The grandson of a Russian general, an outstanding teacher and art critic Boris Piotrovsky devoted more than sixty years of his life to scientific work in the State Hermitage. He has written more than 150 scientific monographs and fundamental works on the archeology of the East and Transcaucasia, the ancient culture of Urartu, and other scientific research in the field of archeology.
Boris Piotrovsky: date of birth, childhood years of the scientist
In the northern capital of Russia, a boy was born in the family of Boris Bronislavovich and Sofya Aleksandrovna Piotrovsky. Who then knew that this was the future director of the State Hermitage, Boris Piotrovsky. The biography of the Soviet archaeologist begins on February 14, 1908. He was the third son in the family of a mathematics teacher at the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. In childhood, Boris Piotrovsky lived in the building of an educational institution, where his father was allocated a one-room apartment. Together with his wife and four sons, Boris Bronislavovich lived indepartmental housing of the Nikolaev School until 1914, until he received a new appointment. The class inspector of the Neplyuevsky cadet corps in Orenburg is a new position for B. B. Piotrovsky. Following the father, the other members of a large and friendly family also move. The October Revolution and the Civil War found the Piotrovsky family in Orenburg. In 1918, his father was appointed director of the first male gymnasium in Orenburg. It is within the walls of this educational institution that Piotrovsky Boris Borisovich receives his first education.
University Years
On his return to Leningrad, in 1924, Boris Borisovich entered the university. The choice of a sixteen-year-old boy is the University Faculty of Material Culture and Language, now the Faculty of History and Linguistics. The student's teachers were the best representatives of the pre-revolutionary Russian and old European schools of ethnography and archeology. The circle of scientific interests of Boris Borisovich at that time was the ancient Egyptian writing. However, on the recommendation of Academician N. Ya. Marr, by the end of his university studies, Boris Piotrovsky took up Urartian writing seriously.
Researcher of the State Hermitage
After graduating from a higher educational institution, a young scientist goes on his first scientific expedition to the Transcaucasus. A year later, on the recommendation of his scientific mentor, Academician N. Ya. Marr, Boris Piotrovsky (photo below)
without training ingraduate student is appointed to the position of junior researcher at the Hermitage. Scientific research and study of the Urartian civilization in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey allowed the scientist to write a dissertation in 1938 and receive a scientific degree. So, in 1938, Boris Piotrovsky became a candidate of historical sciences.
War years
The Great Patriotic War found the scientist on another scientific trip to the Transcaucasus. Returning to his native museum, Boris Borisovich spent the most difficult time for Leningrad, the blockade period of 1941-1942, together with his employees. Not a single work in the museum walls of the Hermitage was damaged. Much of the credit for this goes to Iosif Abgarovich Orbeli, director of the museum, and to other employees of the State Hermitage, including Boris Piotrovsky. The basements of the museum turned into bomb shelters when, after 872 days of the siege of Leningrad, all the museum exhibits, which are more than 2 million pieces of unique works of world art, together with the Hermitage scientists were evacuated to Yerevan (Armenia), where they stayed until the autumn of 1944. At the beginning of 1944, within the walls of the Scientific Academy of Armenia, B. B. Piotrovsky defended his doctoral scientific degree. The theme of scientific works is the history and culture of the ancient civilization of Urartu.
Boris Piotrovsky: family and personal life of a scientist
Participating in the summer of 1941 on a scientific trip to study Karmir Blur, an ancient hill located in the Armenian Highlands, on the site of which the remains of an ancient settlement were discoveredcity of Teishebaini, the scientist meets a student of the Yerevan University Hripsime Dzhanpoladyan. It turned out that not only scientific interests can connect two scientists. Young people got married in 1944, when the sick and emaciated Boris Piotrovsky was evacuated from besieged Leningrad. The nationality of the chosen one of the Leningrad scientist-archaeologist is Armenian. Hripsime Dzhanpoladyan comes from an ancient Armenian family who owned the Nakhichevan s alt mines. Soon, the first-born, Mikhail, will appear in the family of scientists, who will subsequently continue the work of his parents and become the director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, working in this position now.
Further career growth of a talented scientist
Upon returning to Leningrad, Boris Borisovich continues to engage in scientific and teaching work. He, a corresponding member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and a laureate of the Stalin Prize in the field of science and technology, was offered to give a course of lectures on archeology at Leningrad University. Soon his main scientific work "Archaeology of Transcaucasia" was published, which was compiled according to carefully worked out lecture notes at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Leningrad State University. In 1949 B. B. Piotrovsky became deputy director for scientific work of the State Hermitage.
During the years of persecution of his university curator N. Ya. Marr, Boris Piotrovsky takes a neutral position and distances himself from the ideological campaign, devoting himself tocivilization of the fortress city of Teishebaini. This fact allows Boris Borisovich to keep all his previous scientific achievements and to hold on to the leading position of a museum worker. May Day holidays of 1953 B. B. Piotrovsky meets with a special enthusiasm. He was appointed head of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of the History of Material Culture. Boris Piotrovsky will hold this administrative position for 11 years. After the dismissal of M. I. Artamonov (due to the organization of an exhibition of abstract art students of the Academy of Arts in the museum walls of the Hermitage), Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky took his place as director. He held this high post of director of the main museum of the country for more than 25 years.
In memory of grateful descendants
Permanent nervous overload had a negative impact on the he alth of the already elderly director of the Hermitage. On October 15, 1990, as a result of a stroke, B. B. Piotrovsky died. A scientist, a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 83. Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky was buried on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg, at the Orthodox Smolensk cemetery next to the grave of his parents. In 1992, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where the scientist lived with his family. The scientific heritage of the legendary personality, his articles, travel notes, monographs, catalogs, created in the world's largest museum, are still used by grateful descendants. One of the streets of the capital of Armenia was renamed in honor of Boris Piotrovsky, and the International Astronomical UnionPiotrovsky named one of the minor planets.
Motherland Awards
Boris Borisovich received his first and most expensive government award in 1944, it was the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". In the future, the merits of the scientist were often noted by the Soviet government:
- 1983 - Hero of Socialist Labor.
- 1968, 1975 - Order of Lenin.
- 1988 - Order of the October Revolution.
- 1945, 1954, 1957 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
In addition to these awards, there are various orders and medals from foreign countries. France, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy - this is only an incomplete list of countries where the scientific achievements of the scientist were recognized. In 1967, the British Academy awarded B. B. Piotrovsky the honorary title of Corresponding Member.
