The most Russian American: for which William Broomfield received the Order of Friendship from Putin

On October 28, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree awarding state awards of the Russian Federation: for achievements in fostering friendship and cooperation between peoples, fruitful activities to bring together cultures of nations and nationalities, the Order of Friendship was awarded to William Kraft Brumfield, professor at the Department of Slavic and German Studies at Tulane University (USA )

Photo: video frame YouTube / RUSSIA BEYOND

According to Wikipedia, William Craft Broomfield grew up in the American South. Reading Russian novels, he became interested in Russia. “After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University in 1966 and a master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968, Broomfield came to the USSR in 1970,” the site says cultinfo.ru. Shortly before the trip, he bought his first film camera, and the frames brought from the Soviet Union became a sensation at the university where he studied.

Realizing that it was photography of architectural monuments that was his vocation, he received a doctorate in Slavic studies (philologist studying Russian language and literature) and began to study Russian architecture. In 1983, Brumfield's first book was published, illustrated with his photographs: “Gold in Azure: A Thousand Years of Russian Architecture”.

In 1986, Broomfield organized the first exhibition of photographs from the collection of Russian inventor, publisher and photographer S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky at the Library of Congress. After this there were hundreds of trips to the most remote corners of Russia, thousands of photographs, dozens of articles, publications and books, including about the historical cities of the Vologda region - Veliky Ustyug, Kirillov, Ferapontovo, Ustyuzhna, Totma, Belozersk, Cherepovets and Vologda, to which William has special feelings. During his work, William Broomfield lived in total in the USSR and Russia for more than 15 years - he visited Vologda alone more than 50 times.

Photo: video frame YouTube / RUSSIA BEYOND

Broomfield donated his collection of approximately 1100 photographs of the architectural monuments of the Russian North, taken in 1999 — 2003 to the Library of Congress; subsequently, part of its archives was digitized. Currently, work on the digitization of images continues. Most of his photographs are in the Image Collection Division of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The Broomfield collection includes 12 500 black and white photographs 8 × 10, 40 000 negatives and more 89 000 digital files, most of which are color (about 149 000 in total).

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In the 2000 year, Brumfield was awarded the Guggenheim Scholarship in the field of the humanities (Russian history). He is a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences since the 2002 year and an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts since the 2006 year. In the 2011 year, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications at the 7 All-Russian Regional and Local History Literature Contest "Malaya Rodina" awarded Broomfield with a special diploma "for many years of research and cultural and educational activities to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Russian regions."

Photo: video frame YouTube / 35 TV

In 2014, Broomfield became a laureate of the Academician D. S. Likhachev Prize "for his outstanding contribution to the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of Russia."

“I remember how William and I drove in forty-degree frost through Totma to Veliky Ustyug,” the site quotes a friend of Professor Broomfield vologdaregion.ru. “I will never forget his boots made of very thin leather. How he ran through the snowdrifts in them to catch a good shot. Forty-degree frost, the road is icy, we approach Totma, wooden houses are visible below and smoke is coming from the stoves. The smoke is like a cloud, it turned out to be a very beautiful shot. And I shout: “William, take it off, take it off quickly! He ran out of the car and climbed into a snowdrift in his boots so that he could take this picture.”

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The professor speaks anxiously about his photographs; a certain story is associated with each of his photographs. The name of all the churches of the Vologda region knows by heart. In his opinion, the picture allows you to look into the past.

Photo: video frame YouTube / 35 TV

“I am in a sense a unique person - what I do, nobody does,” Brumfield admits. - I created my way and do not get tired of popularizing my work. Not everyone likes it. Engaging in Russian culture in America is not promising. But I found my refuge, I find allies who help me, I became a world-famous specialist in my field. And so far my work inspires me. I call it God's providence. ”

You can read the articles and see the photo by William Broomfield on the site Russia Beyond the Headlines.

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