The Presidential Library provides a video lecture “Academician Orbeli – a Witness of Time”

On October 25, 2023 at 11:00 Moscow time the Presidential Library as part of the video lecture Knowledge of Russia features a lecture dedicated to Joseph Abgarovich Orbeli (1887–1951), a Soviet orientalist, museum and public figure, who headed the State Hermitage Museum.

Academician Joseph Orbeli was an iconic figure for the scientific and socio-political world of our country, a recognized authority beyond its borders. The director of one of the most famous museums, a brilliant researcher, he managed to stop the sale of exhibits from the Hermitage in the late 1920s and early 1930s, preserving the Russian national treasure. It was thanks to his efforts that the museum, already in the first days of the Great Patriotic War, was maximally prepared (taking into account the realities of the time) for evacuation to the Urals, and the exhibits remaining in besieged Leningrad were preserved despite all the hardships of the siege.

Joseph Orbeli was a witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials, where he confirmed that the Germans deliberately destroyed the cultural values of Leningrad and its environs, systematically shelled the Hermitage building for many months and bombed it several times. In the post-war years, thanks to Orbeli, the collection of the State Hermitage entered with world-famous masterpieces of the Impressionists from the Museum of New Western Art, which was disbanded in Moscow.

The lecture “Joseph Orbeli. A Witness of Time” will be delivered by Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yulia Kantor. She will talk about the professional and personal qualities of Orbeli, based on official documents and memories of his contemporaries.

The video lecture will continue the series Outstanding Historians of the 19th–20th Centuries, which the Presidential Library conducts jointly with the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2019, a joint series of lectures was also held on the territories of Russia within the Russian Empire. Video recordings are available on the Presidential Library’s portal

The video lecture “Joseph Orbeli. A Witness of Time” is free. The meeting will be broadcast on the Presidential Library’s portal in Live broadcasts section in accordance with the program of live events, as well as on the institution’s Rutube-channel, on the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

Accreditation of media representatives is until 12:00 October 24, 2023

Please forward applications for accreditation following the attached form marked Media Accreditation at media@prlib.ru, dyatko@prlib.ru Olga Dyatko, tel.: (812) 305-16-21, ext. 190; mob. +7 (900) 658-48-32.

The letter should contain the full name, date and place of birth, passport data (series, number, place of registration), a list of carry-on equipment, contact phone numbers, the name of the media.

We draw the attention of the media representatives that it is necessary to forward applications for accreditation and arrive at the event in advance.

Entrance to the Presidential Library is carried out only by prior registration and upon showing a passport: for media representatives - through entrance № 2, participants and guests of the event - through entrance № 1.

In order to reduce risks of the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the use of personal protective equipment during the event is mandatory for all attendees.