There are no exact statistics on the losses of Russian cultural heritage in the XXth century. Approximate calculations make it possible to envisage the scope of the losses: 25-30 thousand churches and cathedrals were destroyed or reduced to ruins, about 500 monasteries, no less than 50 thousand valuable civic buildings... This is just the beginning of the list. Its continuation is in the article How We Preserve Our Heritage [ссылка на 5501] by Konstantin Mikhailov. The article is illustrated by archival photographs, which show wonderful Moscow architectural monuments which were destroyed in the course of this century.
In Yaroslavl Frescoes [ссылка на 5502], Yelena Ankudinova describes the monumental art in the Saviour-Transfiguration cathedral (1516) in the Saviour’s Monastery in Yaroslavl, which has undergone lengthy and extensive restoration. Until 1919, this cathedral was one of the main churches of the Yaroslavl-Rostov diocese.
The collection of materials The Family Portrait in the Interiors of the Royal Court includes articles by Yelizaveta Renne The Coronation Project of the Duke of Devonshire [ссылка на 5503] concerning the history of the creation of ceremonial portraits of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna by D. Dow in the Chatsworth estate of the dukes of Devonshire; her Court Painter Christina Robertson [ссылка на 5504] about the art of the once fashionable British portrait artist (1796–1854) who worked in Russia from 1839. The contribution by Vasilisa Pakhomova-Goeres Adini and Her Dowry [ссылка на 5505] describes the objects which comprised the dowry brought by Alexandra, youngest daughter of Nicholas I, who died young as the wife of Prince Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel. These items are currently held at the family estate of the Hessen landfuersts, the Fasanerie, near Fulda (Germany) and are currently the only miraculously preserved almost complete dowry of the daughter of a European monarch. This is followed by an article by Viktor Faibisovich about the creation in 1846 of the Album of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment [ссылка на 5506], which was commanded at that time by Nicholas I. The illustrations accompanying the text show portraits of the officers of the regiment and scenes from the regiment’s everyday life by the artists Vladimir Gau and Karl Piratsky, together with detailed annotations.
The rubric Literature/History/Philosophy marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the philosopher and poet Vladimir Solovyev - texts of unpublished autographs from the holdings of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, with commentaries and annotations by Nikolai Kotrelev (“Good Intentions Are No Safeguard Against Error...” [ссылка на 5507]).
The “Nabokov” materials in the present issue (see also: Our Heritage. 2000. Nos.52,53) are represented by Vladimir Nabokov’s own notes for the author’s evening in New York (1949) Poems and Commentaries; an essay about Nabokov by Vladimir Lazarev A Herbarium of Living Moments, and also recollections by the writer’s relative, American philologist Marina Ledkovskaya (Notes About the Nabokovs).
We continue publication of chapters from the family chronicle style memoir-novel Notes of a Survivor [ссылка на 5511] by S.M. Golitsyn (see: Our Heritage. 2000. No.54).
One more anniversary in the year 2000 – 200 years since the birth of Yevgeni Boratynsky – is marked by Our Heritage with the publication of poetical exercises of the son, grandson and great-granddaughter of the Russian poet from the collection of the “Muranovo” estate-museum (Family Circle Poetry, [ссылка на 5512]). This is accompanied by a contribution from Marina Klimkova concerning the Artistic Chronicle of the Boratynsky Family [ссылка на 5513], which is devoted to portraits of representatives from this clan in the latter half of the XVIIIth to mid-XIXth centuries, including a canvas from the brush of V.L. Borovikovsky.
In Robert Forrer’s Collection of Printed Textiles in the State Library of Russia [ссылка на 5514], Tatyana Dolgodrova describes this extraordinary collection and the history of the art of printed textiles from the beginning of the XIIth to the end of the XIXth century.
The heritage of The Artist Vladimir Veisberg (1924–1985) is the subject of “Invisible Painting” and Its Author [ссылка на 5515] by Yelena Murina, Veisberg before “white on white” [ссылка на 5516] by Yuri Gerchuk and The “Complete Vision” of the Master [ссылка на 5519] by Dmitri Sarabyanov; Xenia Muratova publishes 20 Statements [ссылка на 5517] by the master about art from her memorial notes; while the article by Lev Smirnov Veisberg’s “Statements” [ссылка на 5518] sheds light on the connection between these pronouncements and his late paintings.
The rubric Bookmark contains reviews of books published in 1999–2000 by Viktor Leonidov and Sergei Shumikhin [ссылки на 5520, 5521].
The permanent rubric “Our Heritage” Gallery presents observations by Valentin Lebedev about the work of the sculptor Nina Zhilinskaya (I Do Not Create Objects, I Create Their Essence..., [ссылка на 5522]) and Galina Kushnerevskaya, Margarita Izotova, and Mikhail Lazarev about the painter Andrei Pozdeyev (Andrei Pozdeyev’s Special Optics, [ссылка на 5523]).