The meaning of orbeli Joseph Abgarovich in a brief biographical encyclopedia. Interesting facts about Joseph Orbeli - the legendary director of the Hermitage

Orbeli
Leon Abgarovich
(Koltushi, 1945)

Excerpts from the book by V.A. Pastukhova
"Academician L.A. Orbeli in Pavlovsk Koltushi." - St. Petersburg: 2005. - 144 p.
Chapter 1. “PAGES OF LIFE AND ACTIVITY OF L.A. ORBELI"

ABOUT Rbeli Leon Abgarovich- born on July 7, 1882 in Armenia in the village of beautiful name Darachichag, which translated from Armenian means “Valley of Flowers”. His grandfather, Joseph Ioakimovich Orbeli, graduated from the famous Lazarev Seminary in Moscow, which is a first-class general education educational institution that time. Despite great desire To receive a medical or legal university education, he was forced to enter the clergy. This was required not only by the seminary charter, but also by the mother’s vow, given to God. He returned to Tiflis and became an archpriest, teacher of the law and preacher in the cathedral.

Leon Abgarovich's father, Abgar Iosifovich, graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, after which he was recalled by his father to Tiflis. He married Princess Varvara Moiseevna Argutinskaya. They had three sons: Ruben, Leon and Joseph.

Ruben became a lawyer. Joseph - a famous orientalist, director of the Leningrad Hermitage, academician. Abgar (about him will be discussed further) - an outstanding scientist-physiologist, student, comrade-in-arms and follower of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

Even a shallow excursion into Orbeli’s genealogy shows that Leon Abgarovich was born into a cultured, educated, intelligent family. This, naturally, could not but affect the upbringing and education of him and his brothers. This was facilitated by the acquaintances and connections of Leon Abgarovich’s grandfather and father in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

So, grandfather, Joseph Ioakimovich, by order of Lazarev - the creator and trustee of the Lazarev Seminary - after Astrakhan and Moscow, he was transferred to the St. Petersburg Armenian Church. Here he met A.M. Khudobashev - a prominent member of the Armenian colony and the main archive of the city, the owner of a large library of Armenian literature, the guardian of young talented Armenians who graduated from the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages.

Khudobashev’s case was continued by S.G. Sultan Shah, who married Khudobashev's daughter. One of the daughters of Sultan Shah, Anna, became the mother of Elizaveta Ioakimovna - the future wife of Leon Abgarovich.

In 1899, Orbeli graduated from the 3rd Tiflis gymnasium with a gold medal. He and his father and brother Ruben came to St. Petersburg. He was enrolled in the Military Medical Academy (MMA) as a self-employed student. The latter had to pay for training, but after graduating from the Academy they were not obliged to serve as military doctors. The father immediately introduced his sons to the families of Khudobashev and Sultan Shah, whom his father introduced him to and whom he knew from his student days.

Already from his first year, Orbeli began studying histology in the laboratory of Professor M.D. Lavdovsky and zoology in the laboratory of Professor N.A. Kholodkovsky.

From Orbeli’s memoirs it is known that he met Pavlov in the 1st year in absentia at lectures on physiology, which were given in Solyanoy Gorodok by Professor I.R. Tarkhanov. During a popular lecture on digestion, Tarkhanov demonstrated dogs that Pavlov had trained and provided to him for demonstration. Tarkhanov previously headed the Department of Physiology and was the Scientific Secretary of the Military Medical Academy. In 1895, after 25 years of service, according to existing rules, he, by order of the head of the Military Medical Academy V.V. Pashutin was fired. By the same order, I.P. was transferred to the Department of Physiology from the Department of Pharmacology. Pavlov.

After Tarkhanov’s lecture, who demonstrated “Pavlov’s dogs,” Orbeli and his comrades attended lectures by Ivan Petrovich himself. But the real acquaintance with Pavlov began in the 2nd year. Physiology quickly overshadowed histology and zoology.

“For the entire year, when Ivan Petrovich read to second-year students, I did not miss a single lecture,” writes Orbeli in “Memoirs,” “I sat in one of the first rows, followed what was taught and shown, and took advantage of Ivan’s offer Petrovich to ask questions. All listeners were not only allowed, but also encouraged to interrupt Ivan Petrovich's lecture and ask questions if something was not clear or unclear. This was his teaching system. Ivan Petrovich always willingly gave explanations right away."

At one of the lectures, Orbeli did not receive an answer to asked question, since it has not yet been studied. Pavlov invited him to come into the laboratory at the IEM and get the answer himself in the experiment. The next day, Orbeli and his classmate Breshel went to Aptekarsky Island, where the IEM was located. The institute was initially located in the dacha premises of its founder, Prince Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg. The neighboring dacha of the banker Alferov was purchased, in the expanded kitchen of which an operating room, a clinic and a vivisection room for Pavlov’s laboratory were placed.

Orbeli was either present at or took part in experiments studying secretion in response to fatty foods. "We fed the dog butter“,” Orbeli recalled, “she ate one hundred or two hundred grams, and a very small amount of juice flowed from her gastric fistula...”

Orbeli wanted to do experiments in the laboratory of the Department of Physiology of the Military Medical Academy, but things did not work out there for reasons beyond his control. Pavlov advised him to go to the IEM regularly. From his third year onwards, Orbeli studied science at the IEM three days a week, including Sunday, and spent the rest of the days at the Academy, attending lectures. This is how the third and fourth courses went.

Thus, Orbeli’s inclinations as a research scientist were revealed during his student years. They manifested themselves not only in the fact that, starting from the 2nd year, he carried out serious experimental research in the laboratory, but also thought about them on vacation. This is evidenced by his letter to Pavlov dated June 30, 1903 from Tiflis:

"Dear Ivan Petrovich!

By the morning, severe congestive edema had already formed, so that Vasily Nikolaevich Boldyrev, who was the first to come to the laboratory, barely managed to set the ventricle. Servants had already tried to do this before him. A few days later the dog died. An autopsy revealed perforation of a small ventricle and peritonitis. In view of the fact that I will, in all likelihood, be able to arrive in St. Petersburg in mid-August, and I would like to take advantage of this time to work, I will allow myself to bother you with a request - to allow me to work on one of the gastric dogs available in the laboratory.

By that time, Ivan Minaevich’s dogs, with whom Leonid Fedorovich and Ivan Sergeevich’s new dog are working, will be released. I would prefer Ivan Minaevich's dog, since she has a fistula.

Your permission would greatly facilitate my tasks, because... It would give me the opportunity to work for 2 months at the beginning of the year, and then begin the rest of my studies.

Otherwise, I will have to wait for preparations new dog, and start work no earlier than mid-September and miss a significant part of classes or again work in fits and starts, as last year.

I will be very grateful to you for fulfilling my request.

Sincerely devoted to you L. Orbeli"

Looking ahead a little, it should be said that during the most active period scientific activity Orbeli, unlike his teacher, did not take vacations at all and devoted all his time to his favorite work - science. (See below for more details).

In 1903, the WMA Conference awarded Orbeli a gold medal for the experimental work “Comparison of the work of the pepsin glands before and after transection of the branches of the vagus nerves,” performed on the basis of the IEM. Together with L.A. Orbeli I.P. Pavlov presented the work of I.S. to the WMA Conference for awarding medals. Tsitovich (a student at the Military Medical Academy who took a course older than Pavlov) “On the influence of alcohol on digestion.”

Prizes are awarded to students for scientific work at the Military Medical Academy every year. After the presentation of the works, always under the mottos, the Conference (Council of Professors) appointed a commission. After reviewing the work, the commission submitted its decision to the Conference, which made the final decision. The fact that the work was carried out under the motto, the decision was made more objectively.

Orbeli was awarded a gold medal and Tsitovich a silver medal. In his “Memoirs” (M.-L., Nauka, 1966, p. 27) L.A. Orbeli writes: “It was at this time that Minister of War Kuropatkin ordered that those who received gold medals be given 100 rubles each. huge amount. Thus, in addition to the gold medal, I should have received another 100-ruble bonus. I took it to Ivan Petrovich and asked him to divide it between me and Tsitovich. Ivan Petrovich approved this, invited me and Tsitovich and divided these 100 rubles between us."

Immediately after graduating with honors from the Military Medical Academy in 1904, Orbeli entered the Institute of Doctors at the Military Medical Academy (similar to a modern graduate school), but did not pass the competition. There were 33 applicants for 10 vacant positions. After this failure, he worked as a doctor at the Nikolaev Military Hospital in Kronstadt. Then he transferred to the St. Petersburg Marine Hospital to simultaneously continue his scientific work with I.P. Pavlova at the IEM.

At this time, an event occurred that could change the whole life of Leon Abgarovich or even put an end to it. He was assigned as a doctor to one of the cruisers purchased by Russia from Argentina, which was supposed to participate in Russian-Japanese war. Japan managed to outbid Argentine cruisers destined for Russia, and they took part in what was tragic for the Russian fleet Battle of Tsushima(May 27-28, 1905) on the Japanese side. Orbeli remained in St. Petersburg.

In 1907, Orbeli left his naval service and devoted himself entirely to scientific work in the Physiological Department. At the same time, he served as assistant to the head of the Department. While at the dacha in Sillamägi at that time, Pavlov wrote:

“Dear Leon Abgarovich! Please, take charge of all laboratory affairs...”

In 1908, Orbeli defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “Conditioned reflexes from the eye in a dog.”

For two years (1909-1911) he completed a scientific internship in physiological laboratories in England and Germany, as well as at the Marine Biological Station in Naples (Italy). I.P. Pavlov gave L.A. Orbeli brilliant presentation of the WMA Conference for a foreign business trip:

“Dr. Orbeli presented three experimental works, one of which relates to the physiology of digestion and two to the doctrine of conditioned reflexes.

These works, which required long and hard work, are distinguished by great scientific merits.

Firstly, they are methodologically impeccable, and some of the techniques and methods of research that the author used for the first time were subjected to the most careful development and testing. Therefore, the results of Orbeli’s research have the character of complete scientific reliability.

Secondly, as can be seen from the above abstracts, Orbeli’s works are distinguished by the wealth of new factual scientific material he obtained. In his first work, he gives new interesting facts related to the question of the innervation of the digestive glands. In the second work, new data is contained in such quantity that this work of Orbeli should rightly be given one of the most prominent places in the doctrine of conditioned reflexes. Finally, in the third work, dedicated to the issue on the localization of conditioned reflexes in the central nervous system also contains very interesting factual data.

The third major advantage of Orbeli’s works is that they show the constant and intense work of thought, both critical and generalizing, and in the matter of criticism the author is distinguished by seriousness and calmness, in the matter of generalizations - by caution and validity. To all this it should be added that the author has the ability to concisely and at the same time clearly present both factual and ideological scientific material.

Based on the above, it should be recognized that Dr. Orbeli is one of the most worthy candidates for a business trip abroad."

However, Pavlov, for 3 months after making the decision to go abroad, did not let Orbeli go until he recommended an assistant in his place. I.V., who came to IEM from the province, agreed to perform these duties for two years. Zavadsky. Pavlov gave Orbeli letters of recommendation to Ewald Goering in Leipzig and John Langley in Cambridge.

Orbeli
Leon Abgarovich

Orbeli spent the first two months in Berlin, improving German, then moved to Leipzig. Here he spent two semesters. Listened to lectures by E. Goering and P. Flexig. Spent a lot of time in the laboratory, mastering experimental techniques.

It is interesting to compare Orbeli with the work environment in the laboratory of E. Goering and I.P. Pavlova (from Orbeli’s letter to his wife, Elizaveta Ioakimovna. - L.A. Orbeli in the memoirs of contemporaries. L. Nauka, 1983, pp. 24-25): “...Work very calmly... Complete silence and calm help. I feel sorry for our laboratory, I feel all the greatness of Ivan Petrovich and all his work; they work in our laboratory no less and no worse than the Germans, but my hair stands on end when I remember the hustle, nervousness, noise that reigns there. It’s quiet here. That's it, there aren't many people."

Summer holidays Orbeli spent time with his wife traveling around the Tyrol. Then continued acquaintance with science in Germany. In Giessen, in the laboratory of Professor Z. Garten, Orbeli mastered the work on a string galvanometer, which was used to record bioelectric processes in tissues, and, using this technique, performed independent work on the skin of a frog.

At that time, the Japanese physiologist Ya. Satake, with whom Orbeli became friends, worked in the laboratory of Z. Garten at that time. Satake later visited St. Petersburg and worked with Pavlov. (In the Museum of I.P. Pavlov in Koltushi there is a photograph in which you can see Satake together with Ivan Petrovich during an experiment on conditioned reflexes at the Department of Physiology of the Military Medical Academy). In his memoirs, Orbeli writes that Z. Garten “constantly shouted at the Japanese and constantly cursed and shouted at him if Satake began to dissect a frog without sufficient anesthesia.” (L.A. Orbeli in the memoirs of contemporaries. L. Science, 1983, p. 28). Thus, the Germans do not always and everywhere have “Peace and grace.”

London. Cambridge. Leon Abgarovich became acquainted with an interesting method of leadership scientific research physiologist and histologist, member and vice-president of the Royal Society of London John Newport Langley. Langley himself, having given the task to Orbeli, carried out the same experiments. They studied the physiology of the autonomic nervous system using frogs. If the results did not coincide, the experiments were repeated. In England, Orbeli met J. Barcroft, K. Lucas, A. V. Hill, Mines and other scientists. He maintained close scientific ties with some of them in subsequent years.

At the end of his trip, Orbeli worked at the Naples Marine Biological Station.

Armenian by nationality. Comes from the Armenian princely family of Orbeli-Orbelyans, rulers of Syunik and Bjni. In 1911 he graduated from St. Petersburg University. In 1914-1931 - associate professor and professor at St. Petersburg (later Leningrad) University. From 1920 he worked at the State Hermitage, where he created the Department of the East - then the largest center of Soviet Oriental studies. During the Great Patriotic War, remaining during the blockade in Leningrad, led great job for the preservation of museum values; after the war he supervised the restoration of the Hermitage. In 1955-1960 - dean of the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad State University, in 1956-1961 - head of the Leningrad department of the Institute of Asian Peoples of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The main research is devoted to Caucasian studies, the history of medieval culture of the Middle East; His research on Sasanian and Seljuk cultures is of particular value. Co student years participated in the archaeological study of the medieval city of Ani; was N. Ya. Marr's closest collaborator. Conducted excavations in the area of ​​Lake Van (1916, Turkey) and in Armenia (1929, 1936 and later). A number of Orbeli's works are dedicated to medieval culture, Armenian epigraphy, folk epic, Kurdish language, architecture of Georgia and Armenia. Orbeli led a large pedagogical work and created a school of Soviet Caucasus scholars, which is characterized by a combination of work in the field material culture and philology. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, as well as medals.

Addresses in Leningrad

• 1942 - 02/02/1961 - Hermitage Theater - 9th January embankment, 32. Memorial plaque: “The outstanding Soviet orientalist, academician Joseph Abgarovich Orbeli lived in this house from 1948 to 1961” (1963. Architect V. D. Popov, Granite)

Proceedings

• Selected works, Yerevan, 1963
• Inscriptions of Marmashen, P., 1914
• Sasanian metal, M. - L., 1935 (together with K.V. Trever)
• The problem of Seljuk art, in the collection: [Proceedings] of the III International Congress on Iranian Art and Archeology, M. - L., 1939
• Fables of medieval Armenia, M. - L., 1956

More than 140 countries, and this is not yet a complete “track record” of the famous Latvian traveler, businessman, art collector Aldis Plaudis, who visited Armenia at the end of the outgoing year.

Frankly, this is not my first visit to Armenia - I first visited your country in 1972, as a member of the Latvian basketball team. And so it happened that years later, business brought me together with colleagues from Armenia, who invited my wife and I to visit this beautiful, mysterious country. We are easy-going, and now, a couple of hours on the plane - and we are here.

Almost half a century has passed - we are changing, countries are changing. In those years I saw only a hotel and a gym, but this time we were given the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the beauty of this ancient country. If we draw some comparative parallels, then Yerevan seemed to me a greener city. But everything is clear - the blockade, the war, people suffered, green spaces suffered. But it is gratifying that the city lives, breathes, the green zone is expanding again, and not only by ordinary citizens: we visited Tsitsernakaberd at the 1915 Armenian Genocide Memorial, and there we saw a new forest of trees planted by high-ranking guests of the capital - presidents, prime ministers ministers different countries, we even saw a spruce planted by the Pope. I also found a Christmas tree that was planted by the previous President of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers, with whom he played for the Latvian national team in those distant years. This is amazing. I am pleased with the attitude of citizens towards their country, their hospitality and warmth - it seems that they are inexhaustible.

You've traveled all over Earth, took photographs everywhere, kept a diary. Are you planning to publish your travel stories?

Friday, March 8, 2019

Karen Dolukhanyan is a deep and conscientious person. One of those people of culture who are haunted by the problems not only of art, but also of society and its constituent citizens. Yes, against the backdrop of existing trends in contemporary international art, which is subject to formulas that are understood only by supporters of newfangled trends, and at the same time subject to the strict laws of the market, there are still individuals who continue their creativity outside the established “value system” and are not dependent from the dictates of time.

– There were many stages. Stages of comprehension - oneself and oneself in art, one’s place. And, thank God, this process continues - the process of finding something completely new, unusual, but, as it turns out, very consonant with my worldview and vision.

It’s difficult to say how much my origins have influenced my work. Roots. Of course, if two seeds of the same tree are divided and one is planted in the Ararat Valley, and the second in Fresno, then there will be differences between the trees. But there is also an element of healthy cosmopolitanism in me - in my opinion, that “ingredient” without which art cannot be so, supranational.

– What about the “poet and citizen”?

– People who know me today as an active participant in rallies will probably be surprised by what I’m about to say: before 1988, I basically knew nothing about Karabakh. But after the tragic events there, having attended one rally, then another, over time I simply stopped showing up at home - I was so drawn in by it all. Yes, I admit, I have always been in the opposition. I remember reading Doctor Zhivago as a child, I felt this spirit of freedom, protest - all this was very close to me...

– Yes, you are right, I graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, then briefly got into restoration workshops, after which I successfully worked in the workshops of famous Armenian architects Arthur Meschyan, Spartak Khachikyan and Stepan Kyurkchyan. Having already won awards in both our and all-Union competitions, after a while I suddenly decided to radically change my life and try my hand at directing. I was very lucky - after all, film director Bagrat Oganesyan, a student of Andrei Tarkovsky, who once worked as an intern on the film “Andrei Rublev,” took me on as his assistant, and then as an assistant. Together with Oganesyan I took part in the creation of it last movie“And everything will repeat itself” as an assistant director.

– And then suddenly they left again, didn’t they? And why this time?

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Optimization, reorganization, savings! The guiding motto is actively adopted by the cultural department. And here is not only a proposal to reorganize a number of cultural centers that have the status of state - here the question, as one movie character said, is wider and larger. A clear vision of the development of the sphere as a “cultural ideology” has been formed. Ideology – what a forgotten word we have! Let's turn to the dictionary. Ideology– a set of systemic, ordered views, expressing the interests of various social classes and other social groups. However, in our case, the opinion of classes and groups seems to be of little interest to anyone...

Our interlocutor – composer, singer-songwriter, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan State Medical University Vahan Artsruni.

– In the context of the global approach that dominates today in the field of culture, the optimization of the ministry, as well as the optimization of all institutions associated with it, is one policy. It is impossible to say that this is a bolt from the blue. I have been warning for several years now that the indifferent attitude of not only the bureaucracy, but also the artists themselves towards the same artists, but representing a free field of activity, will ultimately lead to knocking on their doors. And this hour has come - they knocked on the doors of budgetary cultural institutions. And they didn’t just knock, but came with a notification that you would no longer be there. Therefore, I believe that this process is very natural. Now they will find themselves in the field of the same free creativity and self-organization in which I have been for 30 years, and I invite them all to take a sip of the same borscht that we have to disentangle as a result of the fact that the formulation of issues in the Ministry of Culture does not correspond to reality and has no prospects.

– How would you define what is happening, let’s say, the “cultural” program taken by today’s cultural department in the Ministry of Education?

Friday, February 15, 2019

To the traditional “customs” question about the purpose of coming to the country, he answered in a friendly and no less traditional way: “Tourism.” A habit developed over the years, during which, by the way, he managed to visit and talk about more than 140 countries in a new way. The main travel destinations are the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. He also visited almost all countries of the post-Soviet space, most countries of Eastern and South-East Asia, North and South America, Australia, South and East Africa. So, our guest is the famous Russian-Israeli traveler and blogger Alexander LAPSHIN.

“I think it was a toy in the sense that there was no violence. I saw: boys and girls were walking, hugging, kissing, giving flowers to the girls. I saw no anger, no hatred, no desire to tear someone apart or take revenge, which usually happens during revolutions. And so I had a feeling that this would not end in anything, because, knowing post-Soviet countries where old grandfathers sit in power until they are carried out feet first, I believed that the same thing would happen here. And if the people go too far, they will be crushed by tanks. But deep down I thought that of all the countries of the former Soviet Union Armenia is a country, perhaps, with the most high history and culture. And it would be surprising to me if Armenians started killing each other on the streets of Yerevan. Therefore, when information appeared in the media that somewhere someone was beaten, someone’s face was broken, I thought: not this! But, fortunately, that's all over.

...I know that Diaspora Armenians are closely following what is happening. Many of those who left Armenia a long time ago and live in Russia, America, Europe, in general, deep down in their souls would be glad to return if Armenia became different. An Armenia where they can earn money, give their children a normal education, where there are prospects and no war. Therefore, now everyone is watching with great enthusiasm and hope what the new leadership will do.

— You continue your travels around the world, and at what stage is your global-scale litigation with our neighboring, as they recently joked, souvenir state?

— In December 2018, the European Court began communications with Azerbaijan. The proceedings in the European Court consist of three stages. The first is that all documents are submitted and a commission takes several months to decide whether the complaint complies with the law. 90% of complaints are rejected within early stage- some documents are missing, or they are not submitted in the correct form, or something was paid for by your “friendly” neighbors. But we got through this and moved on to the next stage, that is, the court decided that there was enough evidence to initiate a case against Azerbaijan for attempted murder. Now the documents have been transferred to Azerbaijan, and they have been given 90 days to file an objection. We assume that they can answer this with something from the series, they say, this is all a lie and slander, and in fact they treated me well, and no one killed me, and this is all a provocation of the Armenian side. Surely there will be some fakes in the series that some doctor will write in retrospect that all this did not happen. But that makes absolutely no difference. Lawyers believe that 99% of Azerbaijan is in a mess, and this story will also show the instability of the Aliyev regime, who, a couple of days before handing me over to Israel, agreed with Netanyahu, admitting that the killers entered the prison to frame Aliyev himself. And the recent events that are taking place in Baku - all these demonstrations - show once again that the situation is getting more and more out of control, although they are trying to pretend that it is all manageable.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

A few words about the great Gyumri citizen with autumn in his eyes

“If an artist does not have love, he is unlikely to be able to create anything valuable and eternal,” said the man, imbued with love for life, for people, for his homeland, for his work. “The basis of our art is a magical powerful force: love.”

A quarter of a century has passed since the passing of Frunzik Mkrtchyan, and the same amount will pass, and the love and light emanating from him from the screen will warm not only us, but also our children and grandchildren. We will continue to cry and laugh and become purer - at least in the moments when we look at him or remember him.

Ordinary Gyumri residents, neighbors at home and on the street, are transformed when they talk about what he was like off the stage and on the set. This is the house in which he was born - the first-born in a family of refugee orphans who miraculously escaped genocide, grew up in an orphanage, and then went to work together at the Leninakan textile factory: his father, Mushegh, as a loader, his mother, Sanam, as a dishwasher. Here is the room in which the family of five lived - later another brother and two sisters were born. “When I was born, everyone cried, I was the only one who laughed.” Life was difficult, hard, and what pain was - Frunzik knew well from childhood. And here is the club at the factory, right across the street from the house, where the growing talent went to play in the drama club. Now near the building of the factory cultural center there is an obelisk with a carved photograph and a sign: “Mher Mkrtchyan.”

x

Monday, January 14, 2019

Oddly enough, the answer to the question posed lies, in general, in himself. Armenia is wonderful and beautiful in any period, but in winter it is elegant, mysterious, unpredictable, and if we talk about gastronomic Armenia, then in winter it is no less, and maybe even more interesting than... Well, okay, okay, let's say this: Armenia is delicious in winter in my own way. And not only because winter is a foretaste of spring. Not at all!

Paradoxically, winter Armenian feasts are no less luxurious than at other times of the year. And it doesn’t matter what a person’s income is: not setting the New Year’s table, decorating it with everything that nature has given him over the past seasons, everything that is affordable, and sometimes not so much, is considered almost a mortal sin in Armenia. And it is not difficult to verify this by visiting any Armenian house during the New Year period: if in summer, spring or autumn it is difficult to get up from the Armenian table, then it is practically impossible to get up from the winter table - khash, ham, salads, tolma, kyufta in tandem with cold with homemade Armenian vodka or machar (unfermented young wine) they have professionally mastered the art of “persuasion”, and not for the first time.

Even if you managed to avoid the consequences of the “heavy artillery” attack, do not flatter yourself: this was just the “first part of the Marlezon ballet” - a complex blow with “weapons of mass destruction” under the collective name “charaz-maraz” awaits you. This includes various kinds of nuts, raisins, dried fruits from apricots, peaches, pears, melons, oranges, kings, persimmons, prunes, etc. Believe me, together with Armenian cognac, they are invincible! Some people treat them to them, and others, like us, make them Christmas trees. By the way, very tasty - bon appetit!

By the way, God forbid you refuse a treat somewhere, citing the fact that you have already tried such a dish in previous houses - this is an insult to the hostess of the house, akin to “blooded”, which... In a word, let this cup pass from you. The cup is not only in a figurative sense - by toasting the hostess and tasting all the masterpieces of her culinary genius, you may be able to somehow atone for your guilt. But not for long!

Go ahead. If a miracle happened and you managed to escape from the hospitable Armenian hands - more precisely, they themselves decided to take you by the arms and show you the beauty of winter Armenia - then get ready to meet a wonderful...

Our museum is unusual. Here you find yourself in another world - the world of Sergei Parajanov. A world of beauty, kindness, taste... Parajanov's works - assemblages, flat and three-dimensional collages, drawings, dolls, sketches for films - are a unique reaction to life and events, his plastic perception of the world. The artist’s work has no direct analogues in world art and is distinguished by imagination, wit and artistry. The use of various materials and objects gives the works a special charm and brilliance. Many of them were created in prison: Parajanov was removed from cinema by the Soviet system for 15 years, of which he spent 1973–1977 and 1982 in prisons and maximum security camps.

In the museum, visitors sometimes have tears in their eyes...

Yes, this is so, and I must say, this is a rare phenomenon - especially in contemporary art. The works touch them. This is memory elevated into an image, as Parajanov himself said. And this has a very powerful effect: people remember their grandmothers, old houses, forgotten objects - a whole series of associations associated with the past arise. As the famous cartoonist Yuri Norshtein once said, Parajanov turned spirit into matter.

The range of Parajanov's works is incredibly wide. You can look at ten works of any other artist and form an opinion about him and his work. In the case of Parajanov, this will not work, because first you look at ten works, form one opinion, and then look at the next ten and your opinion will change, because there is a new idea, new ideas, different approaches, etc.

Parajanov is voluminous and multifaceted. Sometimes our employees ask me: “Is this new job? Did you bring her recently?” Meanwhile, this collage has been hanging for several years - it’s so difficult to remember his work, to get into it.

How prepared should a person be to visit your museum - have information about Armenia, know Parajanov’s work?..

Parajanov is a supranational artist, he belongs to the world. He can reach the heart of a representative of any nation. In one interview he said so...
You write and you can’t believe that these words are about dear friend, a colleague, an extremely cheerful person, with whom I have known for more than 30 years, with whom I have appeared on stage more than once and acted in films. One of them left best performers The role of Nero, one might say, was his star role! Nero Amiragyan was applauded not only by Yerevan, but also by St. Petersburg, Riga, Kiev... The press wrote: “Emperor Nero is played by Georgy Amiragyan, who evokes genuine horror with every gesture, every smile - so openly cynical, icy. After this performance, an entry appeared in the “Book of Good Reviews”: “Well done, guys, I give up!..” It belongs to the famous film director D. Keosayants, who did not accept the principle of the Chamber Theater for a long time.”

I thought for a long time about what to write about Gog on this day. List his works? Participation in projects, films? I don’t think he liked it - he wasn’t that kind of person: yes, shocking, sarcastic, sometimes even cynical, but deep down he was a very kind, vulnerable and modest person. And about what he managed to create (for those unfamiliar with him) can be read by following this link -. Most of the photographs from performances with his participation are also here.

But... 8 years ago Goga gave an interview to the newspaper “Novoe Vremya”. Alas, much of what he said then remains more than relevant to this day, and it would not be amiss to listen to his words again. And let his words be heard today - the words of a man who will always live in the hearts of not only the employees of the Chamber Theater, but also everyone who was lucky enough to see Goga on stage or in cinema at least once in their lives... Below are excerpts from this interview.

(1882-1958) - Soviet physiologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1935), Armenian Academy of Sciences. SSR (1943), Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1944), honorable mention. scientist of the RSFSR (1934), Hero of Socialist Labor (1945), laureate State Prize(1941), Colonel General Med. services.

After graduating from the Military Medical Academy (1904), he worked first as an employee and then (from 1907 to 1920) as an assistant to Academician I.P. Pavlov in the Physiological Department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. At the suggestion of I.P. Pavlov JI. A. Orbeli was sent on a business trip abroad (1909-1911), during which he worked in the largest physiol laboratories in Germany, England and at the marine biol station in Naples. From 1918 to 1946 head. Physiol, Department of the State Research Institute named after. P. F. Lesgaft. From 1920 to 1931 prof. physiology of the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute; from 1925 to 1950 prof. physiology of the Military Medical Academy named after. S. M. Kirova (from 1943 to 1950, head of the Military Medical Academy). In 1936-1950 Director of the Physiological Institute named after. I. P. Pavlova of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Pathology of Higher Nervous Activity named after. I. P. Pavlova of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (in Kol-tushi). From 1939 to 1948, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Biological Sciences, and from 1942 to 1946, Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1956 to 1958, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Physiology named after. I.M. Sechenov Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

The works of L. A. Orbeli made a fundamental contribution to the development of various branches of physiology and received global recognition. He is one of the founders of evolutionary physiology. L. A. Orbeli’s research in the field of physiology was of great theoretical and practical importance. n. pp., which led to the discovery of the adaptive-trophic function of the sympathetic nervous system. He is the founder of a large school of Soviet physiologists. Peru L. A. Orbeli owns over 200 scientific works. In his doctoral dissertation “Conditioned reflexes from the eye in a dog” (1908), carried out under the guidance of I.P. Pavlov, objective data were first obtained on the dependence of visual function in an animal on the activity of the cerebral hemispheres. Subsequently, the research activities of L. A. Orbeli focused on Ch. arr. in the field of studying the nervous regulation of functions and coordination mechanisms of c. n. With. While studying the sympathetic nervous system, he substantiated and developed the theory of its adaptation-trophic function. From the point of view of L. A. Orbeli, the essence of the influences of the sympathetic system is the regulation of metabolic and physical-chemical. processes in tissues in accordance with the needs of the body. In the adaptive-trophic function of the nervous system, he identified two different, although inextricably linked, aspects: adaptive influences (they determine the function, parameters of the effector organ) and the trophic action of the nerves underlying these influences (it ensures corresponding changes in the physical-chemical state of the tissue and the level of its metabolic activity). It was found that the adaptive-trophic influences of the sympathetic nervous system extend to skeletal muscles (see Orbeli-Ginetzinsky phenomenon), receptors and the entire c. n. s., including bark cerebral hemispheres brain.

L. A. Orbeli substantiated the theory of the dynamics of spinal coordinations, considering their formation from the standpoint of onto- and phylogeny of functions. L. A. Orbeli et al. it was found that the cerebellum is an organ that regulates the function and state of the lower parts of the c. n. With. and in this regard, performing the role of an accomplice of the cerebral hemispheres in the functions of inhibition of old coordination motor mechanisms.

L. A. Orbeli and his colleagues made many important generalizations in the field of physiology. n. d., studying the influence of various external factors on c. n. d., analysis of violations c. n. etc. of a person under various painful conditions, etc. L. A. Orbeli’s work in this area was awarded in 1937 with the Prize named after. I. P. Pavlova USSR Academy of Sciences.

Under the leadership of L. A. Orbeli, the basic research on the physiology of sensory organs. Adaptation processes and problems of interaction of afferent systems were subjected to deep physiol analysis. The original methodological approaches proposed by L. A. Orbeli made it possible to obtain fundamentally new data on the physiology of the kidneys.

L. A. Orbeli developed an evolutionary direction in physiology. He formulated the tasks and methods of evolutionary physiology and raised the question of its isolation as an independent discipline. L. A. Orbeli believed that in order to reveal the evolutionary patterns of the formation of physiol, functions, an integrated approach is necessary, including studies carried out in comparative physiological and ontogenetic directions, with the involvement of data obtained in experimental and wedge conditions, pathology. He paid special attention to the need to study the process of adaptation of the organism during evolution to the conditions environment, including those that are created by man himself.

L. A. Orbeli created a large school of Soviet physiologists. His students are M. P. Brestkin, L. G. Voronin, O. G. Gazenko, A. G. Ginetsinsky, V. A. Govyrin (see), A. I. Karamyan, E. M. Crepe, A. V. Lebedinsky and others. For a set of works in the field of evolutionary physiology, L. A. Orbeli was awarded the gold medal named after L. A. Orbeli in 1946. I. I. Mechnikov USSR Academy of Sciences. L. A. Orbeli was the initiator of many studies in the field of applied physiology (solving many problems of deep-sea descents, high-altitude flights, etc.).

L. A. Orbeli - member of the Paris Biological Society (1930), the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (1931), honorary member of the English Physiol Society (1946), foreign member of the French National Academy of Medicine and other foreign academies and about -V.

L. A. Orbeli was the editor of the physiological editorial departments in the 1st and 2nd editions of the BME. L. A. Orbeli was awarded four Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star, as well as medals.

Essays: Conditioned reflexes from the eye in a dog, St. Petersburg, 1908; On the mechanism of occurrence of spinal coordinations, Izv. Scientific Institute named after P. F. Lesgaft, vol. 6, p. 202, Pg., 1923; Review of the doctrine of sympathetic innervation of skeletal muscles, sensory organs and the central nervous system, Physiol, journal. USSR, vol. 15, no. 1-2, p. 1, 1932; On the evolutionary principle in physiology, Nature, No. 3-4, p. 77, 1933; Lectures on the physiology of the nervous system, L.-M., 1934, M.-L., 1938; New ideas about the functions of the cerebellum, Usp. modern, biol., t. 13, century. 2, p. 207, 1940; Evolutionary principle as applied to the physiology of the central nervous system, ibid., vol. 15, no. 3, p. 257, 1942; Lectures on issues of higher nervous activity, M.-L., 1945; The main tasks and methods of evolutionary physiology, in the book: Evolution of the functions of the nervous system, ed. D. A. Biryukova, p. 7, L., 1958; Selected works, vol. 1 - 5, M.-L., 1961 - 1968. Bibliography: Karamyan A. I. Academician Leon Abgarovich Orbeli and his scientific heritage, Usp. fiziol, sciences, vol. 3, no. 4, p. 3, 1972; Leibson L. G. Leon Abgarovich Orbeli (To the 90th anniversary of his birth), Physiol, journal. USSR, vol. 58, no. 7, p. 965, 1972; Sh i l i-nis Yu. A., L. A. Orbeli (1882-1958), M., 1967.

V. A. Govyrin, A. I. Karamyan.

Born on March 20, 1887 in Kutaisi, he is a world-famous orientalist, the first president of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and a full member of academies in a number of countries. From 1934 to 1951 – director of the State Hermitage. Comes from the Armenian princely family of Orbeli-Orbelyans. Joseph Argutinsky, Catholicos of all Armenians, was his maternal ancestor. Joseph's grandfather wrote works on history Armenian Church on the grapple. And his brothers became great scientists: Ruben was the founder of underwater archeology, and Leon was the author of evolutionary physiology, a new direction in science.

In 1911 he graduated from St. Petersburg University. In 1914-1931 - associate professor and professor at St. Petersburg (later Leningrad) University. From 1920 he worked at the State Hermitage, where he created the Department of the East - then the largest center of Soviet Oriental studies. During the Great Patriotic War, remaining in Leningrad during the siege, he did a lot of work to preserve museum values; after the war he supervised the restoration of the Hermitage.

The main research is devoted to Caucasian studies, the history of medieval culture of the Middle East; His research on Sasanian and Seljuk cultures is of particular value. From his student years he participated in the archaeological study of the medieval city of Ani; was N. Ya. Marr's closest collaborator. Conducted excavations in the area of ​​Lake Van (1916, Turkey) and in Armenia (1929, 1936 and later). A number of Orbeli’s works are devoted to medieval culture, Armenian epigraphy, folk epic, Kurdish language, and architecture of Georgia and Armenia. Orbeli carried out extensive pedagogical work and created a school of Soviet Caucasian studies, which is characterized by a combination of work in the field of material culture and philology.

On July 16, 1916, the outstanding orientalist Nikolai Marr and his 29-year-old comrade Joseph Orbeli were forced to leave the ancient Armenian city of Van. For almost ten field seasons, this powerful archaeological tandem has been carrying out excavations on the lands of historical Armenia and has managed to accumulate a wealth of scientific material. The 1916 field season started late: global wars always make adjustments to the schedule of planned local work. However, already on June 11, scientists began exploring Top Rak-Kale and Van Rock. However, already on the thirty-fifth day, due to the offensive of the Turkish troops, they, together with units of the Russian army, will be forced to leave the city.

Previously, Joseph Orbeli also had the opportunity to repeatedly come across traces of the systematic destruction of monuments of Armenian history and culture. Like no one else, he knew perfectly well that the “Military Strategy” developed by the authorities of the Grand Porte special point assumed the elimination on the territory of the empire of monuments alien to the Turkish spirit of any other ethnocultural presence. And perhaps, first of all, Armenian ones. It was then that he realized: the discovery of a new monument under a thick layer of earth national history able to nullify all the efforts of several Turkish regiments. This is, in essence, the same war.

The quarrel with the “classic of antiquity” Thaddeus Zelinsky is noteworthy: the latter allowed himself a very unflattering review of eastern mythology, hinting that lovers of Mithras prefer the stench of dung to the aroma of an antique rose. “Professor, you were rude, however, I will follow your example,” young Orbeli retorted. “Do you remember what the Athenian girls did during the Panathenaic games?” The venerable Thaddeus Zelinsky was forced to interrupt the lecture. Boris Piotrovsky will once quote lines from the famous hymn of the staff of the Eastern Department of the Hermitage: “Fierce trills are heard, and the beard turns black in the distance. It’s probably Orbeli who is raging, and everyone is hiding without a trace!”

In 1946 he acts as a witness at the Nuremberg trials. In 1951 he was unexpectedly removed from the leadership of the Hermitage (among other reasons - refusal to join the campaign of criticism of the late N. Ya. Marr). He had indeed been preparing his whole life for the incriminating speech of the main witness to the cultural crimes of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials. On this day, the Hermitage, whose interests he, as the director of the museum, was supposed to represent, was associated in the minds of Joseph Orbeli with the thickness of layers of world culture lost forever. His speech about crimes in Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Pushkin and, of course, the Hermitage left no one indifferent. The lawyers, of course, tried to challenge Orbeli’s testimony: “Is the witness’s knowledge of artillery great enough for him to judge the intentionality of these attacks?”

“I have never been an artilleryman, but thirty shells hit the Hermitage, and only one hit the nearby bridge,” the witness retorted. “The deliberateness of the shelling and the choice of target are thus obvious.” Within these limits I am an artilleryman!

Order of Lenin (2). Order of the Red Banner of Labor (2). Order of Iran "For Scientific Merit" 1st class

He was buried at the Bogoslovskoe cemetery. In Tsaghkadzor (Armenia), the Orbeli Brothers Museum now operates (1982).