Tamara Ivanovna Geidor (1941-22-08 - 2013-05-09) came to work at the Museum of Architecture in March 1966 as a graduate of the art history department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. First becoming a senior researcher in the Department of the History of Russian Architecture under the guidance of the famous researcher of Russian architecture of the era of classicism E. A. Beletskaya, since February 1971 Tamara Ivanovna headed the Exposition Department located on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery, which was responsible for presenting the history of Russian architecture of the pre-Soviet period to visitors. This exposition, the result of significant scientific research, was a monument to the "golden age" of the Museum of Architecture.
For many decades, Tamara Ivanovna determined the high level of numerous exhibitions, through which several generations of architecture lovers learned about the outstanding masters and monuments of Russian architecture, supervised lectures. She was the author of numerous publications: articles, catalogs, monographs.
For more than 30 years, Tamara Ivanovna taught the course on the History of monumental painting at the Moscow State Art and Industry Academy named after S. G. Stroganov.
Tamara Ivanovna was a member of the Union of Architects of the USSR (since 1984), she had the title of Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR (1985).
Tamara Ivanovna Geidor devoted her whole life to the Museum of Architecture; she enjoyed a well-deserved authority and respect among specialists, her consultations helped the scientific work of many researchers.
Until the last day she worked on the manuscript of a book dedicated to the frescoes of the Kalyazin Trinity-Makariyevsky Monastery, which, unfortunately, remained unfinished.
Tamara Ivanovna was a real friend, a kind, sympathetic person.
The funeral service for Tamara Ivanovna Heydor will be held on Thursday, September 12, at 11.30 in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskoy Street, 20/6.
We publish memoirs about T. I. Geidor of her colleague, artist-restorer Yu. A. Manina
In memory of Tamara Ivanovna Heydor
Tamara Ivanovna died … unexpectedly, by accident, without having had time to publish a book about the paintings of the Trinity Cathedral of the Makarevsky Monastery in Kalyazin, almost ready: recently we met in connection with this particular work of her. When some time ago the department of the History of Russian Architecture, which she headed for many years, was disbanded, Tamara Ivanovna, having lost her office, moved to the repository of frescoes. Quite quickly, she turned the uncomfortable storage facility into a study-workshop - there is no other way to put it. I came to her to transfer now a few photographs, then another text to the "piggy bank" of her future book. Met me, sitting at the computer, a kind woman with young eyes. When you communicate with a person often, you do not notice age-related changes in his appearance. So for 23 years of our acquaintance and joint work, I did not notice signs of old age in her, or maybe they really did not exist.
I met her when I was a 1st year student of the Department of Restoration of Monumental Painting at the Moscow State Art and Industry Academy named after V. I. S. G. Stroganov. The Museum of Architecture was located then, in 1990, within the walls of the Donskoy Monastery, and we, the students, came to Tamara Ivanovna there for lectures on the history of monumental art. We studied in a small room filled with antique furniture. The students and the teacher sat at a large round table, and Tamara Ivanovna began the story, accompanying it with a show of slides and albums. At the same table, students' reports on various topics were held, and tests were passed. But these activities were not limited to: Tamara Ivanovna gave us excursions around the territory of the monastery, talked about the architectural monuments destroyed in Soviet times,whose fragments were nevertheless saved by the efforts of the architects-restorers and placed along the inner side of the monastery walls, about the famous figures of Russian history buried in the Donskoy cemetery, she showed us the huge Bazhenov model of the unfinished Kremlin palace assembled in the interior of the Bolshoi Cathedral, the amazing and strange Shumaevsky cross, and, of course, she brought us to the repository of fragments of frescoes and architectural details of the cathedral of the Kalyazin Makaryevsky monastery.
It would not be a big exaggeration if we say that Tamara Ivanovna treated students like relatives. In addition, she remained a bit of a student all her life and was loyal to the university student fraternity. This was especially noticeable to us when she mentioned her fellow students (including those who also became famous art critics) and her professors. She actively used her connections in the museum world so that we could see and learn what ordinary visitors are not shown: be it the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the Historical Museum with its branches or any other museums - everywhere, thanks to her constant persistence, we were shown the most valuable of the surviving monuments of monumental art and gave exhaustive comments. For many years, Tamara Ivanovna organized classes for students on copying fragments of monumental painting within the walls of the Museum of Architecture, sought that the Museum give out fragments of murals to our department in Stroganovka as an object of restoration to graduate students. And all this went on for over 30 years.
It so happened that I continued to communicate with Tamara Ivanovna, having already become a teacher of technique and technology of monumental painting, as well as an artist-restorer. For about fifteen years my brother and I have been restoring the very model of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which was once housed in the cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, and now is located in the building of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Tamara Ivanovna was the keeper of this model, as well as the scientific director of our work. As in any institution, in our museum (I can probably say “ours”: after all, I worked in it for almost 15 years), there were also “commanding thunderstorms”, but we, like other subordinates of Tamara Ivanovna, were always behind her, like a stone wall.
She also wrote poetry and painted.
I am making this entry the day after the death of Tamara Ivanovna. Her face, movements, intonation are vivid in my memory. All people sooner or later part in this life, but then all the same they will all meet …
