Yuri Arutsev: Penmanship has to reappear to classrooms

August 30, 2017

A doctor with a neat and fine writing is no miracle. Yuri Arutsev, a board certified doctor and expert, has been actively doing calligraphy and text decoration since the 1970s.

Amused, I ask Yuri what is his secret of keeping the fine handwriting while being a doctor for decades.

The history of his fine handwriting dates back to the 1st grade in primary school in Smolensk. Back at the time all schools from Vladivostok through to Kaliningrad had only one writing tool, the Star pen, which according to Yuri, used to be the best in the world. That is why the kids had mostly proper and distinct handwriting; poor skill was out of question. And Yuri kept this attitude all the way to his medical institute.

“The opinion of doctors having scrawling hand was about someone else”, he says. “Professor Dubinkin, who used to be chief surgeon at the Belarusian Front, taught our course. His first class was dedicated to professional ethics. Can you imagine a surgery lecture starting with the following words: “If you respect yourself and people, your handwriting will be neat and fine. And if you don’t, it won’t”? It was so powerful. That is why I cared for my handwriting, just as my entire generation did, it applied not only to Dubinkin’s students.

In 2009 Yuri Arutsev opened his own school, Russian Calligraphy and Vyaz, in Yaroslavl where he teaches people of all ages but also acquaints them to the history and Russian culture, so that they not only painstakingly write letters but also discover their own country.

On September 1st the International Exhibition of Calligraphy will open in Moscow. Every year it gathers top level experts. For instance, this year the event will see the official scribe and illuminator to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Works by five of Yuri’s students will be featured in the exhibit. It took them a mere year to reach the international level.

“Our course lasts for a bit over a year, which is around 72 hours in the classroom or 150 hours if you add home tasks”, Yuri explains. “But it happens that students discover something they never had before, and their works may well end up at an exhibition. We also have a crash course, which runs between 10 in the morning and 7 in the evening for 3 days. The teachers learn enthusiastically”.

Every wall in Yuri’s office is covered with his students’ works. They do not reflect the author’s age or trade yet each and everyone is beautiful. Despite his own extensive experience and skill, Yuri sounds admired when speaks of what his mentees do. The exhibition will also see Yuri presenting a book dubbed Russian Calligraphy and Vyaz, which is designed to reach the Ministry of Education and prove penmanship needs to be brought back to curriculum.

“Me and teachers in my school are on the crusade to return penmanship classes to the Russian curriculum”, explains Yuri. “The process is very painful and faces many obstacles, including international influence or internal opponents, who are strong enough and think European rather than Russian way. We have to teach writing and calligraphy to children. What is also important is to consider their physiology, which is not known even to some doctors because they were never taught of it. A primary school teacher has to know it”.

What if?..

Naive, I ask if one can learn calligraphy without a teacher, using videos or calligraphy workshops with images. Yuri shatters my hopes. “No, we are past the point”, he replies. “All sorts of comments as you go with your writing are a must. 8-9 years ago I would probably say you could get away without it, but today considering my school experience, I am certain comments and analytics are necessary. I know some online calligraphy schools, which can be seen opening all across Russia, but I am sure my colleagues do not know the method and won’t be able to teach calligraphy. For example, in my classes I keep on running between students, explain something at the blackboard and then help them again. Sometimes it feels like I am 20, yet lately I feel tired. Sometimes people from those “silent” courses come to us, and you realize their entire course was all about “follow the leader”, which is not the case for calligraphy. People of age between 6 and 82 who studied with us, mastered the skill fairly quickly.

Yuri Arutsev’s writing is not only calligraphy but also educational. He has various titles under his belt, including history, cultural studies, medicine, reflections on Russian language, parables and even children books. The one he calls his favourite is a small book titled For My Children and More. Over the course of this interview, Yuri was called to find out that the book with the Arutsevs’ parable titled And This Will Be Your Fate is about to be published.

By Natalia Chernovolova