Academician Alexander Konstantinovich Krylov as a teacher and educator

Mel'nikov Vladimir Leonidovich PhD in Cultural Studies Postgraduate student, Institute of Philosophy, St. Petersburg State University; General Director of the St. Petersburg Center for Cultural and Scientific Projects "ARS" 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Mendeleevskaya str., 5 vladimir.melnikov.69@bk.ru

1. Introduction

The year 2023 was declared the Year of the Teacher and Mentor by Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The mission of the Year formulated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia – recognition of the special status of teaching staff, including those performing mentoring activities – in our opinion, requires consolidation and special awareness. Summing up the results of such a significant Year for all Russians, it would be desirable, indeed, as Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko noted, "to qualitatively strengthen universities, as well as scale the movement of mentors" ^[1]. In this context, it is important to research those mentors who are able to combine several important roles of a master, teacher and educator at once.

Academician A. K. Krylov (ill. 1) is a vivid example of such a mentor. We dedicate our message to him and his school on the eve of his 80th birthday, which will be celebrated in a number of regions of Russia in 2025.

1. General information

Alexander Konstantinovich Krylov was born on July 23, 1945. Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, painter, laureate of the N. K. Roerich International Prize (2015), Professor A. K. Krylov has been involved in the artistic life of our country since 1973.

His paintings, portraits, cartons and murals, landscapes have been successfully exhibited at city, zonal, republican, all-Union, and foreign exhibitions and are kept in museums of the Russian Federation and abroad.

Since 1974, A. K. Krylov has been teaching at the St. Petersburg Academic Institute of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture named after I. E. Repin (now the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after I. E. Repin). The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Arts has repeatedly noted the high quality of A. K. Krylov's teaching of classical drawing in a number of personal workshops of its members.

Over half a century of teaching, he has trained over four hundred students; many have achieved notable success.

A. K. Krylov is a well–known expert on temple frescoes of Ancient Russia. More than 10 of his books and over 100 articles published by him are known. Having completed internships in restoration centers of Russia (1982-1986), a researcher and a copyist of wall paintings, he has been leading visiting students' practices in copying frescoes for half a century (since 1975), constantly replenishes the unique collection of copies of Russian wall paintings created by him at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after I. E. Repin; carries out important public work on the protection of ancient monuments.

He is the organizer and participant of more than 30 exhibitions of copies of ancient Russian frescoes; consultant of a series of broadcasts on this topic on Leningrad (St. Petersburg) television and radio (since 1988); initiator and member of the Council of the Temple Program of the St. Petersburg Cultural Foundation (since 1990); executive editor of 12 issues of scientific works of the Program "Temple" (based on the results of 6 All-Russian conferences and 37 scientific seminars "Temple and Culture"; 1992-1997); co-chairman of the All-Russian Society for the Memory of St. Macarius (since 1986); chairman of the organizing committee, executive editor of 30 issues of scientific works of the "Makariev Readings" in Mozhaisk (1993-2022); initiator and participant of the Trinity Readings at the State Historical and Cultural Centerthe literary Museum-reserve of A. S. Pushkin "Zakharovo – Vyazemy" (since 1997); initiator, participant, member of the editorial board and scientific editor of scientific papers of the International Conference "Rural Temples. Russian Russian Antiquity Archive and Facsimile of Russian Culture (since 2020), scientific editor of the series of publications of the St. Petersburg Center for Cultural and Scientific Projects "ARS" and "Facsimile of Russian Culture" (since 2020), member of the Interregional Union of Writers of Russia (since 2017).

Since 1993, A. K. Krylov has headed a personal Workshop of church historical painting at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after I. E. Repin, trains a galaxy of professionals, participates in the restoration and decoration of churches.

He organized the Icon Painting School of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg (1998), the St. Petersburg Creative Center of Orthodox Arts named after St. Macarius (2000), where his students work.

A. K. Krylov is the artistic director and participant in the reconstruction of the grandiose iconostasis and the "Sky" (170 icons) of the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bogoslovka estate on the banks of the Neva River (Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad Region, 2005-2016). He is the head of work on the reconstruction of the temple decoration of many church buildings, including churches in St. Petersburg, in the Leningrad Region and on the territory of the Kizhi Museum–Reserve (Republic of Karelia). Participating in the restoration and conservation of temple murals and iconostases, he annually writes hundreds of sketches of antiquities of chronicled Russia and historical Russia.

A. K. Krylov's scientific, teaching, social, creative activities, skill and professionalism were marked by his election as a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts in 2021. He creates hundreds of works of various forms and genres and generously presents them to many museums and cultural institutions in Russia.

According to the State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation and the data provided by the artist himself, his works are kept by: the Belgorod State Museum of Folk Culture (Belgorod), the All-Russian Museum Association "State Tretyakov Gallery" (Moscow), the State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve "Izborsk" (Pskov region), the State Historical- the Literary Museum-Reserve of A. S. Pushkin in the village of Bolshye Vyazemy (Moscow region), the State Literary and Memorial Museum-Reserve of N. A. Nekrasov "Karabikha" (Yaroslavl region), the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Yeisk Museum of Local Lore named after V. V. Samsonova (Krasnodar Territory), the Museum of Local Lore-the estate of the Princes Yusupov of the village of Rakitnoye (Belgorod region), Mozhaisk Museum of Local Lore (branch of the State Borodino Military Historical Museum-Reserve, Moscow Region), the Museum-Institute of the Roerich Family (St. Petersburg), the Museum of History of the Belgorod State National Research University (National Research University "BelSU", Belgorod), Scientific Research Museum at the Russian Academy of Arts (St. Petersburg), Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve (Veliky Novgorod), Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve (Pskov), St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and musical Art, Sakhalin Regional Art Museum (Sakhalin region), Staroladozhsky Historical, Architectural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve (Leningrad region), Starooskolsky Museum of Local Lore (Belgorod region), Taganrog Art Museum (Rostov region), Shebekinsky Historical and Art Museum (Belgorod region). Thus, in our country, more than 20 museums of different levels of subordination – from large federal and regional to district and municipal – store more than two thousand works of art by academician A. K. Krylov ^[14].

A comprehensive historical, art and cultural study of the creative heritage of such a significant Russian master has long been overdue.

3. The way of the artist

In the countless series of faces that passed in front of him, academician A. K. Krylov was able to catch the gaze of Eternity. With a pencil, a brush, he captured this look in every random moment of the fast-flowing time of our lives. Everyone he met and every companion taught him to see the world with new eyes, carried away by the dream of realizing a higher meaning. He was not afraid to study, and, looking into the eyes of life, he went towards it, and sometimes in spite of it, overcoming his weaknesses and indecision, firmly assimilating the ancient wisdom: "No one is your friend, no one is your enemy, but every person is a great teacher to you." Having touched this mystery, he became an artist.

The artist tried to go through his creative path from faces to faces with dignity, knowing that meetings that turn a person's life around are rare, bestowed from above. He does not fuss, he knows that everyone who has had such a meeting once is reborn and enters a new, previously inaccessible, unknown world of renewal, knowledge and light – the world where the Sun of Truth is above all.

The gift of the artist made him take on the great work of cleansing the milestones of life from the hypocrisy of everyday life, everyday life. He also trains artists, is responsible for the fate and skill of the students. He is harsh in his assessments and statements, and promised himself not to dissemble, but to teach with the truth and a convincing example. And he's been doing it for almost half a century.

A student of Boris Vasilyevich Kotik (1921-1984), Alexander Leonidovich Korolev (1922-1988), Andrei Andreevich Mylnikov (1919-2012), Alexander Krylov taught classical drawing for a quarter of a century in the academic workshops of Gennady Dmitrievich Epifanov (1900-1985), Viktor Mikhailovich Oreshnikov (1904-1987) and Eduard Stepanovich Kochergin (born 1937); with the blessing of Academician A. A. Mylnikova organized and has been heading the academic personal Workshop of church historical painting for thirty years, whose graduates have achieved notable success and become famous masters ^[13].

Alexander Krylov, a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, seeks to strengthen students' view of any knowledge and skill as serving the Common Good, people, and the Fatherland.

When we first touched upon the graphic heritage of A. K. Krylov, a curious circumstance attracted our attention: as we contemplated the drawings, the questions did not increase, but subsided. We noticed how in other people his graphics evoke not curious reasonableness, but intuitive experiences – something inescapable penetrates into thought and heart, bringing harmony to feelings and natural human empathy for the contemplated.

The artist's heart is open to beauty, he sings about it. And then we can purify our hearts, because a pure heart is the way in which a wise man can send light to people. Thanks to such artists as A. K. Krylov, let's become wise!

In preparation for publication in 2019-2023, the drawings of A. K. Krylov were carefully studied and attributed by us ^{[2, p. 175]}. Since the age of 15, the artist has been capturing the fate of people in their faces, and therefore he was happy to help clarify the names and names. In front of us is an amazing portrait row of compatriots, from Soviet peasants to professors and academicians. Political exiles, prisoners of the Gulag; Cossacks-villagers of the Kuban-Don small homeland of his ancestors; classmates-artists, students, comrades at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. E. Repin of the USSR Academy of Arts (hereinafter – LIZHSIA); crane operators, chauffeurs, doctors, musicians, watchmen, fishermen, policemen and former prisoners; museum researchers; recruits, soldiers, sailors and officers…

A special page of Alexander Krylov's graphic works are veterans, front–line soldiers, blockade fighters, non-parade portraits of heroes, participants of the Great Patriotic War, and relatives drawn from nature. They formed a collective image of the Motherland that defeated the darkness. For Alexander Krylov, who was born in victorious 1945, his homeland is also a refugee woman with children, saving them from destruction (fig. 2). Decades later, this image led him to the face of the Virgin, imprinted on the wall of an ancient Orthodox church, revived in 2002-2007 by Russian officers ^[12].

The tragedy of the Vietnamese village of Songmi, a mass murder, a crime committed in 1969 by American atheists, caused pain in the artist's heart. Martyred children, their martyred mothers in characteristic Vietnamese conical "non" headdresses, reminiscent of the halos of saints in Alexander Krylov's drawing (fig. 3), it is no coincidence that the section of faces in our edition was completed. The modern context is evident in everything that touches Eternal Memory. And the artist leads us to the faces born of his ideas about the main thing, about the highest.

He stepped out of dramatic modernity into the world of Christian images. The journey from faces to faces was accomplished in silence, in the thoroughness and reverence of working at the greatest Orthodox shrines in those years when it was reprehensible and unsafe for the career of a Soviet artist. The ideological monster that developed during the years of the God-fighting did not prevent the novice teacher of LIZHSIA from starting ascetic activities to save the remnants of Russian wall paintings. For more than half a century, he, and now his students, have been copying ancient Russian frescoes and icons, making them famous and beloved at numerous exhibitions and in permanent museum exhibitions.

In 1982, Alexander Krylov completed a number of drawings of icons of St. Andrei Rublev and contemporary icon painters. The miracle of touching the legacy of pious isographs took place in the Moscow restoration workshop of the outstanding restorer Adolf Nikolaevich Ovchinnikov (1931-2021), and became a constant practice for Alexander Krylov.

Twenty-five years later, his works revived the iconostasis of the Yamburg Catherine Cathedral, built in 1764-1782 by architect Antonio Rinaldi. At the same time, he worked on the revival of the icon decoration of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Vasilievsky Island, and on the painting in the Church of the Resurrection of the Living at the St. Petersburg Cadet Rocket and Artillery Corps, and in the Kazan Cathedral, and in many other temples and monasteries in Russia ^[11].

Professing the greatness of the blessed century of the Russian Empire, Alexander Krylov is drawn to its cultural peaks, symbols, and, freeing himself from the shadows of the phantom decorations of social art, seeks the fundamentals of the artistic form in monumental temple painting, this truly avant-garde direction of modern fine art.

He undertook research to find ways to proportionally deform images located at high altitude and on spherical surfaces. Miraculously, the surviving cartons and sketches of paintings testify to the search for such techniques, known to the ancients, but forgotten. Rediscovered by the artist, they create the impression of natural proportions.

The face of the Savior created by the artist in the dome of the Church of the Resurrection of the Living is an image, a promise of the future Russian power, a bulwark and affirmation of truth (fig. 4). And his Mother of God is the image of the Queen of Heaven, Mother of Peace, Intercession and Intercessor of all the suffering, the humiliated, the dispossessed, of all creation endowed with the Holy Spirit (fig. 5). The faces of the apostles painted by the artist's hand look into our soul. The enlighteners of the world, they are the indestructible spiritual pillars on which Christian conciliarity and the temple space of faith are based ^[16].

We are in the faces, they are in the faces – one. This community allows the born to mature, grow stronger, and bear fruit in the circumstances that everyone needs.

4. The image of Alexander Krylov's time

"How fast the passage of time is!" we think every time we observe the daily work of A. K. Krylov. Having passed part of the life path nearby, we can testify: in his presence, the passage of time is almost imperceptible. The secondary is pushed aside, it feels like an obstacle, no matter how significant other non-artistic phenomena and challenges may be ^[11].

For him, nothing is more important than the artistic work that was started by his predecessor teachers, among whom he calls the most beloved front-line soldier B. V. Kotik. For A. K. Krylov, creative closeness to the teacher and cordial co-creation with him are joyful. Without dedication, selflessness, and love, these aspirations would not be possible. A loving student, after Boris Vasilyevich's departure, he continues to work soul to soul and heart to heart with the teacher, experiencing the joy of creative assistance. The co-creation of teacher and student is fruitful, natural and has always existed. So the moments of life are combined into one forward movement, embodied in Eternity.

In 2023, together with A. K. Krylov, we prepared an album of his works "Time and Image. Plans. Studies. Solutions" ^{[3, p.224]}. The works of the artist presented in it show us the similarity of waves alternating, replacing the events of the past with the present. In his heart, the author transforms them into lines and plasticity of an artistic form, begging the Lord of the World to realize his rightness and complete balance. And then the external does not disturb his state of mind, the connection with the teacher is not broken. Then the opportunities opened up by tireless work increase in the acuteness of perception of what is happening in oneself and around. Time covers, pierces the senses, consciousness, the whole being of the artist, merging inextricably with him.

Time is priceless. This is the image of Alexander Krylov's time.

In overcoming, trials, he was helped by mentors, peers and senior masters, teachers, among whom he gratefully names A. A. Mylnikov, V. L. Anisovich, I. S. Sorokin, A. L. Korolev, A.M. Gritsai, Yu. M. Neprintsev, G. M. Korzhev and some others. Once, as a young teacher of LIJSiA, he was lucky enough to find the pillars of Russian art of the XX century together at one meeting, and he captured them with their statements.

"Taste is tact and a sense of proportion," A. M. Gritsai said that day. "It is impossible to teach art, but it is our duty to teach how to think and work," G. D. argued at the same time. Epifanov ^{[3, p.5]}.

Time is running out, years are passing; following the example of mentors, A. K. Krylov already helps his students to keep their balance, teaches how to restore it. The pupils of his personal Workshop of church historical painting successfully maintain the rhythm of ascent.

It is important for a serious artist to maintain unity with time-tested moral guidelines. And therefore, when in the modern world the sphere of art turns out to be the arena of fierce confrontation between warring forces, communication with the teacher helps not to lose the path and faith, to find a source of energy of opposition, to stand, overcome, win, support the weakened.

The creative legacy of the master reflects significant events in the history of the country, starting with the legendary centuries, "Kalevala" and ending with the deeds of Peter the Great. In his works there is an acute personal attitude to the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, as well as his civic word in affirmation for Russia, the winner of the "high style" of art. In large and small figurative forms, the artist responded to the demands of romanticism during the years of the "thaw", revealed his view of art and culture through the illumination of triumphant and tragic moments of long ago and recently, seeking to discover their hidden and obvious causes and consequences that determine paths and destinies ^[10].

Time moves unhindered. And although people have reconciled themselves to his inexorable course and have ordered their awareness of the world order in annual cycles, the change of seasons, day and night, the real creator is always timeless. Artists "encode" time with symbols, designate, build and characterize it with found images and forms.

Perhaps it is thanks to the creative energy of artists – creators, in the broadest sense – that the time of the universe does not move along one line, but at once in all dimensions and in a spiral. Alexander Krylov's life is characteristically permeated by a Russian trait – the search for a source of spiritual energy of time. Perhaps that is why many of his works have signs of premonition, foresight and sensitivity. This is their secret power.

Did he know, when creating in 1984-1985 the painting "Fighters, Defenders and Creators" for the interior of secondary school No. 171 of the Dzerzhinsky district of Leningrad, that he was writing a new work on the site of the lost Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the courtyard of the ancient Novgorod Zoo of the Pokrovsky Convent? No, of course not. I didn't even know about it. During the Blockade, the Assumption Church was destroyed by a German bomb explosion and fire. But in the secular, Soviet–style work of the author, the forms of temple painting and the image of the winged Nika, the winner who overcame death, who established the kingdom of truth, clearly emerged (fig. 6).

The image of the Cossack's daughter, whom the artist liked in his youth, is as symbolic as the faces of the women of Russia, Palestine, El Salvador, Vietnam and Armenia – sisters, mothers, wives who survived the loss of their closest ones.

The blood of a kindred spirit pulsates in many images of the artist's works dedicated to the dramatic fates of people who are fighting according to their beliefs. For example, white and red Cossacks; fellow villagers, separated by the lies of Marxism and the fascist occupation, are the persecutors and persecuted of all historical eras, and in our time – on all continents. The same hot, kindred blood is imprinted by him in the invincible defenders of Leningrad, in the unknown soldiers stopping the death-rattling machine of Nazism, in the internationalist Afghan soldiers.

Many of Alexander Krylov's works created half a century ago seem to have been written off from today. He captures the silent feat of a man who goes to Golgotha to save another. Patience, concentration, joy, light – and nothing light, superficial on the stern faces of warriors and people who carry their heavy life burdens with dignity and patience.

After decades of silence in Russian culture, today the works of Alexander Krylov no longer speak in a low voice, but with a bright word they call out, denounce. This applies to those works that are devoted to the tragedies of the modern world, and primarily to the crimes of the "civilized Anglo-Saxons".

They enslaved the "Panurg herd" of Europe, captured by the artist back in 1970 on a large-scale frieze "Milestones of European civilization", is doomed. How can we not recall the prophetic pages from the literary heritage of the St. Petersburg Roerich family, which asserted the inevitable self-destruction of the stinking Anglo-Saxon world and the inevitable ascent, the great flourishing of Russia of the future. According to Roerich's post-war diary entries, the vengeance of darkness will be directed against Russia and the East, but they will unite for victory and triumph. This truth is already in our eyes ^[20].

For years, decades, the artist Alexander Krylov intuitively followed the aspirations of Roerich's cultural and scientific ideas concerning the special mission of Russia. The first meeting with the legacy of the great artist-thinker Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich (1874-1947) was presented to him by his beloved teacher B. V. Kotik, to whom the student, the author of soul-burning sketches, studies, solutions, devoted more than one album and more than one fiery speech.

The pictorial series of the publication "Time and image. Plans. Studies. Solutions" (2023) ends with Golgotha (ill. 7) ^{[4, pp.222-223]}. This is what the artist sees in the future: The "crucified humanity", which gave itself up to be tormented by the horrors of war. And beyond the terrible frontier is a new age of beauty and immortality saving the world – an eternal dream and promise, images and subjects of the art of the future ^[17].

The dream of a new century, the promises of immortality, are the inescapable primordial features and revealed signs of Russian civilization, foretold from time immemorial, inherent in it and everything born of it, endowed with its victorious spirit. This secret knowledge, which once came from the mouth of the teacher, ignited by the fire of his soul, took root in the heart of the student, sprouted a mighty tree. Stubborn and persistent, Alexander Krylov, is an artist, scientist, public figure, mentor, and a deeply Russian man.

His range of interests and initiatives is wide. A well-known expert, researcher of ancient temple wall painting; writer-publicist, organizer of important cultural and conservation projects, he is the creator of the academic school of temple painting, which asserts the height of the sacred forms of ancient Russian church art. He is a teacher and mentor, responsible for the activities of hundreds of his students.

Russian Russian artist, the son of the great Fatherland, connected with him by flesh, blood, spirit, the artist continues the artistic ministry begun by his beloved teacher, in Russian, aware of the passage of time, embodied by "Russian features and cuts" in images filled with all the strength of the feelings of the Russian heart.

5. About the students of academician A. K. Krylov

We noted above that the number of students trained by academician A. K. Krylov exceeded four hundred; many achieved notable success. Among them are three full members of the Russian Academy of Arts; five Honored Artists of the Russian Federation, one Honored Artist of the Russian Federation; 75 people have been awarded medals, prizes, diplomas; 41 people are professors, associate professors, teachers of art universities, colleges and schools; two head departments; two lead personal workshops at universities; 18 are the main artists of theaters, book publishers, museums, dioceses; 165 – members of the Union of Artists of Russia; 30 – foreign citizens ^{[9; 19]}.

Here are just two, in our opinion, very illustrative examples of the results of the mentoring and enlightenment system he created.

The first example is the artist Konstantin Konstantinovich Konstantinov (born 1968) (ill. 8), who in 2001 successfully graduated from the I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg in the Workshop of Church Historical Painting under the guidance of Professor A. K. Krylov ^{[5, p.36]}. Thesis by K. K. Konstantinova decorated the Transfiguration Cathedral in Yakutsk in the classical style "Expulsion of merchants from the temple". Immediately after receiving his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts, K. K. Konstantinov painted images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 2009-2014, he participated in the restoration of the Kronstadt Naval St. Nicholas Stavropol Cathedral. In 2016-2018, he worked on the restoration of the picturesque decoration of the Cathedral of Saints Simeon and Anna in St. Petersburg ^[18].

Since 2001, K. K. Konstantinov successfully combines creative work with teaching. As a professor of the Department of Drawing, he conducts classes at the St. Petersburg State Art and Industrial Academy named after Baron A. L. Stieglitz.

K. K. Konstantinov is a creatively active painter who participates in major government projects, in organizing new exhibitions at the Baron A. L. Stieglitz Academy, in preparing winners of international and all–Russian competitions within the framework of exhibitions and festivals in the fields of fine art. He himself is a laureate of international and all–Russian exhibitions, such as "Form – space – man", "Teacher – student", "Creative Spring", and others.

In 2023, Konstantin Konstantinovich participated in the International Art Expedition to India "Beyond the spring colors: Thar to Himalayas". Many personal exhibitions of K. K. took place. Konstantinova is not only in the cultural capital at famous exhibition venues such as the State Museum-Institute of the Roerich Family and the Baron A. L. Stieglitz Academy, but also in the regions, for example, in the State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve "Izborsk" (Pskov region), in the Velikoustyug State Museum-Reserve (Vologda region). At the same time, each time, following the example of mentor A. K. Krylov, he gives his works as a gift to cultural institutions, which willingly accept them into their funds.

For fruitful creative and pedagogical activity K. K. Konstantinov has been awarded numerous state and departmental awards. For the reconstruction of temple paintings, he was awarded: the Patriarchal Diploma of Alexy II, the medal for the reconstruction of the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral; the Patriarchal Diploma of Cyril; the medal of the Imperial Order of St. Anna, II degree. Also K. K. Konstantinov was awarded a Silver Medal by the Russian Academy of Arts for his significant contribution to the preservation of Russia's cultural heritage.

Konstantin Konstantinov is a master of bright talent. His passion for portraiture is dictated by his belief in the uniqueness of each person, the versatility of his feelings, the wealth of his heart and the depth of his soul. His bright canvases with views of the best cultural and historical landscapes of the world are made with the passion of an artist fascinated by the beauty of the universe.

According to Konstantin Konstantinovich, constant appeal to nature, directly to life, is what is necessary that nourishes any artist, muralist, machine tool maker, teacher, applied artist. Following the example of his teacher A. K. Krylov, K. K. Konstantinov writes sketches everywhere and constantly, traveling across Russia from the Far East to the White Sea. There are colors of other countries in his palette; snow, lakes, skies; blooming valleys and groves; historical monuments. Painting by K. K. Konstantinova is rich, multicolored, and loving. She is the creation of the heart and hands of a very kind and generous man, our contemporary.

The second example is the painter and teacher Tatyana Alexandrovna Mishchenko (born 1978) (ill. 9), a representative of a famous artistic dynasty. In 1989-1996, T. A. Mishchenko, like her mentor A. K. Krylov, studied at the Secondary Art School at the Academy of Arts (hereinafter referred to as the School, now the St. Petersburg State Academic Art Lyceum named after B. V. Johanson at the Russian Academy of Arts). She graduated from the School with a gold medal. In 1996, she entered the painting faculty of the I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, from which she graduated in 2002 from the Workshop of Church Historical Painting by Professor A. K. Krylov. The topic of the thesis is "Apocalypse", a sketch of the wall painting of the western wall of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Nativity of the Virgin of Ferapontov Monastery. For this work, the artist received the highest rating with the "praise of the Council".

Since 2003, Tatyana Alexandrovna has been a regular participant in various exhibitions of the Union of Artists of Russia, working in the genre of portrait and landscape, easel paintings. In addition, T. A. Mishchenko is the author of many temple murals and decorative panels, a participant in the creation of mosaics for the St. Petersburg metro. In 2008-2012, she participated in the creation of mosaic decorations at the Spasskaya, Bukharestskaya, Mezhdunarodnaya and Admiralteyskaya stations.

In 2003, T. A. Mishchenko began teaching at her native lyceum named after B. V. Johanson, since 2014 she has been its head. Here, under her leadership, All-Russian competitions are held for children gifted in the field of fine arts, such as "Dedicated to the Year of Cinema ...", "From heart to heart", "Landscape of their native land", and others. Competitions under her leadership are included in the list of Olympiads, intellectual and creative reviews of the Ministries of Education and Enlightenment of the Russian Federation.

The main milestones of T. A. Mishchenko's temple works are as follows. In 1998, he participated in the reconstruction of the iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg; in 1999, he painted the church in the village of Georgievskoye (Yegoryevskoye) of the Kineshemsky district of the Yaroslavl region; in 2001 year – exterior painting of a school in the village of Vetvenik in the Gdovsky district of the Pskov region; in 2004 year – painting of the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education in St. Petersburg; in 2008 In 2011, she painted the refectory church in the name of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Bogoslovka estate in the Nevsky Forest Park near St. Petersburg (Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad Region), where she also executed the icon of St. Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg; in 2011 year – painting of the northern wall of the St. Sophia Assumption Cathedral in the Tobolsk Kremlin; in 2018 year – painting of the altar of the church in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in St. Petersburg (Spas na Kamenka); in 2021 year – the altarpiece of the "Resurrection of Christ" of the church of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky in Kazan.

Since 2015, as a member of the Expert Council on Art Education of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, Tatyana Alexandrovna has been sharing her experience and skills with colleagues from the regions. In recent years, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Russian Academy of Arts, she has organized master classes and lectures on art in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Astrakhan, Novouralsk, Tomsk, Saratov, Kursk, Vladikavkaz, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Naryan-Mare, Cheboksary, Mariupol, Belgorod and other cities. T. A. Mishchenko's works are in private and museum collections in Russia and abroad.

Since 2004, she has been a member of the Union of Artists of Russia. Her professional competencies have received the highest recognition. Since 2022, she has been the chairman of the Federal Educational and Methodological Association in the secondary vocational education system for an enlarged group of professions and specialties "Fine and Applied Arts". In 2023, she was awarded the high title of corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

In 2023, an album of watercolor works by the artist was published, with which she attracted the attention of connoisseurs of this subtle genre to the simplest and at the same time innermost features of Russian culture ^{[6, p.36]}. In Tatiana Mishchenko's watercolors, there is no commonplace and petty-bourgeois "aesthetics" of salon baguettes with compositions blurred in meaning and form.

The artist mastered the art of composition perfectly, first of all, in monumental painting, where there is not a single "conventional" or "artificial" structure. She can, in the words of Nicholas Roerich, "see with the beautiful eye", does not strive for "pretentious subjectivity" ^{[7, p.86]}, and therefore her watercolors do not cause boredom, but have attractive features of ease and intonation that cannot be conveyed in words. They are musical, refined. Cozy Shamordino, the silent Optina of deserts near Kozelsk, pure Leningrad Karelia, the shining Vologda land, the solid shores of gray Ladoga, transparent Crimean mountains, the misty Caucasus are fertile places of refuge for a grateful artist. Her brush thanks the Creator every day, and with Him the mountains and valleys created by His hand, temples and houses, meadows and heavenly distances…

Tatyana Mishchenko's artistic heritage contains another rare kind of gratitude to the past in our time, without which there is no present and there can be no future. With her creativity, the artist thanks her family, her country, and her teachers. Having learned the power of figurative expression in the family, Tatyana Mishchenko turns for constant guidance in professional matters to her teacher at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after I. E. Repin, Professor A. K. Krylov. Strong drawing, rhythmic lines, the desire to follow the coloristic symbolism of ancient Russian painting – she received these treasures and skills from her mentor.

Now Tatyana Alexandrovna Mishchenko is a mentor herself. Her strength lies in her inexhaustible kindness and benevolence. She knows how to set a worthy example to the students of the St. Petersburg State Academic Art Lyceum named after B. V. Johanson at the Russian Academy of Arts, which she has been heading for 10 years.

6. About the exhibitions of sketches and paintings by A. K. Krylov in recent years dedicated to Russian antiquity

For the last twenty years of his creative activity, A. K. Krylov devotes all his free time from scientific work, teaching and church building to writing sketches dedicated to Russian antiquity. Over the past three years, he and I have regularly traveled to open-air cultural institutions located in the immediate vicinity of the combat zone as part of a Special military operation, which directly and unambiguously makes it clear about his patriotic position. In 2021-2023, we worked with academician A. K. Krylov in Belgorod, Shebekino, Rakitny, Biryuch, Voronezh, Taganrog, Yeysk, Kerch, Sevastopol and other sacred places for every Russian.

As a result, elegant examples of the Russian historical landscape came out from under his brush (fig. 10-14). His bright representatives were the artists of the XIX–XX centuries, beloved by the master, A. A. Ivanov, V. D. Polenov, M. V. Nesterov, N. K. Roerich and P. D. Korin. Following them, the artist became imbued with the lyrics of not only the corners of Russia, famous for their history, but also simple and at the same time holy for the Russian soul favorite places of ancestral antiquity. These protected places will soon change their appearance beyond recognition, which is why the work of the St. Petersburg master, who captures the beauty of ancient cities and tracts in painting, is so important.

Among the works of A. K. Krylov presented at the exhibitions, the views of the shores of the great and small rivers of Russia – Volga, Volkhov, Valdaika, Tvertsa, Sviri, Msta, Sheloni, Oredezh, Velikaya, Pskov, Moscow, as well as historical lakes – Chudsky, Ladoga, Onega, Gorodishchensky and Lake Piros attract attention.

The artist cherishes the sunny glare of Akhmatova Creek, the autumn silence of the Yeseninsky Glade in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg and the sanctity of Nikolsky Pond in Toroshkovichi near Luga, a village that once saw both Rurik and wise Olga.

The series "Small Sketches", created in the last ten years, has been grouped by the master into thematic blocks and has already decorated the collections of several small museums in Russia, including museums in the Moscow region, Pskov region, Belgorod region, Kuban.

For many years, the artist has been attracted by the mystery of forgotten tracts and settlements. The witnesses of the past and the strongholds of Orthodoxy are dear to him: Staraya Ladoga, Veliky Novgorod, Izborsk, Pskov, Luga, Tver, Kashin, Mozhaysk, Yaroslavl, Stary Oskol, Belgorod, Biryuch, Taganrog, Yeysk, Feodosia.

Recently, he has been painting the hidden corners of the sprawling Babolovsky Park in Tsarskoye Selo. The master settled here in 2004, leaving a cozy apartment on Fontanka, in the very center of the city on the Neva River.

By a happy coincidence of historical destinies, these same places inspired an outstanding Orthodox ascetic, St. Petersburg priest Nikolai Nikolaevich Mochalkin, who passed away in 2013. Father Nikolai was the artist's spiritual mentor. In the last years of his life, Father Nicholas traveled a lot, communicated with nature, testifying that it was created by God and "tells" us about Him. Father Nikolai worked in the field of enlightenment, engaged in the revival of the high Russian style in all areas of our lives. The priest attached great importance to the restoration of the Sovereign Russian Feodorovsky town in Tsarskoye Selo, which embodied the idea of recreating the image of Holy Russia. According to the prayers of the priest, the ARS Center for Cultural and Scientific Projects was established in St. Petersburg in 2019, the founder and artistic director of which is academician A. K. Krylov. For the fifth year, the center has been conducting a number of long-term intermuseum projects, which were initiated by Father Nikolai Mochalkin. So, the priest blessed the artist for the cycle of works "At the frontier", recently shown in Mozhaisk. These are sketches created in those places of primordial Russia, which since ancient times have opposed everything dark that comes to us from the West.

Nowadays, A. K. Krylov's sketches are in numerous private collections, they are rarely found in museum exhibitions. Due to their small size, they usually do not enter the field of view of researchers. The artist generously gives them to his friends and favorite museums in memory of some event, meeting or place. Nowadays, the largest collection of A. K. Krylov's sketches is kept by the State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve "Izborsk" (Pskov region), which is proud of these works of the master and was glad to show them in Mozhaisk.

And although these works are done quickly, on the go, they are distinguished by thoughtful poise. Looking at them, you discover very subtle moments of using texture and other features of artistic material in solving pictorial tasks.

It is generally believed that an etude in the visual arts is only a preparatory sketch for a future work. In other forms of art, it is a simple exercise to improve the technique. But in the sketches of A. K. Krylov, both are missing. They serve a different purpose, capturing what is especially valuable in art and nature; and sometimes the only moment of fleeting disappearing beauty that connects us with both the historical past and Eternity. In his sketches, academician A. K. Krylov does not seek to offend us with "aesthetics", the beauty of technology or "spectacular" techniques. In them, the artist easily, freely and clearly expresses his admiration for God's Providence in the world around us all.

Speaking on September 9, 2022 at the Starooskolsky Museum of Local Lore at the opening of the exhibition "The Tale of Bygone Years in Russian Artistic Culture", the St. Petersburg artist made a speech that left no one indifferent. Taking this opportunity, we will present its fragments according to the transcript made by the museum staff.

"I, a native of Leningrad, raised by the European Hermitage environment, have dreamed all my life about something that, in general, is alien to the Russian soul. – Academician A. K. Krylov began his speech. – I was lucky: I realized this early enough, and now I am interested only in Russia, only in what lurks in the soul of a Russian person. The most important thing that the soul of a Russian person keeps is a sense of beauty."

Then Alexander Konstantinovich shared his thoughts about beauty as a manifestation of Divine glory, the Divine essence of phenomena – the visible essence of the Invisible God. In his opinion, every Russian person retains a sense of beauty: a child, an old man, a homeless man, an intellectual, a worker, a warrior on the battlefield. At the same time, A. K. Krylov drew the attention of the audience that very often scientists and artists move away from beauty and, as a result, lose their moral purpose: "So they went into individualism, into self-aggrandizement, into self-expression, which turns into a form of perversion, inferiority, ugliness."

The artist continued: "What does self-expression mean? Did Andrei Rublev express himself? Did Surikov, who wrote Cossacks, express himself? He did not express himself, he expressed the spirit of the people. And he expressed it. And Rublev, too. That's why I chose this way of simple painting a long time ago. I'm not looking for any innovations, it's all stupidity and trickery. I'm not looking for anything complicated in painting – I write simply, clearly. My main task is to hear the music of my Homeland. The Russian soul strives for clarity, honesty, and truth. Truth is the main ideal of Russian and Russian civilization. And we will follow it anyway. We have now made our choice. We are fighting for the truth here nearby, a few dozen kilometers away, in Ukraine. Our best people are fighting there. Our new real nobility."

Alexander Konstantinovich concluded his speech with the following words: "We thought that everything was available abroad, but now we don't need "abroad". We need to gather our own resources, we need to focus. Let us recall how his Chancellor, the head of the Foreign Policy Department, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov said under Emperor Alexander II Alexandrovich: “Russia is not angry, Russia is concentrating.” Anticipating today's battles, our President published an article back in January 2012, “Russia is focusing – challenges that we must respond to.” So we have to focus on everything now. The main thing is to open your soul and not be afraid. The open soul of the Russian is so powerful that no filth will crawl in there when we reveal it. It is bottomless. Her creative energies are boundless, and her sense of beauty is immortal. Nothing can destroy it, it cannot be dissected by the “Black Square”, this guillotine of culture, which was supposed to cut off imperial culture from the Russian culture of the future and create phantoms of degeneratism. It did not work out in the XX century and it will never work out. Glory to Russia, gentlemen!"

7. Conclusion

The creative portrait of the artist presented in this message has an independent cultural and historical significance and expresses the deeply personal attitude of the author, who hopes that the information and characteristics he has collected will be useful to future biographers of the outstanding Russian artist, academician of painting A. K. Krylov.

Let's end with a few statements by the master from his recent albums, which presented a unique range of paintings, graphics, ideas, studies and creative solutions:

"Everyone who draws consciously or intuitively asks: what are you, an incomprehensible, all-encompassing, wonderful world? And it responds with interlacing, collisions, movements of lines, calm or restless, screaming or singing, but invariably striking souls with a miracle of likeness. There is a Great mystery here..." ^{[8, p.9]}.

The creative materials of academician A. K. Krylov can be in demand by novice artists, art historians, cultural scientists, historians and everyone who cherishes the tragic and happy milestones of Russia's steady spiritual growth – in the past, present and future.

As a teacher and educator, the artist A. K. Krylov can be fully appreciated and mastered in our time. The publication of his creative legacy will continue for decades to come. It is important to study and master the artistic and historiosophical ideas expressed by him without delay, using a unique personal communication.