The rectors of the universities of St. Petersburg are asking to accelerate the transfer of the Isaac's Cathedral

On February 7, according to the results of a meeting with the chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Makarov, the leaders of 23 St. Petersburg universities signed an appeal to the Governor of the city of Georgy Poltavchenko with a request to complete the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in April 2017.

“We believe that the transmission process should be completed in the near future in order to prevent the so -called opposition and politicians, and, in fact, provocateurs who use the issue of the Isaac's Cathedral as an occasion for the injection of tension in society and sowing religious growth,” the Fontanka.ru rector quotes the appeal.

“In their interests, question the legal and moral grounds for the transfer of the Council of the Church and slow down the implementation of the decision to continue public actions aimed at insulting the feelings of Christians,” the appeal says.

Its authors emphasize that the cathedral should “act as a symbol of the unity of the people and the restoration of interrupted traditions” and propose to complete its transfer to Easter (April 16). This is believed by university leaders, "it will become the best gift to Christians around the world."

The decision of the city authorities to transfer the St. Isaac's Cathedral no later than March 1, 2019 for the free use of the Russian Orthodox Church for 49 years caused disputes and conflicts, the inhabitants of St. Petersburg held protests, in the largest of them - about two thousand people took part in the Marse Field on the Marse Field. More than 209 thousand signatures have collected an online pattern “We demand to stop the transfer of the Isaac's Cathedral to the ROC!” .

Culture figures, in particular, director of the State Hermitage, President of the Union of Museums of Russia, Mikhail Piotrovsky and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, film director Stanislav Govorukhin , also opposed the transfer of the Isaacievsky cathedral.

PS Two leaders of St. Petersburg universities, whose names are indicated in the list of signatures, told Medusa that they did not actually sign it. This is the rector of the St. Petersburg State Forestry University Yuri Belenky and the rector of St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts Alexander Turgaev.