Sitting in the dark

The city Bread Museum has been without electricity for ten days.

The conflict between the Bread Museum, which is under the jurisdiction of the Committee for Culture, and the owners of the building on Ligovsky Prospekt where the museum is located, has been brewing for a long time. The museum management blames the owners of the building for the current situation. They are trying to prove that they are right, referring to the terms of the contract, which the museum does not fulfill. The Culture Committee tries to stay in the shadow of events, although for all financial, contractual and other obligations it must take responsibility for what is happening.

“You see, we’ve been sitting without electricity for a week, even the alarm system is turned off. — Zinaida Solovyova, head of the museum’s scientific and exhibition department, points along the dark corridor. “Thanks to the Culture Committee, they provided us with round-the-clock security, otherwise we might as well spend the night here.”

City residents are well aware of this small museum on the fourth floor of a former bakery at 73 Ligovsky Prospekt. There are wonderful exhibitions here, there are always visitors, especially many children. During school holidays, groups of schoolchildren come here every day on excursions.
“We will be forced to return money for already paid excursions,” says Zinaida Petrovna. “Can you imagine what it’s like on the eve of the autumn school holidays?”

Back in the late 90s, when the privatization of vacated industrial buildings on Ligovka took place, the city authorities reserved part of the fourth floor, where the Museum of Bread opened: one might say, in its historical homeland, in the premises of a former bakery. And still in this huge building, which is owned by private individuals, a piece of area is about 800 square meters. meters - belongs to the city. The Bread Museum (more precisely, the Culture Committee) pays for water supply, light, heating and other utilities in proportion to the space occupied. On October 1 of this year, the owner of the building turned off the lights to the museum. The museum responded by writing a complaint to the prosecutor's office and filing a lawsuit in the district court.

According to Marina Dmitrievna Yakovleva, director of the museum, the chairman of the board of directors of Ligovka JSC, Vyacheslav Alekseevich Sokolov, is to blame for everything (he is now out of town, he went on vacation). He, according to Mrs. Yakovleva, does not want to negotiate with the museum, puts all sorts of spokes in the wheels - does not come to meetings, does not agree to sign additional agreements. In general, he doesn’t want to put himself in the position of a museum.

“Our museum is a socially significant object, Sokolov does not want to understand this,” says Marina Dmitrievna. “We constantly write letters to him, beg him, but he does not agree to our proposals.”

Three years ago it became known that the Museum of Bread had found a new premises, and it would soon be able to move there. The renovation and adaptation of the halls for funds is already being completed there; by the beginning of next year the premises will be completely ready. But moving the exhibition and funds will take several more months: according to the plans of the Culture Committee, the Bread Museum will be able to open in a new location only next summer. Until then, the museum expected to remain in the old apartments and under the old conditions.

The stumbling block in the relationship between private owners and a government agency was the agreement on payment for utilities. If the museum had dedicated electricity and water supply networks, everything would be fine and calm: the museum would pay the meters directly to suppliers. Now the museum pays the management of JSC “Ligovka” in proportion to the space occupied. It would be logical to make your own wiring, which the private owner, according to Deputy General Director of Ligovka JSC Elena Moroz, has asked the museum more than once.

The last agreement between the museum and “Ligovka” was signed in December 2012, its expiration date was September 30, 2013, from October, according to this agreement, the museum was supposed to switch to an autonomous power supply. But this has not yet been done, and on October 1 the power was turned off.

First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture Boris Illarionov explained to Novaya that their department has been dealing with the situation with the Bread Museum for several years now. According to Mr. Illarionov, in order to allocate electrical wiring, you need the consent of the owners of the building, but for some reason they do not give it and do not want to establish good neighborly relations.

“It’s like in a communal apartment: if people want to live peacefully, they solve problems, if they don’t want to, they aggravate the situation,” says Boris Illarionov. “We have repeatedly appealed to the leaders of Ligovka with a request to extend the contract, but the management of the company does not agree to this, in fact, the museum is surviving. This is more than strange behavior: after all, even if the museum leaves there, this square still belongs to the city and will remain our property. What if, instead of a museum, a children’s music school, for example, settles there? Will the management of Ligovka also turn off their lights?”

Elena Moroz explains the situation differently. According to her, instead of fulfilling the terms of the contract, the museum constantly presses for pity and writes complaints to the prosecutor's office. While other organizations renting space here have long ago established dedicated networks and no one has put a spoke in their wheels.

“The prosecutor’s office has already come to us several times with inspections, but they didn’t find anything that the museum complained about,” says Elena Moroz. “We want only one thing: fulfillment of the terms of the contract.” The museum has done nothing to install dedicated wiring since last December. Although we have been talking about this for several years in a row. Until now, the museum has not paid its share for the repair of the facades - they do not agree with the amount we billed, they want to pay almost half as much. We were forced to file a claim with the Arbitration Court, which will be considered in the near future. And the museum even wrote a complaint against the owner of the building, a German citizen, to the German Consulate General in St. Petersburg - this is open pressure on business, just a shame!”

The relationship between the state and private business was reflected in this seemingly local conflict like a drop of water: if this is a state cultural institution, it means that it may not fulfill the terms of the contract, and officials may not “look” towards the growing conflict for years in the hope that everything will resolve itself. How this confrontation will end will become clear either next week, when the general director returns from vacation, or in court. Novaya will continue to monitor the situation.