"Non-Russian Russian city"

Forbes magazinenamed Kaliningrad the best city in Russia for doing business. The FIFA World Cup will be held here in 2018, and local authorities have already begun preparations - they plan to rebuild the city into a European tourist center with hotels, museums and historical attractions. They also remembered the German architectural heritage, which had previously been either destroyed or ignored. Now they want to rebuild ancient German buildings. PublicPost explored how Kaliningrad will create its new “European” look.

New old Koenigsberg

This year, the disappeared German Königsberg turns 758 years old, and the Russian city of Kaliningrad, which appeared in its place, turns 67. But in 2018, the chronology of Soviet Kaliningrad should stop - on the eve of the 18 World Cup, the authorities developed a project called " Heart of the City ", which promises to recreate in its central areas the atmosphere of old Königsberg and re-build the main city attraction, the Royal Castle, which was blown up in 1967.

Now there is practically nothing left of old Koenigsberg: during the war it turned into ruins, and after the Potsdam Conference the USSR seceded. In place of German villas, panel five-story buildings appeared, tram tracks were dismantled and transported to Lithuania, and red bricks and paving stones were used to restore Soviet cities - according to urban legend, paving stones from Koenigsberg are on Red Square. In the 2000s, paving stones were replaced with asphalt, and wide highways and shopping and entertainment complexes began to be built in the city center.

This old German pharmacy building from the 20th century is included in the Encyclopedia of East Prussian Art as the founder of the Art Nouveau style.

All that remains of the German city today is its layout, a few buildings given over to government agencies or offices of large companies, and the private sector with miraculously surviving German villas. Many old German houses are in disrepair . Nobody restores them - they fence them off and leave them to wait for better times.

How will Koenigsberg be built?

The “Heart of the City” program adopted for the football championship is not the first attempt by the authorities to build a new Koenigsberg. In 2008, local architects already proposed a development project for the historic city center, which was estimated at 1.2 billion euros. And in 2010, the mayor’s office was preparing an international competition to develop a concept for the center. Before the upcoming World Cup, the idea of ​​reconstruction was returned to again. The territory of Korolevskaya Gora (the area that the authorities plan to rebuild - editor's note) is for Kaliningrad as the Kremlin is for Moscow. “When the president, politicians or some other high-ranking guests come to us, they point at the Royal Mountain and say: “What is this?” explains cultural expert Alexander Popadin. “Something decent should appear there. This is the face of our city."

By “recreating” old Koenigsberg, the authorities do not mean the reconstruction of surviving German buildings, but the construction of new ones, stylized as antiques. There is already experience of such construction here - in 2006, behind the Cathedral on the embankment of the Pregolya River, the Fishing Village appeared - a line of colorful houses with an observation deck in the form of a lighthouse, hotels, cafes and small museums inside.

Experts consider the fishing village a failure.

“This is the most striking example of what not to do,” says Maxim Popov, art director of the Piktorika publishing house, which produces historical reference books, maps and photo albums of old Koenigsberg. “All historical proportions are violated there. The roofs are not connected correctly to neighboring roofs. The boards just pasted on top of the facade. You don’t even have to get close to see that it’s a fake, like they do in Turkey - the Kremlin, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower hotels.

Experts fear that the “Heart of the City” may become a second Fishing Village. Popadin argues that it is much easier and cheaper for the authorities to build something new than to take and restore a preserved German house. Popov says that any German company could do it cheaper and better: “But ours don’t want to let competing companies into the market. And they don’t know how to do anything themselves.”

Organ from Putin, harpsichord from Sukachev

If experts call the "Fish Village" a failure, then the second city remodel - the Cathedral - is generally considered to be the only example of a successfully restored German monument in Kaliningrad. Director of the Cathedral State Institution, retired colonel Igor Odintsov, said that when Kaliningrad opened to the Germans in 1992, tourists began to be brought here by bus: “The cathedral awakened nostalgic feelings in them and forced them to make generous donations; the roof was restored at the expense of a German fund, then Putin came and gave money for the organ." The German Ministry of the Interior helped restore the outer tombstones, and local oligarchs gave something for the 750th anniversary of Königsberg. “There are some people behind every item,” says Odintsov. “For example, the harpsichord was given by Garik Sukachev.”

The Cathedral with the House of Soviets in the background.

The cathedral is also, to some extent, a stylization; it fell into Odintsov’s hands dilapidated, without a roof or vaults: “We had no drawings or designs, we had to come up with something ourselves.” But the monument is functioning successfully - tourists come here to see Kant’s grave, and newlyweds come to have a beautiful European wedding.

Two castles

The point about the construction of Königsberg Castle raises the most questions in the “Heart of the City” project. Now only the foundation remains of it, but the authorities want to organize an archaeological examination and, based on these studies, build a completely new monument. What it will be like, who will build it, what its function will be - all this has not yet been specified.

“We must first decide on its function,” says culturologist Alexander Popadin. “Do we need a symbol, or a living body. We have already built one symbol of Soviet architecture. The House of Soviets, which now stands on the site of the Royal Castle (in the 70s it was intended as a single building for all governing bodies, but was never put into operation - editor's note) - took place as a symbol, but not as a living body. This is an illustration of what can happen to the castle."

The most famous urban unfinished building is the House of Soviets.

The House of Soviets has been standing in the very center of the city for 30 years and is rotting. “In 2005, for Putin’s arrival, it was painted and windows were installed,” says Maxim Popov, “but now the windows have been removed again.” However, the building performs one useful function - for 100 rubles a guard allows you to go onto the roof to see Kaliningrad from a bird's eye view. If they decide to build a castle on Korolevskaya Gora, the House of Soviets will have to be demolished - but even this causes heated debate in the city; the Soviet unfinished building has its ardent admirers.

Small forms

Director of the Kaliningrad charitable foundation Margarita Grishechkina is against restoring the castle: “It’s high time to calm down with this idea. Who needs this colossus? It’s not ours, we’ve never seen it.”

Instead, Grishechkina proposes to implement small and less expensive projects that will not be so noticeable, but will put the city in order. “We have a lot of objects, besides the castle, that can still be restored - a zoo, a building of the Ministry of Defense, 15 forts in the city, and none of them are in use. But, from the point of view of the authorities, this is not so tempting. Why get involved with small projects? What is a rotunda (one of the projects of the Kaliningrad Foundation is the restoration of the Queen Louise semi-rotunda in Kalinin Park - editor’s note)? It’s not serious, but the “Heart of the City” is a project with a capital “P”. Until the administration becomes honest, until work ceases to be a business for them, nothing will change. What can be earned from the rotunda or the entrance to the zoo (The Kaliningrad Zoo is trying to return the buildings at the entrance to the status of a historical monument and restore their pre-war appearance - editor's note). .)? Nothing. Just a positive image. But why not for the election campaign?

This is what the entrance to the zoo looked like during the time of Koenigsberg.

Now at the entrance to the zoo there is a cafe "Solyanka". The owner of the restaurant managed to prove that the building is not a monument. This allowed him to add a veranda and put up a bright sign.

Together with Maxim Popov and Alexander Popadin, Grishechkina is a member of the initiative group for the preservation of the historical heritage of Koenigsberg-Kaliningrad, which was created in 2012 to fight against the removal of paving stones (now, in addition to the paving stone issue, the group is also involved in other projects - editor's note). Its appearance coincided with the pre-election period: the current mayor, Alexander Yaroshuk, according to activists, during the election campaign began to create the appearance of a dialogue with their group - he became interested in cultural heritage, organized meetings and round tables, and communicated with activists. Popov says that Yaroshuk was elected for a second term under the slogan “Let's save the paving stones!”, and when the elections were over, he said that on the street. Telman, it will be asphalted (Yaroshuk changed his decision on this street several times - the paving stones were first removed, then repositioned, but in such a way that in December 2012 the new paving stones floated - editor's note).

City authorities are planning to reduce some tram routes.

Activists say that at first they believed in the possibility of dialogue with the authorities, but in the end all promises remained just words: “We communicate well at meetings, and then we go out and nothing happens,” complains Margarita Grishechkina. “We come and say: “You don’t have specialists? We can help you figure everything out for free,” explains Popov, “but they say: “Yes, let’s do it,” and then six months later they think: “What the hell, this is all decay, no one needs it.”

Disputes between the authorities and the public have been going on for more than a year, but not a single project of either of them has yet been implemented.

However, the PublicPost correspondent had the opportunity to verify the readiness of the Kaliningrad authorities for dialogue from personal experience - for two months, the administration’s press service ignored our requests for official comment, and city officials disrupted already scheduled interviews by not showing up at the agreed time.

The monument binds hand and foot

“When they tell me that someone wants to take control of or buy a monument in order to adapt it for modern functions, if I were them, I would think 10 times,” says Elena Tsvetaeva, director of the local branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA).

In 2003, the NCCA received for administrative use a monument of federal significance - part of the German Kronprinz barracks on the street. Lithuanian shaft. And for 10 years now they have been trying to rebuild the barracks into a museum. “The room must have light, water, heat. It is necessary to maintain a certain temperature and humidity regime for storing exhibits. It must be safe and easily accessible for people with disabilities. On the other hand, this is a monument - and we automatically receive a number of obligations: Under no circumstances should you destroy or rebuild something that is being protected.”

Barracks "Kronprinz" on the street. Litovsky Val is the future building of the NCCA.

The NCCA had no problems with financing, architects or restorers. According to Tsvetaeva, the most difficult question was how to heat the future museum. “Local heating network services said that there was no way to connect us to the existing networks. We began to look for other sources of heating - gas. But how to get technical specifications for gas? “You will receive them only when the Minsk-Vilnius-Kaliningrad gas pipeline is built,” - they told us. “For details, contact the Kremlin.” For three years I walked around the offices of the regional government and local gas services. And then I actually contacted the Kremlin - on the official website in the “economic issues” section I explained the situation and asked Putin - when. This gas pipeline will be built." A month later, the museum’s management received letters from local government agencies with offers of help.

Having experienced all this, Tsvetaeva confidently says that only the state or a government organization can deal with the monuments. “I can’t imagine a private investor who could independently carry out examinations, examinations of walls and foundations... The monument implies a crocodile format of requirements. It ties you hand and foot.”

When will Koenigsberg be built?

Kaliningrad residents themselves consider their city exclusively European and utter phrases like “Have you gone to Russia?” - and this is not a joke; many of the local youth have never been to central Russia. With a simplified visa regime, it takes 2 hours to get to Lithuania or Poland by car, and 2 hours to get to Moscow by plane. Traveling across the border to buy groceries for dinner is common. “In Lithuania, I know all the bars and clubs,” says Katya, PR manager of the local Zarya cinema.

Activist of the group for the preservation of German heritage Maxim Mikhailov has “Königsberg” written in German in the “location” column on Facebook: “I decided for myself that I live in Königsberg. It is destroyed, but it is alive. We did not take Kaliningrad, but the eastern a Prussian city with a great history and rich cultural heritage."

It sounds nice, but renaming Kaliningrad will not create a German city in its place. “It would, of course, be great if by the 18th World Cup or the 300th anniversary of Kant (to be celebrated in 2024 - editor’s note) we are renamed Konigsberg,” says native Kaliningrader Alexander Popadin, “but let its residents first learn to do at least something in German themselves. At least lay paving stones."

On May 21, information appeared in the local media about the demolition of another old German house to expand the central Moskovsky Avenue.