and everything in them if they are waiting for this day. i was about three years old or maybe less when i first came to the hermit types i remember the impression that everything here is alive and 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 preserve some of that i must obviously ideas david that they're ok and

you didn't without this. the homepage of them and international and the institution and its famous worldwide people are yes very 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 an employee here at the hermitage or a good iona is a volunteer from england we found in the entrance we have seen healthy and they're passing through t.v.

and ten styles we have to tell them to take off the outdoor plating that they case in jackets and put them in the family and just answer any general questions that they may have about an uneasy about west finds them out still guy. an excursion. in london iona studies russian culture a friend from russia recommended that she worked at the petersburg going into. the schools to mentor the first of yes and that certainly set it i says a when the see a still fairly solid thought and a ninety m. yes it's. not totally and see this movie was. that his uncle sam uncle asked could only be conservative.

iow no works here for free she's one of a 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. which is about five hours is what we expect from people if they really want to become fully fledged volunteers then we'll have a museum pass made for them. five hours a week is the minimum the true quiet newcomer oksana can find enough free time and she passes her probation period she will also become a volunteer at russia's grand museum. where 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 peaches i have absolutely no idea what

we're doing or what it is for but i see that it's all about the cats day of camp. which is. it's for the cats and there's lots of people you realize underneath the heavy. touching my very early through the day and. 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. with this felicitous i think we need to fix this here you said. 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 how much is one day to offer his own help. both of us 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 and offered 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 are in 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 and that is veterans sort of the new generation wanted to take away their jobs after only a few years to stuff members became more friendly. how are you. first of all please. because we are. very important what is your. it's. a.

chronology is 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. francis infelicitous to work out how old these are. to have peace in their hand. and. put it out of the water. that it's so. scary to do it wrong and to destroy. his. show any rings. it's more useful to do it was.

recently volunteers have 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 photographed . the most important. 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. merced in this fascinating process. santa is going through her own probation period chill have to go through all this herself

if she succeeds. her assignment is to help organize a game for the grand event can stay at 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 shue just special de craye for cats to be bred in what is now modern day ten. fifty cats were then brought from. since the seventeen forties those cats descendants have lived in the winter palace they've been provided with food in return for keeping the exhibits. we are also volunteers of sorts we work for food and that serena she is

also a volunteer as a spoon in medicine and takes care of us i don't quite understand why she does it. matter of course her name is so she called. if you pat her hair she's going to. need hair. right here. where often asked which cat is our favorite little was 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 that 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. and if there is more there will be trouble. cat so selfish they like their own territory. and we don't have my so told we have so many cats but 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 finish it off 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 the parent and she's my childhood fairy tale and when my parents would take me with you when you are here and forget which century it has it felt like you're in historic character 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 dream to play a part in all this is to help somehow to gain access to the archives. let's. get. 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.

real damage and complexity of this oil spill was not something you can grasp just by looking at dirty birds we have between four to five million people in this directly affected area of the coast and it's pretty clear why it's not being reported because b.p. can't afford to have a reported all along the gulf coast are clean they are safe and they're open for business if b.p. is the single largest oil contributor to the pentagon the u.s. war machine is heavily reliant upon b.p. and their oil this is a huge step backwards for the marker sea it's a step forward for the oligarchy carex it is toxic is a look a lot like spraying in vietnam it was it was not a picture that either the government or b.p. really wanted to have out there i don't want dispersants the age you are which. is

you know this. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations are all today.

hello jim. and that's the jelly the game begins here this is the story today were fishing this is a map of the hermitage to help you find your way around this is where began and this is a clue that you need to get to where you need to go. about this is a quiz that needs to be answered if you get the answer to the question right you go to our person in a room and then you get another flyer and go to another room the city of hundreds of little boys you need to pay attention to these kiddies here. here you go.

there's the look 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's the hermitage she's at home there and you can drag her out of there. you know 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 you a little return but then she'd be able to spend the night there was well. i like it maybe i would have been a housewife maybe i read a book maybe watching t.v. but it's not that interesting it's boring i have bored very quickly so i came here first of all it's a museum there's always something interesting happening here there are children today is the hermitage cat day and the day involves a game we catch big fish and small fish which is the. helen just to find stories

devoted to cats and fish. we've set up a few checkpoints in the hermitage 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 on 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. you get that. next question. next question.

your answer. was and. usually i really like the way children's health i'm helping them nice to have in fine you guessed photon. that's very very funny. seeing that. here. we have infested in a cave and i'm. good but it seems like a great game it's really getting teligent because they have set identify us back to it's not so bad and they're all getting excited it's obvious and out and i think yeah i'm funny interesting as well give them with my head. so that's what i am so this year's reward for all the participants was a trip to the theater. performance was staged for them because. i. did not.

yes there was just. a few years ago a portuguese writer of work 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 while the children of people who worked in world famous museums like paulo who's 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 conferences 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 targets french here in the department anyone who wanted polar all 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. is that they say that you know one time for example a young man came up looking around the room asked where he was he was told you were any museum because it was then 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 decorations 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 had already been to the what

a museum 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 america and i of course want to see it and i also in america i study history and reading about. the revolution that was the same petersburg and that 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 edge over the summer museum staff conduct excavations in russia's regions and inflate everyone to take part. 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 see that even more sites remain unknown usually archaeology department i've done translating work about different. or theological excavations that people have done but saying to the researchers i've done and also i was doing some translating renaissance art that's definitely been the most rewarding work because it's been interesting and it also helps me practice russians. the archaeology department is for many volunteers one of the most interesting places in the museum. you can literally touch history. to draw these ancient objects which are from. different things that they found and i need to document this way. to help. and you have to be very precise been doing these drawings it's not like normal and

touring where you might miss out some things hey you need to every every mark is important for that. thing to be and to be behind the theme. and to see the. good public feel of this research. which i would have no idea that there were so many shelves and shelves of all these different i. think most people wouldn't even. know about what was going on behind. sometimes thank the volunteers by giving them free tours for example a tour is a new storage facility in the old village region. that was stored in the museum was once moved there but there's a million items. alone just being attentive that is russia's interest comes through the second. so it's on sale. there

was a visit by the turkish ambassador to st petersburg with diplomatic guess and one of those gifts is this tent it's all around us it's like we're inside the museum exhibit. this is only a fifth of it the rest is still rolled up and stored away to tend his way to launch because it covers about a hundred square meters. along with a new storage facility. will soon be offering the museum of modern art. this building is the left wing of the general headquarters built by karl rossi 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.

in one of the two courtyards 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. members 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. we lived through constant constructions during communism was so therefore this part probably just represents the continuing construction there is still many things they haven't seen the hair montage but i think one day they'll catch up and join in other events. maybe you

want to pass something new look and thank god i did that i glued this bill says for example the way you paint over that crack over there it's this involvement was everything if you pass by you see it and realize you have something to do with it as while you're also part of history part of the museum part of those accidents. oksana is now also and tear it down but any elena it's new employee up to six years of selfless support to the museum she's been also to enjoy it. but even so elena still volunteers at the end of her working day she hurries to meet the visit is with a smile. coal

. fields for its factories. for its steel. and heat for its people. join me. to

spend their lives underground and work in one of the world's most dangerous professions. coal naughty.

real damage and complexity of this oil spill was not something you grass just by looking at dirty birds we have between four to five million people in this directly affected area of the coast and it's pretty clear why it's not being reported because b.p. can't afford to have a reported all along the gulf coast are clean they are safe and they're open for business if b.p. is the single largest oil contributor to the pentagon the us war machine is heavily reliant upon b.p. and their oil this is a huge step backwards full democracy it's a step forward a little carex it is toxic is a look a lot like spraying in vietnam it was it was not a picture of either the government or b.p. really wanted to have out there i don't want dispersants to be the agent on.

his bills. that are leaving.

europe doesn't need britain that's the message from the french president just to protect the easy integrity you can't trust a call back from brussels. scores are killed in a string of bombings around baghdad and iraq's deadliest day in months as tension between the shiite led government and the sunni minority spiraled out of control. and a suspected terrorist is arrested in the u.s. three years after slipping past the country's border controls is security isn't up to scratch.