Zaykov Biography

The story of the great master V. Zaikov in an interview with Fedor Biryuchev for the magazine "Dog" History of the Great Master Expanded version of the interview, the sculptor-monumentalist Vitaly Zaikov, all his life selflessly served art. For his incomplete 96 years, he created several hundred works that entered the cultural heritage of the Soviet era, and then Ukrainian and Russian history, including the spiritual symbol of Chelyabinsk and the entire region, the object of the cultural heritage of the Russian Federation - the monument “The Tale of the Urals”.

In memory of the departed legendary master: an interview with his grandson - composer and pianist Fedor Biryuchev. This year you came to the Urals with a very personal discussion, which was dedicated to Vitaly Semenovich. What impressions did Chelyabinsk make on you? I visited the Urals for the first time this winter. I wanted to coincide the event in Chelyabinsk to the years of grandfather, which he celebrated last year.

I really fell in love with Chelyabinsk with its wide avenues, with its special identity. Honestly, it was connected with the Urals so much that I did not know how to go back to Moscow. In Chelyabinsk, I met so many people who worked with my grandfather who love and remember him, although he left the South Urals 37 years ago. I am very grateful to all these people for keeping the memory of Vitaly Semenovich, for the fact that they are not indifferent to their history and culture.

What did you manage to see? First of all, I laid the flowers at the "Raid of the Urals." My concert and discussion about the work of my grandfather took place in the Chelyabinsk Museum of Fine Arts on the Revolution Square, and I saw a monument to V. Lenin on the first day before the concert. On the second day, I arrived in the fire department, where Vitaly Semenovich’s monument “Glory to the Brave” was erected, visited the Katyusha monument, the Palace of Culture of the Railway workers, the relief of the decorative pediment of the building was made by Vitaliy Semenovich, saw the house where my grandfather and grandmother lived, found the workshop.

Unfortunately, due to a rich schedule, I could not visit many monuments of Vitaly Semenovich in the Chelyabinsk region, so I will definitely do this on my next visit. I was lucky enough to meet and visit the workshop of a wonderful sculptor, people's artist of the Russian Federation, V. Avakyan, a contemporary of my grandfather. This is an amazing master that made marble become alive, and a very bright, strong spirit of a person.

I visited a close friend of my grandfather O. Kudzoev, a famous art critic, writer, member of the Union of Artists. I also visited the exhibition halls of the Union of Artists with it and met the art of modern Chelyabinsk painters. We met with the chairman of the Union of Artists Kostuk A. Have you felt the involvement in the cultural heritage of your ancestor? And why is it so important for you to study the history of your family?

An amazing feeling of awareness of involvement! In Chelyabinsk, as in Yevpatoria, the place where I was born and raised, almost every main street, each square is decorated with the monuments of my grandfather. To be among them is like every day to open your favorite book where its legendary heroes await you - they are always here, they are always ready to reveal your soul to you. The works, known to me since childhood only from photographs, came to life in front of me in Chelyabinsk, like old stories told by my grandfather.

All this is a huge part of the life of my grandfather and Urals, part of me. Studying the history of the family, you know yourself to a large extent. What stories from the life of grandfather do you like to retell? There are a lot of such stories. I'll tell you two of them. The first is related to military time. When the grandfather was still a cadet at the Vasilkovsky Aviation School of Mechanics, in the middle of the night they were often raised by learning alarm.

Usually Vitaly Semenovich became one of the first to build. But once, during the next night anxiety, he hesitated - his boot rolled under the bed, and as a result became the thirteenth. The first twelve soldiers were selected for a secret assignment, from which later none of them, unfortunately, returned. Their plane was shot down, and they all died. Fate has retained the life of Vitaly Semenovich.

And then kept her more than once. Grandfather was always grateful to his fate, said that he was born in a shirt. The second story is connected with the arrival of Vitaly Semenovich to the Urals after graduating from the Academy of Arts. It was just the time when he planned to create the image of the Urals. He graduated from the Academy of Arts with a red diploma, his thesis took first place at the exhibition of the best thesis of the year.

But when he returned to the Urals, no one knew about it yet. Vitaly Semenovich was very difficult, the union of artists at that time did not allocate a workshop for him, he had practically no means of existence. Lyshev had long and persistently called to go to graduate school. He carried a letter to the mail, where he wrote V.Lyshev, who was returning to Leningrad, and before throwing a letter into the mailbox, saw a newspaper on the table, on the first page of which there was a large article about him and his thesis “Hammer Metatel”.

Grandfather decided so far to hold a letter and went with this newspaper to the chairman of the Union of Artists. The copy of the same newspaper was already lying on his table in his office, and after their conversation, Vitaly Semenovich received the workshop and, along with her, the opportunity to work and realize his dream of a “fairy tale”. I must say that the process of creating a monument and its installation in a certain place of the city is a huge way, and an incredible number of positive factors and circumstances should come down to happen.

It all depends on not only on the sculptor - a whole team is working on this: architects, employees of the city administration, engineers, molders, installers, builders, movers and many other people. We all need to protect him and take care of him, because this monument contains part of the soul of the Urals. Grandfather told how the legendary image of the "Raus about the Urals" was born?

The idea to create the image of the Urals came to him as a child. He loved with his older brother Sergey to roam the forests in the vicinity of his native village, where the whole family lived. Their grandfather was a pimochat, made felt boots, and celebrated every couple in a special way: where he would put a twig with a strawberry berry where another pattern will weave.

People recognized his work among other masters. And walking with his brother in the forest, Vitaly Semenovich once said: “Seryoga, if only to write about our Urals ... about how the forest is noisy, how the princess with a golden scythe by the lake is waiting for, about our grandfather-pairing, about you and me ...” And this dream was born. It will be embodied later in the monument, which is destined to become a symbol of the whole edge.

After graduating from the Academy of Arts, Vitaly Semenovich returned to the Urals, to Chelyabinsk to realize his childhood dream. For many years, he was looking for an image, asked himself questions about how to express the spirit of the Urals in one monument, what exactly should it be? Vitaly Semenovich traveled a lot along the native land, gathered and studied his legends and traditions.

Karabash mines, snowy peaks of Taganaya, hot from the Martins Magnitogorsk, dense Ilmen forests - everything spoke to him, and he listened. Gradually, in stressful creative searches, the image of the hero-worker of the Urals was born. Since the creation of a sculptural composition in a gypsum in the year until it is embodied in a twelve -meter granite monument on the station Square of Chelyabinsk, another ten years will take place.

Did you manage to discuss with my grandfather a trip to the historical homeland? Fortunately, yes. He handed the Chelyabinski hearty greetings and thanked me very much for the fact that this event took place. Vitaly Semenovich with particular warmth recalled his native Urals throughout his life in Crimea. How would you describe the Ural and Crimean periods of Vitaly Semenovich?

The Ural period Vitaly Semenovich was inextricably linked with the incredible rise of the country after the Great Patriotic War. It was an amazing time of dawn of art, the revival of the country. Aleksandrov were a huge part of the driving force of this time. In the Urals, such large -scale sculptural projects were implemented, the creation of which today, unfortunately, does not seem possible.

To move to the Crimea Vitaly Semenovich prompted a deterioration in the health of her daughter, my mother. The beginning of the Crimean period fell on the sunset of the Soviet Union and for years. Vitaly Semenovich had no orders for about 10 years. But every day he went to the workshop and worked in the hope that someday everything would work out. I am still struck by its endurance and stamina, special devotion, pure love of art.

This period was much more personal for him, he had a lot of time to turn to himself and rethink his work in a new way, to recover himself again. The themes of the war and the heroes of the labor exploit remained and were implemented in many Crimean monuments, but new ones also came: appeal to Russian epics and legends in graphic works, to ancient heritage in the sculpture of small forms, to the theme of the Divine.

In the second half of the Crimean period, Vitaly Semenovich created sixteen monumental monuments in the Crimea, among which are also all the main monuments of Yevpatoria. You said that in the Crimea your grandfather turned to ancient mythology.

Place and climate, in your opinion, still affect creativity? I think that the place to a certain extent, of course, affects the artist. And Crimea is an amazing place with a richest history and the ancient past. Evpatoria is a city in which I was born and raised, and Vitaly Semenovich lived since the year. He is almost the same age as Rome and was founded by ancient Greeks more than years ago.

And for Vitaly Semenovich, the art of ancient Greece has always occupied a special place in his heart since the Academy of Arts. They, I think, found each other to some extent. From my point of view, grandfather’s work created on ancient stories in the Crimea is the pearls of his Crimean period of creativity.One of the stunning facts of the biography of Vitaly Semenovich is his acquaintance with the Prime Minister of India Javaharlal Ner.