On the morning of November 5, 2020, at the age of 69 Yuri Ivanovich Arutsev, medical expert of the highest category, artist and calligrapher, writer and poet, social activist, Founder of the Yaroslavl Society for History and Genealogy, the Original School “Russian Calligraphy and Ligature” and the Museum of Russian National Writing passed away after a long and difficult illness.
Yuri Ivanovich made a substantial contribution to the development of culture in modern Russia. His work sets an example of passion, dedication, and distinguished service to his country. He strongly believed that writing is the first step to the appreciation of national culture, that without writing there would be no interest in reading and self-development, no love for the Motherland, and so Yuri Ivanovich raised the art of Russian national handwriting to the highest level. He established the country’s only full-cycle calligraphy school, with courses varying from teaching kids how to write letters and to training teaching staff. In eleven years the Arutsev Calligraphy School taught more than a thousand students, twenty of them had become calligraphy artists of the international level, and trained more than two hundred further education teachers.
In his 40 years of creative work, Yuri Arutsev created innumerable pieces of calligraphy and developed several handwriting fonts (the most famous is called “Alexander Pushkin”). Despite his illness, Yuri Ivanovich kept on his hard and successful work. In the last few months of his life, he created illustrations for the dictionary “Journey to the Calligraphy World”, prepared a book of poetry for print, and finished several new pieces for his calligraphy series “Necklace of Russian Cities”, that provided artistic representation to city landscapes of Staraya Ladoga, St.Petersburg, Pskov, Sevastopol, Veliky Novgorod and many others.
Yuri Arutsev is the author of more than 40 books and monographs on medicine, culture, history, philosophy, genealogy, local history, and the Russian language. The works of Yuri Ivanovich include: an almanac on the necessity to bring calligraphy lessons back to Russian schools, the first collection of literary pangrams in Russian’s history, the world’s first calligraphy dictionary containing more than 150 definitions, and the unique book “Russian word: what can it be?”, featuring more than 900(!) definitions of a single Russian word.
The many talents of Yuri Ivanovich, the broad range of his interests, and high efficiency are also apparent in his other achievements:
- Developed an original method of ancestry research, that was recognized as the best in Russia in 2011.
- In 2001, created the museum Yakovlevskaya Sloboda in the general education school No.59, the museum is now one of the best school museums in the city and the region.
- Developed the world’s only universal individual compact life-saving equipment package SAM-1, which includes 263 items for life support;
- In 200, founded a unique cultural and historical center at Yaroslavl Gymnasium No.3, including such sections as Exhibition Hall, Gallery of Glory, Teacher’s Room, the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War permanent museum exhibition, and Geography Classroom and Museum, which later was recognized as the best geography classroom in the country.
- Organised several major exhibitions in the City Hall of Yaroslavl, the Museum of Yaroslavl, and Yaroslavl Nature Reserve Museum. The main shows are: The Art of Monograms, The Birth of Spring, The Sails of Our Childhood, Russian Calligraphy and Ligature, The Triumph of Russian Calligraphy.
Yuri Arutsev is a laureate of the regional prize “For a moral feat of the teacher” (2011) and many other awards.
His merits were recognized by the All-Russian Public Organization “Russian Chernobyl Union”: for his devotion to medical duties, he was awarded a commemorative badge “In memory of liquidation of the Chernobyl NPP accident consequences. 20 years” (2006).
The All-Russian Genealogical Federation has awarded Yuri Arutsev with the following awards: Medal “For Humanism and Service to Russia. 100th Anniversary of the Birth of M.A. Sholokhov” (2007); Medal “For Contribution to Genealogy and Other Historical Disciplines”, 2nd and 1st Degrees, (2009, 2010); Medal of the Order of St. Anna, (2011); Cross “For the Memorialization of the Patriotic War of 1812”, (2013); Medal “400 years anniversary of the House of Romanov” (2014); Imperial Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd Degree, (2014).
This summer, at the initiative of the Association of Private Museums of Russia, he received honorable mentions from the Governor and the Department of Culture of Yaroslavl region, and was awarded the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, 3rd degree.
The Association of Private Museums of Russia deeply mourns the irreparable loss and expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Yuri Ivanovich Arutsev.
The memory of this outstanding teacher, calligrapher, and great man will stay in our hearts forever.