As representatives of "Arkhnadzor" said, a new wave of the authorities' attack on historical buildings began in May with an order from the Moscow government on the creation of an Interdepartmental Commission for setting state security objects of regional importance. The commission is headed by Vladimir Resin, deputy mayor, head of the capital's construction complex, and also the chairman of the infamous "obnoxious" commission under the Moscow government for the preservation of buildings in the historically formed part of the city. Since May, a new interdepartmental commission has determined whether a building is worthy of protection as a "cultural heritage site of regional significance." The commission filters out everything that it considers unworthy of protection, and transfers the list of the remaining objects to the Moscow Heritage Committee, which, thus, deals with the already filtered lists and cannot influence the fate of buildings that have not passed the Resin commission.
Vladimir Resin will personally have to examine about two and a half thousand monuments by January 1 of next year. However, the commission works quickly: already at the first meeting on June 17, they managed to see about 100 addresses, including more than 200 monuments. About 110 objects were registered, and 131 were recommended to be removed from protection. Thus, according to Alexander Mozhaev, the balance of the commission's work turned out to be negative as a result - they removed from the guard more than they had offered to put on.
Moreover, some objects from among the "outcasts", to put it mildly, are surprising: first of all, this is the house of Leo Tolstoy's grandfather, Prince Volkonsky at Vozdvizhenka, 9. The one that was the prototype of the old Prince Bolkonsky, and the building itself was described in War and Peace ". True, during the recent reconstruction it has already lost its interiors, but Arkhnadzor and the director of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate Vladimir Tolstoy intend to defend this building.
Another building that is now being removed from protection is the Moscow Cathedral Mosque on Olympic Avenue. It is planned to demolish it and rebuild it as part of a new prayer complex of a significant area (the project was recently reviewed by the Moscow Architectural Council). The demolition of the building in 1904, according to the deputy director of the Kremlin Museums Andrei Batalov, who was present at the press conference, is justified by a false theological statement that the mihrab of the mosque is incorrectly oriented. At the same time, the technical expertise showed that the building is in a satisfactory condition.
Finally, a number of "workers' settlements" of the 1920s-1930s came under attack, which, apparently, will be demolished as dilapidated housing stock. The Budennovsky, Usachevsky, Nizhne-Presnensky, Pogodinsky and Rusakovsky settlements, as well as the student dormitory complex in the Annenhof grove, have already been removed from protection. It is significant that this decision coincided with an event in the fate of the avant-garde heritage of Germany, where, as Gazeta writes, Zidlungs like our villages were, on the contrary, included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.
The grounds for withdrawal from protection, according to Alexander Mozhaev, are not statements by specialists, historians and art historians, but letters from "business entities" directly to Vladimir Resin with a request to assist in the early disposal of the object from the status of a monument, which ties their hands in carrying out a proper reconstruction … Alexander Mozhaev even read out a number of such letters to the audience.
At the same time, among the objects recently put under protection, there are significant and valuable monuments that have not yet been noticed, which in itself speaks of a great neglect in this area. It is no secret that many applications have been gathering dust in the Moscow Heritage Committee since the 1970s. Among them - the Anglican Church opposite the Conservatory, the Sekretarev estate at the corner of Gagarinsky Lane. and Gogolevsky Boulevard, where the architect Konstantin Ton lived, the fence of the Vyazemsky estate where Nikolai Karamzin lived, several addresses of Fyodor Shekhtel.
Literally following the creation of the above-mentioned interdepartmental commission, the Moscow government issued decree No. 932-rp "On the demolition of resettled residential buildings and structures in the city of Moscow," which is still, according to Arhnadzor, not published on the official server, but already active. There are 110 resettled houses on the agenda, many of which have been brought to an emergency state after decades of abandonment, fires and other troubles. Many, however, still look relatively strong. Moreover, about sixty of them are old buildings, some of which are very valuable: among them are the buildings of the estate of Count Razumovsky in the middle of the 18th century. on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 9. Rebuilt, and since 2004, emergency, the palace was once included by Matvey Kazakov in the textbook albums of the best Moscow buildings. On the website of the Moscow Heritage Committee, it is still listed as an identified monument, which, however, does not prevent it from being demolished.
According to "Arkhnadzor", houses in Maly Tishinsky Lane have already been demolished. 13 and 15, in Kostomarovsky per. 15, on the street Gilyarovsky 64 and 76, along Sadovnicheskaya, 39 and so on. It is noteworthy that the demolitions are carried out under the banner of "anti-terrorist security" of the population.
This row also includes a whole quarter of historic houses on Sadovnicheskaya embankment, which were at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. in the possession of the merchants Bakhrushins. The signal was the tragic collapse of house no. 71/8 / p. 3, where the wall was being dismantled illegally. A commission consisting of representatives of the Moscow Heritage Committee, Gosstroynadzor, the Association of Administrative and Technical Inspections and the Construction Complex of Moscow under the leadership of the Prefect of the Central Administrative District Alexei Alexandrov left for the site, as is the case in such cases. An act was drawn up on the demolition of the building in order to avoid further collapse - Aleksandrov states that the act concerned both house No. 71 and house No. 80. According to Arhnadzor's information, only the first was recorded in the act (the document was shown to those present), and on this basis it was illegally demolished the entire quarter, although the neighboring buildings (at 80/2 / p. 1,2,3) were 100 meters or more from the collapse. The speed with which the city authorities acted simply would not have allowed for technical expertise, Natalya Samover believes. However, in response to public protests, the prefect of the Central Administrative District said, as quoted by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, that “the building was resettled in due time and was in the plans“for demolition”- for the subsequent construction of municipal housing”. This contradicts the fact that on June 10, Resin's “tolerable” commission made a decision to preserve the complex of buildings on Sadovnicheskaya 80/2. "Yes, it is located on the territory of the security zone approved by the relevant decree of the Moscow government," the prefect believes, "but this does not mean that the building has any historical value."
The construction of municipal housing on this site, according to elementary estimates, which Natalia Samover set out, is simply a myth, carefully supported by the chief architect and the city authorities. In fact, the resulting vacant lot, coupled with a large parking lot on the other side of Sadovnichesky Lane, has turned into a tidbit that can be profitably sold to a developer. By the way, all 110 houses on the demolition list are owned by the city. As the MK newspaper comments on the demolition order, the city has the right to put up for auction only empty plots without encumbrances, so the authorities have to clear them out on their own under various pretexts.
“The policy of the city authorities in June became monstrous,” Director of the Museum of Architecture David Sargsyan stated his position. "We cannot throw ourselves under the bulldozer, but we must fix our position, and let history judge us." Andrei Batalov, deputy director of the Kremlin Museums, noted that the demolition in Sadovniki and similar facts was by no means a surprise. According to him, demolitions are inevitable, since they are part of the mechanism that determines the entire urban planning policy of Moscow. The irritation that caused some representatives of the authorities to be involved in the activities of social activists reminded Batalov of the case of employees of the central restoration workshops in 1934, who prevented the demolition of "unnecessary" buildings. The situation is largely repeated. And if today architectural monuments have become more or less inviolable, then the complex of the so-called “valuable objects of the urban planning environment” is not insured against demolition.
I remember that not so long ago the mayor threatened with criminal liability for damage to architectural monuments. However, as Konstantin Mikhailov noted, there is not always someone to punish. To the question of representatives of "Arkhnadzor" about the demolition of historic houses in Pechatnikov lane, the administration replied that, it turns out, it did not allow anyone to do anything. Who, then, is that unknown investor, whose people come to the construction site, presenting a driver's license as a document, and trying to remove annoying social activists from the construction site who have stocked up with special permits for this? The enemy is clear but elusive. However, "Arhnadzor" is not going to give up.
