Matiushin is a Futurist. Futurism is one of the movements of the Russian Avant-garde, and the Russian Avant-garde is one of the world’s best-selling art brand. Nizhny Novgorod got itself involved in this story thanks to our hero. Matiushin is the author of the first Futurist opera. He created it with the help of the legendary Russian Avant-garde artists Malevich and Kruchonykh. Futurist art of the early 20th century is art of the dream and of insights into the future. Futurists aren’t just those who will be welcome to the future; they are the ones who invented it!

The biography of the Futurist Matiushin can teach us everything one needs in the conditions of the future that’s already here. It’s constant self-improvement; it’s getting educated in diverse spheres; it’s striving for trying everything new. Mikhail Vasilyevich came from a very much problem family. He knew first-hand what alcohol addiction was: his father died of it; his mother and brothers were heavy drinkers, and he himself tried alcohol even as he was a child. But his affinity for art, creativity, and knowledge helped overcome everything. Matiushin became a musician, then an artist, and then an art expert. And never stopping, towards the end of his life he mastered the art of photography.

Matiushin started his education from the classes in the His Imperial Majesty’s Russian Musical Society (RMS) and the conservatoire, and towards the end of his life headed the group of artistic research in the soviet State Institute of Artistic Culture. But he could easily do something real even way far from establishment. In Matiushin’s summer cottage he organized the First Global Congress of Futurists (total three people attending!). At his place he would make Avant-garde theatrical productions where the viewers found themselves among clouds, and gathered the Youth’s Union.

Matiushin didn’t just manage to become the influencer of his time and leave unique heritage. With his strategy of mild leadership, he made his house into a creative medium for the young people of the capital. Today it’s a historic house, the St Petersburg Museum of Avant-garde. And we’re sure that the time will come when Nizhny Novgorod will have its own Matiushin memorial.

Matiushin’s success can be measured this way: a hundred years since Matiushin remains a topical character of culture. This came to be because Matiushin lived on future and invented it, too.