Several periodicals published reports about the fire that happened in the Oktyabr House of Culture on the morning of October 29, and they continued to closely monitor the situation with the burnt down House of Culture even after the fire was completely extinguished. And if at first these materials contained a certain amount of positive, then in recent days the situation around the Palace of Culture has changed for the worse. First, information appeared in the media that October was going to be restored. “Let's restore it,” Sobyanin said at a meeting in the prefecture of the capital's North-Western Administrative District on Tuesday. He noted that the house of culture should be located in the same microdistrict where it was before, since “people are used to this place,” and the building was a kind of cultural center. At the same time, at the meeting, it was proposed not to restore the recreation center, but to repurpose one of the inactive cinemas, but Sobyanin abandoned this idea. “We will think about the fate of cinemas,” said the mayor of the capital,”Moscow Perspective reports in an article published on November 8. However, literally two days later, the planned restoration was forgotten. “They are trying to demolish the DK Oktyabr in Moscow,” writes RIA Novosti, publishing a report from the scene and an interview with a representative of the urban protection movement ArchNadzor. “On Thursday evening, cabins and workers were brought up to the building damaged by the fire, and today there is equipment - an excavator and five dump trucks. The workers openly say that they have an order to clear the entire territory and demolish the surviving brick part of the building so that there is an empty space,”a spokesman for the movement told reporters.
But the restoration of another object of the Soviet architectural heritage is gaining momentum. Many Russian publications wrote about the extension of the restoration work at Detsky Mir this week. However, the changes affected not only the timing of the restoration, but also its very concept: it was decided to return to the "Children's World" its historical appearance. “The main and sensational news of the day - the project of reconstruction of the Children's World will be changed. The investor made a difficult and extremely unprofitable decision from the point of view of business - to abandon thousands of square meters of retail space in order to preserve the familiar look of the legendary store, "Vesti-Moscow reports. “For reasons of technical safety and accident rate of the building, the atrium on the second floor cannot be preserved, it will be raised to the 7th floor, covered with a glass dome, but the shape inside and all the decor elements and interiors have been preserved for the period of the 70-80s,” said Sergei Kalinin, president of the investor company. This means that it was decided to abandon the project, approved in 2007, where the central hall was twisted like a funnel. The shape of the atrium will remain historical - rectangular. And the roof will be raised over the well and covered with a glass dome. " The magazine "Owner" also writes about the details of the new project. “As part of the reconstruction, all the elements of the author's decor will be restored, as well as the legendary carousel, which will take its former place. It is already known that Detsky Mir will have a cinema, playrooms and even mini-schools."
Another large city object of this era - the Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure - is also planned to return some of its original features. Or, at least, rid him of the not very aesthetic legacy of post-Soviet times. Moskovskie Novosti tells in detail how the new concept of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure is being implemented in practice: “The former park of proletarians is becoming a park of managers. Those who have both the culture of communication and the requests have nothing to do with the proletarian ones. Today throughout the Central Park of Culture and Leisure there are signs - replicas of the park itself, addressed to us: “Create the park of your dreams. Your park”,“Hello, Moscow. Your park”,“We have free Wi-fi. Your park”,“Do not offend our ducks and swans! Your park. " This is how the new administration of the park explained the main rule of walking in a managerial way: they need to behave in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure in a friendly manner. " Another material about the future of the capital's green areas and the new program of the Moscow government "Development of the recreation and tourism industry for 2012-2016" was posted on the pages of the "Itogi" magazine. “It is not known what the campaign for the reconstruction of Moscow parks will actually turn into. So far, 120 billion rubles will be allocated from the capital budget for the program for the development of the recreation and tourism industry in parks. Additionally, it is planned to attract funds from private investors. Are they ready to invest? Without any doubt. For example, the projected budget of the Fili Park development project is estimated at approximately 20 billion rubles, of which almost 14 billion rubles are funds of private investors. In five years, the number of park visitors is going to double - from 15 to 30 million people a year”. The author of this article also gives details of the reconstruction of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure: "The sports" cluster "is actively developing in Gorky Park, where areas for cyclists and skateboarders have already been equipped. By the beginning of December, the largest skating rink in Moscow, one of the largest in Europe, divided into four zones - large, children's, dance and hockey zones will be spread here on 15 thousand square meters."
As before, specialists are very worried about the restoration of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve. Architect-restorer Sergei Kulikov discusses how it is developing and how it can threaten the famous monument in his article “Monuments under threat of preservation” posted on the website of the information agency “Regnum”. “Looking through the official sites of the Kizhi Museum, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation or links to non-existent sites of the Russian ICOMOS and World Heritage Committees, I still cannot find an answer to one single question - what will we get as a result of the whole complex of works on the preservation of the Kizhi Pogost as a World Cultural Heritage site?”. In general, the forecasts of Kulikov, who for a long time held the post of chief architect of this museum-reserve, are rather pessimistic: “Nineteen years of work of UNESCO / ICOMOS expert missions have demonstrated the weak readiness of the Russian side to effectively implement international agreements and recommendations of experts in the field of preserving the World Heritage and generally cooperate with professional international organizations. Since 2005, after the introduction of mandatory Management Plans for all sites nominated to the World Heritage List, in which the adequacy of the protection of cultural heritage must be viewed, none of the Russian sites has been approved by International Committees and included in the World Heritage List! Apparently, the Russian understanding of the problems of preserving the World Heritage is very much at odds with the globally recognized provisions … And if so, then the Russian monuments of the World Heritage are under the threat of preservation according to the Russian method - with complete indifference of the authorities, without a single strategy, without adequate legislation, without a professional school …"
But Michael Schindhelm, director of the Urban Culture research topic at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, whose interview was published by Gazeta.ru, on the contrary, draws rather bright prospects for Moscow and Russia as a whole. “Now everything is changing. A new quality of life should appear, a new urban culture, which is now just emerging. " Schindhelm is skeptical about the project to expand the Russian capital, but at the same time approves of other initiatives. “I feel that there is support from the city authorities - they want to make changes in the urban plan, to overcome the remnants of the time that has passed, and now there are new cultural opportunities for the development of the city center and remote areas. And the expansion of Moscow is a project that is important for local administrations and authorities, but not for city life in general."
Note that some specific initiatives of the metropolitan administration, about which Mr. Schindhelm speaks, were not long in coming. Thus, the city authorities transferred the capital's Kuzminki-Lyublino park to self-financing, and now this cultural object is preparing for a serious change in appearance - in the near future a so-called ethnological village will be created here. “According to the terms of reference, the Village of Craftsmen with an area of 0.15 hectares will be located in the very center of the park. Exhibitions, places for master classes, information boards, etc. will be organized on its territory. The entire center will be decorated in the style of the cultures of the peoples of Russia and will provide excursion and lecture programs on the history of folk crafts. The project should be ready by the end of next year, and the cost of the state contract will be about 700 thousand rubles, "Izvestia writes. “The idea itself looks very interesting,” says Ivan Grinko, a researcher at the Russian Institute of Culture. - The ethnocultural potential in Russia is still extremely poorly developed. Although similar projects exist in other regions - for example, "Ethnomir" in the Moscow region, the Cossack village "Ataman" in the Krasnodar Territory, the ethnocultural complex "Yb" in the Komi Republic. The closest analogue is the ethnic village in Orenburg, located within the city and representing the ethnic groups inhabiting the region. " True, what in practice will result in the creation of such a village and how this will affect the appearance of the park itself, for now, one can only guess.
