Almost all central newspapers wrote about the scandal that erupted in the Public Chamber during the hearings on the Updated General Plan of Moscow. Then the famous gallery owner and director of the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art PERMM Marat Gelman opposed the adopted town-planning document, stating, in particular: "For us, the center of Moscow is love, and for Luzhkov, it is a vegetable patch from which he reaps the harvest." Considering such a statement too offensive, the speaker of the Moscow City Duma, Vladimir Platonov, and the chief architect of the capital, Alexander Kuzmin, defiantly left the meeting. This incident was covered in the most detailed way, for example, by the newspapers Kommersant, Vremya novostei, Gazeta.ru, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Novye Izvestia. The "offender" himself became a hero of the opposition in April, and throughout the month he willingly gave interviews, and also commented on the events in his blog. In particular, to the newspaper "Vzglyad" Gelman explained that with his sharp speech he wanted to draw attention to the fact that the master plan, developed by the city planners forced to the Moscow mayor, by definition cannot pursue the interests of the city.
On April 13, on Chistoprudny Boulevard, a protest rally was held against the adoption of the scandalous general plan - this time it was much more massive than before. Several hundred people took part in it, who demanded to postpone the adoption of the law on the general plan as “contrary to the interests of the majority of Muscovites,” and to dismiss the capital's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. The Kommersant newspaper tells about this in more detail. It is difficult to say how seriously the city authorities took these statements, but the consideration of the General Plan in the third reading, scheduled for April 21, was postponed indefinitely.
Continuing the topic of publications on urban planning issues, I would like to note an interview with such a non-public architect as Svyatoslav Mindrul. In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper correspondent, the general director of Mosproekt spoke about the problems of modern residential housing construction and, in particular, explained why the capital continues to be built up with panel residential buildings, which Europe has long abandoned.
While Muscovites were protesting against the general plan, a scandal erupted in Yekaterinburg over the reconstruction of the Church of St. Catherine on Labor Square, which was blown up in 1930. On April 10, almost 4,000 people came to the square, believing that the remake would by no means decorate this popular public place; the newspaper "Kommersant" writes in more detail about this action. Archbishop Vikentiy of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye reacted very sharply to the protest action, declaring on TV that "not a single person who opposed God died a natural death."
The ROC and its leadership more than once became heroes of publications in April also in connection with the ongoing discussion of the draft law on restitution. Patriarch Kirill himself, who gave an interview to Gazeta, responded to the wave of criticism that fell on this document. The patriarch, in particular, assured that only the icons in the storerooms of museums would be transferred to the ownership of the church, so that the existing expositions would not be ruined. The museum community did not remain in debt - the director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Irina Lebedeva, presented her opinion on the upcoming law to the newspaper Novye Izvestia. And in "Novaya Gazeta" there was a large article analyzing the church's ability to preserve the values entrusted to it.
The interest of the press in exhibition activities that woke up in the spring, announced by us in the last review, continued with two articles in Ogonyok, devoted this time not to the Venetian, but to the upcoming Moscow Architectural Biennale. Bart Goldhorn, curator of the Biennale and editor-in-chief of Project Russia, gave an interview to the magazine. In particular, he said that the theme of the current festival - "perestroika" - implies "repair and reorganization" of small Russian cities, in which the degradation of historical centers is currently taking place. The second article in Ogonyok is devoted to the main projects of the Moscow Biennale. It is planned to "rebuild" both individual buildings and entire cities, such as Perm, for which the Dutch bureau KCAP is working on the master plan. An equally important and interesting topic promises to be the reconstruction of the post-war architectural heritage, to which the exhibition “Modernization of panel buildings. German experience ".
Another topic that caught the attention of the press in April was restoration. Thus, the Moscow Heritage Committee made a number of positive decisions on complex, if not scandalous, objects. The first of them is the famous Shukhov Tower, the condition of which is considered dangerously close to emergency. To carry out an independent technical examination, the Moscow Heritage Committee set up an expert council, and, apparently, this step made a great impression on the owner of the engineering monument - FSUE Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network, which unexpectedly announced that the funds needed for restoration had been found. The newspaper "Vremya novostei" and the agency "Rosbalt" report this in more detail. At almost the same time, another council of experts - this time for the state of the Moscow Planetarium - was ordered by the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, who took the restoration of this long-suffering building under his personal control. This is reported by "Vesti Moscow". An optimistic turn has been outlined in the history of the Guryev Chambers, which have already been damaged by fire twice and have recently been under threat of being removed from the heritage list and "murderous" reconstruction. The Moscow Heritage Committee sent a visiting commission to the site, which recorded the safety of the interiors and the need for their restoration. Konstantin Mikhailov talks about this in Izvestia.
But the main victory of the heritage defenders happened last Wednesday, when a new project of the Five Capitals complex was announced and approved at the Public Council, which for a long time threatened to crush the famous Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi with its volumes. Now the controversial complex has turned into eight three-story houses with small underground parking lots under each of them. This already looks like the so-called "regeneration", but Natalia Samover, considering a new project, asks a number of questions; in particular, during the construction process, it is still planned to destroy one fragment of the original building; in addition, the new buildings are randomly placed, ignoring the grid of historic districts.
In April, another symbol of Moscow, the building-steamer of the Northern River Station, was closed for restoration. Anna Garanenko writes in Izvestia about the state of this monument today and what kind of restoration work awaits it in the near future. And in the famous suburb of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoye Selo - large-scale restoration work begins in the Alexander Palace, which the Federal Property Management Agency in November last year transferred to the ownership of the museum-reserve. After restoration, a museum exposition will be placed in the palace, recalls "Fontanka".
Amid this promising news, there is still a place and worrying. So, on the eve of the International Day of Monuments and Sightseeing Places on April 18, Arhnadzor conducted 4 excursions, the final point of which was the House and School of the famous classicist Matvey Kazakov, who has been in disrepair for many years. This was reported by the website of the movement and the Vesti TV channel. And in its constant column "Beware of Moscow!" in the newspaper Izvestia, one of the ideologists of Arkhnadzor, Rustam Rakhmatullin, names a new heritage site, the fate of which raises serious concerns. Now it is the house of the famous vodka manufacturer Pyotr Smirnov, rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century according to the project of Fyodor Shekhtel. Not so long ago, a restaurant was housed in it, and the Moscow expert asks a reasonable question how such a project of adaptation could have been approved by the Moscow Heritage Committee.
Summing up, let's say that the first warm month of the year turned out to be very rich in all kinds of public discussions and mass protests. However, it is not even gratifying that Muscovites and residents of other Russian cities are ready to go out to protect heritage sites, but that their efforts have finally begun to be noticed by the authorities. Let's hope this is sincere.
