KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The hybrid event for Mikhail Lermontov's birthday was organized on Oct. 15 at the Russian House in Kuala Lumpur together with a number of distinguished guests from Russia and Malaysia.
A lot of preparatory work was done by the team of the Russian House in Kuala Lumpur and partners – Beresta company (Berestaproject), implementing a bright project «Birch bark letters to the future. XXI century», the Lermontov Museum-Reserve «Tarkhany», which receives thousands of visitors on the Poet's birthday, the Malaysian Rehabilitation Council, which prepared the translation of M.Lermontov's poems from Malay into Sign language, the Russian orientalist, the author of translations of M.Lermontov's poetic works into Malay Viktor Pogadaev, as well as the Russian sculptor Grigory Potocki, the author of a bust of M. Lermontov, installed on the territory of the Russian House in Kuala Lumpur back in 2015.
Despite an attempted hacking attempt during a video conference with Ms. Potapova, deputy director of the State Lermontov Museum-Reserve «Tarkhany» (Penza region), the event was rich and bright, and there were no empty seats in the Russian House in Kuala Lumpur.
The guests were presented a documentary film «Lermontov» subtitled into Malay (prepared within the framework of the project "Birch Bark Letters to the Future. XXI century. Russian great words of the great Russian writers"). The author of this project, Natalia Dronova, talked about the idea of creating porcelain mugs with birch bark decor, on which quotes of Dostoevsky, Lermontov, Tolstoy and Chekhov are printed in Russian and English.
Natalia Dronova also answered the questions of the guests of the event about the production of attractive and unusual mugs, in particular, about getting a beautiful blue colour when firing products by the Dulevsky porcelain factory.
Victor Pogadaev read Mikhail Lermontov's poems «The Sail» and «The Cliff» in Malay, and the Malaysian sign language interpreter Ms. Roze conveyed the meaning of the poems in Sign language.
Please note that in Malaysia, Russian literature was not translated into Sign language. This part of the event showed the organizers, participants and guests how beautiful and emotional Sign language is, as well as how important it is to integrate people with disabilities into society, because this primarily makes us better ourselves.
Sculptor Grigory Potocki spoke about the installation of a bust of Mikhail Lermontov on the territory of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kuala Lumpur, now known as the Russian House in Kuala Lumpur, and also noted that kindness and gratitude are inherent in all Russian people.
At the end of the video conference with the Russian participants, the Malaysian guests laid flowers at the bust of Mikhail Lermontov, took dozens of vivid photos and unanimously condemned the hacking attempt on the event- an act of aggression against Russian culture.