“Moscow is not Shanghai!”: As the inhabitants of the Basmann region are fighting against the demolition of historical buildings, new monuments and mass development

One of the oldest Moscow regions - Basmann - has recently become a battlefield between a group of local activists and officials. The first while they lose: all their efforts to interfere with a change in the historical appearance of the region do not lead to anything.

Residents of the Basmann region have been fighting mass development for several years. Recently, they published an appeal (at the disposal of “MBH Media”) to the authorities of Moscow, the Russian government and the president, as well as deputies of all levels - according to worried citizens, an original area with a rich history “destroy the most sophisticated and cynical way”. It is also about the demolition of historical buildings. Since the beginning of 2020, Basmann has already lost three such buildings. Among them was the housing house of Varentsov of the 19th century, the construction, which was began to be demolished in February for the construction of “Moscow central diameters” at this place. With the call to preserve the building, erected according to the project of the famous architect Nikolai Gerikhov, was the Archnadzor, but the organization’s appeal was left without attention and the demolition of the house was completed in May.

The capital’s authorities are not going to dwell on this: the same fate can soon comprehend the tenant house of the merchant Kirillov on Dobroslobodskaya Street, built in 1899. It was included in the renovation plan. The Construction Department refuses to consider the building as an object of cultural heritage.

In addition, there is a struggle to preserve the complex of buildings of the former Basmann hospital. Previously, there was a manor of industrialist Nikita Demidov. Although the complex is included in the list of objects of cultural heritage of federal significance and the immediate demolition does not threaten him, Arkhnadzor is still concerned about his fate - now the territory is empty and continues to dilapidate.

However, the locals are much more outraged not by the demolition of historical buildings, but by the fact that the basmanny actually turned into a large construction site. In an interview with the MBH Media, a resident of the district Galina Dehtyar calls the situation a “Shanghai version” - according to her, the construction has not stopped for at least three years. Appeals to all kinds of authorities - from city authorities to the prosecutor's office - did not bring any results, so now the initiative group decided to resort to the latest means and is trying to attract maximum public attention to the problem.

Local activists experience particular concern due to plans for the construction of a large transport hub on the Semenovskaya embankment. It will be intended for transplanting passengers between two metro lines-Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya and Bolshoi Koltseva, as well as the Kazan direction of the Ministry of Economic Crime. There they plan to build four towers about 100 meters high, which will rise above the entire Basmann region. In addition, according to the deputy mayor of Moscow on the construction of Andrei Bochkarev, a flat parking and a pedestrian bridge over an Yauza length of 85 meters will appear as part of TPU.

For local residents, such large -scale plans cause nothing but horror. The struggle around this project has been conducted for several years, a resident of the district Vladimir Oskin told MBH Media. Activists pointed out numerous violations - in particular, the results of the necessary examinations were not provided, although construction would be carried out within the protected historical zone.

At the same time, formally the procedure was observed: all changes were approved at public hearings. Oskin assures that, as often happens, a lot of fake people participated in them and final documents were accepted with serious violations. The activist turned to the prosecutor’s office to check the composition of the participants in the hearings, but he did not achieve justice there - according to him, the appeal was simply thrown through the instances. The city prosecutor's office sent him to the district, and that to the inter -district one. At the same time, prosecutors explained that the solution to the issue "exceeds their powers." It all ended with the transfer of the application to the council, that is, the organizer of the hearings himself. The same assured that all the hearings were held according to the rules.

Another serious problem of the district Oskin calls the situation around the metallurgist stadium, on the territory of which local residents are walking and resting. Recently, reconstruction work began there - at the same time it turned out that the territory was given under a commercial project with sports facilities for leasing. Residents assure that no one agreed on these plans with them.

In addition to mass development and unexpected re -profiling of the usual objects, the inhabitants of the Basmann region are concerned about the appearance of the monument to Samuel Marshak on Lyalina Square, which the authorities plan to establish in the near future. According to the initiative group, which made an open letter , the four -meter monument will not fit into the chamber square, which has become a “real emblem of living non -paradant Moscow”. Activists propose to transfer the site for the monument closer to the garden ring, where the writer himself lived in the house 14/16 on an earthen shaft. Andrei Novichkov, the coordinator of Arkhnadzor, agrees with the locals - in his opinion, with the installation of the monument, you need to at least postpone. He says that recently the capital's authorities have been carried away by the projects of the monuments, but a clear approach in this regard has not been developed. “At some point we will walk, and there will be continuous monuments around,” the expert concluded.