Press Release, 4.10.2023

On 3 October, a screening of the film “Yablokov” was held at the office of the Yabloko party. The film is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Vladimirovich Yablokov, an outstanding scientist, public and political figure, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the leader of the Green Russia faction of the Yabloko party. The memorial event was attended by the widow of the scientist Dilbar Klado, members of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party Nikolai Rybakov and Olga Tsepilova, Co-Chairman of the Union of Environmental Organisations of Moscow Andrei Frolov, Executive Director of the non-profit organisation “Council on Marine Mammals” Dmitry Glazov, Chairman of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko Konstantin Smirnov and others. Before watching the film, the participants of the event shared their memories of Alexei Yablokov.

According to Olga Tsepilova, the current leader of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party, Academician Yablokov was a scientist who constructed reality. “He really constructed reality: social and political. Even after settling in the village of Petrushovo, he, being a non-believer, decided to build a chapel there in order to construct the reality of his involvement in the village community, which gave him the opportunity to live comfortably and friendly in this environment,” Tsepilova said.

Photo: Olga Tsepilova /Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The widow of academician Yablokov, Dilbar Klado, spoke about how the traditional holiday “The Top of Summer”, once invented by the couple, took place in Petrushovo this summer. Dilbar Klado read out letters of gratitude from guests of Petrushovo, who were attending the festival for the first time.

Yablokov is loved not because he was a world-famous scientist, an honest and uncompromising politician.

“He was a very kind and warm person,” the Academician’s widow said. “Not only did he just studied whales and dolphins, he saved them. Not only did he just explore the Chernobyl’s stains in Russia, but cared about the health of the people who were living there. Not only did he published data about the “yellow children” of Yakutia, those who suffered from work in the gold mines, those who lived on the edges of the crater of the so-called “peaceful atomic explosions”… The final point of his work was always the concrete benefit to people. And I am proud that I helped him in this,” Dilbar Klado noted.

Photo: Dilbar Clado / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Andrei Frolov, an environmentalist and Co-Chairman of the YablokovGoda (Yablokov of the Year) organising committee, spoke about why Academician Yablokov was a member of the Yabloko party. When environmentalists registered their party, they collected 30,000 signatures and took them to the Ministry of Justice. At that moment, a law was passed according to which 50,000 signatures had to be provided to create a party. “Yablokov said that he did not have time [for a new collection of signatures], and he would join Yavlinsky’s party. When asked why specifically Yavlinsky, Yablokov replied that he was the only politician who had a theoretical understanding of what had been happening to Russia and what needed to be done in order for us to get out of this impasse. That is, Yablokov tried to find a person who was similar to him, and corresponded to his ideal in terms of his way of thinking and style of behavior,” Andrei Frolov said.

Photo: Andrei Frolov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Konstantin Smirnov, the leader of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko, and editor-in-chief of the online media Vid Sboku (A View from the Side), said in his speech that he would like to highlight the two traits of Alexei Yablokov. The first was that the Academician, together with his wife Dilbar Klado, were the creators of the cultural infrastructure of the village of Petrushovo in the Ryazan region. The second important feature of Yablokov was that the scientist was the founder of environmentalism as a political activity. Enumerating the environmental projects that Yablokov worked on, Konstantin Smirnov noted that the Ryazan region has a lot to thank the scientist for, in addition to the development of the village of Petrushovo.

Photo: Konstantin Smirnov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

According to Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party, ecologist, and a member of the Green Russia Faction of the party, Alexei Yablokov was one of those rare people who was interested not only in global issues of saving the world, but also in the private problems of the “little” person.

“Now it would have been certainly very difficult for him to live, speak, and create… Because everything that Alexei Vladimirovich did during his life has been being trampled. The policies of saving people, are now replaced by the policies of killing people,” Rybakov stressed. “Yablokov really did a lot to make thousands of people believe that they could change something in their country, do something and bring real benefit, even without being great academicians and scientists.”

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The next event within the framework of “Yablokov of the Year” will take place at the Darwin Museum in Moscow on 12 November. Everyone is invited to the conference and public forum “The Yablokov Day”. The forum starts at 12:00.