"Iskanders" according to Pushkin

How Russian missiles destroy the cultural heritage in Odessa

With Alexander Galyas, a journalist, writer and local historian I say when he goes to the panichid along the first captain of the Odessa KVN-shows, one of the founders of Odessa humor Valery Khaita:

- Valera was ill for a long time and seriously. And this shelling, I am sure, finished it off completely, - notes Galyas. I must remind the readers what kind of shelling is talking about, Odessa knew many black days since the beginning of a large war. January 31, from 19:15 to 20:05, Russia inflicted three blows in a row in a row with the Iskander-M ballistic missiles at the historical center of the city. The dead, thank God, this time is not, seven people were injured.

Alexander Galyas

Journalist, writer, local historian

- I know, Alexander, that you live in the historical center, a few blocks from the Bristol Hotel. Were at that moment the house?

- Yes. From the twenty -second year, we, no matter how monstrously sounds, are already used to a lot. Then we got into the Transfiguration Cathedral on Cathedral Square, from there to me even a little closer than to Bristol, I, out of habit, call “Red” ( as the hotel was called in Soviet times. - Approx. Ed. ). But I never heard such frightening sound and roar. And the second, third “arrival” immediately.

- News agencies reported : nineteen architectural monuments were injured to varying degrees. The statement of the fact does not convey the sensations that a normal person experiences when he finds out about this.

- They immediately wrote - fifteen, but it turned out more. In addition to a number of museums and Philharmonic, for example, a Jewish University, it was in a quarter from Bristol, classes at the university are canceled.

-From the museums that fell under the wreckage of the Iskander-historical, local history, archaeological, western and eastern art-most of all went to literary, which on Italian, ex-Pushkinskaya street? After all, this is the ex-Museum of Pushkin, who is now called with some irony “not only Pushkin’s museum”?

- Pushkin’s museum has always been part, a branch of the Literary Museum. The very literary building is located on Langeronovskaya. The official name of the reorganized Pushkin “part” is the Museum of Foreign Writers in Odessa, all who visited the city: there were Dreiser, Mark Twain, Ivan Bunin, Alexander Green, a large list.

As for the material evidence of their presence, I find it difficult to say in the exposition. People just stayed at the hotel for a while. However, there is a smoking tube of Georges Simenon, ”Galyas said.

And continues:

- I walked there near, where it is allowed, the next day. Public utilities worked, cleared the street, scored the windows with wooden shields. What I saw is depressing very much ... Immediately after the blows there appeared a lot of photos of crippled Bristol. But about the Philharmonic, opposite the hotel, they say less. And in vain! A shock wave swept along the first floor. Near the steps that lead to the second floor, in the lobby. The steps also flew in, carried the door to the chamber room ...

My interlocutor quotes the Facebook post of the famous pianist Alexei Botvinov, the founder and president of the Odessa Classics festival: “Dear Odessa, we must try to save the Philharmonic stained glass. If there is a direct hit in the building, as happened with Bristol, we will lose the Philharmonic, we will lose the best concert hall of the country ... It will be unrealistic to restore unique stained -glass windows. ”

Galyas is in solidarity with Botvinov:

- The war is soon for three years, Odessa under the shelling is constantly, and the windows in historical buildings, in museums, are still not all boarded up. Where they closed, the damage is minimal.

I clarify whether the former Pushkin Museum was very wounded.

“I think so.” This two -story building adjoins the four -story “Bristol”, the wall to the wall, ”explains Alexander Vasilievich. - In the building at one time there was a hotel where Pushkin stopped. Now the destroyed part of the wall of the hotel hung over it.

The rubble is disassembled. But at any moment it can fall and crush ... The director of the museum is afraid of this. I have not gone there yet: psychologically difficult.

The love of Russia for the “sun of Russian poetry” in particular and Odessa as a whole, I will not really know.

• The Odessa State Philharmonic is located in the building of the new merchant exchange, its construction was completed in 1899. The authorship of the initial project belongs to the architect of Prokha from Vienna, the project was improved by the chief Odessa architect Bernadazzi. Since 1925, concerts of symphonic music began to be held here. Behind the conductor's remote control were Alexander Gauk, Kurt Zanderling, Nathan Rakhlin, Yuri Temirikanov, Evgeny Svetlanov, accompanied by the orchestra were Emil Gilels, Vladimir Gorovitz, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich. Architectural monument.

• The historical and local history museum of Odessa is occupied by the Palace type mansion on Gavana Street. The author of the project is the famous Odessa architect Gonsiorovsky. The mansion was built in 1876. The museum collection has about 120 thousand exhibits and is considered one of the best in Ukraine. Architectural monument.

• The Archaeological Museum of Odessa is the oldest in the country. Founded in 1825 by Archaeologist Blaramberg. The largest collection of ancient rarities in Ukraine. On July 20, 2023, the fragments of the Russian rocket had already been done here, the museum had to be temporarily closed to visitors. Architectural monument.

• The Museum of Western and Eastern Art is the municipal museum, one of the largest in the country. It is located in the palace of Abaza, built in 1856–1858 by the architect Otto in the eclectic style: Baroque, Empire, Rococo. The steps are carved from the Carrara marble, erected without coconut beams and, together with other constructions, form a spectacular soaring structure. Rich stucco decor, thread, bronze fittings. At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, part of the paintings was evacuated to Germany. On July 20, 2023, the building also suffered from shelling: the windows were knocked out, the facade was damaged. On June 8, 2024, the museum celebrated its century. Architectural monument.

Galyas recalls: in the eighties of the last century, all Soviet and foreign celebrities who performed in the Philharmonic stopped at Bristol - the legend of the musical world of Poland Cheslav Nemen, Valery Leontyev, Boris Rubashkin, the Austrian and Russian opera singer, the famous dancer Mahmud Esambaev, Dmitry Hvorostovsky ... There, journalists took an interview from the stars.

- There were two completely chic numbers, 339 and 341. They were remembered because they have twenty square bathrooms in them. And the carpet! - Alexander Vasilievich revives. -once we walked with friends-gastrolers and wrapped ten girls into this carpet. Imagine the dimensions, yes? .. The building as a whole resisted. But inside and especially the appearance is disfigured. Marble figures on the facade - without nose, without a leg ...

• The Bristol Hotel was built in 1899. It was created according to the project of architects of Bernadazzi and Minkus. The hotel was considered the most luxurious in the city and became the first four -story hotel of Odessa. In different years, the hotel was accepted by Henri Barbus, Theodore Dreiser, James Aldridge. The building was restored from 2002 to 2010, has the status of an architectural monument.

Galyas finds it difficult to give an answer how much time will need to restore Bristol. The hotel often held international conferences, various forums, that is, a prestigious place, well familiar to foreign guests.

“The hotel has repeatedly“ starred in the cinema, ”he continues. - There was such a film by Sergey Solovyov “Heiress in a straight line”, with a wonderful operator Pavel Lebeshev.

"Heiress ..." was shot in Odessa, and there are completely amazing beauty personnel. Even Bristol shone in the Soviet-Polish adventurous comedy “Deja Wu”, in Primorsky Boulevard ...

- UNESCO once again condemned blows to cultural heritage objects, which are under the protection of conventions, a short and timid statement: "These repeated attacks should stop." They traditionally do not remember Russia in the text of the statement. Although she pounds on objects with signs “Under UNESCO Protection”. Are you as a person who has devoted a lot of publications of the history and culture of Odessa, you are waiting for something from this organization?

- Listen, what is UNESCO if NATO grazes? The maximum will send specialists to assess the damage. Well, we also have specialists, no worse, but even better. I, you know, have such an emotional state that if the States now terminate UNESCO funding, they will do the right thing.

Kyiv