this is the best time to come here before opening hours to hear all this silence you can feel that the holes and everything in them is they are waiting for this day . i was about three years old or maybe less when i first came to the hermitage i remember the impression that everything here is alive but i'm in a sort of fairy tale and when i touch the feet of the atlantis i felt that they were alive and all these statues of ancient gods base seemed alive to me too maybe they were just frozen in the moment but they were still living i'm probably still working some of their miracles. i.

just need to visit us and that i must obviously ideas deal with that there'll. be a good signal to dub this. the homepage of them and international and. institution and its famous worldwide people are yes they're at telus but i get to have this opportunity to see what the most of the public wouldn't be able to see. i don't think too many people have ever seen me or even heard of me but i am one of the oldest guardians of the hermitage who knows what could have become of the exhibits if not for me and my friends all. biota balance line is never late for work but she isn't anemia at the hermitage or

a good iona is a volunteer from england and we stand in the entrance we have seats healthy full and they're passing three t.v. and ten styles we have to tell them to take off the outdoor play thing like the case in jackets and put them in the fake family and just answer any questions that they may have about. the museum about west finds them out so guy that. an excursion. in london iona studies russian culture different from russia recommended that she worked at the petersburg person into. the. east coast middle of yes and that certainly set it i says a when the serious both and solo. and the others but a ninety m. yes it's. not totally fancy and it's not just wouldn't that be an uncle sam uncle

escudo thing you just had to pull. my own no bugs here for free she's one of one hundred fifty volunteers they all share in the visitors carry boxes arranged chairs where they needed to be whatever it takes to earn that prestigious title become a volunteer not everyone is worthy of the on a. just about five hours is what we expect from people if they really want to become fully fledged volunteers a lot of them will have a museum pass made for them. five hours a week is the minimum the true quiet newcomer sunnah can find enough free time and she passes her probation period she will also become a volunteer at russia's grand museum. and you will be taking part in one of our

grand events dharma taj camp day. instead of an interview i was taking by the hand and led to the basement where we're hanging peatross have absolutely no idea what a way of doing or what it is for but i see that it's all about the cats day of camp . which is. this lets people realize underneath the heavens it would caution might have very few they do. you know get in the way down as any of the precious life that they have. she's right no enemies down here i've been in the museum basement with my friends for years roan dare not set foot in this place they can sense danger from all four.

volunteers. could you help. felicitous i think we need to fix this here. you don't need scissors and i'll show you. ok. so this is how we put our volunteers to work. on a becomes a volunteer will be mysterious decision. came to the home of his one day to offer his own help. hold through this in petersburg three hundred verse three was approaching and i didn't want to be just an onlooker in two thousand and two i came to the hermitage to offer to organize a group of state hermitage volunteers our task was to find one hundred fifty people and select the most active ones who would be able to act in any unexpected situation you have to remember that on the night of may twenty seventh when the hermitage was open all night it had the highest number of visitors there were many

many pregnant ladies because a lot of them hope to have their child on this very day because there were special prizes offered like apartments for babies who were born on some petersburg's anniversary. indeed a few women did deliver their babies right here in the hermitage. or so the volunteers had to be ready to do whatever was needed to react quickly and keep smiling while helping us to resolve all possible situations. but first the volunteers were not well received at the museum but as veterans sort of the new generation wanted to take away their jobs after only a few years the stuff members became more friendly. how are you. first of all please. because. it's very important.

it's. about comparing the trees studying them can reveal a lot of information about the state of the environment the tree grew in and its age. frances infelicitous to work out how old these are. to have peace in their hands. the water. that it's. wrong and.

show any. more useful to do it was. recently begun taking photographs. descriptions measure ancient greeks found on the northern coast. they've measured the whole sarcophagus as well as every tiny detail you can see the. so many decorative elements every single decoration needed to be measured. the most important. volunteers will be mentioned in the academic prospectus has. featured dozens of names of people who worked on the team here for over a year all of them were. really immersed in this fascinating process.

santa is going through her own probation period. have to go through all this herself if she succeeds. her assignment is to help organize a game for the grand event can't it's the hermitage. cancer very important inhabitants the winter palace and the state hermitage. they've lived in the old winter palace since the times of peter the great when he brought the first cats from holland a bit later his daughter elizabeth just special de craye for cats to be bred in what is now modern day tatarstan fifty cats were then brought from. since the seven hundred forty s. those cats descendants have lived in the winter palace they've been provided with

food in return for keeping the exhibits a deal. we are also volunteers of sorts we work for food and that serena she is also a volunteer gives us food and medicine and takes care of us i don't quite understand why she does it. matter of course her name is so if you call. if you better hair she's going to. need here. right here. where often asked which cat is now a favorite little of our favorite is the one that is the saddest the one who is sick at that moment we give them all the same love and care when they get well we have another favorite who is less happy than the others. and with us here you will

hear little girl my beauty let's take a pill here's a good girl but. here we go. we now have sixty five cats at the hermitage that can sometimes reach eighty five there were times when we had one hundred twenty cats of course we try to make sure the number of the animals stays within a certain limit seven to is the maximum we can afford. but if there is more there will be trouble. cats a selfish they like their own territory. and we don't have my so told we have so many cats that the money is just don't show up here there was a time when the cats were removed from the museum i don't know what happened but in a month we lost half the library because rats ate everything they don't care much for the value of an exhibit even if it's a million dollars they'll still i know i have

a cat at home and i'm starting to look a bit like a cat. i can now like a cat and my like a cat. my cat and it was good he does it like this. it meant that as a parent as she is my childhood fairy tale and where my parents would take me with you when you all here and forget which century it has to feel like you're it has to i call it a caricature but i remember when i was a child i always wanted to walk around and i stress it with a base current to where i had of course it was my training to play a part in all of this is to help somehow to gain access to the archives. let's. show. that this is a very important event both for visitors and volunteers we've been preparing for it all year it's an incredibly exciting celebration for the kids.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture. a potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery down

a guideline there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. jason it is going to be pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's been like nobody's allowed to be driving a listen emergency vehicles are exceptions. and

that's the only the game begins here this is the story today we're fishing and this is a map of the hermitage to help you find your way around this is where began the spots and this is a clue that you need to get to where you need to go up it was about this is a quiz that needs to be answered if you get the answer to the question right to kill you go to our person in a room and then you get another flier and go to another room it's a good point if it was a need to pay attention to the kiddies here. you should care you go. of course many of my friends my parents at first asked me why i said because i like it it's my hobby for quite a long time mom couldn't get used to me leaving early for the hermitage and coming

home late now she's used to it the family's gotten used to it yeah she said the hermitage she's at home there and you can drag her out of there. are usually come to the museum before opening time and doesn't leave until god closes the main entrance on the tenth anniversary of the volunteer service friends jokes that they should give. them should be able to spend the night there is well. i like it maybe i would have been a housewife maybe i read a book maybe watch some t.v. but it's not that interesting it's boring i get bored very quickly so i came here first of all it's a museum there's always something interesting happening here their children today is the hermit housecat day and the day involves again we catch big fish and small fish so that is the challenge is to find stories devoted to cats and fish.

we've set up a few checkpoints in the hermit with volunteers post about them and that's where you see the guys all of them taking part in the quest they find the right picture the right story or piece of art the sounds of the questions and then move along the route that. you found a fish you found one so go wrong read that question see life two large fish glittering with scales it sits on a low table the third one at the feet of the boy who is holding a bowl of succulent fruit and a basket of cream the bouyeri presents one of the summer months. of that. next question. next question. if your answer. was alan. nugent i mean like the way children's health positrons oh i'm helping them he still having fine you guessed photon.

you see that's very very funny. since. we got infected in a cave and i'm. good but it seems like a great game it's really getting sojourn in both because they have set identified us back safe and it's not spot on they're all getting excited and something up and down and i think they i'm finding interesting is they give them the fight. because that's what i'm so this year's reward for all the participants was a trip to the theater where a musical performance was staged for them and their views on this book that. i. did not know.

a few years ago a portuguese writer worked with the children here in the same way he had decided to write a book about russia and came to work and. back then volunteers were often bankers who'd gone bust in the crisis children at people who worked in world famous museums . whose father is the louis director. he didn't mention who he was a where he was from like everyone else he helped everywhere. to the conference's he helped with evening events he helped if we had to meet guests or something he helped the department carry boxes folders and he always worked with us here he also talked to frank here in the department to anyone who wanted. along with everyone else student visitors questions for hours on end sometimes the most unexpected

questions. some people think that they're at the russian museum and when they're told at the moment they're very surprised with where's the russian art where's the dip in. you know one time for example a young man came up looking around the room asked where he was he was told you are in a museum. and he was still surprised he second question was but which one exactly did this chinese tourists are an interesting but i've never found anything that they find particularly interesting they see paintings hanging on the poles as just to corrections the same with floors and ceilings i even heard of one group of chinese tourists who turned down a trip to the hermitage because they said they'd already been to the over so they already knew what a music. he was like. in

america everyone always talks about the home the ties. the collection of old renaissance art that's the most famous stuff that gets talked about in america and i of course want to see it and i also in america i studied history and reading about. the revolution that was in st petersburg and all the stuff that happened here through history and i got to see that all my first day here and i've seen that many many times and i'm working. one of rayman streams is to join an expedition with just from the british over the summer museum staff conduct excavations in russia's regions and inflate every one to take out the less experience of this is our expedition we've been doing it for fifty years now last year we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary and i have to say that many monuments have been discovered over those fifty years of excavation but

we can still say that even more sites remain unknown usually the archaeology department i've done translating work about different. archaeological excavations that people have done but signed of the research i've done and also i was doing some translating on renaissance art that's definitely been the most rewarding work because it's been interesting and it also helped me practice russians. in the archaeology department is for many volunteers one of the most interesting places in the museum. you can literally touch history. and to draw these ancient oak jet from. different things that they found and i need to document this way as of until here helped kill it's good parliament and you have to be very precise spending these drawings it's not like normal and during

my mess out some things hey you need to every every mark is important for that. for me having to be in there to be behind the theme of the hermitage and to see the. good public feel the best research. which i would have no idea that there were so many shelves and shelves of all these different i. think most people were there even. know about what was going on behind. sometimes thank the volunteers by giving them free tours for example a tour as a new storage facility in the old village region. of what was stored in the museum was once moved there a million items. the largest being a tent given to russia's interests catherine the second was also an emperor certainly. there was a visit by the turkish ambassador to st petersburg with diplomatic gifts and one of those gifts is this tent it's all around us it's like we're inside the museum

exhibit. this is i mean a fifth of it the rest is still rolled up and stored away turned his way to launch because it covers about a hundred square meters. along with a new storage facility. will soon be offering a museum of modern art. this building is the left wing of the general headquarters build by carl ross sea in the early nineteenth century before the revolution and. the ministry of finance and the ministry of foreign affairs were here next year this grand reconstruction will end and will have one of the largest contemporary art museums. and one of the two cords which have been rebuilt so far we can already see one of

the first exhibits of the it's an installation created by the already famous russian artist and. they created this immediately after the collapse of the soviet union. and this installation. it represents the emergence and growth of the soviet union and its collapse as it. did it actually yes this isn't just a dead body left behind it's part of the installation was we lived through constant constructions during communism which so therefore this part probably just represents the continuing construction there is still many things they haven't seen the herrmann but i think one day they'll catch up and join in other events. maybe one day you'll pass something. bank my god that i glued this place says.

painted over that crack up there it's this involvement was everything passed by you see it and realize you have something to do with that as well you know also part of history part of the museum part of those accidents. is now it's all in here at the habitat and it's new employee after six years of support to the museum she's been offered a job. but even so elaina still volunteers at the end of her working day she hurries to meet the visitors with a smile. clinician free accreditation free transport charges free. range month free.

free studio time free. download free blog plug in video for your media projects a free media. dot com. place. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. the. decision to. go to.

a potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more pattern. line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. jason it is going to pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's been like bilbies like three drugs listens to the emergency vehicles are exceptions.

he. says. they're ready to come here as a work and not get paid for it. people from all over the world are eager to help. what does it take to become a volunteer at russia's premium museum why did the son of the louvers director come here. i'm one of the cats do. behind the scenes at the hermitage see.

tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. in the wake of the a.p. phone records scandal president obama has tried to distance himself from the controversy by proposing a new media shield law but can we really trust someone who's overseen one of the biggest assaults on whistleblowers in history to defend the freedom of the press just a moment also today's factory collapse in cambodia is just the most recent workplace disaster to capture headlines around the world all it takes to create global factory safety standards and exporting the i.r.s. scandal republicans have ran.