Penza, 9 April 2015. PenzaNews. Kirill Zastrozhniy, former deputy head of the Department of Culture and Archive who had left his former office on his own accord on Wednesday, April 8, accepted the offer to head the Savitsky Picture Gallery made by the governor Vasily Bochkarev.

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“I did not have any second thoughts in this situation. [The previous head of the Penza Picture Gallery Valery] Sazonov has been working for over 40 years, I have been working in the culture area for 30 years. We worked along the same lines. I saw everything and imagine what it is. Of course, the space for work is enormous: The Museum of A Single Picture, the Gubernatorial House, the Nikolsk Museum. One must work with it thoroughly and diligently,” Kirill Zastrozhniy told PenzaNews agency about his decision during a phone call on Thursday, April 9.

The governor’s offer, he said, was a complete surprise to him.

He explained that he had made the decision to leave the Department of Culture and Archive of the Penza region earlier, before the meeting with the governor.

“Today we had a talk, but there is no order yet, and I am not yet working as the director of the Picture Gallery. So it is too early to pronounce this as a fact,” Kirill Zastrozhniy noted.

However, he added that he will be pronounced the new Picture Gallery director to the staff of the institution on Friday, April 10.

“If this ceremony will honor the memory of my long-time friend and ally in work Valery Petrovich [Sazonov], I think I will strive to continue his legacy,” the speaker concluded.

The Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev offered Kirill Zastrozhniy to head the Savitsky Picture Gallery early on Thursday, April 9.

“We need people who know the sphere of culture and can do art,” Vasily Bochkarev wrote in his Twitter after meeting him.

The seat of director of the Penza Savitsky Picture Gallery is currently vacant, after Valery Sazonov has passed away after heading the cultural institution for over 40 years.