Russia, which we gave them. Russian geniuses gained fame outside their homeland, which they were forced to leave

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Painting of the national artist of Russia Dmitry Belyukin “White Russia. Exodus"


Among the brilliant marble palaces, majestic cathedrals and proud monuments to the kings, a modest granite obelisk was lost on the Neva embankment under the gloomy Petersburg sky. It has a laconic inscription: “From this embankment in the autumn of 1922, outstanding figures of Russian philosophy, culture and science went into forced emigration.”

This obelisk is not accidentally installed exactly on the embankment. In this very place there was a steamship on which several major philosophers and a large group of prominent figures of science and culture left Russia at once. More precisely, there were two such ships, which were later called "philosophical". One, Ober Burgomaster Hagen, left Petrograd at the end of September 1922 of the year, the second - Prussia - in November. They delivered more than 160 people to Germany - professors, teachers, doctors, engineers. Among them were such brilliant minds and talents as Ilyin, Trubetskoy, Vysheslavtsev, Berdyaev, Frank, Lossky, Karsavin and many others. They were also sent by trains, steamboats from Odessa and Sevastopol. “Let us cleanse Russia for a long time!”, Vladimir Ilyich pretty much rubbed his hands, on whose personal order this unprecedented action was undertaken.

The participants of the first flight recalled that all the time a bird was sitting on the mast. The captain pointed to her exiles and said: “I do not remember this. This is an extraordinary sign! ”

With his usual cynicism, Lev Trotsky explained it this way: "We sent these people out because there was no reason to shoot them, but it was impossible to endure."

The main goal of the Bolsheviks was to intimidate the intelligentsia, to silence it. But as a result, foreigners, and, above all, the United States, received as a “gift” from Russia a whole cohort of brilliant engineers, inventors, scientists, thinkers who allowed them to push science and technology far forward and develop their culture.

Because of the 1917 disaster of the year and the subsequent dramatic events abroad, millions of Russian people ended up. Some were expelled, others fled themselves, fleeing prisons and executions. The color of the nation, the pride of Russia. The names of these geniuses and talents, our involuntary "gift" to other countries and continents, have been hidden from us for many years, and few of us have known so far some of them ...

Calling the names of those whom Russia lost as a result of this “great exodus”, first of all, they mention Igor Sikorsky and Vladimir Zvorykin, creators of the helicopter and television. However, there are many other such gifts to the Western world that Russia made when the Bolsheviks expelled the best people of the country, our geniuses and talents.

"The greatest chemist of the 20th century"

During the Second World War aviation Allies won the air “battle for England” against Hitler’s Luftwaffe, also because American and British planes flew faster than German. The secret was simple: they were refueled with high-octane gas, invented in the United States by the Russian emigrant Vladimir Ipatiev, who was called the “greatest chemist of the twentieth century”.

Vladimir Nikolaevich was born in a wealthy noble family. In the gymnasium, at first he did not excel in his studies, but in the 6 class, he suddenly became interested in chemistry. Enrolling later in the cadet corps, he graduated with honors. Then he studied at the Alexander Military School and the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg, where chemical disciplines were taught. Soon he became the head of the chemical laboratory, and then a professor of chemistry.

During the First World War, already a lieutenant general, he headed the Chemical Committee at the Main Artillery Directorate.

As a supporter of the monarchy, he did not accept the October revolution, but, being an ardent Russian patriot, he embarked on the path of cooperation with the Soviet authorities. In fact, he became the organizer of the Soviet chemical industry.

Meanwhile, in the USSR, the flywheel of repression and executions spun up more and more actively. Many scientists, Ipatiev's friends were arrested, it became known that his arrest was inevitable. Then, during one of his business trips, he decided to stay in the West. In response, in the USSR he was deprived of the title of academician, and then of his Soviet citizenship, forever forbidding him to return to his homeland.

In the US, Ipatiev became a wealthy man. He taught at universities - one of the universities near Chicago still bears his name. Was a consultant to oil companies. But he invited only Russians or Americans who knew Russian to work at his laboratory.

Ipatiev’s contribution to chemical science is enormous, but it can be characterized with one short phrase: catalytic reactions at high temperatures and pressures. Especially valuable were his discoveries for the production of high-octane gasoline and aviation fuel.

The fame of the scientist from Russia grew. In 1937, he was named the “Man of the Year” in America, he was elected a member of the National Academy of the United States, he became an honorary member of many European universities, and in Paris he was awarded the highest award of the French Chemical Society - the A. Lavoisier Medal. When his 75 anniversary was celebrated, the Nobel Prize laureate R. Willstätter stated: “Never history Chemistry in it did not appear a greater man than Ipatiev. "

Ipatiev was seriously worried about the failures of the Red Army when Hitler attacked the USSR, but was sure that the Russian people would emerge victorious, despite all the hardships.

He was so homesick that he took on the upbringing of two Russian orphan girls. He felt like a stranger abroad, did not buy his house, and until the end of his days he and his wife lived in a hotel room.

Since 1944, Ipatiev has repeatedly tried to get permission to return to Russia. However, the then ambassador to the US, A. Gromyko, each time refused him. In his memoirs, the diplomat later admitted that Ipatiev begged him to return to his homeland "with tears in his eyes." The great Russian scientist, who was destined to become the founder of the US petrochemical industry, died far from Russia in 1952, the 86 year of his life, and was buried in a cemetery in New Jersey. The words: “Russian genius Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatyev. The inventor of octane gasoline. American professor G. Sainz said: “You Russians do not know who you lost in Ipatiev’s face, you don’t even understand who this man was. Every hour of his life here in the United States, he gave all his scientific work to Russia. The infinite love of country, which I have never seen in any of the émigrés, was the soil on which all the outstanding results of the Ipatiev research works grew. ”

“Only God was ahead of us!”

In Soviet times, the best gift from abroad was considered to be a video recorder, a video recorder, as they said. Entrepreneurial comrades, "pushing" him in the commission, with the money in the USSR could buy a cooperative apartment. However, few people, even then, knew that the Russian engineer émigré Alexander Ponyatov was the inventor of this amazing machine in the USA.

Alexander Matveevich was born in the village of Russian Aisha of the Kazan province. In childhood, having shown a penchant for technology, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of Kazan University. Then he applied to St. Petersburg University, but, in the end, carried away by aviation, continued his studies in Moscow. He met the “father of Russian aviation” Zhukovsky, who recommended that he go to study in Germany. From there, Ponyatov returned only when the war began. After graduating from the school of pilots, for some time he served in the coastal artillery of the Baltic fleet, pilot of a military seaplane, but was injured during the accident. He did not accept the revolution and ended up in the White Army. He made the legendary “Ice Campaign”, getting into the 30 degree frost from Siberia to Manchuria. Once in China, he worked as a translator, electrical engineer in Harbin, waiting for a visa to the United States.

America was then at the top of a booming tech boom, engineers were needed everywhere. But first, the Russian émigré worked as a civilian seaplane pilot, and in his spare time he made instruments in the old barn. Soon he created his own firm, Ampex. The first three letters of the abbreviation were simply deciphered: Alexander Matveyevich Ponyatov. The abbreviation "Ex" was derived from the English word "Experimental" - "Experienced".

During World War II, the company, in agreement with the US Navy, supplied components for radar installations to the fleet. Soon the German trophy got into Ponyatov’s hands: “Recorder of sounds on magnetic tape”, a tape recorder developed by the German company AEG. A talented inventor immediately thought: why not create a machine that would tape an image?

The case turned out to be very difficult. Even the great Russian engineer who worked in the United States, the inventor of television, Vladimir Zvorykin, said: "It is impossible to do!". And Ponyatov himself confessed: "For seven years, only God was ahead of us!"

As a result, his firm unveiled the first commercial video recorder in Chicago in April 1956.

The famous pop singer Bing Crosby, who was pathologically afraid of microphones during live broadcasts of concerts, helped to push the invention. He invested thousands of dollars in 50, a large amount of money at the time.

"Vidaki" immediately began to enjoy a furious success. Ponyatov's firm grew rapidly, and soon about 12 thousand people already worked on it. Glory and many awards fell upon the Russian inventor. After his death, the American Society of Engineers even established the Poniatov Gold Medal. And at Stanford University opened a museum dedicated to him. But even at the height of his fame, Alexander Matveyevich never forgot about his distant homeland, which he was not destined to see. He tried to recruit as many Russians as possible, supported the Russian nunnery, founded St. Vladimir’s home in San Francisco for elderly immigrants from Russia, and by all means planted Russian birches at the doors of his offices.

At the end of his life, the great inventor admitted: “I have achieved everything, I have a wonderful company. But I have no children, and there is no one to continue my business ... I would have transferred all my experience to my country! But this is impossible. Even a branch of my company in Russia is not allowed to create. "

In the autumn of 1956, Ponyatov met with N.S. Khrushchev during the visit of the Soviet leader in the United States. And at the American exhibition in Sokolniki, his VCR was shown, but no one, of course, knew that it was made by a Russian emigrant.

N. Khrushchev met with US President R. Nixon on tape, and then sent Nikita Sergeyevich a video tape as a gift. However, it turned out that there was nothing to look at in the USSR. N. Khrushchev was furious, stamped his feet, ordered the Soviet scientists to immediately create their own VCR. But it turned out to be very difficult, even with an American model. And the authorities of the compatriot to organize their production in the USSR with his help, the authorities refused ...

The great inventor died in the year 1980, and not recognized during his life in the homeland.

"I am glad that I am Russian!"

It was October 29 1932, France rejoiced. From the slipways of the Penoy shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, under the enthusiastic cries of the 200-thousand crowd, the world's largest passenger airliner, the Normandy, was launched. The president of the republic was present at the ceremony, the orchestra played Marseillaise, and the corks of champagne bottles slammed. High state awards received the management of the company that built the ship. No one paid any attention to the modest middle-aged man, who was aloof. And it was a Russian shipbuilding engineer Vladimir Yurkevich, the author of a bold project of an unprecedented ship ...

There was no such vessel as the Normandy in the world. The hull weight exceeded 27 thousand tons, length - 313 meters, width - 36, and the speed reached 30 nodes - a record for those times. Everyone was also amazed by the unprecedented luxury of the liner, the construction of which cost the French treasury huge sums of money - 200 million dollars. On the "Normandy" was 11 decks, tennis courts, a garden with birds, a huge pool, a chapel, a garage for a hundred cars, and the dining room was designed for a thousand people. When finishing the cabins did not skimp on marble, silk, gold and silver. It was a real floating super city for the rich. Thanks to him, France surpassed England, Germany and Italy, became a trendsetter of maritime fashion and received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, a challenge prize awarded to passenger ships for speed record at the intersection of the ocean separating Europe and America.

French newspapers wrote about it, choking with delight. But none of the journalists at the same time did not mention that the unique streamlined hull of the liner, which allowed him to set a speed record, was designed by Russian, Yurkevich, the engines were made by another engineer from Russia, Artulov, and the screws by engineer Kharkovich. Why report about it? After all, they were all immigrants ...

Vladimir Yurkevich was born in Moscow to a noble family. My father taught geography at a prestigious gymnasium and was one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society. Since childhood, young Vladimir dreamed of the sea and ships, well drew and was fond of mathematics. After graduating from high school with a gold medal, he moved to the banks of the Neva - he entered the shipbuilding department of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. And then he graduated from the last course of the Kronstadt Naval School of the Navy, became a lieutenant and was ready to design ships. “We were taught extremely well!” He later admitted.

It was a time when, after losing the 1905 war on Japan, Russia launched a large program to build powerful warships.

Yurkevich was assigned to the Baltic Shipbuilding Plant and took part in the creation of the lead ship of the first series of Russian battleships dreadnoughts - Sevastopol.

These ships were heading ahead of all foreign projects of that time in size, speed and other parameters. Soon, Yurkevich was appointed designer of the technical shipbuilding bureau of the plant, where work began on the creation of four enormous cruisers of the Izmail series. Here he proposed a revolutionary solution - a new, streamlined shape of the ship's hull. In this form, it could reach the speed of 28 nodes with lower machine power and lower fuel consumption. But this radical innovation was not used. It was patented only in 1928 year in Germany and entered the history of world shipbuilding as a “Yurkevich form”.

Soon the war broke out, and after it the revolution. Began a complete collapse of the rapidly developing before the industry of Russia. Factories stopped, the program of building large ships was postponed. In 1917, the hull of the unique cruiser "Izmail" was dismantled, and more low, in 1923, the government of the Bolsheviks sold three other cruisers to Germany for a penny. Yurkevich was sent to Nikolaev, where submarines were assembled at the Baltic plant. On the way, a group of engineers fell into the hands of anarchist gangs and barely carried off their legs, and finding themselves in Nikolaev, found that he was already captured by the Germans. The genius of Russian shipbuilding had no choice but to emigrate.

In Istanbul, like other Russian refugees, Yurkevich had to eat a bang. First, a graduate engineer worked as a loader in the port, then, together with other immigrants, organized a car repair shop for repairing machines. Two years later, the family moved to France. Yurkevich knew French brilliantly, but did not recognize his diploma, and he had to work as a turner at the Renault plant. In the end, his knowledge was appreciated and taken as a consultant to the shipbuilding company Penoye. The hungry engineer starts working like a man obsessed, he spends his days and nights in the design bureau.

“Europe has not yet approached the issues that our teachers put to us in Russia,” Yurkevich wrote down, assessing the development of shipbuilding in those years.
When the company received an order for the Normandy, Yurkevich proposed his revolutionary design for the streamlined hull, which he had already tried on cruisers in St. Petersburg. It took him two years to convince the French of its advantages. In the end, 25 models of various projects that were tested in the pool were built, and Yurkevich’s proposal was recognized as the best.

The fame of the ingenious inventor grew, and they began to aggressively invite him overseas. War was approaching Europe, and Yurkevich understood that in America, with its capabilities, he would be able to realize his projects more freely. The French also began to fuss; in 1937, they offered him citizenship, but he had already gone overseas and opened a shipbuilding office in New York. In 1939, his family finally moved to the United States. Over the years in the US, Yurkevich built the 42 vessel. He developed a unique project of a “cheaper” ocean liner on the 8 of thousands of passengers, which could move at an incredible speed for those times at the 34 node. The ticket price in it was 50 dollars, which in those times could compete with air travel. However, to implement this innovative plan, alas, failed. The time has come for big planes, and transatlantic air travel has become more profitable. He worked as a consultant to the US Fleet Management, and that's how the ideas of the Russian shipbuilder were incorporated into the design projects of the first American aircraft carriers.

Over the ocean, Yurkevich never for a moment forgot about his homeland. When Hitler attacked the USSR, he came out in support of the Red Army, took an active part in the work of the Russian Support Committee, and assisted the Soviet procurement commission in Washington. “It is the duty of every Russian to help his homeland with all that he can when he is in mortal danger,” he said then. He was ready to do ship projects for the USSR, headed the association of St. Petersburg polytechnics in the United States. When entering the Soviet embassy, ​​Yurkevich proudly declared: “I am glad that I am Russian!”.

Alas, in the homeland attitude to the emigrant was different. Taboo was imposed on his name in the USSR. Mention of the genius shipbuilder was not in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, and the newspapers did not write a single line about it until the nineties of the last century.

Yurkevich died on December 13 1964 of the year and was buried in the cemetery of the Russian monastery in Novo-Diveevo, in 40 kilometers from New York.

Teacher of the President of the United States

Many Russian philosophers and scientists have become celebrities in exile. Nikolay Berdyaev, for example, was recognized as the leading thinker of Europe and had a great influence on the development of European philosophy. The Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin made a great contribution to science, and his thoughts about the fate of Russia are still relevant. The great scientist Pitirim Sorokin, who died in the United States, was on the list of those destined for expulsion on the “philosophical steamship”. The first part of his life is full of dramas and adventures worthy of the coolest adventure novel.

Sorokin was born in the remote village of Turya in the Vologda province. His father was a craftsman, and his mother - a simple peasant. She died when her son was only four years old. In 11, Pitirim and his brother left home. They roamed the villages, performing "painting and decorative works in churches." However, later Sorokin recalled with gratitude these difficult "universities of life", which enabled him to find out what the Russian people are and what he thinks about. Despite the vagrancy and hard work, the boy avidly read, he entered the school. However, he was then expelled from the seminary. He was arrested for "revolutionary propaganda": the young man became interested in the romantic ideas of the socialists. “We were apostles; we didn’t take anything with us except a revolver and cartridges,” he later recalled.

After his release, Sorokin went to St. Petersburg. In his pocket it was at least a tipping ball, young Pitirim was riding a train “hare”, and then he agreed with the conductor, began to clean the toilets. In the capital, Sorokin had neither relatives nor acquaintances. He got a tutor "for the corner and the food." He studied on courses he had to walk on, doing daily 15 versts. Nevertheless, the young man was cheerful and full of optimism. Soon Sorokin became a student. He entered the Psychoneurological Institute, and then the law faculty of the university. Then it was a hotbed of revolutionary ideas. He enthusiastically mastered knowledge and rushed headlong into the turbulent maelstrom of political life, joined the Social Revolutionary Party, edited the newspaper. His first scientific work was called "Crime and retribution, feat and reward." His talent was noticed, left at the department, and soon he became a master of law.

But then a revolution broke out. Alexander Kerensky offered Sorokin his secretary’s place. After the October coup, the political scientist ended up in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but after two months he was released. He did not accept the Bolsheviks, fiercely opposed a separate peace with the Germans, then he went to the north of Russia to prepare an armed anti-Bolshevik uprising. In Veliky Ustyug fell into the hands of the Cheka, and he was sentenced to death. So the world could have lost a great scientist.

But at this moment in the worldview of Sorokin there was a sharp coup. He became disillusioned with the political struggle, believing that his work was science, the enlightenment of the people, and published a letter called "The Abdication of Pitirim Sorokin." It caught the eye of Lenin, who called him a "sign of a turn" to the Bolsheviks of the whole class.

This saved the scientist from death, he returned to Petrograd and again engaged in science.

However, with the Bolsheviks, Sorokin was decidedly out of the way. He came to the conclusion that the most important consequence of the revolution was the “degradation of the population of Russia”. He spoke and wrote about it openly.

"The peoples will find the strength to free themselves from the yoke of Bolshevism," he declared.

Sorokin was included in the list of scientists and cultural figures who were expelled from Petrograd on a “philosophical steamer”.

However, he left 23 September 1922, after all the train. Soon he found himself in Prague, where he was invited by a friend, the then president of Czechoslovakia, Tomas Masaryk. He began to lecture, publish books. Soon he was offered to give lectures in the USA, where he remained. He studied English and began teaching at Harvard, where he headed the department of sociology. One by one, he writes outstanding works, gets fame and soon becomes chairman of the US Sociological Society. Among his respectful students, who listened to the famous professor from Russia, opened their mouths are the children of US President Franklin Roosevelt and future President John F. Kennedy.

Sorokin bought a house in Winchester not far from Harvard, where he quietly lived the years allotted to him by God along with his faithful companion to life, Elena Baratynskaya, who had given him two sons. Views of St. Petersburg hung on the walls, notes with works by Tchaikovsky were on the piano, and Russian books were on the shelves. About the distant homeland, he did not forget for a minute. During the war, he became chairman of the Society for Assistance to Warring Russia, convincing Americans that by helping the USSR, they are bringing victory over Hitler closer.

Sorokin did not accept the "American way of life", where they worshiped the strong, reigned the cult of money and the desire for profit at any cost.

Yielded only Picasso ...

The exodus of not only scientists, philosophers and engineers, but also cultural figures was just as massive. The brilliant singers Shalyapin and Plevitskaya left the world of birth; the world’s ballet dancers Pavlova, Kshesinskaya, Karsavina, Nijinsky, the outstanding choreographer Fokin, who created the American Ballet Theater, the brilliant actor Mikhail Chekhov, prominent writers - Bunin, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, Martial arts, Marcus Chekhov, prominent writers - Nobel Prize in literature, Martial Arts; Zamyatin, Zaitsev, Northerner, Averchenko, artists Korovin, Kandinsky, Chagall, Benoit, Bakst, Goncharova ...

However, until now very few people know about the most popular Russian artist of the twentieth century in the world, born in Petropavlovsk Vladimir Grigorievich Tretchikove. In 1961, a record was set in London - 205 was visited by thousands of people, and he was second only to Pablo Picasso in sales of his paintings.

Vladimir Grigorievich was born in December 1913 of the year in southern Siberia, on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, in a wealthy peasant family. He was strikingly similar to another world celebrity among Russian peasants - Sergey Yesenin. Although he himself did not know about it, he was already told about this by his old age, Soviet journalists who had arrived in South Africa during the “perestroika” era. In Petropavlovsk, his ancestors from the Molokan sect migrated, probably from the south of Russia. After 1917, together with his parents in Harbin, the young emigrant lost them early, and was forced to earn a piece of bread from 11 for years. He worked as a printer in the printing house, a laborer in the theater, painted the scenery, and drew all his free time, feeling that this was his vocation.

When he turned 15 years old, Volodya painted very similar to the original portraits of Lenin, whom he had never seen, as well as the leader of the Chinese revolution, Sun Yat-sen. These drawings led to the delight of the director of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which then belonged to the USSR. He generously provided the young artist with money and sent to study in Moscow. But Tretchikov was unlucky - in Shanghai, he was robbed by his own brother. However, it may be the opposite: a failed trip to a country where, according to Soviet propaganda, they created a “paradise for the working people”, saved the young talent from very big troubles. After all, it is known that all the workers of the CER that came later to the USSR were arrested as “Japanese spies” and disappeared in Stalin’s camps.

In a word, the talented Russian youth had to begin his artist career in Southeast Asia.

At first he worked as a cartoonist in the Shanghai Evening Post newspaper - he won this place through a competition, then he was hired by the largest advertising agency of the British Malaya. The first successes were also evident - in 1939, Tertchikov received a medal from the Gallery of Science and Art in New York. The young artist had not only extraordinary talent, but also an incredible ability to work, worked both day and night. He painted in oil, watercolor, charcoal, pencil. Worked quickly and accurately. Soon he married Natalya Teplugova, a girl from the family of Russian émigrés. But then the Second World War broke out, which caught Tretchikov in Singapore, the then British colony, where he worked in the Ministry of Information. After the Japanese bombardment, the wife and daughter managed to evacuate to Cape Town along with the retreating British troops, and the ship on which the Tertchikov later wanted to leave was sunk by the Japanese.

The artist miraculously survived. There were no seats on the steamer, and he climbed into the boat, on which the passengers of the ship, which was rapidly going to the bottom, then escaped. For three weeks he paddled with oars under the scorching sun in the shark-infested sea. Corns did not go away with his hands for ten years. He managed to get to the island of Java, but there he was immediately imprisoned, because the island was already occupied by Japanese soldiers. But when it turned out that Japan did not enter the war against the USSR, they released Tretchikov.

In Java, his fate brought him to the rich collector of paintings - Dr. Sukarno, the future president of Indonesia. He wanted to buy paintings from Tretchikov, but he refused a bargain, saying that he wanted to arrange an exhibition. “What exhibition when war is going on?” Sukarno was amazed. Since then, Tretchikov has been nicknamed "Russian crazy."

Throughout the war, the artist spent in Indonesia, in Jakarta, for five years he did not know what happened to his wife and child who sailed to South Africa. For life, he again earned with a brush and pencil, painted caricatures, wrote portraits to order. It was there that he began to create paintings, which later became his corporate identity. One of them, called the "Red Jacket", depicted an oriental beauty with an impenetrable face and a semi-naked breast in a red jacket casually draped over her shoulders, and a Malay ritual dagger was lying next to her.

Unusual for those years, the erotic challenge contained in the picture, and elements of Eastern exoticism was a success. Leonora Moltemo - he called her "Lenka" - the daughter of a Dutch pilot who posed for this picture, became his friend and his muse. She believed that this painting was a kind of artist's talisman. And in fact, when he sold it, Tretchikova began to pursue misfortunes, luck turned away from him. Twice he got into the worst car accidents, barely survived. Indication of fate was understood by him, the artist bought the painting-charm back.

Once Leonora led him to a seance. There, it was announced to Tretchikov that his wife and daughter were alive, and world fame was waiting for him. The artist did not believe at first, but that is exactly what happened. In 1946, his wife and daughter were found in Cape Town, and the Red Cross helped the family to unite. Tertchikov, after parting with Leonora, went with his luggage from numerous paintings in South Africa, where he stayed with his family forever.

However, at first no one wanted to buy his paintings. But one day a pigeon flew into his workshop, on the paw of which was a tag with the number 13. Tertchikov considered it a happy sign, and immediately painted a portrait of this bird. And indeed, from that day everything changed. His pictures are interested. At his first exhibitions in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, kilometer queues began to line up, all records for fees were broken. It is successfully held in the United States. In London, his exhibition is visited by more than 200 thousand people. Talk shows with his participation on television watching millions of viewers in England and Canada.

Pictures of the Russian artist are sold for fabulous money. In the 1970-1980, Tretchikov is the highest grossing artist in the world, second to Pablo Picasso in the number of works sold. They did not know him only in one country - the USSR.

Especially successful was the famous “Chinese Woman” - an exotic lady depicted on a canvas with a face of a strange greenish hue. For residents of England, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, the reproductions from this painting became as familiar as we have “Three Bogatyrs” or “Morning in a Pine Forest”, which in Soviet times hung in all catering establishments.

For the philistine of the Anglo-Saxon countries, the Tretchikov canvases were the personification of the distant and fabulous East. In addition, they are in good harmony with the then-fashioned apartment interiors and James Bond films. When David Bowie was asked what picture he would like to buy the most, the famous singer replied without hesitation: “The Chinese Woman” Tretchikov. On the artist's work several films were shot by the largest film corporations, including BBC and Eurovision.

He worked in the style of hyper-realism, wrote mostly portraits. And art critics argued fiercely and continue to argue about his peculiar work, some consider the paintings of the Russian artist "kitsch", others say Gauguin’s great influence on him.

He did not go to Russia again, but he did not forget the Russian language. He spoke English poorly, Afrikaans, spoken by the local population, did not know at all. He was going to come home when the USSR collapsed, but he already felt old and frail for such a long trip. Vladimir Tretchikov died at the zenith of glory at the age of 93 years - of which he spent 60 years in Africa - at his fashionable villa in the suburb of Cape Town Bishop Court, surrounded by caring children and grandchildren, in 2006 year.

... Autumn in St. Petersburg, as always, damp and rainy. The embankments of the Neva are tightened by a thick fog, through which the silhouettes of ships leaving for the sea are barely guessed. Tears flow down the granite of a modest obelisk of a drop of rain, recalling the sad farewell to the Motherland of those who had to leave it against their will. The bitterness overwhelms our hearts when we are late for many years beginning to realize more clearly what Russia has lost along with its exiles. Here is a story about only a few Russian people, great talents who died in a foreign land. But there were hundreds, thousands. What would Russia be like today if it were not for the executions, the repressions and the Leninist “philosophical ships”? ..
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  1. +19
    4 December 2013 08: 50
    An interesting presentation of historical essays about our geniuses. In 1980 in Paris, after negotiations with the president of Thomson, brother of the President of France (I negotiated on the joint development of a microwave landing system, I was invited to an evening at Maxim. Here, whether by chance or not, a charming girl invited me to dance before the show began After a conversation with her and her father, it became clear that she was the granddaughter of a lady who left Russia on the first steamer from the Schmidt embankment in 1922. I described this case in detail in the novel Ice Wall 2. Then the 2nd secretary of our embassy I did not tell anything about this case. It was impossible to do. But I keep the memory of these people forced to leave their homeland. Later I met with his son Sikorsky in Barcelona at an aviation exhibition. We exchanged souvenirs and discussed for a long time the directions of development of radio-technical aviation systems. gave me a golden badge of my father's helicopter, and I gave him a book about Leningrad.Russian people remember their great compatriots, they loved Russia.
  2. makarov
    +13
    4 December 2013 09: 03
    It is sad to read this material, but unfortunately this is true. About 10 years ago, an Arkhangelsk researcher Yuri Doikov came to me to study the activities of Pitirim Sorokin, and later published a book about him. He flew to me on the subject of materials about Sergey Postnikov. The academician himself was forced to work as a doorman in a local cafe for a man of great work and mind, who was in exile in my city. If anyone is interested, here are links about him and about the teacher Nestor Makhno. http://lebed.com/2005/art4416.htm
    http://lebed.com/2007/art4971.htm
  3. bif
    +6
    4 December 2013 09: 06
    Yes, the weather is really rubbish, as is the aftertaste from the article. It is not in vain that the Russian language is rich in sayings and metaphors "What we do not value - when we lose we cry .." One thing is good that the giant drain of brains and talents in the 1990s stopped and there is a reverse trend .... even though it is still weak!
    1. Vovka levka
      +5
      4 December 2013 23: 23
      You think so?
      Personally, I'm not sure. A lot of my friends left, and everyone there works in their specialty.
    2. The comment was deleted.
    3. go
      +1
      5 December 2013 03: 11
      Quote: bif
      Yes, the weather is really rubbish, as is the aftertaste from the article. It is not in vain that the Russian language is rich in sayings and metaphors "What we do not value - when we lose we cry .." One thing is good that the giant drain of brains and talents in the 1990s stopped and there is a reverse trend .... even though it is still weak!


      Something I’m observing a different trend ... if you have statistics, tell me, I can see other statistics with my own eyes, because as Bolsheviks (who were not Russians at the top) then highly educated people in Russia weren’t needed, but they needed b% ; No, it’s easy to manage and tell tales, while they share the loot and power, and now similar trends in Russia, judging by the level of education (and do not judge by Moscow and Peter - look at some kind of district center or village) and the fact that it is supported in words, but in fact the educational budget is reduced (see the budget for this year).

      Why are they smart? But you can buy everything for petrodollars (as long as they are there - and when they don’t care - children are all overseas), and it’s better for the people to do the Olympics and give a salary to the state corporation for pumping this oil (i.e. bread and circuses), and they can go smart demanding something .. why are they?
  4. +5
    4 December 2013 10: 03
    We must learn from the mistakes of the past - so as not to allow them in the future.
    Unfortunately, we now have a situation such that anyone comes to us in Russia and lures the most promising and talented young people. Those who are able to generate new thoughts, make discoveries, etc.
    Imagine a situation when someone came to your house and started fumbling around the house in search of good and valuable things. Then he calmly packed these things, smiled at you, waved his pen and left. Rave? Yes, exaggerated of course nonsense. But this is exactly what is happening now in Russia. The country, together with parents, educates, treats, supports, educates children. After they grow up, foreign barkers come (well, together with ours, of course, who do not care how to make money) and lure young people to themselves but training and subsequent work.
    It seems that no one controls this process from the state - which is what foreigners use.
    If we recall, for example, about the law of Dima Yakovlev - on limiting the adoption of children for residents of individual countries, it turns out that the adoptive parents are much more decent in relation to our country than these barkers. After all, at least they adopt children at a young age, they independently raise and treat them.
    For some reason, it seems that it is not in the interests of either the state or you and I to look at how the luring of young, healthy, promising young people from Russia is carried out.
    It is necessary to do something about this, so that if not to nullify, then seriously limit this "movement".
    If the state does not want tomorrow we have only pensioners and migrants, it is necessary to take measures both at the level of laws and at the level of administrative barriers.
    1. +7
      4 December 2013 15: 07
      Quote: aud13
      Unfortunately, we now have a situation such that anyone comes to us in Russia and lures the most promising and talented young people.


      In the 2012 year, 5670 physicists, 1349 chemists, 986 biologists and not a single traffic cop left Russia from abroad ...
      1. Vovka levka
        +2
        4 December 2013 23: 32
        Quote: APES

        In the 2012 year, 5670 physicists, 1349 chemists, 986 biologists and not a single traffic cop left Russia from abroad ...

        One of my very good acquaintances left for Canada, a specialist from God. At least for now I haven’t come across better than him. But that is not the point. I asked him why you were leaving, no matter how good it was, but will we always be strangers there? He answered, I understand everything, I’m not going for myself. I’m going for the sake of the children, so that they would not see all this.

        PS My children are also growing, and there are different thoughts too.
  5. +5
    4 December 2013 10: 32
    What a strong and smart nation we have!
    And what is characteristic of not a single person in the West has such an unrequited, pure love for his Motherland, it seems that our Motherland is imprinted in our genes, and there is nothing to eradicate it!
    1. +1
      4 December 2013 16: 59
      - Baklanov: what a strong and smart nation we have!
      According to the Americans themselves, more than 80% of Nobel Prize winners have Russian roots.
  6. +3
    4 December 2013 10: 39
    The question is, and what awaited these people in tsarist Russia with its 90% peasant population? Okay, those who are engaged in pure science, and the production workers? The shame of World War I exhaustively provides an answer to this question. And where did you get the idea that the United States could not do without these people? There were so many engineers and scientists that RI could only envy.
    I’m not going to run into anyone who has left in a difficult time, but it would be nice to remember those who, without October, would have remained an illiterate peasant, or simply died of starvation. And about those who, like Vernadsky, were grumbling at the Soviet power, but they worked and received Stalin's prizes.
  7. +5
    4 December 2013 10: 41
    I liked the article, it was laid out calmly, without ideological cliches and labeling; there are little-known interesting facts. In this regard, I thought from the fact that Russia is surprisingly rich in talented people ... After all, despite the losses during the civil war and emigration, new talents appeared in the country - we still have to learn how to support and value them in time, and not act on the principle - we have no irreplaceable ...
    1. dmb
      0
      4 December 2013 21: 19
      Excuse me, well, if this is a calm presentation without clichés, then the comment below "a truly Russian patriot", as a nickname using an English expression in Latin, is the top of balance. The author is not a stupid person, and therefore, not wishing to be like the aforementioned gentleman, he does not shout: "All to the furnace or to the stake." However, there is no analysis of the reasons for expulsion in the article. Apparently it is simply not convenient for the author.
  8. +1
    4 December 2013 11: 37
    Quote: ranger
    I liked the article, it was laid out calmly, without ideological cliches and labeling; there are little-known interesting facts. In this regard, I thought from the fact that Russia is surprisingly rich in talented people ... After all, despite the losses during the civil war and emigration, new talents appeared in the country - we still have to learn how to support and value them in time, and not act on the principle - we have no irreplaceable ...


    Aren't the "Stalinist camps" an ideological cliché? There are no irreplaceable ones, but this does not mean that there are no talented people.
  9. +4
    4 December 2013 13: 28
    <<< "Let's cleanse Russia for a long time!", Vladimir Ilyich rubbed his hands contentedly, on whose personal order this unprecedented action was undertaken. Leon Trotsky, with his characteristic cynicism, explained it this way: “We exiled these people because there was no reason to shoot them, and it was impossible to endure.” >>>
    The time has come, finally, to REALLY cleanse Russia of, now, the descendants of the Bolshevik Shvonderoviches, who, both then and today, in principle, do not tolerate intellectuals, scientists, professors, talented engineers, designers, and artists in Russia. , simply educated people and, having changed their colors in pro-Western libesralov-market people, declaring themselves to be the intellectual elite, are pursuing the same policy of decaying Russia, defaming everything national, Russian! Today they both openly and covertly act as the 5th column used by the West for constant attacks and pressure on Russia. This anti-Russian trash, which "cannot be shot, cannot be tolerated," must be collected and sent, as then, on steamers, giving them the name "ASSENIZATION"!
  10. +2
    4 December 2013 15: 22
    God grant us to be able to learn from history.
    If a revolution happens now, the country will fall apart forever.
  11. 0
    4 December 2013 15: 38
    Neither Trotsky nor Lenin are examples of "Russianness"!
    These people are an example of fanatical commitment to ideas.
    Therefore, I see no reason to blame everyone and everything.
    Stalin, by the way, "raised" the intelligentsia, so about the "Stalinist camps" - a stamp !!!
  12. SIT
    +4
    4 December 2013 16: 35
    Thank you for the article. To his shame, nobody knew I. Sikorsky and V. Zvorykin (((
  13. uhjpysq1
    -6
    4 December 2013 16: 48
    ) Sikorsky did military helicopters. Which were supposed to kill you. And you here dismissed the nurses. It was necessary to bang him.
    1. 11111mail.ru
      +4
      4 December 2013 18: 38
      Quote: uhjpysq1
      Sikorsky did military helicopters. Which were supposed to kill you. And you here nurse dismissed. It was necessary to bang him

      uhjpysq1, kills not a thing, not a piece of iron, it is a man who kills. Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was born into the family of Professor of Psychiatry Ivan Sikorsky, a prominent Kiev figure of the Union of the Russian People. Perhaps your father's social activities have caused your unrighteous anger.
      That's about "banging", so you apply it to your relatives, having previously warned them!
      1. uhjpysq1
        -7
        4 December 2013 21: 22
        ) It’s better for yours and without warning))))
  14. 11111mail.ru
    +1
    4 December 2013 18: 45
    Alexander Kartveli and Alexander Seversky created the P-47. Thunderbolt became the most massive American fighter - in total, 15683 aircraft of this type were produced before the production stopped.
  15. 0
    4 December 2013 19: 32
    As a supporter of the monarchy, the October Revolution did not accept


    What kind of nonsense?

    And about II Sikorsky. He left, as I recall, in early 1918. And then the ship with talkers? He left the instability of the revolution, not the Bolsheviks.
    In general, with the exception of memories of really smart people (Sikorsky, Zvorykin, Ipatiev), the article clearly hears the "crunch of French buns"
  16. uhjpysq1
    -5
    4 December 2013 21: 29
    the mistake was to send these talkers .. to the wall of everyone. so that the minds would not poison. Solzhenitsyn was also sent. so he shook his head from the people.
  17. +3
    4 December 2013 22: 06
    And how much more are worthy of memory and gratitude from the Russian people ...
  18. coserg 2012
    +2
    4 December 2013 23: 04
    I’ll probably call the fire upon myself with my statement. But our Russia seems to me like a fruit tree with wonderful fruits. Every year they are born and ripen. And if they were taken to another country, this does not mean at all that the next ones will be worse. A person has always looked for better that's all. Another thing is when persecution, then you have to leave in captivity. I look at my grandchildren. Two graduated from school with gold, two with silver. We went to act, everywhere are thieves (naturally stupid) and with money. But smart ones are not needed (without money). So with regard to this article, to whom m We will present the Russian ???????????
  19. The comment was deleted.
  20. alex-kon
    +1
    5 December 2013 13: 45
    Unfortunately, this is not the last wave with the current reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences and education. The remnants of younger scientists will leave or be re-qualified as managers, and the rest will be dispersed as unnecessary. Today's children are already being trained by athletes (math lessons are being cut in favor of physical education and religion). The country needs a slave. power not able to think. crying
  21. 0
    5 December 2013 15: 05
    Quote: bif
    that the giant brain drain and talents in the 1990s stopped

    continues, although not on the scale that 15-20 years ago. Technicians and natural scientists (young people, after defending a diploma in a normal university), 50-60 percent go to graduate school or work abroad. The geography is only changing - now it has become a lot to leave for Asia: South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"