Military service, continued studies, baptism
After studying for a year, Abramov was called up for compulsory military service in the Soviet Army. In 1982, in the city of Yelets, he studied at the sergeants school for six months. After graduation, he was sent to serve in the Arctic, on the Kola Peninsula. Having spent the required two years in the ranks of the SA, he was demobilized, having risen to the rank of “senior sergeant”.
Returning home, Mikhail continued his studies, from 1985, at the same faculty, but preferred evening studies.
During the same period, Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov makes a fateful decision for himself - he converts to the Orthodox faith, having accepted the rite of baptism.
Start of business and activity, career achievements
Taking into account the fact that Mikhail studied in the evening, the rest of the time he was engaged in entrepreneurial activities. Since 1985, taking advantage of the “Perestroika” period, he has created a number of cooperatives that are engaged in sewing fur and leather products.
He was engaged in this activity until the early nineties of the 20th century.
In 1991, he found a new application for himself - he went to work for the Moscow Insurance Company, and began working there in structures involved in the construction of structures in the capital and the Moscow region.
In it, he quickly and successfully begins to move up the career ladder, becoming the first deputy general director in 2000.
Mikhail Abramov - biography
Mikhail Abramov is an entrepreneur, public figure, one of the leaders of the Moscow Insurance Company.
Childhood
Mikhail Abramov was born in the capital in 1963. Graduated from secondary school No. 232. In 1981 he began studying at the Institute of Light Industry. However, he interrupted his studies and was called up for military service in 1982. Abramov performed well in the army, graduated from sergeant school and served in the north for a year and a half. He went out into civilian life with the shoulder straps of a Senior Sergeant. Upon completion of his service, he continued his studies at the university.
Own business
Already in 1985, Abramov decided to engage in entrepreneurial activity. He opens cooperatives for making clothes from animal skins.
Photo: Mikhail Abramov
In 1991 he changed his specialization and began working in where he successfully moved up the career ladder.
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Since 2000, he has held the position of First Deputy General Director of the Moscow Insurance Company.
Social activities, hobbies
In 2003, Mikhail Abramov began collecting ancient icons and studying them. And already in 2006 he decided to demonstrate his collection to the general public and created the Museum of Russian Icons. At the same time, he opens a charity fund to help those in need.
During the museum's operation, several large-scale exhibitions were held, which presented rare icons, many of which had never been exhibited anywhere before. M.Yu. Abramov sincerely believes in the power of images, in their spiritual connection with the Motherland and influence on the history of Russia. A businessman buys icons in private collections and at auctions abroad with the further purpose of transporting them to Russia. It is in the return of shrines to their native land that Mikhail Abramov sees his supreme mission. To date, he has managed to bring home a huge number of icons. This unique collection, which anyone can see, has no analogues in the world.
The Museum of the Russian Icon helps people appreciate and understand the significance of Orthodox images in the life and history of Russia, its mentality, and culture.
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Hobby: collecting icons
Talking about this activity, Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov reports that in the process of fulfilling his official duties, ensuring the construction and sale (sale, rental) of residential buildings, office premises, cottages, up to entire villages in the Moscow region, he managed to collect ( accumulate) a substantial amount of money.
This led Mikhail Abramov to think about where to invest the collected funds. In 2003, he decided that the best option would be to purchase and collect icons. In the same year, Mikhail Yuryevich buys the first hundred images.
According to Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov, it follows that his interest in icons began to manifest itself from childhood. His stepfather, a teacher, doctor of sciences, a very educated intellectual, kept several valuable and ancient icons. He was originally from Siberia. His ancestors were wealthy factory owners. They were educated people, philanthropists, well versed in art. Mikhail’s stepfather told about their history, and also talked about the icons that he inherited.
Since 2003, since the purchase of ancient icons, Mikhail Abramov has begun to understand them. Study in detail the history of icon painting in Rus' and Orthodoxy in general. Famous scientists and specialists from Moscow and St. Petersburg are gradually being involved in the process of collecting and systematizing acquired icons. They assist him in creating displays and organizing exhibitions.
Talking about his hobby, in a number of interviews, Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov says that he is confident in the spiritual power of images of saints. He believes that icons have had and continue to influence the historical path of Russia.
Abramov acquires them all over the world, entering into negotiations with owners of private collections, and participating in auctions abroad. All purchased icons are sent to Russia. Mikhail Yuryevich is confident that the process of returning them to their homeland is his fateful mission.
Museum
In 2006, Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov came to the conclusion that the collected icons should be shown to people. He creates a private museum.
The Museum of Russian Icons of Mikhail Abramov is located in the center of Moscow, next to the Taganskaya metro station (arrow of the Moscow River and the Yauza River).
Currently, museum exhibitions number almost 5,000 items, of which about 1,000 are icons. The museum exists solely at the expense of the founder, Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov.
The museum does not carry out any commercial activities. Visiting it and excursions are free.
The basis of the museum collection is Russian icons from the 14th to 20th centuries. The museum also has collections of handwritten books and unique decorative and applied items. Thematic exhibitions dedicated to late antique and early Christian monuments are presented; Byzantine applied art; Greek icon painting; Christian Ethiopian art.
Museum of the Icon of Mikhail Abramov
Through his efforts, Abramov in 2011 opened the doors of Russia's first private Museum of Russian Icons with a total area of 2,500 square meters and numbering about 600 icons. The value of the private Museum's collection exceeds hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, according to its founder, not a single icon should be put up for sale or auction. The Mikhail Abramov Museum of Russian Icons in Moscow was replenished with exhibits. The opening ceremony of the Museum was marked by the transfer to the Rostov Kremlin Museum-Reserve of a carved altar cross of the 16th century, stolen fifteen years ago. This relic was found for Abramov by Irina Shalina, a museum researcher, in one of the private collections in Germany. Abramov considers icons to be the property of Russia and strives for everyone to have the opportunity to touch the national heritage. Therefore, the internationally recognized museum is open to everyone and admission is free.
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The most valuable exhibits of the museum are: the icon of Our Lady Hodegetria, the Greek iconostasis of the late 17th century and the icon of St. Nicholas of Myra from the 14th century.
In the fall of 2011, the Vatican and the Italian Ministry of Culture presented in Rome forty of the best works from Abramov’s collection, including the most ancient icon of the icon painter Simon Ushakov, “Our Lady Hodegetria of Georgia.” The success of the exhibition of Abramov’s private collection in the Castel Sant’Angelo was noted by all the media in Italy and Russia.
The Abramov Museum displays an Old Believer chapel, which attracts Old Believers who pray to it all day long. Therefore, the exhibits in the museum are sacred.
Mikhail Abramov is not only a businessman, but also a philanthropist. Mikhail Yuryevich maintains friendly relations with other collectors, art historians and museum workers. They all gather at his dacha on Nikolina Gora to discuss upcoming exhibitions and the possibility of uniting all collectors. In particular, Abramov highly values the private collections of icons of Viktor Bondarenko and Mikhail Elizavetin.
Businessman
According to official data obtained from the media, it follows that Mikhail Yuryevich Abramov is the founder of companies in Moscow, namely, Art-Alliance AK LLC, Museum of Russian Icon, Bonorg LLC, Persvet Info LLC , Viland LLC.
He is also the owner of the construction company Plaza Development.
Currently, this structure is carrying out work to commission a number of structures in Moscow. Among them are businesses (near the Nagatinskaya metro station), the building of the Vereyskaya Plaza business district.
At the end of 2021, information appeared that the Moscow City Hall filed a claim against Plaza Development in connection with the illegal construction of the West Park business center (Ochakovskoye Highway). From the published information it follows that the developer carried out the construction illegally, without obtaining the appropriate permits. Moscow authorities intend to legally recognize West Park as self-development and carry out its demolition.
Abramov's personal life
Sergei Yuryevich Abramov, according to him, mainly lives in his house near Moscow, in the Nikolina Gora cottage village (Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway, Odintsovo district, Moscow region), which he calls a dacha.
Once a week he visits the nearby Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, but does not consider himself overly religious.
Mikhail’s wife, Svetlana, has been with her husband for many years. They met while studying together at the Institute of Light Industry. They have two children, a son and a daughter.
Charity projects and other activities
Along with providing for the museum, Abramov led a number of charitable projects in Moscow: erected churches, built fountains, helped veterans and orphanages.
In 2021, Mikhail Abramov was awarded the UNESCO Five Continents Medal for his contribution to the preservation of historical heritage. He was a laureate of the Russian award “Patron of the Year” (2017, awarded for organizing the purchase and transfer to the Yaroslavl Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve of the 17th century icon “Resurrection - Descent into Hell with the Passion of Christ in 18 hallmarks”).
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The entrepreneur was a member of the working group of the State Duma of the Russian Federation to prepare the law “On collecting and private collections in the Russian Federation.” He was a member of the boards of trustees of the Vysoko-Petrovsky stauropegial monastery (Moscow) and the Savvino-Storozhevsky stauropegial monastery (Zvenigorod, Moscow region), and a trustee of the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Aksinino (Odintsovo district, Moscow region). He took part in charity auctions of the Gift of Life foundation, provided assistance to a boarding school at the courtyard of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' in the village of Priazovsky (Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory).
