RUSSIAN TRACE IN CAIRO
Especially many places, reminding of Russia, are in Cairo.
For example, Antikhana Street is the place, where well known Russian artist Ivan Bilibin lived and worked in 1920-1925. He painted there several panels, portraits and landscapes, the majority of which were later found abroad. He also painted three icons for a Greek hospital church. His big picture "Persian Miniatures" is now the property of the family of former UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali. Not so famous Russian artists, brothers Strekalov, worked together with Ivan Bilibin.
During the guest performances of the great Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, in Cairo in 1923 (she also performed in Cairo in 1910 and in 1928) Ivan Bilibin made sketches of the scenery and costumes for Cherepnin's ballets "A Russian Fairy Tale" and "Mummy's Romance."
Fyodor Shalyapin visited Cairo twice, in 1903 and in 1933.
The Cairo Opera, where Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova and the Igor Moiseyev Dance Company gave their concerts burned in 1971, and only the name of the square where it was located reminds one of it. The new Opera House is situated in the district of Zamalek. For many years now, Russian musicians and dancers have been working in it.
Another name of a Russian sculptor who lived in Cairo, Boris Fredman-Kluzel, is associated with Anna Pavlova. He made a statuette of Anna Pavlova and a mould of her leg. The bronze casts of the mould were purchased by the British Museum and the State Museum of Theater and Music Art in Saint Petersburg.
For more than fifteen years, Fredman-Kluzel headed the sculpture chair at the fine arts faculty of the Cairo University and reared a whole galaxy of Egyptian sculptors. Dozens of his sculptures are in private collections, but they can be also seen in the streets of the city. His big bas-relief decorates the wall above the entrance to the Saint George Church. The bust of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, made by him, stood in Sheriff Street in the center of the city. The sculptor lived in Gemina Street, nearby the famous Ezbekia Gardens, which were glorified by Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov.
Many Russian Egyptologists taught and worked in Cairo. One of them is scientist Vladimir Golenishchev, whose collection of six thousand ancient Egyptian articles is partly in the Moscow Pushkin Museum and party in the Petersburg Hermitage. Vladimir Golenishchev, Professor Vladimir Vikentyev, Alexander Pyankov and Professor Lukyanov for many years were teaching at the Fuad (now Cairo) University and at the Egyptian Archeological Institute.
Currently there is a branch of the Russian Center of Egyptian Studies in Cairo, in Vini Square, headed by Galina Belova. Its staff members are making excavations in many regions of the country.
The Russian Cultural Center was opened in Tahrir Street. Many Cairo inhabitants visit it. The Center has a ballet school named after Anna Pavlova, the Ivan Bilibin drawing school, music, singing and language courses, a library, cinema, exhibition and lecture halls.
About 200 Russians, who lived and died in Cairo, were buried on the Orthodox cemetery in Old Cairo.