Moscow under Construction by Argenbright Robert;

Author:Argenbright, Robert;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Dealing with Luzhkov’s Legacy

The Sobianin administration evidently takes the legal system and existing contracts seriously, even though in the past they represented the “rule of Luzhkov,” rather than the “rule of law.” By the end of 2012 the city had reviewed fifty-five contracts and, according to Mosgornasledie’s Kibovskii, had managed in the majority of cases to get the developer to agree to maintain the dimensions of the previous building or at least to reduce the size of the new project. But the courts had ruled in favor of the developers in some twenty cases, including one of the most “odious” (Golubeva 2012).

Evidently, not all the legal complications inherited from the Luzhkov era could be resolved. A very heated conflict emerged over the city’s decision to allow the reconstruction (demolition and new construction, except for the facade facing the street) of the Privalov houses in Zamoskvorechie due to the investor having obtained permission from Luzhkov’s City Hall. In the wake of the Proshin House conflict, which is discussed below, Arkhnadzor wrote to Vice-Mayor Khusnullin, calling on him to prevent illegal demolition of historic structures. Having received no reply, Arkhnadzor and another group, “In Defense of Old Moscow,” organized a protest for October 20, 2014. Among the materials released to the press was the embarrassing reference to the city’s own website “Get to Know Moscow” (Uznai Moskvu), which claimed that the buildings’ owners had tried to ruin the structures with fire and other means, but had failed (“Piket” 2014).

Embarrassed or not, the “Demolition Commission” resolved on December 29 to allow the project; the meeting was closed to local residents and heritage activists (except for members of the commission), which violated Russian law (“Snesti” 2014). As they had done before, the activists attracted help from the Moscow cultural elite—among other connections with the arts, Sergei Yesenin had frequently read his poetry to gatherings at the Privalov estate. Over forty current literary figures signed an appeal to Putin to save the buildings, but to no avail (Elifanova 2015).

A last-ditch effort to have the buildings protected by the Ministry of Culture failed (“Nevozmozhnosti” 2015), despite an appeal the Federation’s Ombudsman for Human Rights, Ella Pamfilova (Petin 2015). Just as the demolition work was nearing an end, Arkhnadzor demanded major reforms in the city’s governance over heritage structures, specifically calling for the establishment of a “Cultural Heritage Council” consisting entirely of heritage experts and representatives from social organizations that would have authority over issues concerning historic buildings (Krizhevskii 2015). A few days later the political party Yabloko organized a picket at City Hall, demanding that Khusnullin be fired (“Khusnullina” 2015).

Privalov House Facade, 2015. Photo by Robert Argenbright.

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