Palekh lacquer miniature fishing in the 1980s: on the eve of the disaster

Lavrov Dmitrii Evgen'evich ORCID: 0000-0002-2607-7220 PhD in Art History Senior Educator, the department of Museology, Saint Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, nab. Universitetskaya, 7-9, aud. 91 agitlak@mail.ru Other publications by this author

It is known that the late periods of the development of art relatively rarely attract the attention of researchers who would rather study the time of its origin and heyday. This also applies to specialists in the Palekh lacquer miniature of the Soviet period: they are more often interested in the 1920s - 1960s – the period of the emergence and "maturation" of this craft. Meanwhile, it was in the 1980s - and in the first half of the decade, and in the era of perestroika – that many of the problems accumulated and broke out in the Palekh fishery, which soon destroyed the familiar world in which the miniature artist used to live and work. This article is intended to fill this significant gap to some extent.

The heart of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft in the 1980s was the Art and Production Workshops of the Palekh Branch of the RSFSR Art Fund (hereinafter referred to as the PCPM), a monopolist organization that united Palekh artists, whose number during this period reached the maximum values in the entire history of the Soviet Palekh craft. So, in 1984, 230 miniature masters worked in the PCPM, and about half of this number were people younger than 35 years old ^[9], which made it possible to talk about the PCPM as a group of young artists: for comparison, in 1945, out of 86 Palekh miniaturists working at that time, only 12 were younger than 45 years old ^{[26, p. 156]}. The "forge of cadres" of future masters was the Palekh Art School (hereinafter referred to as the PHU), the number of students of which also showed positive dynamics: in 1982, 89 students studied at the PHU ^[10], in 1964, only 70 people studied at the PHU ^[3]. The museum activity of the craft was carried out by the State Museum of Palekh Art (hereinafter – the GMPI), whose quantitative indicators were also impressive: for example, in 1982, the GMPI employed 32 people and had more than 13 thousand storage units ^[6] (in 1935, when the GMPI was opened, it employed 7 people and had only 540 storage units ^{[12, p. 53]}).

In the first half of the 1980s, as before, the workers of the Palekh fishery actively worked in the field of spreading state ideology. So, in June 1983 (the period when Yu. V. Andropov was at the head of the USSR), the well-known Resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU "Topical issues of ideological, mass-political work of the party" was issued, declaring as the most important mission of Soviet culture "the formation and elevation of the spiritual needs of man" and, in particular, prescribing "to increase the role of cultural andeducational institutions and leisure organizations for workers, especially in rural areas" ^{[11, p. 426]}. It is on the basis of the history of the Palekh fishery, located in rural areas and, without a doubt, a vivid cultural phenomenon, it is interesting to trace what specific measures were taken to resolve such decisions in the 1980s.

Such measures, first of all, were exhibitions of the works of the students of the Higher School of Economics (their drawings and theses), arranged in the Houses of Culture and schools of the Palekh district, as well as numerous lectures and talks about art held for rural residents of the Palekh district by employees of the Higher School of Economics and the State Medical Institute. So, in April 1984, the secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Higher School of Economics, E. K. Bratchikova, gave a lecture "Folk crafts" in the House of Culture of the village of Ramenye (6 km away. to the west of Palekh), at the same time the teachers of the school A.V. Borunov and E. N. Vikhrev give a lecture "The art of the Soviet Palekh and the training of young artists" in the village of Dorki Malye (between Palekh and Shuya), and another teacher, K. S. Semaykin, at the secondary school of the village of Maidakovo (north of Palekh) conducts a conversation with local schoolchildren on the topic "About instilling love for the chosen profession" ^[15]. During 1984, the staff of the Palekh Museum held 107 lectures on the history of fine art and the Palekh lacquer miniature – among collective farmers, schoolchildren and working collectives of the district (in total, about 2000 people attended these lectures) ^[21].

A more dubious practice, however, was the policy of "patronage" of the Higher School of Economics over the collective farm "Bolshevik" of the village of Ramenye (held at the same time, in 1983-1984). The most harmless event for the progress of future miniature artists within the framework of this "patronage" was a New Year's concert organized by students of the Palekh School in the Ramenskoye House of Culture (under the New 1984), which probably cannot be said about the design of visual agitation for collective farmers, and even more so about sending most of the students (except 4th–year students) to agricultural work in the summer and autumn of 1984, which became the reverse and negative side of the Resolution of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee of 1983, which ordered to take care of the "formation of spiritual human needs" ^[15], but not about sending future Soviet artists "to potatoes".

At the same time, it should be emphasized that, despite such cases, the educational and creative activities of the Palekh college in the 1980s were unusually active and productive (which became especially obvious by contrast after the onset of the crisis of the 1990s) So, in the summer of the same 1984 (when the bulk of the students of the University, as it was just indicated, she helped the collective farm), 4th-year students in the framework of a summer training practice under the guidance of teachers of the college A.V. Gordeev and A. S. Peskov created murals in the All-Union Pioneer camp "Artek" (on the theme of Pushkin's fairy tales), earning honorary diplomas of the Komsomol Central Committee ^[22]. Amateur art was very developed at the school: so, in the spring of 1984, 3rd-year students of the Higher School of Economics took first place in the inter-course amateur art competition (dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school), having the opportunity to make a trip to Moscow and visit Moscow museums for 3 days for free ^[23]. Finally, the exhibition activity of the University was extremely intense, which included not only exhibitions of student works in the surrounding Houses of Culture (as mentioned above), but also participation in numerous official exhibition projects. So, in the fall of 1983, the PHU presented five diploma works of its recent graduates (for 1981 and 1982) at the All-Russian Exhibition "Textile and Light Industry" (held in Moscow), and according to the results of the exhibition, all five works were awarded medals "For success in research work", and the PHU itself was the medal "For active participation in the exhibition" was awarded ^[1].

Of course, the central event in the history of Palekh in the mid-1980s was the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Palekh lacquer miniature, which was celebrated throughout December 1984 and became the last "Soviet" anniversary of this craft. grave graves of I. M. Bakanov, I. I. Golikov and I. I. Zubkov at the Ilyinsky Church, as well as the grave of the famous popularizer of Palekh art, lay fresh flowers at the monument-obelisk of the Great Patriotic War, the House-Museum of the founder of the craft, I. I. Golikov, I. I. Zubkov, at 11 a.m. on December 5, 1984, a delegation from the artists of the PCPM and the Palekh district Committee of the CPSU, lay fresh flowers at the monument-obelisk of the Great Patriotic War, the House-Museum of the founder of the craft, I. I. Golikov, the graves of I. M. Bakanov, I. I. Golikov and I. I. Zubkov at the Ilyinsky Church, as well as the grave of the famous popularizer of Palekh art E. F. Vikhreva at the Holy Cross Church of Palekh ^[19]. On December 8, 1984, the House-Museum of the famous Palekh artist N. M. Zinoviev was opened in the village of Diaghilev, which was destined to become the last branch of the GMPI ^{[13, p. 81]}. The opening of the House-Museum of N. M. Zinoviev, which became possible thanks to the artist's children who donated their father's personal belongings to the museum, was widely covered both in the local ^[20] and central ^[2] press.

On December 24, 1984, a retrospective exhibition "60 years of the art of the Soviet Palekh" was opened in the halls of the GMPI ^[16], consisting of five sections: works by the founding masters of the craft; works by artists of the "second generation"; works by artists of the first editions of the Higher School of Economics (1930s); graduates of the school of the 1940s-1950s and, finally, the works of graduates of the 1960s and 1970s ^[5]. In total, about 800 works were presented at the exhibition ^{[7, p. 5]}, of which more than 600 works were from the funds of the GMPI, and 200 works were provided by the artists of the PCPM. On December 25, 1984, a traditional scientific and creative conference was held in the assembly building of the University of Higher Education ^[18], which was opened by the influential patron of Palekh art, the Minister of Culture of the RSFSR Yu. S. Melentyev, and ended with a festive concert with the participation of the famous singer, performer of Russian folk songs L. G. Zykina ^[20].

At the same time, despite the solemn reports and the growth of quantitative indicators, it was the 1980s in the history of the Palekh fishery that became the time that heralded many crisis phenomena - both old ones that began to come out, and completely new ones, whose appearance for many was unexpected and even something unprecedented.  So, at the end of 1982 – the period of the Andropov anti–corruption raids - there was a precedent with the arrest and conviction of the Palekh artist V. K. Bokarev on charges of speculation. V. K. Bokarev, the son of the famous Palekh artist Konstantin Sergeyevich Bokarev, in 1974-1982 was a regular participant in state exhibitions in the USSR and abroad, secretly fulfilling orders private individuals, and with the proceeds, V. K. Bokarev brought luxury items like jeans and foreign electronics to Palekh at that time. As a result of his arrest, V. K. Bokarev was sentenced to 8 years in prison; at the beginning of perestroika, the term was reduced by 2 times, then the artist was released ^{[26, p. 190]}. Of course, the real reason for the authorities' treatment of V. K. Bokarev was the unwillingness to share the proceeds from the export of palekh products: so, in the early 1980s, PCPMS brought the state a net profit of 1 million rubles annually ^[25].

At the same time, in the first half of the 1980s, reports began to appear in the Palekh periodicals about numerous everyday problems of local artists, which became an amazing contrast compared to the period of "stagnation": before that, for almost 20 years (from the very beginning of the 1960s), they wrote about Palekh exclusively in enthusiastic tones. It is noteworthy that the appearance of such criticism is not hindered by the proximity of anniversary and festive dates, for example, the date of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the fishery, celebrated, as it was indicated, in December 1984. So, in the issue of the newspaper "Call" of December 4, 1984 (on the eve of the anniversary), an article by the secretary of the Komsomol Committee at the PCPM E. A. Populova, dedicated to the difficulties of young Palekh miniaturists: the lack of jobs, which is why young artists have to work at home; difficult living conditions (young families live in a single room, the houses they rent are often in disrepair) ^[17].

The beginning of the open phase of the crisis, which abruptly changed the entire fate of the fishery, of course, were the events of spring-autumn 1989, still known in Palekh under the name of "split". The immediate beginning of the conflict was the trip of the director of the PCPM Alexander Ivanovich Kovalev (who held this post since 1974) to one of the exhibitions of the Palekh miniature in the USA. A. I. Kovalev returned to Palekh with an exhibition catalog of retail prices for American buyers, and after showing it to Palekh artists, he began to complain about the theft of his own and other artists' work. As a result, A. I. Kovalev was dismissed by order of a higher organization (Art Fund of the RSFSR) on September 7, 1989, according to paragraph 1 of Article 254 of the Labor Code of the RSFSR ("a single gross violation of labor duties by an employee bearing disciplinary responsibility in the order of subordination" ^{[8, p. 92]}) – despite the fact that for all For the 15 years that A. I. Kovalev held his post, he did not have a single penalty. In addition, the post of director of the PCPM was abolished, and the workshops themselves were transformed into the Palekh Creative and Production Organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR ^[4].

The result of this turn was the appearance in Palekh of a new, alternative art organization – the cooperative "Association of Palekh Artists", which began to position itself as the sole legal successor of the very first organization of Soviet Palekh miniature painters - the legendary Artel of ancient painting, from the creation of which December 5, 1924 is considered to be the date of birth of the craft ^{[27, p. 649.In the summer of 1989, most of the artists of the former PCPM moved to work in this cooperative, which, of course, only aggravated the ambiguity of the position of the Palekh Creative Production Organization (former PCMP), which literally had just been a monopolist in Palekh art and literally lost both the director and most of the employees, and even the name itself [14, p. 132]}. Among those who changed jobs were both recent graduates of the college and many well–known artists with extensive work experience: E. G. Zhiryakov, K. S. Kochetov, Yu. V. Plekhanov, A.V. Dudorov (who became chairman of the cooperative); in total - about 150 people. It was the organization of the cooperative "Association of Artists of Palekh" in the fall of 1989 that served as the beginning of the mass formation of private commercial art groups in Palekh, which swept the industry in the late 1980s and in the 1990s (for example, the initiator of the "split" A. I. Kovalev already in 1990 became the director of the creative organization "Masters of Palekh").

Thus, the cause of all the main conflicts of the Palekh craft of the 1980s was, ultimately, monetary relations: the most active part of the miniature artists was not satisfied with the financial return on their work and therefore tried to increase their earnings during the perestroika period. The Paleshans themselves, who started the split back in 1989, directly told visiting journalists that the main reason for the "split" was precisely economic: "Problems in the Palekh workshops have been accumulating for years … Unsatisfactory earnings, a long queue for housing" (A.V. Dudorov); "The Board of the Palekh organization ... distributed orders, evaluated products" (E. G. Zhiryakov); "Our creativity began to be measured in centimeters" (Yu. V. Plekhanov) ^[4]. 

Since the spring of 1989, repeated attempts have been made to reconcile the Palekh artists, unfortunately, which did not lead to anything. So, in the spring of 1989, i.e. directly during the period of the "split", a discussion was held in the Palekh newspaper "Appeal" under the title "Art production workshops and the cooperative "Artel of Ancient Painting": "Instead of or together"" (and in the summer of 1989, as a result of this discussion, 150 Palekh miniaturists, as already noted, changed their place of work). Requests for the termination of the "split" were often addressed to artists in December 1994, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft (for example, in the speech of the head of the administration of the Ivanovo region A. F. Laptev) - the first Palekh anniversary in the post–Soviet period ^[24]. Now, three decades after the "split", a new obstacle to such an association is the considerable independent experience of heterogeneous Palekh organizations, groups, firms and workshops. As a result, the words of journalist V. Garov, written by him back in 1989 in the Soviet newspaper "Trud" about the "split", can now be safely considered visionary: "Commerce has put the Palekh on the block. The old Russian art is threatened by something like quartering. As the human body, cut into pieces, ceases to live, so the Palekh folk craft, divided organizationally, can die. The split of Palekh will inevitably lead to rivalry. It seems to be good, let the masters compete – who is better? Will you have to compete only in skill?" ^[4].  

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