The dream of a diplomat For Erik Degtyarenko, Honorary consul in the Republic of Mauritius, she came true Sergey Glezerov In St. Petersburg, the winners of the next contest "Creative Internships in Russia", which has been held for ten years under the auspices of the D. Likhachev Foundation, visited the city. This project is a kind of cultural bridge to Russia from different parts of the world. Its participants are foreign specialists in the humanities, working on creative projects in the field of Russian history and culture. The task of the organizers of creative internships is very diverse - to help foreigners to promote their projects, to make them more accurate and verified, and to present abroad a positive, truthful image of our country. Projects are sometimes the most curious and unexpected. Perhaps the most unusual participant of this year's internship is Bernard Erik Typhis Degtyarenko. He is a professional diplomat from the island of Mauritius, which is in the western Indian Ocean. And also - Honorary Consul in the Republic of Mauritius. And a man in love with the sea business.
About seven years ago Eric Degtyarenko came to rest on the islands of Rodrigues - before them from Mauritius three hours by plane. And on the shore, I accidentally discovered a yacht - abandoned, broken, no one seemed to need ... The remains of the ship just nailed to the shore. Looking closer, I saw on board the ship the name written in Cyrillic ... Eric conducted a real investigation. It turned out that this yacht "Admiral Nevelskoy", 1982 built - for its time it was super modern. In 1996, this yacht, belonging to the Far Eastern University named after Nevelskoy, went on a round-the-world trip. But crashed - she broke off the mast. Twenty-one days the ship drifted into the sea, traveler Leonid Lysenko, a legendary person among Russian sailors on board, was rescued by Australians (lives in Vladivostok today). The abandoned yacht turned into a ghost ship. Eric Degtyarenko was able to agree that he would invest his money in the yacht, save it and make a sea museum on board. Naturally, the name of the ship evoked interest in the personality of Admiral Gennady Ivanovich Nevelsky. The Mauritian diplomat was convinced that this historical figure for some reason is in the shadow of other great Russian navigators, such as Kruzenstern or Bellingshausen. But it was Nevelskoy, a researcher of the Far East, who was the founder of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. During the Amur expedition, Nevelskoy proved that the mouth of the Amur is accessible to the entry of marine vessels and that Sakhalin is an island. Now Erik Degtyarenko visited St. Petersburg, where during a creative internship he got acquainted with the Central Naval Museum, the Russian State Archive of the Navy. Not once looked in the Russian National Library, in the Russian Geographical Society. And everywhere I looked for materials related to the personality and activities of Admiral Nevelsky. - I managed to touch a huge number of interesting documents, first of all, the original sources in the archives related to the person of Nevelskoy, - the diplomat explained. - And each time, sympathetic interested people helped me to direct the search in the right direction ... Many interesting acquaintances, many contacts, which then will continue, and the past two weeks in St. Petersburg allowed to accelerate the research at times. Eric Degtyarenko sees his current task in promoting the memory of Admiral Nevelskoy in the world, because, in his opinion, this person is not as widely known as he deserves. Eric plans to hold exhibitions on his museum yacht devoted to maritime history. Maybe even carry out a round-the-world trip on it - and necessarily through Vladivostok, where the Far Eastern University is located. "At first, the story with the yacht was just an adventure for me," the diplomat said. "Since my childhood I've dreamed of something like this - to find a mysterious ship." But now this has turned into a serious scientific research and has become in fact a cultural bridge between Russia and Mauritius, because before that there was no direct contact between our countries, except for tourist contacts. Now, thanks to the efforts of Erik Degtyarenko, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Mauritius is ready to invest in the study of the Russian as foreign language in four hundred government schools in Mauritiu. And when the government of the republic learned that Eric had received a grant from the Russian Likhachev Fund, his officials confirmed that the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime Museum is indeed an important and worthwhile project and are ready to assist in its implementation.
So the yacht can become a part of the large maritime museum, which will cover the waterfront area and will also be located in the building on the shore. While in St. Petersburg, Erik Degtyarenko agreed on a possible exchange of exhibitions between his museum and the Russian Geographical Society, the Central Naval Museum, the Krasin icebreaker.