Architectural monuments of St. Petersburg, whose fate was determined in the course of several unrelated court hearings, attracted the attention of journalists most actively this week. One of the decisions made was greeted with joy both by city rights activists and ordinary citizens of St. Petersburg. We are talking about the decision of the city court that satisfied the requirements of the first deputy prosecutor of the city: from now on, the order of the KGIOP "On clarifying the composition of the identified cultural heritage sites" adopted in 2004 is considered invalid, and therefore many old houses "sentenced" to demolition will remain in their place. “Having considered numerous claims of the prosecutor’s office, the court established that in 2004 Smolny illegally removed 38 historical buildings from protection, 20 of which had already been demolished. The lawmakers immediately reacted to this high-profile case: yesterday the deputies of the Legislative Assembly sent a request to Governor Georgy Poltavchenko with a request not to appeal this long-awaited decision in the Supreme Court,”writes“Nevskoe Vremya”. The published material quotes the words of the city rights activist and deputy of the Legislative Assembly Alexei Kovalev, who, although celebrating the victory on a par with his colleagues, emphasizes that the battle for the city is not over yet: “The decision can be safely called a breakthrough! True, the loud decision of the city court may not have a future if the current head of the KGIOP files a cassation appeal and the Supreme Court does not agree with the decision of the St. Petersburg court. In this case, the dream of preserving many monuments can be considered lost. " Aleksey Kovalev sent a letter to Georgy Poltavchenko with a request that the current head of the KGIOP, Aleksandr Makarov, not file an appeal. It is worth noting that, formally, officials are now threatened with fines, but parliamentarians and city rights activists are confident that in any case no one will be punished. Although under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of office), the court can fine officials or imprison them for up to four years."
However, the employees of KGIOP have already begun to reinsure themselves. They argue that at the time the infamous decision was made, they acted within the framework of the then legislation, and the historical and cultural expertise that determines the state of each particular house at that time simply did not exist in nature. “KGIOP took the necessary actions aimed at the proper execution of powers for the study and registration of objects that have signs of cultural heritage. Considering that the arguments of the KGIOP were not evaluated by the court of first instance, the KGIOP will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation within the 10-day period established by law,”reports Kvadrat.ru.
On the same days, the authorities of St. Petersburg approved a program to preserve the historical center of the city, which is designed for the next ten years. “As the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko said on November 14, 300 billion rubles will be allocated for it. According to Poltavchenko, the financing of the program has been agreed with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,”Lenta.ru reports.
Another litigation, also related to the architectural heritage, concerns not only the cultural monument, but also its inhabitants. We are talking about the House of Veterans of the Stage named after M. Savina, the current administration of which has more than free ideas about what "restoration" is.“Charitable millions were already allocated for the overhaul of the House of Stage Veterans five years ago. Now, by a decree of the government of the Russian Federation, 2.59 billion rubles have been allocated for reconstruction. Of this huge amount, 450 million must be spent by the end of this year. This money has already been used to purchase apartments for the families of employees who have managed to obtain permanent registration in buildings that are to be reconstructed, and the rest house in Komarovo, owned by a public organization - the Union of Theater figures of the Russian Federation. It is there that in December the leadership of the STD is going to relocate the veterans, most of whom have crossed the 80-year mark. They have repeatedly expressed their negative attitude towards this move in letters addressed to both the President of the Russian Federation, whose affairs department is now engaged in repairs, and the Union secretariat, offering a reasonable solution to the problem without stress and human losses. In response - silence, "- writes the news agency" Rosbalt-Petersburg ".
Thanks to the initiative of Oleg Basilashvili and Rudolf Furmanov, the authorities of St. Petersburg are now concerned with this issue and are planning to hold an offsite meeting in the ICE in the near future, and the vice-governor has already taken the situation under his personal control. “Probably, now the decision to initiate a criminal case against the leadership of the ICE named after M. G. Savina, former and current, under Article 160, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (misappropriation or embezzlement with the use of official position) in accordance with Articles 144-145 of the Criminal Procedure Code The RF, on which the specialists of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region insisted, will be adopted. Then the question of evicting the veterans to their hated Komarovo will disappear by itself, because the internal combustion engine buildings, in which completely strangers live on a commercial basis, will be released,”the agency adds.
The future of some of the other local architectural heritage sites has already been determined. Dmitry Ratnikov, a columnist for St. Petersburg Vedomosti, tells about the fate of the three old buildings, whose new owners have come to grips with restoration issues. “The Bukh brothers' factory on Vasilievsky Island will be adapted for a private school, and the prosecutor’s office will settle in the Sadovnikov almshouse on Aptekarsky. Another building - the New Paper Mill - will become a cultural center. Until now, all three buildings were in disrepair, now they are undergoing restoration work, coordinated with the KGIOP.
But in Pskov, the local town planning committee again did not accept the project of the protected zones of local cultural monuments, which could cause significant damage to the appearance of this city. “The main intrigue of the issue was that if the previous document provided protection for all the monuments of Pskov, including the landscape, now only 11 were included in the number of protected objects. They turned out to be the so-called dominants: the Kremlin ensemble, the Epiphany church with a belfry, the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Milyavitsa, the Church of Constantine and Helena, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the ensemble of the Spaso-Mirozhsky Monastery, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist of the Ivanovsky Monastery, the Church of the Assumption with a belfry, the ensemble of the Ascension Monastery, the Church of Pope Clement and the building of the railway station. It is assumed that the rest of the monuments will be in the protection zone of the listed objects and will also remain intact,”the Pskov Information Agency reports. The members of the town planning commission saw quite serious flaws in this document: "The project does not take into account the space of the whole of Pskov," said Irina Golubeva, chairman of the Pskov branch of VOOPIiK, and drew attention to the fact that non-compliance with the height during the construction of facilities can destroy the perception of the city, and for some areas turn out to be disastrous. In addition, the authors, according to Irina Golubeva, did not understand the concept of landscape, and in some cases protected objects that are not subject to protection, for example, the cinema "October". “The project was executed dryly and mechanically. We believe that it is not only incomplete, it should be corrected. We have not seen the expert opinion, but we are ready to challenge it. The names of experts do not hypnotize anyone,”the art critic concluded. The architects of Pskov, who were present at this meeting, also spoke about the flaws in the project. The newspaper "Pskov province" also published a report from the fourth meeting of the local town planning council. “Experts have repeatedly expressed doubts that the new zones will guarantee the inviolability of the historical part of Pskov. The discussion dragged on for two hours. Summing up the result, the head of the administration Petr Slepchenko noted that two groups have formed in the town planning council, one of which is in favor of "adopting a document that simplifies, liberalizes work and has a goal not to destroy," the other is more conservative. “It's easier for opponents. Finding cons is easier than moving forward constructively. The main thing that I heard was that the project has not been finalized,”said the head of the Pskov administration. "I want to say that the city is not interested in accepting a document, because of which the administration will fight off the courts and from the outbursts of the cultural community."
However, the issue of the architectural appearance of their native city worries not only the residents of Pskov. Quite serious changes in the urban landscape may occur in the coming years in Perm, where the authorities are ready to start a large urban planning experiment. Architectural critic Alexander Lozhkin, who recently moved to Perm, talks about this, as well as how to make modern cities not only livable, but also comfortable, in his interview to Business Class. “It is necessary to establish a dialogue between those who develop the master plan, planning projects, build up the city, are engaged in its daily improvement, - with those who live and work in the city. We need a feedback mechanism with the townspeople. Residents need to be explained what a master plan is, a master plan, and how it will affect their lives. So that any of the townspeople could find out what they plan to build next to his house, and express their attitude to this construction. It is necessary for people to have the opportunity to become familiar with the ongoing changes and to influence them. It is important that the people of Perm become direct participants in the town-planning process. There are no examples of such mechanisms in Russia yet. It is not easy to build them, but I see that the leaders of the city have an understanding of the necessity of their existence, and I think that the task will be solved by joint efforts”.
At the end of the review, we will tell you about a publication dedicated to how architectural monuments were restored during the Great Patriotic War. Isaak Zagoskin, the author of the material posted in St. Petersburg Vedomosti, who spent his youth in the besieged city, turned to the readers and the city authorities with an unusual and very touching request. He proposed to install a memorial plaque in memory of the people who restored this building directly during the war on the house where the lobby of the Admiralteyskaya metro station will be located. “In the fall of 1941, together with my mother and my younger sister, I was in a bomb shelter located in a building where Aeroflot ticket offices were later opened. On that September evening, a bomb hit a house where a new metro station would soon be operational. It was the first house in the area of Nevsky Prospekt destroyed by an enemy shell. And he was the first to be restored. It was even before the end of the war! In the summer and fall of 1944, the entire city (without exaggeration) followed the brickwork of the rising floors, which were erected by the bricklayer Kulikov. Even after so many years, I have not forgotten his last name. By the way, in "Leningradskaya Pravda" were published reports from this first construction site after the liberation of the city from the blockade. Today on Nevsky, not far from the new metro station, the inscription on the house is preserved: “Citizens! This side of the street is the most dangerous during shelling.” It would be nice to place a commemorative inscription about the blockade history of the house that “sheltered” the station in the lobby of the Admiralteyskaya, and to name the bricklayer Kulikov.”
