Among the huge number of publications in the press dedicated to the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov, there are several key topics. Thus, the departure of the iconic figure was perceived by many as the end of an entire era in the urban planning of Moscow, which, in turn, forced the publications to recall the most high-profile projects of this era. Architectural observer Grigory Revzin was one of the first to "say goodbye" to the mayor and his time. Gazeta published an article entitled “Luzhkov's Style in Architecture is Complete” and also interviewed a number of experts. Boris Pasternak, Alexey Klimenko, Vyacheslav Glazychev are thinking about what needs to be changed in the city and whether the notorious "symbols of the era" should be preserved. The same topic was discussed by the participants of the discussion held on the federal TV channel "Culture". And the magazine "Expert" wrote about the problems that the change of power threatens the capital's entrepreneurs who have worked for almost 20 years in a rather specific business model. What will replace clannishness, voluntarism and corruption?
City rights activists, in turn, associate the beginning of a new, more responsible policy towards the historic city with Luzhkov's departure. For example, the Arkhnadzor website hosted the Memorandum-2010, in which it called on the authorities not to limit themselves to destroying the “symbols of the era”, but to stop projects that really threaten the historical center, carry out emergency work on valuable objects, and restore monuments excluded from the protection list. The main architect of the Center for Urban Planning Research Boris Pasternak and the head of Arkhnadzor Natalya Samover discussed the problem of preserving the historical heritage in Moscow under the new government in the Angle of View program with the Expert's correspondent. Another well-known expert, Rustam Rakhmatullin, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta notes that the transition to a new behavioral model in relation to heritage will not be so easy. Only one person left, but “a whole tangle of like-minded people remained: full-time experts,“original”designers and designers-restorers,” whose ranks, according to Rakhmatullin, also need to be renewed, “relying on decent people”. And the new government has to revise the general plan, which, according to Rakhmatullin, contains a threat to the entire cultural heritage. Vyacheslav Glazychev, a professor at Moscow Architectural Institute, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, is more optimistic: in his opinion, all the mistakes of the previous leadership can be corrected, and something, for example, an attempt to legitimize the rules of land use and development in the general plan, should be developed at all.
Meanwhile, the new interim head of the Moscow government, Vladimir Resin, from the very first days, “amazes everyone with its adequacy,” as Grigory Revzin ironically noted on the pages of Kommersant. One after another, scandalous projects of reconstruction and construction in the historical center began to respond, which gave hope to the defenders of antiquity. The Vremya novostei newspaper even wrote that “the old team of Moscow managers headed by Mr. Resin, left without their patron, intends to seriously abandon the usual style of making town-planning decisions - at least for the period of“anarchy”. The most significant act of Resin as Acting Mayor is the cancellation of the scandalous construction of the depository on Borovitskaya Square and the subsequent order to hold a national competition for the project. Recall that first Vladimir Resin withdrew the building permit, and then at a meeting of the Public Council he severely criticized the project, repented to the public for the fact that it was born at all, and instructed the Union of Architects to hold a new national competition for it. Archi.ru, Kommersant, Vremya novostei, Gazeta.ru and many other publications published reports from this epoch-making meeting.
The most interesting thing in this story is that not only the design of the depository building was criticized, but also its location. "Arhnadzor", for example, proposed not to build up Borovitsky Hill, but to transfer the premises of the Middle Trading Rows to the Kremlin museums. RIA Novosti tells about this in more detail. And Grigory Revzin put forward the idea of placing the depository in the historical buildings of the Provision Warehouses, within the walls of which the project of creating the Museum of Moscow was to be implemented, but was also rejected by the new administration. According to RIA Novosti, Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev has already supported this idea.
Another unexpected step towards correcting the mistakes of the previous leadership was the order of Vladimir Resin to demolish the illegally built attic at the Pasternak House in Oruzheiny Lane, and at the expense of the city budget. Gazeta tells about this in more detail.
Perhaps the most controversial in a series of orders from the new government was Resin's proposal to consider dismantling the controversial sculpture of Peter the Great by Tsereteli and moving it to another location. St. Petersburg immediately rushed to refuse the gift, but Petrozavodsk and Voronezh expressed a desire to put the statue at their place, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Soon Ulyanovsk and Arkhangelsk made the same statement, RIA Novosti reported. On the whole, Muscovites were in solidarity with the authorities on this issue, but a number of critics believed that money could be spent on more necessary things than fighting the symbols of Luzhkov's time. This, in particular, was discussed by the participants in the discussion at RIA Novosti.
Against the background of the events in Moscow, much more sad news came from the regions. So, in Yekaterinburg, the famous monument of Soviet constructivism - the Palace of Culture of the Uralmashzavod - was under threat. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the city administration initiated its reconstruction without the involvement of experts and restorers. The modern palace building of the Samara kitchen factory may also soon lose its uniqueness as a result of reconstruction, writes one of the founders of MAPS, Clementine Cecil, in an article on the Opendecy portal. Kazan continues the sad list, to which the IA REGNUM portal dedicates a series of photo reports, which publishes objects that miraculously survived under the onslaught of modern Kazan urban development.
In St. Petersburg, meanwhile, the struggle continues to protect the security zones of the city center. A working group has recently been formed there, which, on behalf of UNESCO, is to work on the development of documentation on the boundaries and composition of buffer zones for World Heritage sites. The group, by the way, included independent experts and not a single official, Novaya Gazeta reports.
And another news block in early October is related to the law on the transfer of property of religious significance, which recently caused a split in the Public Chamber itself. After the bill passed the first reading, some of the members of the chamber came up with a conclusion in which they sharply accused the authors of violating the Constitution of the Russian Federation. But it turned out that in the OP RF there is a completely different point of view, the adherents of which, in turn, began to criticize opponents for their harshness and try to withdraw the controversial conclusion. With details - "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" and "Kommersant". Gazeta also writes that the other day the Russian Orthodox Church initiated an accelerated transfer of the famous Rostov Kremlin to its disposal, which causes concern among museum workers for its collection and architectural monuments. And in St. Petersburg, the Sampsonievsky Cathedral is already being prepared for the transfer of the ROC, while the main cathedrals-museums - St. Isaac's, Smolny, Savior on Spilled Blood and the Peter and Paul Fortress - the city is determined to leave behind, Fontanka reports.
