The Federal Property Management Agency refused to transfer the building of the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic to the St. Nicholas United Faith Parish

The struggle for the former building of St. Nicholas Edinoverie Church continues. "Novaya" told ( see No. 18, 20, 31 for 2014 ) that the Russian State Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic (RGMAA), having lived for 77 years in the center of St. Petersburg - on Marata Street, 24 A, now must move out of here . This is what the law passed by the State Duma in 2010 on the return of property confiscated in Soviet times to the church says. The Nikolsky Edinoverie parish, which has been trying to “recapture” these areas since 1991, took advantage of this right and at the end of 2013 undertook a new campaign against the building. However, on April 16, federal officials officially refused to transfer the museum premises to the clergy.

“The Edinoverie community did not present the most important of them – the draft protective obligation of the church, agreed with the Ministry of Culture of Russia,” the press service of the Federal Property Management Agency explained to Novaya Gazeta. – Since the building claimed by the clergy is a monument of federal significance and an object of cultural heritage, they need to confirm their ability to maintain and preserve it. In the meantime, the parish itself exists on donations from parishioners and regularly asks for help.

Nevertheless, the rector of the Nikolsky Edinoverie parish, Petr Chubarov, promised in an interview with Novaya Gazeta:

– We will continue the fight for the building of the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. We have not yet received the official text of the refusal, but as soon as it arrives, we will plan how to proceed. We have already sued over the return of this church building ( all lawsuits were denied to the parish - N.P. ), perhaps we will go to court again. But we cannot allow a church building to remain in non-church hands.

Recall that the Nikolskaya Edinovercheskaya Church has lived on Marata Street since 1840. In 1932, after its liquidation, by decision of the city authorities, the building was overhauled for museum exhibitions (560 thousand rubles were spent - a lot of money at that time) and given to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, created in 1930.

Pyotr Chubarov has repeatedly appealed to both Roshydromet (the founder of the RSMAA) and the city authorities demanding that the former church be returned to the parishioners. They are, however, no more than 50 people. But the law is the law. The museum does not seek to change its place of residence: any relocation inevitably entails losses and destruction of the unique exposition. But he agrees to move if a suitable option is found. The new building should have an area of ​​at least 7,000 square meters and be located in an equally convenient location for citizens and guests of the Northern capital (more than 60 people visit the RSMAA annually, and attendance is growing annually by 4-5 thousand people).

However, instead they tried to shove the museum into places that were completely unsuitable for it. For example, in the building of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, where less than 4 thousand "squares" were allocated to the RGMAA. The scientific funds of the museum were ordered to be squeezed into utility rooms and warehouses requiring major repairs, and the exposition should be placed in the conference hall of the research institute, where international forums are regularly held.

Only in March 2014, after the meeting of the director of the RGMAA Viktor Boyarsky and the deputy of the St. Petersburg parliament Boris Vishnevsky with the city governor Georgy Poltavchenko, adequate proposals began to be discussed. There are several of them. From the point of view of specialists, one of the best is the construction of a new building on Novo-Admiralteisky Island with the inclusion of the decommissioned nuclear icebreaker Arktika into the museum. There are other "points": the industrial buildings of the Obukhov Plant (they are ready to be handed over to the city, there is a lot of space, next to the metro and the Neva); the southwestern part of Vasilyevsky Island, next to the Krasin icebreaker, at the stern of which there is a former berth of the Baltic Shipyard and to which the Arktika can also be moored, Kronstadt is also considered as an option.

- The estimated cost of any resettlement is about 2.5 billion rubles, - Victor Boyarsky sums up. - And if there is no money for this in the budget now, then it is best to keep the museum in the same building on Marata Street until real financial and technical opportunities for the move appear.