Boris Piotrovsky: biography, family, merit, photo

The grandson of the Russian general, the outstanding teacher and art critic Boris Piotrovsky devoted more than sixty years of his life to scientific work in the State Hermitage. His pen belongs to more than 150 scientific monographs and fundamental works devoted to 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, children's years of the scientist

In the northern capital of Russia, a boy was born in the family of Boris Bronislavovich and Sophia Alexandrovna Piotrovsky. Who then knew that this is the future director of the State Hermitage Boris Piotrovsky. The biography of the Soviet scientist-archeologist begins on February 14, 1908. He was the third son in the family of a mathematics teacher at the Nikolayev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. In his childhood, Boris Piotrovsky lived in the building of an educational institution, where his father was allocated a studio apartment. Together with his wife and four sons, Boris Bronislavovich lived in the departmental home of the Nikolaev School until 1914, until he received a new appointment. Inspector classes of the Nepluevsky Cadet Corps in Orenburg - this is the new post of B. B. Piotrovsky. After the father, the remaining members of a large and friendly family move. The October Revolution and the Civil War caught 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 gets his first education.

Years of study at the university

Upon his return to Leningrad, in 1924, Boris Borisovich entered the university. The choice of the sixteen-year-old boy is the university faculty of material culture and language, now the historical and linguistic faculty. The student's teachers were the best representatives of the pre-revolutionary Russian and old European school of ethnography and archeology. The range of Boris Borisovich's scientific interests for that period is the ancient Egyptian writing. However, on the recommendation of Academician N. Ya. Marr, by the end of university studies, Boris Piotrovsky was seriously engaged in Urartian writing.

Scientific employee of the State Hermitage Museum

After graduating from a higher educational institution, a young scientist goes to his first scientific expedition to Transcaucasia. A year later, on the recommendation of his scientific mentor, Academician N. Ya. Marr, Boris Piotrovsky (photo below)
Without postgraduate study is appointed to the position of junior research associate in the Hermitage. Scientific research and study of Urartian civilization in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey allowed the scientist to write a thesis in 1938 and obtain a scientific degree. So, in 1938 Boris Piotrovsky became a candidate of historical sciences.

Military years

The Great Patriotic War found the scientist on another scientific trip to Transcaucasia. Returning to his native museum, Boris Borisovich spent the most difficult time for Leningrad, the blockade period of 1941-1942, together with his staff. No work in the museum walls of the Hermitage was damaged. This is a great merit of Joseph Abgarovich Orbeli, the museum's director, and other employees of the State Hermitage, including Boris Piotrovsky. The basement premises of the museum turned into bomb shelters, when, after 872 days of the siege of Leningrad, all museum exhibits, more than 2 million pieces of unique works of world art, were evacuated to Yerevan (Armenia), where they stayed until the autumn of 1944, together with Hermitage scientists. In early 1944, within the walls of the scientific academy of Armenia, B. Piotrovsky defended his doctoral degree. The theme of scientific works is the history and culture of the ancient civilization of Urartu.

Boris Piotrovsky: family and personal life of the scientist

Participating in the summer of 1941 in a scientific trip to study Karmir-Bloor, an ancient hill located in the Armenian plateau, where the remains of the ancient settlement of Teishebaini were found, the scientist meets the student of Yerevan University Ripsime Dzhanpoladyan. It turned out that not only scientific interests can bind the two scientists. Young people were married in 1944, when sick and exhausted Boris Piotrovsky was evacuated from besieged Leningrad. The nationality of the chosen scientist of the Leningrad scientist-archeologist is Armenian. There is Hripsime Dzhanpoladyan from the ancient Armenian family, who owned the Nakhichevan salt mines. Soon, the first-born, Michael, appears in the family of scientists, who will later continue the work of his parents and become the director of the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, working in this capacity now.

Further career growth of a talented scientist

Upon his return 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 read a course of lectures on archeology at the Leningrad University. His main scientific work, "Archeology of the Transcaucasus," is soon to be compiled on carefully elaborated lecture notes at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the Leningrad State University. In 1949 BB Piotrovsky became deputy director for scientific work of the State Hermitage.

In the years of persecution of his university curator N. Ya. Marr, Boris Piotrovsky occupies a neutral position and distances himself from the ideological campaign, devoting himself to excavations of the ancient civilization of the city-fortress Teishebaini. This fact allows Boris Borisovich to preserve all previous scientific merit and stay on the leading place of the museum worker. May Day celebrations in 1953 BB Piotrovsky meets with a special upsurge. He is appointed head of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of the History of Material Culture. This administrative post, Boris Piotrovsky will take 11 years. After the dismissal of M.I. Artamonov (because of the organization of the exhibition of students-abstractionists of the Academy of Arts in the museum walls of the Hermitage), Boris Piotrovsky took his place from the position of director. He held this high post of director of the country's main museum for more than 25 years.

In memory of grateful descendants

Constant nervous overloads had a negative impact on the health of the already elderly director of the Hermitage. October 15, 1990 as a result of a stroke B. Piotrovsky was gone. The scientist, the active member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 83. Buried Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg, at the Orthodox Smolensk cemetery next to the grave of his parents. In 1992, on the house where the scientist lived with his family, a memorial plaque was installed . The scientific heritage of the legendary person, his articles, travel notes, monographs, catalogs created in the world's largest museum, grateful descendants still enjoy. One of the streets of the capital of Armenia was renamed in honor of Boris Piotrovsky, and the International Astronomical Union named one of the minor planets Piotrovsky.

Awards of the Motherland

Boris Borisovich got his first and most expensive government award in 1944, it was a medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". In the future, the scientist's merits were often noted by the Soviet government:

• 1983 - Hero of Socialist Labor.
• 1968, 1975 - the Order of Lenin.
• 1988 - the Order of the October Revolution.
• 1945, 1954, 1957 - the 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 scientific achievements of the scientist were recognized. In 1967, the British Academy honored B. B. Piotrovsky with the honorary title of "Corresponding Member".