Boretsky, Rudolf Andreevich

Born in Kiev in the family of Yadvigi Voitsekhovna Boretskaya (nee Maria-Yadvigi Gelevskaya) and Andrei Dionisievich Boretsky. Yadviga Voytsekhovna was a costume designer at the Kiev Theater of Musical Comedy , Andrei Dionisievich was in charge of the theater electrical workshop of the Kiev Philharmonic ^[1] . When the Great Patriotic War began, his father was not subject to draft by age, but went to the front as a volunteer, and the 11-year-old Rudolph and his mother remained in Kiev, since the mother had undergone surgery the day before and could not go to the evacuation. Bearing the hardships of life in the occupied city, Jadwiga Wojciechovna took up two orphans, who became Rudolph named brother and sister. German Zavitsky was a classmate of Rudolph, his father, an old Bolshevik, was repressed in 1937, and his mother died during the occupation; meeting a hungry comrade wandering around the city, Rudolph brought him to his house. In 1944, Olga Sirenko, an orphaned daughter of friends of Yadviga Voitsekhovna, who was also adopted by the Boretsky family, came to Kiev on foot. Both adoptive children subsequently rose to their feet and graduated: German at the Leningrad Mining Institute , and Olga at Kiev University.

In the middle of the war, Andrei Dionisievich returned to his family, whose health was undermined by captivity and two concentration camps. With the approach of the Red Army, the Nazis began the mass eviction of Kiev from the central areas of the city. With three children, the Boretskys went to Andrei Dionisievich’s relatives, to the Svyatoshino suburb of Kiev, and from there to Zhitomir to wait there for the active phase of hostilities at the front. There, the Boretskys met the arrival of the Red Army. Rudolf Andreevich himself subsequently wrote about all this in detail in his autobiographical book “Swing”.

After the liberation of Kiev, the Boretskys returned home, and studies at school resumed. Having made up the school curriculum lost during the war years, R. Boretsky entered the Department of Psychology of the Philosophical Faculty of Kiev State University .

In 1952 he graduated from the university and received a distribution as a school teacher of logic and psychology (these subjects were included in the school curriculum until the mid-1950s) in the city of Konstantinovka in the Donbass (1952-1953). It was there that he began to collaborate with a local newspaper, preparing journalistic sketches for her.

After moving to Moscow in 1954 and continuing to work at the school, he began to work with the Children's editors of the All-Union Radio as a freelance writer. In those years, it was one of the best editions on the radio, where Boretsky quickly established himself as a capable and diverse journalist. Together with two other colleagues, in the beginning of 1956 he was seconded to the Central Television Studio (TsST) created in 1951 at Shabolovka .

He worked live at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957, after which the importance of television in the media system was evaluated and the Committee on Broadcasting and Television under the Council of Ministers of the USSR was created. From the festival edition of the TSST , where Boretsky was a publishing editor, in February 1958 a youth edition was formed, which he headed ^[2] . Boretsky went down in history as the creator of such programs as “On Air - Youth”, “Knowledge”, “Television News”, the author of documentaries.

In 1962 he graduated from the graduate school of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. He defended the country's first dissertation on the problems of television journalism (On Genres and Forms of Documentary-Chronicle Television, December 1962).

R. A. Boretsky was fluent in Polish, which was taught by his Polish mother. He knew German well, because he remained an 11-year-old boy in occupied Kiev. This knowledge and scientific authority contributed to the fact that in the 1980s he was invited to work permanently abroad, to Poland, becoming a professor at Silesia (1977, 1980-1983) and Warsaw Universities (1985-1988).

For many years he worked as his own correspondent for the magazine " New Time " in Poland, where in 1989-1994 he lived permanently as a correspondent.

In recent years, he has published several books of memoirs and scientific publications, including two books on the history of Soviet television.

He died on November 19, 2012 in Moscow. The farewell took place on November 21, 2012, after which Rudolf Boretsky was buried in the Khovansky cemetery ^[3] .

In 2014, under the editorship of the wife of Rudolf Andreevich Inna Vasilyevna Pimenova, “The Book of Remembrance of Professor R. A. Boretsky. Greed for life does not pass - life passes, ”the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University graduated. It has 4 sections: “Scientist”, “Teacher”, “Journalist”, “Writer”.

“My father and I bought a television set when I was a fourth-year student,” recalled R. A. Boretsky. - We stood day, stood night and another half day in line in 20-degree frosts, loaded this TV onto the sled. Its cost was equal to half of my dad’s very low salary ” ^[4] . From this purchase, Rudolf Boretsky’s acquaintance with television began, which determined his fate.

He began working on television in the scientific and educational editorial office, where, together with Arnold Grigoryevich Grigoryan, he created the magazine “Knowledge”. The idea of ​​television periodicals arose not only among Boretsky: he and his colleagues realized that “separate programs simply fly away somewhere and that’s all”, because the technique of synchronous video recording did not exist yet.

One by one, themed magazines began to appear on television: “Art” (edited by Andrei Donatov ), “Screen of International Life” (arose in connection with the USSR’s participation in the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, and Nikolai Semenovich Biryukov , who returned from there, became his the first commentator), “Young Pioneer”, “Cinema Travelers Club”, the magazine “Health” (it was hosted by Alla Melik-Pashaeva), “The Music Kiosk” (with the host Eleonora Belyaeva). Thus, the editors tried to structure the program and organize the frequency of broadcasts.

Under the direction of Boretsky, the television commentator Yuri Valerianovich Fokin and the famous newspaper journalist Yevgeny Ivanovich Ryabchikov , who made the first direct reports and documentaries on the subject of space (they were very popular on television since September 1957, began their television career). launched the first artificial Earth satellite) . Boretsky worked with Irakli Luarsabovich Andronikov and made a great feature film with him with the participation of Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak , Kukryniksy , Igor Ilyinsky , George Sviridov .

In 1958, Boretsky was entrusted with the creation of the Youth Edition of the Central Television Studio, where many interesting projects were born, such as, for example, the quickly becoming popular heading “On Air - Youth”: “I wanted to confirm the special status of youth TV on the air ... Therefore, apparently, it has matured the idea of ​​creating a special program unit is precisely the “program in the program” (this idea would later push colleagues on the All-Union Radio to create the Yunost radio station) ^[5] .

In the search for their own style of communication with the youth audience, new genres of screen journalism were also born: a documentary short story , in contrast to the traditional essay, combining the artistry of the plot with the authenticity of situations and heroes; a new genre form was born, called by the authors a drama with an open ending . “The actual life situation was taken for her, but she was played out - of course, openly, without falsification and deception - not by documentary characters, but by actors. The problem was posed. Then a discussion was organized: the authors of the most interesting responses (letters, calls to the editor) were invited to the studio, and the conflict was resolved in the dispute ” ^[6] .

A very special place in the biography of youth TV belongs to Ie Mironova, a student of one of the largest Soviet film directors Yu. Ya. Raizman. It was her who came up with a fruitful idea - to rely in the search for the author’s asset at VGIK - Institute of Cinematography. As a result, there was close cooperation with subsequently known film masters, and then students or recent graduates of this university - E. Klimov , E. Karelov, Yu. Chulyukin, A. Saltykov, V. Uskov, V. Krasnopolsky, A. Gabrilovich .

Professor R. A. Boretsky, years later, recalled in detail and with particular penetration in the book “Shabolovka 53” about the time associated with the youth editorial board. (Composition. A. Rozov. M., 1988.- P.148-158).

By decision of the CST management, Boretsky was then involved in organizing the CST Information Service. Paradoxically, this structure was created later than many others, and the transmission of news before this was reduced to reading radiant messages against a static screensaver. At the beginning of 1959, Boretsky was enlisted as a shift editor in the General Information Office, but a non-partisan and independent person could not hold this post for a long time. Unwillingness to waste strength on the struggle with party functionaries and a craving to comprehend the accumulated experience led Rudolf Andreevich to the decision to leave the full-time work of the television journalist in favor of science and teaching.

As a practitioner, Rudolf Boretsky was invited in 1958 to the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University as an opponent of the first diploma works on television.

“At that time I was already conducting seminars at the faculty,” recalled R. A. Boretsky. - The event was the first ever diploma work on TV in the spring of 1958. A pretty blue-eyed blonde encroached on a study of the similarities and differences in personality behavior on the stage and on the television screen. Once in the commission, I said something pretentious about the “pioneers” ... I’ll notice in parentheses that the preferences of the blue-eyed blonde leaned towards the theater, her name was Iya Savvina . Our first graduate student became the leading actress of the Moscow Art Theater, People's Artist of the USSR, whom we remembered as touching Asya the lame-foot in the film of A. Konchalovsky , the charming “Lady with a Dog ” by I. Kheifits ” ^[7] .

A year later, R. Boretsky received an invitation to graduate school and became the second young scientist of the department of broadcasting and television after A. Ya. Yurovsky, which was formed by associate professor Vsevolod Nikolaevich Ruzhnikov .

Associate professor Matvey Samoilovich Cherepakhov, who came to the faculty from the Polygraphic Institute, led the Boretsky Ph.D. thesis. The dissertation was formulated by the applicant himself, Matvey Samoilovich discussed the work, advised methodologically. The uniqueness of the study determined that there was no place to take analytical material on a topic new to science, and it was almost impossible to work with foreign sources at that time due to their inaccessibility. Therefore, Rudolf Boretsky relied on the few publications of 1957-1961 in the current press, where he shared his observations on the practice of becoming a TV, and the reflection of his colleagues. In 1961, his first small monograph, Information Television Genres, was published. The author was barely 30 years old, and he already had a lot of experience working on television, he came up with many ideas and projects and began to implement it, about which he told the emerging professional community.

The dissertation was defended by the Academic Council of the Faculty of Journalism, which was formed at the same time that the journal faculty was separated into an independent faculty from the philological faculty of Moscow State University, where initially journalism was only a department. Since this was the first dissertation in the country on the problems of television journalism, its passage in the Higher Attestation Commission came across a temporary delay. At first, no one understood what specialization this text belongs to. In the end, the dissertation was enrolled in the profile of philological sciences, and then it served as the basis for the textbook “ Fundamentals of Television Journalism ” (1966), written jointly with Alexander Yakovlevich Yurovsky and translated into many foreign languages. This was the beginning of the history of the science of television, and Yurovsky and Boretsky themselves became the conceptual leaders of the first in the Soviet Union department of broadcasting and television at the faculty of journalism, on the basis of which departments in other universities began to be created. The Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University actively helped in this methodically.

Boretsky constantly improved the lecture course, supplementing it with an analysis of the realities of modern television - right up to the transition of broadcasting to cable networks and the Internet.

In 1976, Rudolf Andreyevich Boretsky defended his doctoral dissertation “Television propaganda. Problems of methodology, methodology, forecasting ”, then was elected professor at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. Under his leadership, 22 candidate and 2 doctoral dissertations were defended.

He devoted many years to educating young workers on TV and radio. He was fundamentally strict in exams and extremely democratic in communicating with students - who, if not him, a graduate of Kiev University, who was still studying with teachers of the old pre-revolutionary school, a professor at a leading university of the country, knew what a real Teacher should be like.

Professor Boretsky’s scientific interests included: a system of screen documentary genres, structure and orientation of TV programs, programming, broadcasting efficiency, global trends in the development of television, video, satellite systems, the problem of “world view”.

“Rudolf Andreevich proposed his concept of television programming, which was supposed to make television humane, humane and interesting to the audience. And it was he who contributed to the fact that very interesting, unconventionally thinking people came to our faculty at this time. And, of course, these people were, as they would say today, unformat, and this was their strength. ” President of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Professor Y. N. Zasursky ^[8] .

R. A. Boretsky is the author of more than 200 publications published in Russian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Polish, co-author of three textbooks on television journalism. R. A. Boretsky wrote more than two dozen monographs, including “Information Genres of Television”, “Television Program”, “Television Propaganda”, “Television and Politics”.

In 1967, the new television center in Ostankino was being prepared for launch , which was created by the then head of the USSR State Committee on Radio and Television Nikolai Mesyatsev . The request for a wider, multi-program television was obvious, for which a harmonious concept was required. R. A. Boretsky took an active part in its creation, speaking at the All-Union Conference with a keynote speech on this topic, and he, in turn, served as the basis for the special book “Television Program”. In her preparation, Rudolf Andreevich relied on numerous foreign sources, which was greatly assisted by the scientific and methodological department of the State Committee on RV and TV, requesting recordings of television programs from around the world, press publications, and monographs. After analyzing the vast material, Boretsky put forward the innovative concept of multi-program television in the USSR, which was to come to life, however, only after decades.

The publication of the book, which summarized the foreign television experience, was not universally welcomed. A campaign began to discredit the author, which could end for R. A. Boretsky with a ban on the profession. His ideological opponent was S. G. Lapin , who headed the USSR Radio and Television in 1970. Lapin accused Boretsky of "revisionism", the desire to impose Western standards alien to Soviet people. The conflict reached the head of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, A. N. Yakovlev, who defended R. A. Boretsky and “quenched” criticism of the disgraced scientist. The dean of the faculty of journalism, Y. N. Zasursky, did not heed the advice of S. G. Lapin “to look closely at the staff of the department of radio and television” ^[9] . He not only protected Boretsky from attacks, but also allowed him to successfully defend his doctoral dissertation, and then he seconded for a long time to Poland to teach under an agreement with Silesian and Warsaw universities.

Fluent in Polish, R. A. Boretsky proved himself worthy at the Silesian (1977, 1980-1983) and Warsaw (1985-1987) universities. As a professor, he gave a lecture course on world media systems for students of the Institute of Political Science and Journalism and for students of the Faculty of Radio and Television (Katowice), for students of the Faculty of Journalism (Warsaw), taught special courses and master's seminars, receiving high marks from academic youth . He actively participated in scientific research of Polish colleagues, in particular - in the Warsaw Methodological Center for Political Sciences under the direction of Professor Arthur Bodnar and in the Krakow Press Research Center. The result of fruitful cooperation was the monograph by R. A. Boretsky, “Advocacy and Politics”, published in Polish (1987).

In the 1980s, Boretsky was an eyewitness of tectonic shifts in Polish society related to the struggle of the independent trade union Solidarity for the overthrow of the communist regime in the country. He again takes up the pen, working as a freelance writer for the Soviet media, primarily for the magazine "New Time".

In 1989, he accepted the offer of the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Vitaliy Ignatenko, to open a correspondent office in Poland, to return to practical journalism, leaving teaching work for a while. At this time, a new non-trivial step towards his teacher was made by Y. N. Zasursky: he gave Rudolf Andreyevich long-term leave.

During his leadership of the Novoye Vremya bureau (1989-1994), Boretsky developed personal confidential contacts with many key people in Polish politics, and in particular with the last leader of socialist Poland and the first president of new Poland Wojciech Jaruzelski . On the basis of numerous interviews and facts independently obtained by the author, the book My General was created, which by its very name denotes an exclusively personal attitude towards V. Yaruzelsky - a man of tragic and contradictory fate. The foreword to the book was written by Alexander Pumpyansky , who replaced V. Ignatenko as editor-in-chief of the New Time.

Upon returning to the department of television and radio broadcasting of the journalism faculty of Moscow State University, R. A. Boretsky published a number of new scientific works: “Television at the Crossroads” (1998), “In the Bermuda Triangle TV” (1999), “Caution, Television!” (2002). In 2010, he published the monograph “The Beginning, or Towards the History of Television” (the original title is “Beginning, or My Forgotten Television”), combining the recollections of a witness and a participant in the formation of mass television in the USSR with the thoughts of a researcher of live TV practice. In 2011, “Conversations on the History of Television (a course of lectures delivered at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University)” was published, and in 2012, the 2nd extended edition.

“In the course of lectures read, the history of television appears as the subject of a comprehensive study of not only the theory of journalism, but also political science, psychology, sociology, art history and, in part, even economics ... The relevance of the lectures also lies in the fact that they traced not only the historical path of the Russian, but and the most important milestones in the history of foreign television are indicated. It is noteworthy that the lecture material is presented in a popular manner. It is designed for lack of awareness and understanding of the historical processes of the formation of television as a product of sociocultural, political, economic, scientific and technological development. However, the popularity of the presentation does not at all mean a simplification of complex historical events and processes, but their transformation into a plane that is understandable to freshmen. At the same time, the lecturer confirms his judgments with facts from literature, journalism, television, and cinema. The oratorical reception, which is an explanation of the thesis put forward “why it was exactly like this” (instead of the usual statement of “what was”), ... allows the listener to become an accomplice in those thoughts and arguments that the teacher gives. From the first to the last lecture by Professor R.A. Boretsky, these are lectures-meditations, lectures-meditations. They encourage listeners to penetrate deeper and deeper into the world into which the lecturer introduces them. ” (RP Hovsepyan, Professor, Department of History and Legal Regulation of Domestic Media, Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University) ^[10] .

In the 2011-2012 academic year, Conversations was awarded a special jury prize in the competition for the best textbook.

In recent years, R. A. Boretsky turned to literary work. Published a documentary novel “Swing. An Uninvented History of Military Childhood ”(2005), which opened up to the reader unknown pages of the Great Patriotic War - about the fates of people who found themselves and were forced to survive in the territories occupied by fascists. Then came the story “Landslide” (2007), telling about the years of the post-war studenthood of the author.

R. A. Boretsky was a member of the Dissertation Councils of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University and the Russian Institute for Advanced Studies of Television and Radio Broadcasting Workers , the Research Institute of Cinematography (1977-1985), and a member of the Council on the History and Theory of Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences . He headed the State Examination Commission at the Russian State Humanitarian University (2003) and at the Institute of Contemporary Art (2005).

Member of the Union of Journalists since its foundation (January 1958), member of the Union of Writers of Moscow (2011), Full member of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio Broadcasting.

In 2006, he was awarded the title of “ Honored Professor of Moscow State University ” and “ Honorary Worker of Higher Education ”.

• The Golden Badge of the Order of Merit is for scientific work and merit in the field of higher education (Poland, 1983).
• “Order of Friendship” (Poland, Polish-Soviet Friendship Society, 1988)
• Golden Badge of the Order of Merit (Poland, 1989)
• Grand Gold Medal of the International Academy of Television and Radio Broadcasting (Moscow, 2005)

• He was married to Tatyana Shmyge . Second wife - Inna Vasilievna Pimenova, graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University (1961), candidate of philological sciences, art. Researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, specialist in Polish culture. Attentive reader, critic and editor of all the works of her husband, compiler of a memoir about him.
• Son Vladislav Boretsky is a journalist, one of the first DJs in Russia ( Radio Rocks ), political observer for Radio Russia , host of the programs “An hour with Vladislav Boretsky”, “Acoustics”, “Actors”, former presenter of the press review in the “ Culture News ” program of the “ Culture ” channel ^[11] .

• "Fundamentals of television journalism" (M., 1966, together with Alexander Yurovsky ).
• "Television program" (M., 1967).
• “TV journalist: behind the scenes and in the frame” (M., 1990, together with G.V. Kuznetsov ).
• “Television at the Crossroads” (M ,, 1998).
• “In the Bermuda Triangle of TV” (M., 1999).
• “Caution, Television!” (M., 2002).
• "Swing. The Uninvented History of Military Childhood ”(M., 2005).
• Television as a social technology and social institution. In: "Television and Radio: History and Present." M., 2005. - P.24-35.
• “Landslide” (M., 2007).
• “My General” (M., 2008).
• “The Beginning, or Towards the History of Television” (M., 2010)
• “Conversations on the history of television” (M., 2011, reprinted in 2012)
• “Greed for life does not pass - life passes” (book in memory of Professor R. A. Boretsky) - M.: Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov, 2014. - 262 p.

• Co-author of the first textbook on television journalism Rudolf Boretsky passed away
• Ikar Publishing House: Rudolf Andreevich Boretsky
• Boretsky Rudolf Andreevich