To the page “Protection of historical heritage”
Prof. Dr. S.V. Zagraevsky
What an architectural monument we are losing in Arbat
Attention!
The following text was translated from the Russian original by the computer program
and has not yet been edited.
So it can be used only for general introduction.
For many years in Moscow, the Bolshoi Afanasyevsky Lane (owner 24)
is a ruin. It is the oldest
surviving buildings in the area of Arbat, constructed in the late XVII century
and known as the "House of Zinoviev" (by the name of the builders and
first owners) and "House Behrs" (by the name of court-physician
Andrew Behrs and his descendants - owners of the building in XIX century). In the future we will see that
this house with a substantial degree of probability can be assigned, and much
more "loud" name, so for brevity and simplicity we shall call it
simply the House.
In the first half of the XIX
century house has been partially reconstructed and appearance of the Empire
mansion with an attic in 1860 was again partially rebuilt - in the form of
eclecticism, by the end of the century was added the third floor. Decor facades also changed several times. Nevertheless, the bulk - two-story chamber end of XVII century -
preserved satisfactorily. These chambers are laid out from
the typical for that time of bricks, above the second floor on all sides of
their encircled partially preserved crowning cornice, consisting of three zones
curb and roll under them. Doors to divide the flat blades,
over which the cornice raskrepovan. Between floors passed another
ledge with a simple profile, now cut down. Through the arch on the first
floor led to the patio. The interior layout of the
premises had enfilade.
After the builders and first
owners - Zinoviev - The House proceeded to Yusupov, then to the Saltykov, then
to Rimsky-Korsakov, Cherkasy, Lviv ... The owners have changed very frequently,
until the XIX century masters of the house did not Bers, which we discuss in
detail later.
Empty House since the 1980's,
when it revealed as a monument of architecture, resettled residents and began
to prepare for restoration. Then the Soviet Union collapsed,
money for restoration was found, and the building stood empty until the late
1990's, when there was an investor of new construction in the buffer zone of
the monument (then the law is not prohibited) - ZAO Konstel.
Generally speaking, private
ownership of the monuments of architecture, history and culture with all the
requirements of security regime - a practice common to all civilized countries.
But the maintenance regime is
very cumbersome: the building is not to rebuild and not pereplaniruesh repair
of insanely expensive (in the first place, the structure of the old and worn
out, and secondly, it is necessary to attract specialized Restoration
Organization) Act requires periodically to provide access to the monument of
experts, scientists, tourists ... Therefore, to assume and carry
this burden makes sense for the owner only in one case: when a bona fide
possession of the monument provides honor and respect on the part of the state
and society. If the latter are indifferent to
the fate of monuments, the desire by the owner, as a rule, one thing: at the
first opportunity to get rid of this burden.
Firm Konstel "perfectly
illustrate this: immediately after the entry into ownership of the land
occupied by the House, she proposed the deletion of the building from the list
of protected sites and carry. The Office for Protection of
Monuments of Moscow is not allowed: violation of the law would be too blatant. Then the company was forced to
order the research, design and restoration work, which were implemented by the
Centre of historical and urban studies in 2003. The authors of this project
(leader - Boris Pasternak) proposed to reconstruct the house at mid-XVIII
century, dismantling the late third floor and yard extension.
Restoration work began in
parallel with the research, and the parts that are supposed to make out, pulled
down very quickly removed from the facades of plaster and built a temporary
roof on the house (ie, at least make a partial preservation). But to continue the restoration
was not possible: in the same in 2003 to replace the JSC Konstel "came to
the company" PIK-Invest ", and all work was halted. True, yet managed to demolish
adjacent to the chambers of an apartment house № 26, built in 1910 in Art Nouveau style - though not a monument of architecture, but also a valuable element of the
historic urban environment.
In
the yard, ie in the buffer zone of the
monument, the new owner has begun construction of the huge (by the standards
and scope of Arbat lanes) 7-8-storey residential complex
"Athanasian". The restored house was supposed
to be a hallmark of the last (there was even coined the advertising slogan
"The magic of the old Arbat). The combination of architectural
styles of houses and new residential complex eclectic in the extreme, but
without the proximity of the monument of architectural plastic
"Afanasievsky, developed Mosproekt-2 im. MV Posokhin led MM Posokhin, so eclectic, that
here, as they say, nothing to lose.
But since the beginning of
construction of several years, and PIK-Invest "in no hurry to fulfill
their responsibilities for conservation and restoration of the monument. Now, in 2009, the complex
"Athanasian" has laid the foundations, and House continues to stand
quietly abandoned and destroyed. Temporary roof was destroyed
long ago, and standing water in basements. On the walls sprouted trees (and
this is our time, and it is in the center of Moscow!). Wooden struts, buttresses,
sooner or later will rot, and then the wall is likely to collapse.
But in general, this ruin, more
and serving on two meters behind the red line of building the Great
Afanasievsky alley, produces so depressing, one wonders: is not whether the
developer prepares public opinion to ensure that the house was nevertheless
demolished? At the very least, turned into a
dummy - or with the persistence of old forms, if any, in the form of a stylized
architectural decor on the walls of a new residential complex?
And examples of both in today's Moscow is more than enough. Suffice it to recall the
historical building in the Small Golovin Pereulok (owner 3), which survived
only a commemorative plaque, which was rolled on the facade of a 6-7-storey eclectic
remake (the forms of construction of the XIX century in this remake barely
guessed at in the decoration of the first three floors). At the same time on the board as
if nothing had happened emblazoned inscription: "A monument of history. In this house in the years
1881-1885. lived and worked Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov. Protected
by the government. " It looks like blatant mockery
and history, and on Chekhov, and over the state. Oh if he destroyed the monument,
so ashamed to leave the board. Or at least write to her:
"Here was a monument of history" ...
And the situation in the Great
Afanasyevsky may adopt a similar nature as a developer much easier, under any
pretext to destroy the house (or prevent its destruction, which in this case
the same thing) and shrug - as if to say, do not take good enough care - than
to carry out time-consuming, expensive and lengthy scientific
restoration. Perhaps, in the case of
"neuberezheniya" he would have to pay a fine of several hundred
thousand - but easy to calculate the revenue from smaller towns built complex
"Athanasian" (about 10000 square meters of apartments) at an estimated market value of 15-25 meters per thousand dollars amount to 150-250 million. Of course, dollars. Plus 100 parking spaces
underground parking - a few million, and not RUB. Can hundreds of monuments of
architecture "does not save", to pay in full all fines and not ruin
...
And the city will receive and
fines, and leveled a red line in the Big Afanasyevsky lane. Hence, interference with car
movement will be less - so it's good too!
So it turns out that all but a
narrow circle of admirers and defenders of monuments and historic environment,
the demolition of houses will benefit. Is it any wonder the mass loss
of Moscow's architectural monuments? And should there be a prophet to
predict a quick death and the House?
What do we lose, lost his home?
We will lose not
"ordinary" civil architecture of the XVII century (if the monuments,
especially since the XVII century, could ever be "ordinary"). We will lose the house, which
may be called the prototype of the famous "houses of Rostov in Leo
Tolstoy's novel War and Peace", and called with no less likely than their
mansion on the streets Chef (owner 52), which is considered a "house of Rostov"
traditionally.
Stereotypical views that
"the Rostov house" - a mansion at Princes Dolgoruky Chef, appeared in
the XIX century (in any case, in 1918, wrote confidently about Marina in the story "My Services"). Sam LN Tolstoy, according to the
memoirs of contemporaries, did not call images of his literary heroes, and only
smiled silently, as if it were called others. But there is no doubt that
stereotypes about "houses of Rostov" is associated with the following
words from the first volume of War and Peace ":
"Soon after Anna Pavlovna
Anna returned to Moscow and went straight to her rich relatives Rostov, with
whom she was in Moscow ... The Rostovs were the birthday girl Natalie, mother
and younger daughter. In the morning, without
stopping, drove up and drive trains, and the delivery of congratulations to the
large, well-known to all Moscow home of Countess Rostov-Chef.
A large and well-known to all
Moscow house Chef street - this is, of course, the same manor Dolgorukys
Princes (since 1859 - Baron MK Bode-Kolychev), an outstanding monument of
mature classicism in Moscow. The farmstead consists of a
two-storey, with porticoes and a mezzanine, main house and a spacious courtyard
surrounded by galleries, residential wings and office buildings. When Bode-Kolychev to the house
were added to house church in pseudo-style lodge. The interiors are richly
decorated manor carved wood, decorated with intricate staircases and passages.
The tradition that this great
city mansion at Chef's is the "Rostov house, so strong that during the
Soviet era building set on the appropriate plaque and a monument in the
courtyard, LN Tolstoy (perhaps a special
attention to works of Leo Tolstoy was connected with the fact that the building
housed the Union of Soviet Writers). Often you can even hear what
took place at the Chef's first ball Natasha, in fact, according to the novel,
the ball 31 December 1810 took place in St. Petersburg, nobody in the house of
Catherine's great on the Promenade des Anglais.
But, reading "War and
Peace", you will immediately notice that the scale of "home
Rostov" is much more "chamber" than the estate Dolgorukys. At last more like described in
the novel the house of Count Earless, who held much higher social status than
the Count Rostov.
It is impossible not to notice
the fact that "the Rostov house" is depicted with remarkable warmth
and love. None of Dolgoruky or with
Bode-Kolychevs similar relationship of the writer is not connected.
To notice that the property
level Count Rostov did not correspond to the Chef's Manor - one of the best in
Moscow. For example, the budget Princes
Dolgoruky loss of forty-three thousand, probably, would have been a trifle
unpleasant (and in Tolstoy's novel Kuragin lost tens of thousands), and the old
Count Rostov, as we remember, losing a son of that money was a terrible blow. Recall and "trade"
with Berg about the dowry of his daughter: for a graph to give an extra 10-20
thousand was a serious problem.
Finally, one wonders: why the
writer, to choose for their characters in a variety of prototypes, often
collective, and in most cases not associated with their real names, he suddenly
decided with accuracy, worthy local historian, to point to the street, which
was located "Rostov house "- Povarskoy?
For all these reasons, you
understand that the selection of streets for the "home Rostov" in the
novel such a case, like most names Rostov (because such a name existed in
reality, but we are not looking for archetypes Tolstoy among its carriers
") and that prototype "home
Rostdvs" could be anywhere in Moscow.
So, in search of this prototype,
we must focus not on a particular street name and not on those or other
architectural features of buildings (of which the novel says nothing, except
that there, as in most aristocratic houses were court , hall, living room, children's,
sofas, floral, rear room, etc.), but at what a house could serve as a source of
inspiration for writers. That house, rather than building
- in fact, speaking of the first, we often mean and its inhabitants with the
atmosphere of their life, and under a second in any event, we understand the
only architectural structure.
And, after analyzing the life of
Leo Tolstoy in Moscow during the writing of the novel "War and
Peace", we can conclude: "Rostov house" was where at that time
were the heart and soul of the writer and where he had been "just in time
to come Moscow ... had come when he
pleases, and in the afternoon and evening, and dinner.
We quoted belong to the youngest
daughter of the owner of this house, Andrew Behrs - Tatiana Andreevna
Kuzminskaya Bears. Her memoirs, "My life at
home and in Yasnaya Polyana" became one of the main books of memoirs about
the great Russian writer, and she herself - a prototype of Natasha. Regarding the latter two
opinions can not be: it was absolutely clear to all contemporaries and
described in various memoirs, in every detail, down to belonging Kuzminskaya
childhood doll Mimi. Remember the first words ran
into the room "black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive"
Thirteen Natasha? "You see? .. Doll ... Mimi ... You see ....
And where to live and grow
"Natasha, Natasha's" - Tatiana Andreevna Bears, if not in the Rostov
house "- house Behrs?
And
the eldest daughter of AE Bers, Sonia, became known to
contemporaries and posterity as Sofia Andreyevna. And acquaintances, and early
communication, and love, and courtship of Tolstoy and Sophia Andreevny occurred
precisely in the house Behrs and it is in the time of writing War and Peace.
"
It is unlikely that there should
describe the long history of relationships LN Tolstoy and his family Bers, and
Tatiana Kuzmin, and even more so with Sophia Tolstoy - This is an extensive
literature. For us it is important that the
search for "home Rostdvs" we can keep the houses, one way or another
connected with the family Behrs.
During the writing of War and
Peace "of such places in Moscow was a bit: this is a government apartment
Gough medic AE Bers in the Kremlin, giving a
Pokrovsky-Streshnyov and - probably - his own house in the Big Behrs
Afanasyevsky lane, which in our article, we refer to as simply the House. It is clear that neither
government apartment or a suburban villa could be a prototype "home
Rostov. So, with high probability it was
a house in Afanasyevsky.
To answer two questions which
may arise when comparing the literary "houses Rostdvs" with a real
"home Behrs.
First, how could Leo Tolstoy
"project" house old Count Rostov at home kind of a doctor?
Secondly, the novel states that
"the Rostov house" was a "great" and "known to all
Moscow. Could it say about the House in
Afanasyevsky?
We
answer the first question. AE Bears were not "kind of
doctor, and had the title of court-physician (Doctor of court) and titled"
Your Excellency ", as was the actual state councilor, that the" Table
of Ranks "corresponded to Major General. He was awarded many medals,
decorations and other marks of distinction (including personally by the king -
diamond ring) and belonged to an ancient noble family. The absence of a count, prince
or a baron's title in such cases did not matter: for example, AS Pushkin also had no titles, but
his family was so noble, that he was considered the equals of any origin kings
and earls.
On the second question, the
answer is: House in the Big Afanasyevsky lane was by the standards of dopozharnoy
Moscow (the first volume of War and Peace "we are talking about this time)
is very large - in any case, its scale is fully consistent with that notion of
it, which we get in Tolstoy's novel.
But how could this house is
known to all Moscow - in our time clearly difficult to say, but a lot of
options. Perhaps, quite rare for
XVIII-XIX centuries change a large number of owners (we have already noted that
before the house was owned Behrs Zinoviev, Yusupov, Saltykovs, Rimsky-Korsakov,
Cherkassy and Lviv). Perhaps
the fact that AE Bears, was a famous doctor (he
has treated many Moscow aristocrats), and, according to himself, LN Tolstoy, "a rare ladies'
man" (the latter certainly actively discussed in the salons of the time). Perhaps the fact that the Behrs
a time of writing War and Peace "was going round were still in the living
or family members witness the events of 1812, and Tolstoy and a large part of
its awareness of this war have gathered there. Yes, and "known to all
Moscow" at that time was something special - at least in a little bit
aristocratic circles of all, as they say, they knew everything about everybody
(a textbook example of the same novel - Salon Anna Pavlovna Scherer).
Thus, based on the general principles of
identifying images of literary heroes of Tolstoy and absolutely exclusive role
of family and home Behrs in Leo Tolstoy's life just at the time of writing War
and Peace ", we may assume that a significant degree of probability"
Rostov house is located near of the Arbat, the Bolshoi Afanasyevsky lane. It is still located. Maybe soon we will be forced to say "was".
Here's a monument of
architecture, we lose in the Big Afanasyevsky.
Moscow, 2009.
© Sergey Zagraevsky
To the page “Protection of historical heritage”