No matter how many wolves you feed. Will they give a real term to the head of the main cultural department of Tomsk?

Pavel Volk, the head of the regional department for culture, is no longer the same as he was yesterday. The time has come to answer for the fact that back in 2009 it was sucked in by a “dangerous quagmire”, and work for the good of the region turned into an “eternal game”. Pavel Leonidovich is accused of embezzlement of budget funds for a total of almost a million rubles for many years.

After the detention of the official, the Kirov Court placed Mr. Volk under house arrest for almost two months. So he’s more fortunate than Evgeny Parshuto, who immediately after his arrest went to a pre-trial detention center and will be there until the end of August 2023. Such loyalty on the part of the investigation suggests: will the Wolf ever get a real term? Or will he get off with a mild fright?

There is an unofficial version that not only the amount of theft could be different, but the defendant is actually needed, too, completely different.

For example, the immediate supervisor of Pavel Volk – Andrey Knorr. But this, once again we will make a reservation, is only behind-the-scenes talk, nothing more. But the amount is indeed some kind of “childish”. Only a kleptomaniac, and not a high-ranking official, could quietly steal such thousands over the years.

Uncultured in culture

It turns out that Pavel Leonidovich is a follower of Gogol’s Chichikov, although on a smaller scale in terms of the number of dead souls. But regarding the amounts of monetary support that the cunning official received for eight! years, he far surpassed the literary hero. In fact, the official robbed the college openly, in broad daylight for eight years, and he was caught not even in 2017, but only now. Is that how it happened? Let’s go back to the not so distant past. According to the first diploma, a sixty-year-old official, almost like in a novel, is a music teacher. In 1983 he graduated from the piano department of the Tomsk Musical College. E. Denisov, and in 1989 – the piano department of the Novosibirsk State Conservatory. M.I. Glinka, having received the qualification of “piano teacher”.

However, to knock on the keys, Pavel Leonidovich, apparently, did not really like it. Therefore, at the beginning of the 2000s, he changed direction, in 2002 he graduated from the International Faculty of Management of Tomsk State University, becoming a manager. Then he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the problems of organizing art education and his doctoral dissertation on the problems of the fundamental foundations of cultural policy. He has a doctorate in cultural studies.

And then the most interesting. Since June 2001, Volk was appointed director of the Tomsk Regional College of Culture and Arts, which he began to rob in an uncultured way only in 2009, according to the official version of law enforcement officers. And he continued to do this until he left for the post of head of the regional cultural department. Why waited so long? Was he embarrassed, perhaps during the first eight years to put his hand into the treasury? Almost like the classics of the genre.

Position number two

The second part of the “Marleson ballet” in the career of Pavel Volk began on June 5, 2012, when he received the coveted chair of the head of the Department of Culture of the Tomsk Region. After working for the first three months, Volk gave his first ever interview to reporters from the Tomsk media center RIA Novosti. Then he issued a sacramental phrase, promising to make Tomsk “one of the brightest places in the eastern part of Russia.”

The new leader also noted the dead-end state of the villages in terms of culture, the complete absence of clubs in the villages, and the shortage of personnel. In Tomsk villages then, indeed, the first guy in the village was an accordion player, he was also the only representative of culture. And the Wolf long and colorfully described how everything would soon be in these very villages.

None of this happened. But the following happened. All projects for domestic tourism in the region were frozen, which could attract both financial flows and investors to the region for further development, raise the reputation of Siberian Athens, which had long lost this historical status. The Youth Theater was practically ruined. With amazing cynicism, Volk frankly closed his eyes to the problems of the children’s theater.

In the first half of 2020, about 250 million budget rubles were spent on the overhaul of the theater. In less than half a year, a fire broke out in the building of the Youth Theater, which devoured the renovated temple of art along with the money of Tomsk taxpayers. Most of all went to the auditorium with 340 seats. Then many Tomsk residents wondered: are there such coincidences? But no criminal cases were initiated regarding possible arson and laundering of budget money, and the situation somehow died out by itself.

At first, the damage was estimated at about 134 million rubles, then, for some reason, it was reduced to only forty. Volk promised to allocate money and start repairs in the summer of 2022. The cart is still there, only in March of this year the winner of the competition for the development of design estimates for the overhaul of the Youth Theater building was determined, it was Elektromontazh LLC and the roof repair contractor SKIT-93 LLC.

Who is next?

In general, in the cultural corridors of power on a federal scale, the chairs of the authorities sway throughout April. On April 21, the Basmanny Court of Moscow sent the federal leadership of Pavel Volk, the ex-Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, to a pre-trial detention center Olga Yarilovawhere she will remain until June 16, 2023. The truth and the accusations against the official are much more serious. She is accused of destroying the Pushkin maps for two hundred million rubles. It’s not a trifle for you to rub your pockets, as they say …

But then, bedbugs, and then – officials. As they say in Odessa, two big differences. As for possible arrests in the future, directly, in Tomsk, it could be any protégé of the now disgraced Pavel Volk. For example, Natalia Chabovskayawhich Wolf once strongly recommended to the governor Sergei Zhvachkin as director of the Tomsk Regional Philharmonic. And in 2016 with the former director Marina Sherina, who quite successfully and without scandals led this institution for five years, unexpectedly did not renew the contract, although there were no complaints about her work. Her place was taken by Natalya Chabovskaya, who is in the status chair to this day.

Not a very strong argument, Pavel Leonidovich also headed the department for eleven years, and another eleven before that – the college of culture. And that’s how it turned out! There is an opinion that Natalya Chabovskaya can leave the post by writing a statement “on her own.” As they say, stay away from sin. But this is unofficial data provided to Babr by his sources of information. And whether Pavel Volk gets a real term will directly depend on who else will fall under investigation and what his subordinates will be able and willing to tell about their leader. We are waiting, sir.