Зощенко. Валерий Попов

В 1921 году 27-летний Михаил Михайлович Зощенко  подвел итоги своей жизни: «арестован – 6 раз,  приговорен к смерти  – 1 раз,  ранен – 3 раза, самоубийством кончал – 2 раза, били меня 3 раза». До громкой всесоюзной травли оставалось ровно четверть века. До войны Зощенко был самым читаемым автором страны. За его рассказы боролись дешевые «вечерки» и партийная пресса, «Крокодил» и толстые журналы. Рассказы Зощенко читали все, кто хотя бы владел грамотой. И, в свою очередь, вслух перечитывали их тем, кто читать только учился. Большие артисты исполняли его рассказы по радио и с эстрады. Горький смех неулыбчивого Зощенко был самым действенным лекарством от людских пороков, от горечи жизни, и это лекарство с удовольствием принимали жители одной шестой части суши. И не только они. Зощенко активно переводили на европейские языки. Его ждала мировая слава, пока сталинский гаулейтер Жданов, по указке самого эффективного упыря, публично не унизил великого гражданина, обозвав его пошляком. Это его, офицера-фронтовика и Георги-евского кавалера, не понаслышке знающего, что такое Честь и вир-туозно владеющего словом. Власть вынудила его переехать из дома с окнами на канал Грибоедова на его задворки, в тесную двухкомнатную квартирку. Его имя исчезло с печатных страниц, его книги изымали из библиотек. Власть фактически лишила его заработка. Правда, умереть с голоду все же не дала. После государственно поклепа он жил переводами с финских подстрочни-ков. Переиздавать его начали только в шестидесятые годы. Сначала куцо, на дрянной бумаге. Ну а время  расставило все по своим местам. 

Премия Гоголя

"They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Ronald Grigor Suny

Starting in early 1915, the Ottoman Turks began deporting and killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the first major genocide of the twentieth century. By the end of the First World War, the number of Ar­menians in what would become Turkey had been reduced by ninety percent—more than a million people. A century later, the Armenian Genocide remains controversial but relatively unknown, overshadowed by later slaughters and the chasm separating Turkish and Armenian ver­sions of events. In this definitive narrative history, Ronald Suny cuts through nationalist myths, propaganda, and denial to provide an un­matched account of when, how, and why the atrocities of 1915–16 were committed.

As it lost territory during the war, the Ottoman Empire was becoming a more homogenous Turkic-Muslim state, but it still contained large non-Muslim communities, including the Christian Armenians. The Young Turk leaders of the empire believed that the Armenians were internal en­emies secretly allied to Russia and plotting to win an independent state. Suny shows that the great majority of Armenians were in truth loy­al subjects who wanted to remain in the empire. But the Young Turks, steeped in imperial anxiety and anti-Armenian bias, became convinced that the survival of the state depended on the elimination of the Armeni­ans. Suny is the first to explore the psychological factors as well as the international and domestic events that helped lead to genocide

"[A] deeply researched, fair-minded study. . . . Suny creates a compel­ling narrative of vengeance and terror."--Kirkus, starred review

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. Eugene Rogan

In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region’s cru­cial role in the conflict. Bolstered by German money, arms, and military advisors, the Ottomans took on the Russian, British, and French forces, and tried to provoke Jihad against the Allies in their Muslim colonies. Un­like the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decis­ive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies’ favor. The great cities of Baghdad, Jerusalem, and, finally, Damascus fell to invading armies before the Ot­tomans agreed to an armistice in 1918.

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice “Rogan offers an intric­ately worked but very readable account of a theocracy’s demise.”

Economist “[An] assured account.... The book stands alongside the best histories. Mr. Rogan ably weaves the thinking and doings of the politi­cians and generals with their impact on the soldiers and civilian popula­tions. He sketches many revealing vignettes.”

“Регулярная академия учреждена будет…” Образовательные проекты в России в первой половине XVIII века

Федюкин И. И., Лавринович М. Б., Ларина Я. И., Посохова Л. Ю., Смагина Г. И., Киселев М. А., Руднев Д., Костин А.
 
Сборник статей и архивных материалов открывает новые стороны становления современного образования в России в первой половине XVIII века – одного из ключевых процессов в истории петровской модернизации. Публикуемые  ранее неизвестные или малодоступные источники различного происхождения – личные, делопроизводственные, законодательные – содержат проекты создания или реформирования образовательных институций, учебные программы и педагогические методы, предлагавшиеся академиками, чиновниками, преподавателями и даже аван-тюристами. Опираясь на эти источники, авторы статей показывают, что становление школы западного образца в России в петровскую и послепетровскую эпоху было делом рук не столько государства, сколько административных предпринимателей - "прожектеров", использовавших государственные ресурсы для достижения собственных целей. В работах рассматриваются типология образовательного прожектерства, модели поведения «про-жектеров», их взаимоотношения с государством и монархом.

Новые и старые войны: организованное насилие в глобальную эпоху. Мэри Калдор

Ценнейший из опубликованных в 2015 переводных нон-фикшнов <...> Нет ничего случайного и уникального в том, что война ведется не регулярными армиями, а не вполне понятно кем, и что 80 процентов жертв — гражданское население. Нынешние войны — средство мобилизации населения и установления альтернативной, «плохой» экономики; мы оказались в другом мире, совсем не похожем на тот, который известен по учебникам военной истории. Афиша

"More than any other book, the third edition of Mary Kaldor's brilliantly sustained enquiry into 'new wars' helps us grasp the complex terrain of political violence since the end of the Cold War. The richness and clarity of the overall presentation greatly strengthens Kaldor's stature as one of the most consistently imaginative and conceptually creative thinkers of our time on the central issues of global affairs."— Richard Falk, Prin­ceton University

Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Enlightenment: History of an Idea. Vincenzo Ferrone

In this concise and powerful book, one of the world’s leading historians of the Enlightenment provides a bracing and clarifying new interpretation of this watershed period. Arguing that philosophical and historical views of the era have long been hopelessly confused, Vincenzo Ferrone makes the case that it is only by separating these views and taking an approach grounded in social and cultural history that we can begin to grasp what the Enlightenment was—and why it is still relevant today.Examining Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Horkheimer, Adorno, Fou­cault, and Pope Benedict XVI, Ferrone shows how transhistorical, philo­sophical interpretations of the Enlightenment have diverged from ones based on careful historical reconstructions of the ideas, practices, and institutions of eighteenth-century Europe. He then offers a new reading of the Enlightenment, arguing that it was “the laboratory of modernity,” a profound and wide-ranging cultural revolution that reshaped Western identity, reformed politics through the invention of human rights, and re­defined knowledge by creating a critical culture. Not confined to a group of radical elites, these new ways of thinking gave birth to new values that spread throughout society and changed how everyday life was lived and thought of.

The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos. Leonard Mlodinow

Leonard Mlodinow takes us on a passionate and inspiring tour through the exciting history of human progress and the key events in the devel­opment of science. In the process, he presents a fascinating new look at the unique characteristics of our species and our society that helped pro­pel us from stone tools to written language and through the birth of chemistry, biology, and modern physics to today’s technological world.

“[A] bracing work of scientific history... Don’t worry if quantum physics and the theory of relativity leave you quaking... Mlodinow knows how to talk to the science-challenged.” —Library Journal

“Endlessly fascinating... consistently thought-provoking.... A selective, guided tour of the human accumulation of knowledge... [and] the striking characters who pioneered scientific discoveries... A breathtaking survey.” —Kirkus Reviews

Будущее вещей: Как сказка и фантастика становятся реальностью. Дэвид Роуз

Изобилующее необязательными мемуарными фрагментами исполинское эссе инструктора Лаборатории медиа в МТИ, посвященное, грубо говоря, процессу антропоцентризации техники — как правило, с помощью дизайна, но необязательно. Как устройства, использующие интернет, меняют нашу повседневную жизнь, как связаны с развитием технологий великие мечты человечества — от бессмертия до телепортации, каковы возможности взаимодействия с «волшебным объектом». Будущее — обещает нам мистер язык-без-костей — окажется похожим на сказку; сапоги за пирогами, пироги  за утюгами, кочерга за кушаком — шагу нельзя будет ступить, чтоб не вляпаться в нечто волшебное. Афиша

Величайшие математические задачи. Иэн Стюарт

Образные, остроумные истории Стюарта, аналогии и диаграммы проясняют чрезвычайно сложные понятия. Это приведет в восторг как энтузиастов математической науки, так и широкий круг читателей, которым интересна эта тема. — Kirkus Reviews

Описанный Стюартом удивительный мир математической науки и ведущихся в ней исследований выглядит поистине захватывающе и даже романтично. — The Times

Исчезающая ложка. Сэм Кин

«Исчезающая ложка» — классический, уже не так часто встре-чаю­щийся под грудами всевозможного нон-фикшна научпоп. Эта книга могла бы быть классической «Занимательной химией» в советские годы. В ней искусно перемешаны два слоя. Первый — увлекательное, с воодушевлением написанное и научно обос­нованное собрание химических фактов для любознательных старшеклассников, которые хотят выйти за пределы учебника, но столь же интересное позабывшим школьную программу взрос­лым, в том числе и гуманитариям, которые стерегутся цифр и формул. Второй — написанная как бы между делом история нау­ки. На страницах то и дело появляются разные ученые, лауреаты Нобелевской премии — место здесь нашлось для практически всех великих химиков (и многих физиков), а разрозненные исто­рии складываются в общую картинку. Афиша

Церкви и всадники. Романские храмы Пуату и их заказчики. Ирина Галкова

И.Г. Галкова — искусствовед, медиевист, кандидат исторических наук (Институт всеобщей истории РАН). Ее книга представляет собой попытку реконструировать ситуацию создания двух романских церквей в регионе Пуату — Сен-Пьер в Ольнэ и Сент-Илер в Меле. Два конкретных случая рассмотрены на фоне общего анализа интенций и действий заказчиков церквей XII века, запечатленных в текстах дарственных грамот, хроник, писем, надписей и впервые систематически изученных в таком ключе. В целом исследование выявляет процесс становления в европейской культуре феномена родовой церкви, которая в эпоху позднего Средневековья и раннего Нового времени станет практически непременным атрибутом репрезентации рода для высших кругов аристократии.

The Sandcastle Girls. Chris Bohjalian

Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness. And Skeletons at the Feast chronicled the last six months of World War Two in Poland and Germany with nail-biting authenticity. As The Washington Post Book World has noted, Bohjalian writes “the sorts of books people stay awake all night to finish.”

In his fifteenth book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very dif­ferent kind of journey. This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012—a sweeping histor­ical love story steeped in the author’s Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date. When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volun­teered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman An­nex,” Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a news­paper photo of Laura’s grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family’s his­tory that reveals love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Ashlee Vance

In Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance provides the first inside look into the extraordinary life and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious entrepreneur. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family and friends, the book traces the entrepreneur's journey from a rough upbringing in South Africa to the pinnacle of the global business world. Vance spent more than 30 hours in conversation with Musk and interviewed close to 300 people to tell the tumultuous stories of Musk's world-changing companies: PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity, and to characterize a man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of innovation while making plenty of enemies along the way.

Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our time: can the nation of inventors and creators which led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk--one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history--is a contemporary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs.

Print the Legend. Luis Lopez, J. Clay Tweel

Follows the people racing to bring the hot new 3D printing technology to your home, documenting the "Macintosh Moment" of this revolution and exploring what it takes to live the American Dream.

SXSW Film Festival Special Jury Award

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. Chad Freidrichs

Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative issues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project's residents. In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake. The next time the city changes, remember Pruitt-Igoe.

International Documentary Association Video Source Award
Kansas City FilmFest  Prize
Satellite Awards

Between the Folds. Vanessa Gould

Depicts a cast of fine artists and eccentric scientists (from MIT and NASA) who have devoted their lives to the unlikely medium of modern origami. Through their determination to reinterpret the world in paper, they arouse a fascinating mix of sensibilities towards art, form, expressiveness, creativity and meaning.

Brooklyn International Film Festival  Award
Rhode Island International Film Festival  Award

The Blues. TV Series

Directors: Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders,  Clint Eastwood. etc.

The Blues is a 2003 documentary film series produced by Martin Scorsese, dedicated to the history of blues music. In each of the seven episodes, a different director explores a stage in the development of the blues. The series originally aired on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States.

Grammy Awards Nominated

Making the Modern. Harry Lynch

Fort Worth, Texas: a little known museum Mecca in the heart of the American West, home to three of the most important collections in the United States. Here in 1997, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth set out to build a new home, which was to become the second largest modern art museum in the US, behind New York's MOMA. They selected as their architect the visionary new modernist, Tadao Ando. Practically unknown in America, Ando has won every major international architecture prize and is a celebrity in his home country of Japan. But would his Eastern-influenced designs translate to this most Western of towns? Would his difficult and painstaking construction techniques confound the American construction team? This compelling High Definition documentary follows the design and construction of this masterpiece, Ando's largest and most ambitious work outside of Japan, while divining the secrets of his unique style through a study of his previous work. Shot on location in Japan, Germany, Washington DC and of course, Fort Worth, the film captures the beauty of Ando's architecture in its many settings and follows the design team as they test the building's specialized lighting structures. Edited without a narrator, the film relies on action and the voices of its characters - among them renowned architects Richard Meier and Frank Gehry, and sculptor Richard Serra - to tell the story of this remarkable building.

Play: Works for cello and piano

Edgar Moreau (cello) & Pierre-Yves Hodique (piano)
  
The French cellist Edgar Moreau, who reaches the age of 20 in 2014, can already look back on a number of ex­ceptional achievements, among them becoming the win­ner – at the age of just 17 – of the Second Prize in Rus­sia’s formidable Tchaikovsky Competition, winning the Young Soloist Prize in the 2009 Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris, and performing with such distin­guished musicians as Valery Gergiev, Gidon Kremer, András Schiff, Yuri Bashmet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gustavo Dudamel, Gérard Caussé and the Talich Quartet. In 2013 his huge potential was high­lighted by France’s top music awards, Les Victoires de la Musique, which named him the year’s ‘Révélation’ among young classical instrumentalists.

Edgar Moreau - 2015 Arthur Waser award

Arditti Quartet: Pandora's Box

“These four must be stopped…,” Paul Griffiths wrote more than twenty five years ago about the, even back then, widely praised Arditti Quartet, referring to these excellent musicians’ gift for making wonderful music irrespective of the quality of the actual composition. As regards the present album, though, we need not worry about this di­lemma, given that each of the compositions by Rebecca Saunders, Benedict Mason, Luke Bedford and John Zorn is a little masterpiece in its own right. The Arditti Quartet has not only helped to shape our perception of contemporary music over the past forty years but, thanks to their accu­mulated experience, these four musicians also exemplify the future of this fascinating musical universe.

“The Arditti Quartet brings together four diverse, cut­ting-edge works for string quartet. The longest and most vener­able is Benedict Mason’s String Quartet No.2 from 1993, which plays out like a six-movement harlequinade of sounds and techniques.” Financial Times

Rebecca Saunders wins the Mauricio Kagel music prize

Vivaldi: Glorias

Award winning, world renowned conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini with his stunning period-instrument en­semble, Concerto Italiano – about to celebrate its 25th anniversary – perform two Glorias by Vivaldi. It’s their first major release for the Vivaldi Edition since 2004. The all-star soloist line-up is headed by contralto Sara Mingardo, “one of the richest voices before the public today” (Gramophone,). Don’t miss the stunning “Domine Deus Agnus Dei” from Gloria RV589. The recording presents two major sacred works by Vivaldi: the celeb­rated Gloria RV589 and the much rarer RV588. The re­cording also features a work recorded only four times in recording history: the ‘Ostro Picta’ introduction

“Both versions of this evergreen vocal masterpiece are stylish and deeply felt. Common to both is the affecting singing of contralto Sara Mingardo; her 'Domine Deus Agnus Dei' is poignantly declaimed.” BBC Music Magazine