Tatyana Gubanova
Polikarp Lebedev. “Longstanding and Laborious Effort”
“Polycarp (Alexander) Lebedev (1904–1981), Soviet party and state official, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1965), Chairman of the Committee for Arts at the USSR Council of Ministers (1948–1951), Secretary of the Board of the USSR Union of Artists for International Relations (1963–1973), Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery (1939–1941, 1954–1979)…” Behind this scant entry in Wikipedia is a life filled with rises and disappointments, happy coincidences and surprises, a life many years of which were devoted to serving the main museum of Russian art. In this article, Lebedev’s daughter T.P. Gubanova, head of the International Exhibitions Department of the Tretyakov Gallery, describes certain events of the longstanding and laborious effort undertaken by her father in the capacity of a high-ranking official. The article includes fragments of the director’s personal reminiscences from his family archive.
Key words: P.I. Lebedev, director of the Tretyakov Gallery, serving Russian art, museum arrivals during the 1950s–1970s, P.D. Korin.