The critical situation in the field of protection of cultural heritage and, first of all, monuments of architecture, has long become a "byword". The establishment in 2008 of the prize, dedicated to the memory of Alexei Komech, a world-renowned architectural historian and selfless fighter against arbitrariness in relation to cultural heritage, was an important step in the consolidation of social forces opposing these destructive processes. The author of the idea of such an award was Aleksey Ilyich's brother, professor at the Vienna and Munich Universities Alexander Komech, and the Founders Committee included the heads of influential cultural institutions - the director of the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature (VGBIL) named after V. I. M. I. Rudomino Ekaterina Genieva, director of the State Institute of Art History (GII) Dmitry Trubochkin, director of the publishing house "Northern Pilgrim" Sergei Obukh. Among the members of the jury, chaired by one of the leading experts in the field of ancient Russian art, Lev Lifshits, there are authoritative experts in the field of heritage protection, such as the director of the Russian Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage Yuri Vedenin, professor of Moscow Architectural Institute Natalya Dushkina (she became its first laureate immediately after the establishment of the award) other. Over the years of the existence of the Prize. A. I. Komech was awarded to many specialists and social activists, united by a common cause and loyalty to the once chosen principles. The laureate of the Prize for 2011 by the decision of the jury was recognized the public movement "Arhnadzor", through whose efforts the problem of protecting the national culture has received an unprecedented social significance.
This year the jury decided to award two prizes at once. The laureates were Tatyana Vasilyeva, Deputy Director for Research, LLC Yaroslavl Art Workshop “Restorator”, and the staff of the “House-Museum of MA Voloshin”in Koktebel, headed by director Natalya Miroshnichenko. For each of the awards, there is a story of courageous resistance to circumstances and specific representatives of power structures, who turned out to be merciless to such a fragile substance that has no described value as cultural memory. These gloomy realities, despite the state borders that arose in the early 90s, alas, remain common to different parts of the post-Soviet space, be it the Yaroslavl Region lying in Central Russia or the Crimean Koktebel, located on the territory of Ukraine.
As a museum employee in the 70s - mid 80s, Tatyana Lvovna Vasilyeva established an active expeditionary activity, collecting works of decorative and applied arts and fine arts throughout the Yaroslavl region. She continued this work later as the head of the regional service for the protection of monuments. Maintaining one's civic position, once inside the bureaucratic hierarchy, is a difficult task, bordering on a feat. In her many years of opposition to attempts to distort the historical appearance of Yaroslavl, Tatyana Vasilyeva has never betrayed herself and the vocation of the keeper of the national culture, which she is throughout her life, regardless of the positions held.
For the Koktebel “House-Museum of M. A. Voloshin”, the era of“wild capitalism”that fell in the 1990s could well have turned out to be fatal. The museum in the status of a village cultural object had no chance of survival in the new economic conditions with specific and difficult interethnic relations in Crimea. During this unusually difficult period, the employees of the House-Museum … headed by the director Natalya Miroshnichenko managed to accomplish a real miracle: already in 1996, the museum's status was raised to republican, it was possible not only to save the practically dying house of Maximilian Voloshin, but also to create an impressive reserve for movement forward. Every year, the Voloshin September symposium is held here, and a jazz festival is held, which has renewed the traditions that existed in Voloshin's house in the 1920s. Today the museum has a ten-year development program, in which plans for international cooperation, activities for the organization of exhibitions and symposia, and publishing projects occupy a significant place.
The solemn ceremony of awarding the Prize, which took place in the Oval Hall of the VGBIL, was preceded by a round table entitled “Heritage as an engine of the country's development”. In the messages sounded, along with the ascertaining of the next facts of vandalism, the psychological and social reasons for the neglect of the heritage were identified, and specific proposals were made to correct this deplorable situation. The most acute problem Lev Lifshits called the decline in the quality of restoration and the restorers themselves as professionals in their field. Natalya Samover, the coordinator of Arkhnadzor, drew attention to the evolution of the methods of work of the destroyers of historical monuments in Moscow. According to her, the former "barbarism" was replaced by vandalism of a more sophisticated type, skillfully abusing the imperfections of legislation. This state of affairs places high moral demands on the representatives of the expert community. Only the cleanliness of experts, who are responsible not only for the preservation of monuments, but also for the reputation of their profession, can be the foundation for a successful fight against encroachments on the cultural heritage of the nation. Vissarion Alyavdin, President of the National Foundation "Revival of the Russian Estate", shared his encouraging observations with the audience. The experience of recent years shows that the old manor house, which has passed into private hands, is a factor contributing to the survival of the settlement and the revival of economic activity in it. However, the figure of the private owner has its own specific difficulties: the owner seeks to declare the entire estate territory as a private zone, there is also the problem of preserving the authenticity of the estate ensemble and its parts. The way out of these difficulties is seen in the introduction of new Russian "landowners" to foreign experience, their cultural enlightenment. The speech of Alexander Serikov, who shared his experience of working with schools in Nizhny Novgorod, was devoted to the same issue, however, in the aspect of school education. The motto of his program “you know - you love, you love - you take care” sounds simple and intelligible, as, probably, befits the true formula of happiness. After all, Ovid could not be mistaken, whose words became an imperative for the custodians of cultural heritage in modern Russia: "happy who boldly takes under his protection what he loves."
