I pay tribute to your caution and your sense of humor. And even if you are inclined to perceive my letter as "truthful" (I quote you), I will still insure myself by sending you a link to the website of our Institute: Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P.P. Shirshov, St. Petersburg Branch (SPbF IO RAS) (ocean.ru ).
Everything is there: on the first page - a film about our building (to the question of columns), in the "Employees" section - information about me (please do not doubt my existence), in the "News" section - messages about our "Fourth Thursdays".
We really want to see you as our lecturer. We are ready to pay your way (it would be great if you were satisfied with a train). We can accommodate you in the guest room of our Institute, where there is everything you need: a sofa, a refrigerator, a private bathroom, a coffee machine, a microwave. To your lecture, if it is destined to take place, we are ready to invite representatives of the media (which ones, we will discuss with you).
Are you ready to agree to our offer?
All the best to you,
T.I. Malova [unofficial translation]
About Schliemann, oceanology, etc.
When: April 1 at 19:39
To: Tatiana Malova malova.ti@yandex.ru
From whom: Z Vl (Vladimir) moto1111111@yandex.ru
Dear Tatiana Igorevna Malova!
My friends live there, And, holding my breath, I peer into the Moscow windows... ["Moscow Windows" is a popular song by composer Tikhon Khrennikov to lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky, written in 1960.]
I am recalling an associate professor of history from St. Petersburg...
Not to say that he was a naive person...
Even if we put aside the incident with the sinking of the ship (in his early youth), incidents with young, but beautiful creatures, then even in this case there remains the experience of his communications with very influential people close to the tops of power...
And, nevertheless, the respected associate professor boldly rushed into battle for the honor of historical science at some session where the host was (now) the successful commentator of one of the central radio stations ...
Where is the associate professor now, and where is the one with whom he talked, defending historical science? Did he imagine that he would be found in a St. Petersburg canal with a cut, dismembered, sawn body?
So after all, the respected associate professor did not have a garland of applications for compensation for alienated real estate (people with experience are able to smell a high-class racket), he had solid established ties with a foreign university, he was awarded with the Legion of Honor and he had about a hundred publications in French and in Russian...
And who am I compared to him?
Tell me at least one of my works, printed!..
Yes, I have published several dozen books through a special Internet platform.
But strangely enough, time passed, and the money, sufficient to pay me a fee, on this Internet platform did not accumulate.
So I found it expedient to declare a moratorium on cooperation with this Internet platform and gave readers the opportunity to have direct access to my works - instead of the possible enrichment of intermediaries.
I am not ashamed to mention my unique bilingual book "Бурейский Дневник. Bureya Journal ". This book is not (only) of a historian, but, also, of a participant in the events, even if this participant was several thousand kilometers from the scene of the incident - from the dam on the Bureya River reservoir...
My work is marked by the prohibition to place this book on a separate page and by the manipulations with counters that give information about the number of readers ... (I wrote about all this).
Of course, I want to believe that the period, which at times resembles sophisticated harassment (baiting), will suddenly stop at the moment of my arrival in St. Petersburg...
In general, I do not deny that I am one of the creatively active people.
But I cannot boast of any success in publications (paper [printed] editions) or of formal recognition...
And what is the point for me to go to a respected Institute with such baggage, to occupy a guest room?
In one of my stories, I recalled my trip to Kamchatka...
That trip was also at the expense of the inviting party...
It seems that I did not go into the details of the process of compensating me for travel expenses...
In general, it was a separate (independent) pleasure...
I have no doubt that everything is different at your Institute... Especially since I was at the bank today and received - in advance - money for travel (joke)...
In general, I am not such a large official creative figure of "Russial culture" to burden a respected Institution with my person.
If my creative products may be of interest to the respected Institute in other forms - other than my personal visit - through publications or otherwise, - then I am ready to discuss such option...
It follows from the biographies of Heinrich Schliemann that he went to inspect the Great Wall of China in a turban.
I will not rule out the possibility that after my appeals to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and after receiving fair and lawful compensation for a real estate object, the ownership of which has been terminated, I will arrive in St. Petersburg without receiving any funding from respected Institute, I will put on a turban, and I will meet you in person.
[MMDCCCLIII. My comment on the proposal for a trip to St. Petersburg. A diary note. - March 30, 2022.].
April 1, 2022 19:38
Translation from Russian into English: April 1, 2022 21:02
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Здесь живут мои друзья... Дневниковая заметка".
{ 2889. Здесь живут мои друзья... Дневниковая заметка.
MMDCCCLIX. My friends live here... A diary note. }