House without light

Novyevropa talks about the most famous building in Kaliningrad, which is demolished after 30 years of downtime

In Kaliningrad, there is a dismantling of the House of Soviets, which for 30 years was abandoned in the very center of the city. The networks publish more and more photos in which the disassembled upper floors of the building are visible. The New Gazeta Europe tells more about this building why it became cult of the reaction of local residents to the demolition of a grandiose long -term construction.

Demolition for demolition

The building began to be erected in the 1970s according to the project of the Soviet architect Lev Misozhnikov. It was originally planned that the House of Soviets will have 28 floors of height, and the administration of the Kaliningrad regional committee of the CPSU and the regional executive committee will be located inside it.

They decided to build the House of Soviets on the site of the ruins of the Koenigsberg Royal Castle, which remained in the city center after the war. By the time of the start of the construction of the House of Soviets, the remnants of the castle have been gradually destroyed for more than twenty years. It was decided to demolish them: a supporter of such a decision was the administration of the region, in particular the secretary of the regional committee of the Kaliningrad region Nikolai Konovalov.

On the proposal of the Soviet authorities, the castle ruins were a monument to fascism, as well as the German kings, who "oppressed the people" for centuries. " The decision was ambiguous and caused disputes. For example, the regional union of writers opposed the demolition of the Ruin of the castle, the writers insisted that historical buildings should be preserved.

Despite this, they got rid of the ruins and began to build a house of advice.

In the process of construction, many technical problems were identified, due to which, in particular, the building had to be reduced-as a result, it has 21 floor, and not 28.

Completed construction by the 80s. After that, the building was glazed and connected to city communications, two elevators were installed inside it, and fountains and flower beds were opened in the square in front of the House of Soviets. The building was ready by 95%, only the finish remained.

The commissioning of the commissioning was scheduled for 1988, but due to restructuring, financing problems arose, and the work was suspended. After the collapse of the USSR in the 90s, the building was privatized, but the company created for this, as a result, went bankrupt, and in the early 2000s the House of Soviets was sold to a private company. The city authorities immediately turned to the Prosecutor General with a demand to recognize this deal invalid. According to Yuri Savenko, who at that time was the mayor of Kaliningrad, the House of Soviets was "secretly sold to the left company for a penny." After that, the lawsuit began, which lasted more than 15 years. The Kaliningrad authorities managed to finally return the House of Soviets at their disposal only in 2019.

It was not clear for a couple of years what they were going to do with an abandoned building. First, Governor Anton Alikhanov promised that the building was “reconstructed”, but noted that many elements of the House of Soviets are in critical condition. Because of this, according to him, some parts of the building will have to be disassembled and rebuilt.

However, then it became known that “reconstruction” involves the full dismantling of the building. At the same time, Alikhanov still promised that the House of Soviets would be restored, but "in a slightly altered form."

To develop the reconstruction project, they chose the St. Petersburg company Studio 44, which also created the concept of regeneration of the historical center of Kaliningrad.

In 2021, architects showed that they would build on the site of a long -term construction. It turned out that there was no house at home, even in a changed form, in the project. Instead, they want to erect a whole quarter in which the government building, an office complex, a hotel and recreational zones will be located.

Work on the dismantling of the House of Soviets began in May 2023. You can’t just blow up the building: according to Alikhanov, there is a sewer manifold near, which makes such work impossible. Therefore, the House of Soviets began to be gradually disassembled. The process began with the dismantling of stairs and glazing, and in September the workers began the upper floors. At the moment, three upper tiers have already been dismantled . They plan to finish work in the summer of 2024.

How the House of Soviets became a cult

Despite the fact that for about 30 years the House of Soviets was abandoned, he managed to fit into the life of Kaliningraders. During his downtime, he received many folk names: “The Head of the Robot”, “Monster”, “Ears” and others.

In 2005, on the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad, the House of Soviets was painted in sky blue, which formed not only the final image of the building itself, but also the Kaliningrad horizon. The nine -story -neighboring nine -story buildings were painted in the same color to the 2018 World Cup in 2018 to create a sense of community of architectural structures.

In the square in front of the House of Soviets, which is a huge parking lot, festivals and picnics are held in the summer. At one time, the days of the city were celebrated here - they set a huge scene on which invited artists performed, and fireworks were launched from the lower lake, which is located right opposite the building. During the World Cup in the parking lot, a fan zone was arranged with a screen and stands to view matches.

In 2015, an art space functioned within the House of Soviets as part of the Loft project. A small part of the premises inside the building was decorated in order to hold youth master classes, lectures, exhibitions and other events there.

However, the interaction of local residents with the House of Soviets was not limited to visiting measures agreed with the city authorities.

The Kaliningrad tradition is to visit a long -building yourself and climb on its roof. Despite the fact that formally the building was under guard, it was easy to get inside:

Some simply crawled through the fence, others paid the guard a couple of hundred rubles, and he missed them unhindered.

Some even jumped from the House of Tips with a parachute - the last known incident occurred in the summer of 2022, after the building turned to the city authorities.

It seems that the opportunity to get to the roof of the House of Soviets has been preserved so far, even despite the work of dismantling the building. At least a dozen photographs from there recently appeared in the local public “Amber DLB”.

“I don’t know how you are, but here I was at romantic evenings and parties, I jumped twice with a parachute, and I am especially sad to say goodbye to him. That time I will remember forever ... ” - this is how the author of the post signed the photograph.

Reaction

“The House of Soviets is a symbol, history, and history is different: heavy, beautiful, ugly, but it is the history of our state. Why get rid of history? Close your eyes and pretend that there is no story? The building must be reconstructed and modernized, ” said Svetlana Sivkova, director of the Kaliningrad Museum of the World Ocean.

Many architects with whom RBC spoke called the House of Soviets a monument of Soviet architecture and an outstanding work of their time and oppose its demolition. Others note that the House of Soviets is a mentally and physically outdated project.

In April 2023, a month before the start of dismantling the House of Soviets, local residents launched a petition demanding to hold a public discussion on the future of the building.

“The House of Soviets is a vivid example of the architecture of modernism. Nothing larger in the period of Soviet history was built. The colossal work of many Kaliningraders was invested in the construction of this building, for residents this is a valuable object of personal memories and an integral part of the city landscape, ”the authors of the appeal noted.

However, only more than a thousand people signed a petition.

It is difficult to understand how in fact the inhabitants of Kaliningrad relate to the House of Soviets. This is not to say that everyone opens against the demolition of the building. For many, he remained a ugly long -term construction.

“The House of Soviets must be dismantled, and in this place to make a landscape park, as in New York”; “I am for the demolition of this wretched building. And for the green garden and flower beds, ”such comments regularly appeared under the posts of Governor Alikhanov in social networks before the dismantling of the House of Soviets was announced.

Reject - offer

To build a park on the site of Soviet long -term construction is one of the most common offers from local residents. No less popular - to restore the royal castle.

“The castle should be there! Even the Turks did not demolish Sofia! The museum was redone ”,“ Anton Andreevich, I really want the castle to be restored, at least a semblance to be built. The visiting card of the city ”,“ Restore the royal castle, please, ”commentators write.

However, Alikhanov has repeatedly stated that the issue of restoring the castle does not stand on the agenda.

“There will be no castle in Kaliningrad. While I am heading this region, we will not restore this structure, ”the governor said back in 2017, when he only took office. And continues to repeat this from year to year.

In an interview, Alikhanov explained his categorical approach by the fact that "Königsberg Conshev for some, albeit short time by historical standards, was the personification of German Nazism." “There were flags with a swastika, and these people shot the Russian villages and burned the cities. I don’t understand why I am a person whose family has people who died in this war, protecting my future and future of those who come after me, should restore the symbol of Königsberg, ”the governor said.

However, Alikhanov’s dislike of the “symbols of Nazism” does not concern other historical German buildings preserved in Kaliningrad. Some of them are gradually restored, albeit very slowly. The main example is “Croats-Aptek” on Frunze Street. It survived during the capture of Koenigsberg by Soviet troops and until the end of the 80s was residential. However, then the building was closed for major repairs, which never happened. Since then, the building has been abandoned and gradually collapsed.

Restore the “Krouts-Aptek” in 2019. The project of the future appearance of the building was represented by local residents. It was assumed that part of the building would be preserved, and the other - made in a modern form. The “cut-up” was going to paint in neutral beige colors.

However, in 2020,

When the reconstruction was completed and construction forests were removed from the facade of the building, it turned out that the real appearance of the building did not fully correspond to the presented project.

The facades were painted in bright yellow and gray colors, and small drawings appeared on parts of triangular panels, which were not in the project.

The new type of pharmacy caused a real storm in social networks. Some criticized the choice of color, others - many white triangles on the facade . There were those who praised the investor and designers. Nevertheless, the Krouts-Aptek became the most ambiguous architectural project in Kaliningrad.

Probably, this can happen with the House of Soviets, said Urbanist Arkady Gershman. In his opinion, instead of a high-quality modernist building, which is the House of Soviets, local residents can get "something worse."

“Now, in principle, it is not clear what will happen tomorrow, so it’s better not to touch such important places at all. Otherwise, it is very likely that the Kaliningraders simply repeat the story with the demolition of the castle, about which future generations will be very regretted, ”he says.