Дидактический материал к уроку "Диалог культур "

См. Приложение 5 (Appendix 5 Present day Saransk)

[2] Баранова М.Н. «Степан Дмитриевич Эрьзя»

г.Саранск Мордовское книжное издательство 1987 – 239стр.

P 10:

Present day Saransk is

totally new town as compared with the old one. It’s a town of modern

industry, high schools, scientific – research institutes and new residential areas with modern conveniences and good amenities.

       Saransk attracts us by its beauty. There is St Ushakov’s Cathedral, Pushkin Park, Sychkov gallery, Erzia Museum, Sport Buildings; the Ice Palace, the Sport Centre for training Olympic champions. It is not only a cultural centre. Industry is being developed here too.

                 P 11: Special attention deserves Erzia Museum. This year it celebrates its 50 th anniversary.     The name of Erzia is widely known in Russia and abroad. The work of this remarkable sculptor attracts lovers of art by its uncommonness, lyricism and inspiration, psychological depth and musical harmony of composition. From the national tradition and the age – old experience of folk masters it derives characteristic  power and vitality. A mordvinian by birth, Stepan Dmitriyevich Nefedov assumed the pseudonym Erzia, the world being the name of one Mordvinian ethnic  group. In this way he paid a tribute of love and respect to the people which had given him life and provided nutriment for his art.

The son of a poor peasant, Nefedov – Erzia was born in 1876. His native village, Bayevo, belonged to Alatyr District of Simbirsk Province ( now – Ardatov District Republic of Mordovia)

The boy’s early impressions were sonorous Mordovian songs, the wisdom of old legends, pieces of timber turned into lacy ornaments by the dexterous hands of local craftsman, Sunday costumes of Mordvinian women lavishly embroidered  and trimmed with beads.

All his life Erzia was consumed with an ineradicable fire of creativity which never gave him an hour of rest. His actions and decisions were motivated by an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. This thirst and his explorative spirit were the sources of his inspiration. And it was this striving for the new that led him, an artist who had enthusiastically greeted the revolution and had devoted ten difficult years to the service of the young Soviet State, away to the far – off Argentina.

In different years Erzia produced sculptures in which he expressed love for  Mordovia and its people.  We shall mention  but some of them: Head of an Erzia  Woman,  (1915), Head of Mordovian Woman (1917), Portrait of the Sculptures Mother ( 1940), Mordovian Peasant (1943) . Among the sculptor’s most interesting productions are portraits of great men of different epochs: Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Nevsky, Beethoven.

His works are different in character and mood, but they all filled with life and human warmth, the people’s wisdom, moral integrity and dignity

The sculptor’s chisel was in his hands till his last minutes. He died in Moscow, in 1959, while working at a  portrait of Lenin A collection of more than two hundred items is in the permanent exposition of the Mordovian  Museum of Fine Arts after Erzia. Erzia’s name is deeply revered in his native land. The people of Mordovia, proud of their son, consider his art their national legacy. This art moves us and will move the future generations by its humanistic content by the nobleness and integrity of the characters it portrays, by its technical virtuosity