On the night of July 16-17, Moscow for the tenth time hosted a VeloNight with the historian Sergei Nikitin. The main summer excursion visited Khodynka, Sandy, October field, Tushino. Listening to mini-lectures by historians from Russia, Italy, Afghanistan and Madagascar, the participants of the bike ride learned for themselves the secret places of the North-West of Moscow. The legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin, Princess Diana and writer Varlam Shalamov became the heroes of the anniversary Historical Bicycle Night.
During the Bike Night, five living monuments to Lev Yashin were erected near his home stadium Dynamo. Each monument embodied episodes in the life of the great goalkeeper: from the Tushino factory team "Red October" to the Olympic champion, winner of the "Golden Ball", hockey player, and, finally, a fisherman. At midnight, the “monuments” saddled their bicycles and joined the participants in the Velonoch. The author of the performance is the young sculptor Alexander Kutovoy. Curator - Valentin Dyakonov.
The main musical leitmotif of this night was the song "Moscow Nights", which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year; Velonochi's soundtrack included versions of this immortal composition from all over the world. More than 3000 people traveled 28 kilometers 700 meters in 4 hours along the Velonochi route.
At the start, the column was led by Sergei Nikitin, the author and permanent inspirer, host and organizer of the international project "Velonnight", the founder of the genre of "local history", and actor Gosha Kutsenko, who participated in the project for the first time. Gosha Kutsenko joined the musicians Alexei Karaichev, the lead singer of the Plum-Boom group, and Vladimir Radionov, the lead singer of the Uli group. The three of them, with the help of the rhythm on the drums, repeated the greeting of the Icelandic football players, which they sang after the European Championship - 2016, thereby inspiring the participants of the Velonochi.
Andrey Peregudov, senior vice president of VTB Bank, head of the VTB Arena Park project, wished all participants “to stay in the saddle”, not to brake and pedal - both on the warm Moscow bicycle night and “through life”. On this inspiring note, the column started and drove along the Khodynskoye Pole, where the first Moscow airfield was once located, towards the amazing ensemble of Novopeschany streets, where, framed by beautiful post-war houses, for the facades of which the architect Zinovy Rosenfeld was responsible, a unique exhibition unfolded for one night prepared by the "Ground Peschanaya" gallery under the supervision of Katya Bochavar especially for the participants of the main summer excursion. A composition of ironic plywood sculptures by a remarkable St. Petersburg artist Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai briefly transferred cyclists to the "Summer Garden" on the Neva.
In the houses on Novopeschany lived rectors of leading Moscow universities, author of the novel "Two Captains" Veniamin Kaverin, ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov, producer of the groups "Technology" and "Kino", as well as Dima Bilan Yuri Aizenshpis. Along Salvador Allende Street, across the Okruzhnaya Railway, along Narodnogo Opolcheniya Street, past the German Sloboda on Marshal Biryuzov Street, a column of cyclists listening to the tour on Mayak radio broadcasts drove up to the square named after Igor Kurchatov, the founder of the Kurchatov Institute with a large a monument to him, called by the locals simply "head".
The Palace of Culture of this legendary institute became an important point on the route. The building for the leisure of the creators of the atomic bomb was designed by the architect Zholtovsky in the Palladian style. The Kurchatovites were allowed a lot, in their Palace of Culture Alexander Solzhenitsin for the first time publicly read "Cancer Ward", Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya, as well as all the bards, performed here. And here Alexander Ageev organized in 1986 the first concert of the "Rock Laboratories", the New Year's "Rock-tree" with the participation of the groups "Bravo", "Sounds of Mu", "Brigade S".
The next point of the excursion was the Moscow Canal. The bicycle column drove through the territory of Tushino - an ancient village with a rich history, where in the 17th century there was an army of supporters of False Dmitry II, nicknamed the "Tushino thief". We visited the Northern Tushino park with a view of the amazing architecture of the Northern River Station. We learned that Tushino was annexed to Moscow only in 1960. Until then, from the beginning of the 20th century, it was a separate city with three factories and 60,000 inhabitants. There was also a legendary flying club - a smithy of outstanding Soviet pilots. It taught how to fly planes, including the fearless "night witches" - Marina Raskova, Polina Osipenko, Valentina Grizodubova.
Along Svoboda street, the “local historians” got to the stadium of the Krasny Oktyabr plant in Tushino, where Lev Yashin first entered the football field. Football players were playing, dressed in boots and in slippers, for interest and for victory. Sometimes a free dinner was given for the victory. On the only day off - Sunday, the Tushin team went to play with the regional teams - either to Kimry or to Serpukhov. In Tushino, on the factory dance floor, I met Lev Yashin and his future wife and muse Valentina Timofeevna. The widow of the legendary goalkeeper became one of the speakers at Velonochi.
Few people know that Varlam Shalamov, who became famous after his death and publication (at first in the west), of the Kolymskie Stories, ended his days in a nursing home at Valis Latsis Street, building 2. Near its walls, the participants of the Velonoch were treated to Shalamovs confetti is an unusual intellectual dessert. Professor of Classical Russian Literature at the University of Verona, Cinzia de Lotto, selected 12 quotes from the work of the great writer Varlam Shalamov. Among them was this: "Hungry and angry, I knew that nothing in the world would force me to commit suicide."
The memory of one more person was honored by "local historians" that night. Surprisingly, it is a fact that on her only visit to Moscow in 1995 for one day, Princess Diana did not go anywhere, but to the children's clinical hospital No. 7 in Tushino, whose patron she was. She was not interested in communicating with politicians, the princess, who helped hospitals around the world, wanted to communicate with children. Few in that pre-Internet Moscow understood what an amazing visit they could have witnessed. In addition to the children, the princess was greeted by a handful of doctors and nurses who rated her tall and slender, according to the testimony of an American journalist present, as a "cool woman." Moskultprog, the organizer of the Bicycle Nights, initiated the placement of a plaque on the walls of the children's hospital in memory of that amazing visit. The touched Prince Harry sent greetings to the participants of the Moscow Cycle Night from Buckingham Palace.
The final point of the route, where the most persistent participants could enjoy the beautiful sunrise, was the former Moscow region, and now located within the city limits, on Jan Rainis Boulevard, the Bratsevo estate. The estate, which initially became a family nest for Ekaterina Stroganova and Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov, later became the place where Shishkin's painting “Noon. Environs of Moscow. Bratsevo”, now exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery. In the 1970s, this picturesque place became the set for Eldar Ryazanov's film Say a Word about the Poor Hussar, and later for two films with Elena Korikova's participation - The Young Lady and Poor Nastya.
To learn unknown stories about Moscow, to see familiar districts in a new light - for the tenth year in a row the Moscow International Velonotte (Velonotte), invented and developed by the creative group "Moskultprog" headed by the historian Sergei Nikitin, has given such an opportunity.
More than 90 thousand people have already taken part in this city project, which year after year reveals the stellar stories of Rome, London, Istanbul, New York, Kazan, St. Petersburg and, of course, Moscow.
The Moscow Cycle Night was prepared by the Velonotte International Bureau with the support of the Moscow Government, the Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov, the 32 Spits and Titan Cycle Clubs.
General information partner - radio "Mayak"
Media partner - TimePad
Official sponsor - VTB Group
Information support - communication agency "Rules of Communication"
Photos: Alan Vouba, Maxim Andreev
