Draft:Pelman Grigorii

Pelman, Grigory (May 30, 1951, Moscow, USSR) — Russian economist, sociologist, art collector.

Biography

Grigorii Pelman was born into the family of a design engineer Leopold Pelman and a paleontologist Inessa Zhuravleva. In 1958, the family moved to Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk, where Grigorii graduated from Novosibirsk Lavrentyev Lyceum 130. In 1974, he received a master's degree in econometrics at Novosibirsk State University. After graduation, Grigorii worked at Novosibirsk Research Institute of Automation, Communication, and Control as a researcher in the Laboratory of simulation modeling. In 1979, Grigorii returned to Moscow and worked at the Department of Metamathematical Methods of Moscow State University. He participated in the development of business and simulation games for industrial enterprises. Results of the research efforts were published in a collective monograph.

Public and political activities

With the beginning of Perestroika, Grigorii Pelman took active part in the operations of various public associations, such as "Under the Integral Discussion Club" at Novosibirsk Science Campus and the creative association called "Terpsichore". He organized social groups that implemented political projects for the democratization of the USSR. Grigorii Pelman maintained relations with dissident communities.

In 1985, he actively participated in the activities of the Moscow children's club called "Computer" that played a significant role in the formation of civil society in the early period of Perestroika. The club was founded on June 4, 1986, with the aim of teaching children computer information technology skills. The club was founded by Stepan Pachikov, Garry Kasparov and academician Abel Aganbegyan. Mikhail Malyutin, one of the members of the Club, recalls: "And it all started when Garry Kasparov donated to a certain club a number of computers he bought with the fee from defeating Karpov in another match. As a matter of fact, the holder of the resource and the small room on Arbat street turned out to be Grigorii Pelman, who was a very socially active person...". In the Club, Grigorii Pelman began organizing public meetings and sessions to discuss various civil initiatives. Simultaneously, he started collaborating with the Foundation for Social Inventions (under the umbrella of Komsomolskaya Pravda), that was founded by Grigorii's fellow student, Gennady Alferenko. The foundation received large quantities of letters from readers. Grigorii Pelman was engaged in analyzing the letters with initiative proposals for reforming various social and political issues. Authors of the most successful solutions were invited to meetings at the Computer club.

Grigorii maintained relations with the Swiss physicist Olivier Parriaux. Parriaux was a prominent figure in the Trotskyist movement of the 1980-s, and, thanks to their friendship with Pelman, Trotskyists and left-wing liberals from Europe and Canada started coming to meetings at the Computer club. Through them, Grigorii met dissidents Boris Kagarlitsky and Gleb Pavlovsky. In 1976, Grigorii Pelman, together with Pavlovsky, Kagarlitsky, and Mikhail Malyutin, organized the Social Initiatives Club and became its permanent president.

At the end of the 1980s, based on the Perspective cooperative, Pelman and Igrunov were co-publishers of the sociopolitical weekly called Chronograph that had a significant influence on the development of liberal thought during Perestroika. During said period, Pelman and Igrunov jointly founded the Moscow Bureau of Information Exchange that was a coordination center for the development of informal public movements in the USSR.

In 1987, Pelman was one of the initiators of the large-scale information forum "Public Initiatives in Perestroika", which gave rise to mass public movements in the USSR. Representatives of fifty different informal political clubs from twelve major cities of the USSR took part in the forum's activities. During the forum, the Ring of Public Initiatives Association was established.

In 1987, activist and political figure Yuri Samodurov shared with Grigorii his idea of creating a society in memory of the victims of Political repression in the Soviet Union. Grigorii supported the project. This social initiative, initially named "Monument", was later transformed into the Memorial project. The new name as well as the main programmatic appeal to Social Initiatives Club members, was inspired by Pelman and composed and written by Igrunov.

In 2018, Grigorii Pelman initiated and organized the international Russian-Chinese student synopsis contest ONEFUTURE within the framework of the International Student Film Festival of the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television "PeterKiT". The partners of the contest were Grigori's production studio "Silk Road Media" and Communication University of China.

In 2023, in partnership with the Israeli Non-Profit Organization Dor Moria, Grigorii Pelman held a series of conferences and round tables covering the topic of The Image of the Future of Israel.

Peace Initiatives

In 2022, Grigorii Pelman founded the Global Peace Initiative public company. The association's objective is to create peace initiatives that enhance international relations and advocate against the use of nuclear weapons.

In 2023, Grigorii Pelman organized the conference Socially Responsible Entrepreneurs for a Common Future ONEFUTURE that involved speakers from India, Israel, and other countries.

In the same year, Grigorii Pelman, with cooperation from the President of the "World Peace Development & Research Foundation" Sandeep Marwah, held a press conference on disarmament issues and the universal adoption of the No first use nuclear strategy.

One of Grigorii Pelman's ideological projects of scale is the Museum of Earth's Blue Sky "Martian Gazebo". The project goal is to unite humanity as a multi-planetary species. In the implementation of the project is actively involved Chinese writer Liu Cixin.

Collecting

Grigorii Pelman collects works by contemporary artists. The core of the collection are works by artist Katya Medvedeva. Grigorii has been collecting her paintings since the 1990s, with more than 1000 artworks in the collection. He actively exhibits the collection in Russia and abroad. Grigorii often acts as the organizer and curator of his own exhibitions, such as "Painting is My Soul" (2004), "Miracles of Katya Medvedeva" (2004) anf "Doubts of Beauty" (2005) in Pushkin Museum as well as a number of exhibitions in Russia and abroad.

In 2014, Grigorii Pelman organized a private museum in Peredelkino. A small dacha owned by the family for three generations was converted into a chamber museum. The core of the collection is comprised by Katya Medvedeva's works from Grigorii Pelman's private collection. In the museum's exhibition space, along with paintings, graphic, decorative and applied art works as well as writing experiments of the artist, video projections, such as "Nostalgia — A Diary Of a Man. Uncovering The Truth. The Russian Episode XXI" performance are presented.