president of the Russian International Cultural Foundation, member of the Commission for the consideration of issues of the return of cultural property Savva Vasilyevich Yamshchikov reposed in the Lord on the morning of July 19 in the Pskov regional hospital, where he was with July 15 and underwent surgery.

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Let us recall that the Chairman of the Association of Restorers of Russia, Savva Yamshchikov, assessed the safety of the miraculous icon “The Life-Giving Trinity” written by St. Andrei Rublev as completely satisfactory for a temporary transfer for 3 days to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra in execution last will the late Patriarch Alexy II. At the same time, Savva Yamshchikov publicly stated that such clinical types as Tretyakov Gallery employee Levon Nersesyan, who unleashed a dirty provocation around Rublev’s “Trinity,” should not be allowed near ancient Russian icons even for a cannon shot:

Our website publishes the text last performance Savva Vasilyevich Yamshchikov, which became his spiritual testament to his descendants.

Savely Yamshchikov: Stop the destruction of Russian culture!
(Speech at the conference “A.S. Pushkin as a worldview phenomenon of national tradition.” Moscow, May 10, 2009)

Last summer, when the TV show “Name Russia” was being prepared, a preparatory program “National Interest” was broadcast. Her goal was to discuss how best to build this show in order to cause as little harm as possible to Russia, its names, its history. I suggested that Pushkin should not be included in the list of candidates being discussed. Like at festivals, when the title “For Merit” is awarded in aggregate. But they didn’t listen to me. And you saw what happened. I knew what this discussion would lead to. I knew that Zyuganov would represent Lenin and at the same time say what kind of Dostoevsky good writer, forgetting that Dostoevsky wrote “The Demons.” I knew that Chernomyrdin, who together with Yeltsin brought our Russia to the state it is in, would act as a “power.”
I consider the most terrible outcome of our 25-year so-called “post-perestroika” time to be that during this time we were forced to lose our memory. This was the beginning of this whole velvet revolution, which cost us no less victims than the non-velvet war and revolution. Do you remember how it all began? Who did they glorify on the pages of magazines? Bukharin. Bukharin, who said that the Bolsheviks don’t need to remember Yesenin’s name, that if we praise Yesenin, then God forbid we’ll end up with Tyutchev. This was a continuation of the same Trotskyist-Leninist revolution. What could you expect from these wild kids? “Moscow News” by Yegor Yakovlev talked about democracy, and at the same time he continued to shoot a 90-episode film about Lenin, stealing everything from Ostankino for his script. And it was already 1989... There were already calls for democracy - their democracy. Lilya Brik, Bukharin, and others are people socially close to them.
A month and a half ago, in an estate near Moscow in Lyublino, where we presented a book about a Russian estate, I had one meeting. This book, by the way, is absolutely wonderful: about the estates of mainly not noblemen, but industrialists - the Mamontovs, Morozovs, Ryabushinskys. There I met Boris Evgenievich Pasternak, the poet’s grandson, and I was shocked by his words. He said that over the past 25 years, all the estates around Moscow, to which this album is dedicated, have been destroyed. I thought that this only happened in Pskov, that near Moscow only Abramtsevo was destroyed, but it turns out that other Moscow suburbs were also destroyed.
I won’t tell you about our troubles in Pskov. I can say that all this is being done by people who want to destroy not the Pushkin holiday, but our memory. These people have no conscience. They can act through the prosecutor's office, through anything, but the most important thing - I officially declare this and not only from this rostrum - we are talking about the targeted destruction, the targeted destruction of cultural monuments! For four years, from the pages of all newspapers and on television, we said that Abramtsevo was being destroyed according to a special plan. The blow was carried out by the hands of Mr. Pentkovsky, a graduate of the Jesuit Vatican College, who was placed there by the director. Having come to reign, he declared: “The spirit of the obscurantist Gogol will not be in Abramtsevo.” They destroyed Abramtsevo and completely destroyed it. We created a public movement in defense of Abramtsevo, held a conference where more than 40 people spoke - art historians, restorers, priests, philologists. What did Mr. Shvydkoy answer us through Moscow News? “In six months everything will be fine there.” Now we are filming a report for Russian television with Arkady Mamontov. Tears come to your eyes when you see what Abramtsevo has become, about which Pavel Florensky wrote to Mamontov’s daughter in the 20s: “if even one log is intact, Abramtsevo, Russia will not die.”
I officially declare that our former minister culture Shvydkoy did and is doing everything to destroy our memory and our culture (). Can a person who carries out the provocative “Cultural Revolution” program be the Minister of Culture? Her themes: “Pushkin is outdated”, “Museums - cemeteries of culture”…. And this is the minister talking about it! He went so far as to say: “Russian fascism is worse than German fascism.” We are now announcing a movement to bring him to justice. This expression has already begun to circulate - “Russian fascism”. There definitely cannot be fascism in Russia! Russia is an Orthodox country. I told him, what, do you like German fascism? Do you remember about the ovens of Dachau and Auschwitz? Nobody listens to anything. He sings and dances on all channels. And we continue to lose monuments of our culture.
For 4 years we fought to adequately celebrate the anniversary of N.V. Gogol. Did anyone support us in this fight? We were supported by the Chairman of the Writers' Union Ganichev? We were supported by the Chairman of the Russian Cultural Foundation Mikhalkov? Did other creative unions support us? We were supported by the former Minister of Culture Shvydkoy? No, he accused us of not being interested in Gogol, but in material gain. What kind of Pushkin holiday could it be in the provinces if the Gogol anniversary in Moscow was, if not scary, then sad? If there is a ceremonial meeting at the Maly Theater, and at the same time they are giving the premiere of the film “Taras Bulba” at the Oktyabr cinema, it means that someone needs it. I, as they say, am the unloved child of a totalitarian regime, but I remember how we listened on the radio in 1952 to a meeting in Bolshoi Theater on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gogol's death. Four hours, and the dictator sat on stage all this time. For us, it all went more modestly. The new Minister of Culture just came and that’s it. Channel One on this day in the Vremya program did not say that today was Gogol’s anniversary. But for 15 minutes they celebrated Mr. Posner’s 75th birthday. Was the meeting dedicated to Gogol in Maly shown on television? And Zhvanetsky’s anniversary was broadcast for three and a half hours. And a banner hung in the Tchaikovsky Hall “Zhvanetsky is Russia.” If Russia is Zhvanetsky, then this is not my Russia. Russia is Pushkin, it is Gogol, it is Dostoevsky.
President Putin established his literary prize 5 years ago. Who gets it? Rasputin, Astafiev, Belov? No. Zhvanetsky. What would you like? Yesterday we had round table in the newspaper Izvestia about the Mikhailovskoye Museum-Reserve. I said, turning to the current Minister of Culture, that he should be in Mikhailovsky on June 6. Because it shouldn’t be so that only Pskovites carry the all-Russian holiday on their shoulders - Georgy Nikolaevich Vasilevich, the governor’s new cultural adviser Igor Valeryevich Gavryushkin.
Tell me, who represents Russia at book fairs? The same writers: Erofeev, Bykov, Popov... What do they take from us for these book fairs Kurbatov, Zolotussky, Rasputin? No. They only meet each other. And when we signed a letter to the president several months ago regarding who was provided with television, Mr. Loshak, the editor of Ogonyok, answered us. He wrote: you can’t wait, gentlemen, your time has passed, we are pointing out what is most important.
Know that they will destroy our culture! They are happy that Pskov is being destroyed. They are happy that there are scandals surrounding the Pushkin Nature Reserve. That there is no “Culture” channel as a real conductor of culture.
I remember the 4th general education channel in Soviet years. If people spoke there, then only those who were No. 1 in their field. If literary criticism was Lotman, if archeology was Yanin, history was Rybakov. What is the Culture channel today? This is the “Cultural Revolution”, this is the most vulgar chatter in the “Apocrypha” of Erofeev, the man who wrote that Russian literature sucks, that it is impossible to talk about it. Or Mr. Arkhangelsky’s absolutely openly Russophobic program, in which, when asked by the newspaper why he invites people of the same nationality, he replied: “It’s not my fault that they are smart” (http://arkhangelsky.livejournal.com/49144.html ). One of his wise men, posing as a great expert ancient Russian art, Mr. Lifshits, went so far as to say that he was grateful to the revolution for allowing him to see the true face of Our Lady of Vladimir and Rublev’s “Trinity” (). I would have waited another two thousand years to see the true face of Our Lady of Vladimir and Rublev’s “Trinity,” but if only there had not been a revolution that destroyed so many churches! And how many icons were burned, how many priests were executed! When it comes to opera or ballet, then “Culture” shows only performances from Western theaters. Can you really wait for the “Culture” channel to come to cover some serious exhibition?
We have been tortured by modern, so-called “post-modern” art. All sorts of “devouring” of Lenin’s body made of chocolate, as Marat Gelman did, all sorts of “new monuments” with which Moscow is “dirty.” Aren't you afraid of these severed hands, of these "petras"? Look what Moscow has become!
Our new “elite,” as it calls itself, has no conscience. They either hate real Russian culture or don’t know. And if we, together with the leaders of our state and together with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, do not put a barrier in their way, we will sink into the abyss.