Mikhail Seslavinsky

Mikhail Seslavinsky
Mikhail Seslavinsky

Mikhail Seslavinsky (Russian: Михаил Вадимович Сеславинский; born 1964) is a Russian public official, researcher in book culture, and a bibliophile.

Biography

Born February 28, 1964 in the city of Dzerzhinsk (now in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast), Seslavinsky graduated with a degree in history from the N. I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University (now N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod).

From 1986 to 1989, he was a faculty member in the social sciences department at the Dzerzhinsk Branch of Gorky Polytechnic University (now N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod).

In 1990, he was elected people’s deputy of the Russian parliament (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Supreme Council) for Dzerzhinsk District No. 364, as well as to the Gorky Regional Council of People's Deputies. As a member of the RSFSR Supreme Concil, he was a deputy chairman of the Council’s Commission for Culture (1990-1993).

From 1993 to 1998, Seslavinsky served as a member of the State Duma. During this time, he chaired the 1st State Duma Subcommittee for Culture in the Committee for Education, Culture and Science. In the 2nd State Duma he was deputy chairman of the Committee for Culture.

In 1998-1999, he headed the Federal Service for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

From 1999 to 2004, he served as State Secretary and the First Deputy Minister for Press, Television, Radio Broadcasting and Mass Media in the Mikhail Kasyanov's Cabinet.

Since 2004, he has headed the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications.

At Mikhail Seslavinsky’s initiative an ethics code for broadcasters – called the Charter of Broadcasters of the Russian Federation – was drafted and signed on April 28, 1999 by the heads of the leading Russian TV and radio broadcasters.

From 2001 to 2003, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Public Russian Television (ORT) and Channel One. From 2005 to 2010, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors at Prosveshchenie Publishing House and also the Administrative Direction for Print, Tver Children’s Book Printing and Publishing Integrated Works and the General Directorate for International Book Exhibitions and Fairs.

He is married and has two daughters, born 1994 and 2003. The older daughter Natalia Seslavinskaya has dedicated her career to the book industry, continuing the family tradition.

Mikhail Seslavinsky is also a prominent bibliophile and collector of autographs and rare books from early 19th and 20th centuries. He has donated books and manuscripts to state libraries and collections (State Literary Museum, Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian State Library, Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, Pushkin State Museum, Admiral Lazarev Naval Library, Dmitry Mendeleev and Alexander Blok State Memorial Museum Reserve and Solzhenitsyn Center of Russian Emigré Studies).

Since February 2011, he has chaired the Council of the National Union of Bibliophiles. He has authored numerous articles on bibliology. A full bibliography of his works was published by Pashkov Dom Publishing House of the Russian State Library in 2014 under the title Mikhail Seslavinsky, Bibliophile and Bibliologist: Bibliographical Reference compiled by Leonid Fursenko with an introduction by Alexander Samarin.

Since 2008 Mikhail Seslavinsky has chaired the editorial board of the bibliophile magazine "Pro knigi" ("About books").

He is also the author of the book of children's stories Chastnoe pionerskoe (Private life of Soviet pioneers)[1][2] which was made into a film of the same name; the collection of articles Homo Scriptoris [=Writing Man]; the books The Scent of a Book Binding (bibliophile album),[3] Polaris (about the adventures of a bobcat in Finland) and The Rendezvous (Russian artists as depicted in French books of the first half of the 20th century);[4] the album Books for Book Lovers (co-authored with Moscow State Printing University professor Olga Tarakanova);[5] the album A Garland of Books and Pictures (children's reading in pre-revolutionary Russia); and the monograph French Bibliophilic Books with Drawings of Russian Émigré Artists (1920s-1940s). He also compiled the collection Tamizdat: 100 Selected Books a collection of articles about books by famous Russian writers and poets (Marina Tsvetaeva, Igor Severyanin, Boris Pasternak, Ioseph Brodsky, etc.); banned in the USSR, thair books were published abroad, as well as the album The Art of the Autograph and My Friend Osip Mandelstam. Selected Illustrated Bibliography and Autographs.

Mikhail Seslavinsky holds a Ph.D. in History, and is an Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (Department of Art History and Art Criticism).

Seslavinsky is a member of the Board of Trustees at State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Orthodox Encyclopedia, and chairs the Boards of Trustees at the Ivan Fyodorov Moscow State University of Printing Arts.

On August 26, 2013, Mikhail Seslavinsky joined the Council for the Russian Government Media Award. He has been member of the State Radio Frequency Commission since 2004, the Government Commission on Television and Radio Broadcasting, as well as the Government Commission on Religious Organizations.

Mikhail Seslavinsky chaired the Korney Chukovsky 125th birthday celebration committee and the Lydia Chukovskaya 100th birthday celebration committee.

He was Deputy Chairman of the Russian Year of Literature Organizing Committee in 2015.

Mikhail Seslavinsky chaired the Organizing Committee for preparing and holding celebrations of Osip Mandelstam’s 125th birthday.

He is Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee for preparing and holding celebrations of Maxim Gorky’s 150th birthday in 2018.

Mikhail Seslavinsky holds a Ph.D. in History, and is an Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (Department of Art History and Art Criticism).

Seslavinsky has received a number of Russian state awards. He is a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor, a decoration he was awarded for his efforts to promote cultural ties between France and Russia.

In a year 2014, the Federal Agency he leads, was accused of financing of the institutions connected with Russian liberal opposition.

In 2015 he has also made claims for financial support for cultural and social programs in the liberal media (Echo of Moscow, the Rain, the TV channel RBC news)

  1. ↑ Chastnoe pionerskoe. Seslavinsky M.
  2. ↑ Chastnoe pionerskoe (Russian) by M. V. Seslavinsky (Author)
  3. ↑ The Scent of a Book Binding. Seslavinsky M.
  4. ↑ The Rendezvous (Russian artists as depicted in French books of the first half of the 20th century). Seslavinsky M.
  5. ↑ Books for Book Lovers (co-authored with Moscow State Printing University professor Olga Tarakanova). Seslavinsky M.

References

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