Ogonyok, No.6, February, 2003

Do you know what such different people as Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Director of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leonid Abalkin, and Oryol regional governor Yegor Stroyev, as well as such entities as the Arkhangelsk region, the Russian Information Agency RosBusinessConsulting and the IceFili public company have in common? They all - people, companies and territorial entities - not only belong to the Russian Federation, but are also recipients of the Glory of Russia decoration introduced in 1999. Russian entrepreneurs and merchants have always represented the real glory of Russia. We owe them for their efforts, as they turned our country into the greatest economic power by the end of the XIXth century. They were the ones endowing in the development of sciences and arts. They turned an underdeveloped rural country into a prosperous power over a short period of time. The Moscow Music Hall (Conservatory) and the MXAT Moscow Art Academic Theater, the Morozov and Botkin hospitals, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Fine Arts Museum were built with their money. None these projects brought money to their organizers, but served for the glory of the motherland. Every year, outstanding patrons of the arts and entrepreneurs as well as other public figures, who contributed the most to the development of modern Russian business, receive the above-mentioned decoration. The founder of this public decoration is the Museum and Exhibition Center "The History of Russian Entrepreneurship." In reality, the award is a copy of the sculpture "Glory of Russia," which was exhibited for the first time at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow. This year, the recipients of this prestigious award will be announced at a great ceremony in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on March 4.