Dear Lyudmila!
Your whole life is connected with culture. The range of your creative abilities is unusually high. You are known and valued as a talented historian, writer, photo artist, script writer and profound philosopher.
But the main cause of your life was the preservation, research and popularization of the priceless artistic and cultural heritage of the Roerich family, thinkers and devotees who dedicated themselves to Culture with a capital letter<…> For more than 20 years you have been connected by friendship with Svetoslav Roerich. I think that you are a happy person, because you communicated with an outstanding figure in world culture. And he wasn’t mistaken, entrusting you with the unique philosophical and artistic heritage of his parents. It was you who succeeded in realizing the dream of the Roerich family – to create a museum in their homeland. The path to the museum was long and hard, but you managed <…> Nowadays we see a beautiful modern museum. Thank you for the fact that for many years you have been debunking all kinds of fables about the life and work of this extraordinary family, fighting for the preservation of their heritage, explaining the philosophical system of the Roerichs. For the fact that in our difficult times you have the courage to fight for culture and create culture.
I am marveling and admiring your energy of selfless devotion. You hold annual international conferences dedicated to the most important issues of culture, science, exhibitions of contemporary space artists, children’s drawing contests, ethnic music festivals, musical and creative evenings. This is not a complete list of activities, but it speaks for itself. I especially want to note the importance of traveling exhibitions by Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich organized by the museum. Their routes are impressive <….>.
The Museum named after N. Roerich became one of the most important museums in Moscow and occupied a worthy place in the cultural life of not only the capital but also the country, became a major international and scientific cultural center. And all this is your merit.
Despite the anniversary, I think it’s too early for you to sum up. Today you are still in constant creative search; your research works raise deep philosophical, historical and art questions and are an event in the scientific world. Dear Lyudmila, with all my heart, I wish you new successes, health, all the best and I want to say the main thing: Your service to the Roerichs’ cause and heritage is your service to Russian culture, your service to our Motherland, to all Russia.
Also let me (I know you are a modest person) say this: You are an outstanding figure of our culture and you continue the glorious path that was dedicated to us by the outstanding thinkers of the Roerich family. Communication with you, communication with the Museum, with exhibitions and creativity of the Roerich family cleanses our souls, our consciousness and is powerful counteraction to those unpleasant tendencies that are observed in our society. They are commercialization, glamorous culture with its vicious effect on the soul and mind, culture of entertainment, which today, unfortunately, tries to push from the TV screens, from bookshelves, from the minds of people what we call real culture and real norm of ethics and morality. Thank you so much for this impact.
Special thanks for this.
Speech by the Minister of Culture
of the Russian Federation A. Avdeev
at the solemn evening dedicated to
the 85th anniversary of Lyudmila Shaposhnikova
2011
