Battle for Moscow

New and old Muscovites share the center of the capital. The process is reminiscent of the showdowns and chaos of the 90s.

Chronicle

Bolshoi Kozikhinsky is the very center of Moscow. Its priceless historical core. Usually here, the capital’s grandmothers go to the bakeries along the quiet alleys, and old-fashioned shops are hidden under the perennial tree crowns. Even new foreign cars - practically the only sign of modernity - and they somehow modestly huddle to the side of the road.

Therefore, it is especially strange that it is here today that the most tense point of old Moscow is. This piece of the capital now simultaneously resembles both a hot spot and a rally of disobedience. The forces are, of course, unequal. On the one hand are residents of adjacent neighborhoods armed with papers, petitions and appeals. On the other hand, there are excavator buckets aimed like gun barrels, bulldozers and “commanders” in police uniforms providing reinforcements. And in the middle of the disputed territory are the ruins of a historical building, which most closely resembles Pavlov’s Stalingrad house. It seems like they are already ruins, but there is still someone to stand up for them.

The parties are ready to launch a new attack at any moment. The other day, in such confusion, the most famous defender of the building in Kozikhinsky, 25 , actress Tatyana Dogileva, suffered once again, whom the developers tried to forcefully push out of her office.

“We were told that the equipment wouldn’t work today, and then they suddenly launched an excavator. When Tatyana Dogileva and I tried to break through to the developer’s representatives, we were rudely pushed out,” Elena Tkach, coordinator of the “Coalition for the Defense of Moscow” movement and deputy of the municipal assembly, told Interlocutor. “In essence, there is a raider seizure of a building and a courtyard in one of the most prestigious places in the capital. This is happening brazenly, in defiance of all existing laws and regulations. Firstly, infill residential development has been prohibited in Moscow since 2008, and secondly, according to Sergei Sobyanin, new buildings in the center of the capital should be built within the boundaries of previous buildings. Both points have been violated, and no one cares...

Construction of the century

Previously, at Bolshoy Kozikhinsky, 25 there was a cute old mansion. In the late 80s it was resettled and cut off from communications. Local residents began to gossip about ghosts in the house. Soon the mystical inhabitants materialized and went on the offensive. A Vector Homeowners' Association was formed in the house, which rented not only the living space, but also the yard. And now large-scale construction is planned on the “seized lands”.

“Here will be one corner of the new house, and over there will be the second,” resident Valentina Ivanovna outlines a large trajectory with her hand. - We will only have a small corner of the yard - we can’t walk or drive through...

Why? No one will walk or drive here. Too expensive. The central blocks of Moscow have long been nicknamed “golden miles” - investors invest money in them and receive fabulous profits. A square meter of housing here costs 20–35 thousand dollars. They say that all the apartments in the currently non-existent building at Bolshoi Kozikhinsky, 25 have already been sold out. The center of the capital will not be built up in the future, so the last islands are going under the hammer for crazy money. In this excitement there is no time for old Muscovites with their “troubles”.

“This new building will “clog” and destroy the entire architectural appearance of the quarter,” Elena Tkach expresses the opinion of local residents. – And what’s most dangerous is that the old houses in the area may simply not survive large-scale construction work and will begin to collapse...

An impostor house is a real Klondike for developers. Every centimeter here is covered with a thick layer of banknotes. Therefore, no matter what, the market solution wins - build and sell. The benefit can be said to be tenfold: seven floors up and three underground. Above are apartments, below is a garage. But the dreams of the locals will remain unfulfilled, their proposals buried in bureaucratic offices.

– In the old mansion it was possible to set up children’s studios or an inexpensive hotel for people coming to the capital. Then the traffic load on the narrow, quiet lane would be small - it wouldn’t be crowded with cars,” sighs Muscovite Elena, who lives next door.

The next generation will only know the official version - the old house was demolished and a new one was built, better than the previous one. And only old-timers will remember that after the demolition of the supposedly dilapidated house, the entire area smelled of larch for another week, from the good logs of which the frame of the house was formed...

Gray cardinals

The most intriguing question is: who is behind all this? Who commands the bulldozers, excavators, police? It is clear that in order to put all the attacking mechanisms of construction into action, very serious connections are needed.

– They say that businessman Oleg Deripaska and director Nikita Mikhalkov, who are going to build a hotel here, are directly interested in a similar demolition of the building next door - in Maly Kozikhinsky Lane. This was also preceded by the war and discontent of local residents, which did not affect the final result in any way: the new house is being built at an accelerated pace, two floors have already been built,” said Elena Tkach. – Behind the construction site in Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane there are not such big names, but a very powerful administrative resource. As far as we were able to find out, the development is being carried out by the company of a certain Denis Kitaev, who is the son of Nina Kitaeva, who held a high position in the capital’s construction department during the time of Vice-Mayor Resin. We have already seen the prefect of our district, Baidakov, at the facility itself several times.

Address: Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane, 25 - has already become notorious. Opposition figures like Mitrokhin from Yabloko come here for PR. But you can’t gather a large rally of many thousands here – the scale is not the same. Therefore, in the ranks of the protesters there are mainly those who are literally defending their land - their native lane. Even realizing that resistance is essentially doomed. This is not the first year that the historical buildings of the capital have been retreating under the pressure of excavators to please interested businessmen and officials associated with them.

When the issue was going to press, it became known that the remains of the mansion had been demolished and removed from Kozikhinsky Lane. The red ribbon for the new building will be cut soon. Residents of Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane are going to continue to resist construction, although they understand that the winner in this battle for Moscow is known...