Сегодняшний пожар в РГАЛИ еще раз убедил меня вот таким страшным способом, что бывших архивистов и бывших ргалийцев точно не бывает.
Возгорание случилось в первом корпусе — там, где находится читальный зал микрофильмов. Все произошло, как сообщают, из-за короткого замыкания (там фонды организаций хранятся, и как раз в них шел ремонт) между четвертым и пятым этажом, а потом огонь перешел на четвертый этаж, где его и тушили. Все заняло примерно три часа, было сильное задымление, вызвали несколько пожарных бригад. Пока неясно, пострадали ли доки из фондов организаций: следуя логике, можно предположить, что на время ремонта их перенесли в другие хранилища, но этого мы пока что не знаем. Будем надеяться, что малой кровью обойдется...
Но количество слухов, конспирологии и истерик в соцсетях превзошло все мыслимые и немыслимые пределы, и теперь, естественно, каждый эксперт в архивистике и противопожарной безопасности, чтоб им пусто было.
Если бы я могла, я была бы рядом вместе со всеми моими друзьями и коллегами, но все, что я могу — это просто сказать: любимый РГАЛИ, держись. Мы с тобой.
Пусть все поскорее восстановится и ничего не пострадает.
И в дополнение запощу и свой английский апдейт, пусть будет (вдруг мимо пройдут англоязычные читатели).
***
As many of you already know, today is a dark day for my beloved workplace, where I spent 10 happy and crucially important years of my life.
The Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) has experienced the first blaze in 78 years of its existence: a fire broke out in the Building 1 on Vyborgskaya Street, 3, where the archive has its microfilm reading room and other facilities, including several depositories for state documents (funds such as the Ministry of Culture USSR, USSR State Committee for Cinematography etc.). It turned out to be a spontaneous accident: the fire started in an empty room, which was undergoing refurbishment: only a few hours earlier the contractors had installed new equipment for better preservation of the archival items.
The building itself was damaged, but not severely: the firefighters arrived on the scene almost immediately after the alarm was raised. The fire was extinguished in two and a half hours: thank God, nobody was injured, and all employees were immediately evacuated. According to preliminary information, some damage occurred to a few groups of documents (no personal funds were affected, because they are located in the next building), but the scale of it has to be thoroughly investigated.
And here is a thing.
This accident changed my normal schedule completely: I was unable to work productively. All my thoughts were at my archive, with my dear colleagues and friends who were profoundly affected by this nightmarish event, which could be regarded as a real horror for each and every archivist all over the world. Many of them, whilst scared, helped to rescue the remaining documents and take them from the facility. They all are true heroes.
I praise them for their professionalism and courage.
Yet there was another side of it, and this one is Facebook. When the news about the blaze started coming in, right after that I spotted vociferous and sensational updates from different groups of people who, knowing less than nothing, immediately proclaimed themselves experts on the matter, assuming that they “know better” “simply because”. I saw a comment claiming that “this fire is yet another one at this place, what a pity”: when confronting the person who wrote this and asking him for proof, I was told that “ah well, I was mistaken because I was worried, that was another place, whatever.”
You do not need to be told that this is the exact way false information is spread, right? It seems to me that it is necessary to repeat it again:
1. Please, take responsibility for what are you talking about.
2. Please, check your facts before posting.
3. If you are eager to gossip on the subject, please, do it with your friends whom you know or, even better, just don’t.
4. Analyse all information.
5. Question sensational headlines.
6. Make the right decisions. Your opinions are not facts until you can prove them.
I wish my archive strength, wellbeing, and persistence. My dear RGALI people, everything will be great, I assure you.
I hope all my readers will join me in my wishes.
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