Sources: Vladimir Gusev will step down as director of the Russian Museum

Despite the fact that the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation calls information about the change in leadership of the Russian Museum “rumors”, and Vladimir Gusev himself so far refrains from commenting, it seems that this is not empty gossip. The 77-year-old art critic who has ruled the empire called the Russian Museum since 1988 is about to step down as director and take up the honorary position of president, MK sources with insider knowledge confirm.

The decision to change the status of Vladimir Alexandrovich made himself: just age, and health is no longer something to keep in check five palaces, restoration workshops, parks, branches. But the decision to give his place to the Secretary of State – Deputy Minister of Culture Alla Manilova was, it seems, a surprise for the museum staff, but, it seems, not for cultural officials.

Despite the apparent surprise of the news, for Vladimir Gusev, right now is the most opportune moment to leave for an honorary position. Before the New Year, he hosted the President of Russia in his fiefdom, who walked around the exposition of the Mikhailovsky Palace along with the leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and everything went smoothly. Everyone was satisfied.

There has already been a case in museum history when a director of venerable age was left in an honorary position in a museum.

Probably, the experience of Irina Antonova in Pushkinsky suggested a way out. Since 2013, she became the president of the Pushkin Museum and, until the end of her days, one way or another participated in the life of her native museum. Actually, before her, there was, in fact, no such status as the president of the museum (and if there was, it was purely nominal). Antonova remained in her office, engaged in some projects and, to one degree or another, influenced her successor Marina Loshak. That is, the experience has been tested, which means that it can be repeated.

Alla Manilova also approached the age. She turned 65 that year, so she had already sat out the possible term for a civil servant. Back in 2018, instead of the status of Deputy Minister of Culture, she received another – as if honorary – State Secretary-Deputy Minister. Recall that according to the law, civil servants-women can hold their seats up to 60 years. In this regard, Alla Yuryevna, who had held her position in the Ministry of Culture for ten years, apparently considered that it was time to return to her small homeland – to St. Petersburg.

A native of the Northern capital, a graduate of the journalism faculty of Leningrad Zhdanov University, she began her career by profession – as a journalist. And in the early 2000s she went to power. Since 2003, she became a member of the city government, in 2008 – vice-governor. In 2011, she left the position of her own free will and left with her best friend Valentina Matvienko for the capital.

Rumors that Alla Yuryevna is preparing to return to her native St. Petersburg in a new status have been circulating for more than a month. In the summer of 2022, Manilova’s closest associate, Alexander Voronko, took a prominent position at the St. Petersburg Museum of Political History. It was said that he would head the museum, but in the end he ended up in the position of deputy general director. Nevertheless, this career movement, which could well have remained behind the scenes, was regarded as preparing a springboard for Manilova herself.

The fact is that Alexander Voronko from 2008 to 2011 headed the apparatus of Alla Manilova – when she was vice-governor in St. Petersburg. And after the departure of the boss to Moscow, he worked in the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg (since 2013 – deputy chairman, since 2015 – first deputy chairman), until Alexander Beglov fired him in 2020. That summer, Voronko wrote letters to the committee’s subordinate institutions asking them to submit proposals for a 10% reduction in staff, saying that this initiative came from the governor. However, Beglov considered this interpretation too free, and indignantly wrote on his page on social networks: “Some officials showed inappropriate zeal and issued a hasty, ill-conceived document that instead of a constructive mood creates panic moods.” As a result, Voronko himself was laid off, and his place was taken by the son of the director of the Hermitage, Boris Piotrovsky.

However, Alexander Nikolaevich did not remain without destiny, but went to Moscow, where he took the post of head of the Department of Museums and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Culture. So the exodus of Voronko home, to cultural Petersburg, in the summer of 2022 was considered an omen of the return to her native land and Manilova.

And here in Russian everything coincided – one desire to worthily leave for an honorary position – with another. Did the stars align?

What do they prophesy directly to the museum, which, by the way, is consistently among the ten most visited museums in the world? After all, Manilova is not an art critic, but the position of the head of the museum, especially such a huge one, is very specific.

Here it is important not to get confused in the complex relations within the Russian Museum empire. Each of the five buildings that make up the State Russian Museum (Mikhailovsky, Stroganov, Marble Palaces, Benois Wing, Mikhailovsky Castle), not to mention the Summer and Mikhailovsky Gardens, the house of Peter I, has its own specifics and staff. But there is also a branch in Kemero and Spanish Malaga (with the latter, everything is not easy due to the geopolitical situation, although the contract with the site has not been officially terminated). At first, the main burden of operational management and bringing the new director up to date, it seems, will fall on Anna Tsvetkova, the deputy general director of the Russian Museum. Perhaps they will find a common language. Tsvetkova has been criticized over the past couple of years for liquidating the sector of applied sociology and work with youth, and also for deciding to follow the posts of the State Russian Museum on social networks. So that, God forbid, they didn’t write something, didn’t take out some documents, rubbish from the hut, she established a code of ethics …

Museum employees hope that the transition of power will be smooth, after all, Vladimir Gusev will remain the president of the museum, and the existing internal ecosystem will not be destroyed.