Small Greats: Dialogues with Accomplices of the Century

Igor Obolensky — journalist, writer, and TV presenter, author of the documentary TV series «Mesto geniya».

“The heroes of this book do (and continue to do) truly great things — not for the sake of fame and not so that people will talk about them. My meetings with them helped me see anew both human destinies and the very ‘places of geniuses’. For me, St. Petersburg is the Moika River and House No. 12, where Pushkin lived and where he died, and Galina Sedova, the head of the museum. Yerevan — the museum of Sergei Parajanov and the person who created it, Zaven Sargsyan. Tarusa — the houses of Paustovsky and the Tsvetayevs, and their caretakers Galina Arbuzova and Elena Klimova. Kislovodsk — mansions preserved thanks to Boris Rosenfeld. Peredelkino — the dacha of Andrei Voznesensky and Zoya Boguslavskaya. Tashkent — Malik Kаюмов, a participant in the opening of Tamerlane’s tomb. Moscow — the addresses of Bulgakov and his chief biographer Mariattta Chudakova, Mayakovsky and Alexander Ushakov, Sviatoslav Richter and his close friend Vera Prokhorova, the apartment of the Messers—Plesetskys on Tverskaya and Sh e khtel’s mansion, where Gorky lived, and his granddaughter Marfa Peshkova…” (Igor Obolensky).