Forty years ago, the chambers on the spit of Ostozhenka and Prechistenka were saved

Dina Petrovna Vasilevskaya

In 1972, he was the architect-restorer of workshop No. 7 of the Mosproekt-3 Institute. Co-author of the project of restoration and adaptation of the Red and White Chambers.

In 1972, for the arrival of US President Nixon, they began to "desecrate" Moscow. There was such an expression, because they broke old houses, junk, in the understanding of the authorities, and squares were laid out in their place. So, on the corner of Prechistenka-Ostozhenka there was a house that we called "iron". These are the Lopukhinsky chambers of the 18th-19th centuries, a monument to urban planning activities that were carried out according to the plans of Catherine. He beautifully designed the square, stood at the state guard, was, however, in a terrible state. Our Libson workshop was instructed to measure and photograph two other buildings - behind the "iron".

I just loved my job. You feel like a real Sherlock Holmes, especially when everyone leaves the object, you are left alone with the old house, gradually getting into its secrets. You restore the picture piece by piece. With a hammer, with a scarpel, I beat off all the relocations, bookmarks, cleared out pieces of profiles. I was invited when something incomprehensible was found at the objects. I came, looked and then said: "Well, here's the profile." They joked about me when I started to work with the instrument: “Here, Vasilevskaya made a stand.”

It is not clear when which chambers arose earlier - Red or White. Stylistically they are the same. It’s just that the location is different, so the formation of the volume itself and the decor are different. White - compact, with a high roof, the volume was solved in one piece. Red - extended, rather, for careful consideration in the direction of travel. Then, the White Chambers until the end of the 18th century were the dominant building in that area. They were standing on the very edge of the slope of the Chertory brook. We will remember this when we encounter the mysteries of the White Chambers.

First, we began to visually inspect the houses. It was said: to do everything quickly, the deadlines are terrible. Half of our workshop was thrown onto the objects. Klimenko attracted students who hung on ladders, ropes - everywhere ... As soon as we knocked off a few square meters plaster, climbed immediately XVII century. Full-fledged: cornices, window frames, they are hewn in the plane of the wall, but readable. We immediately sounded the alarm, began to bombard the bosses with letters. Maybe that's why they missed the corner house. He was broken. I remember leaving the subway with Lena Trubetskoy - and we were dumbfounded. There are two cars near the house, a “woman” is suspended, swinging - and against the wall. The wall is falling. I look, Lena has tears in a stream.

But I want to tell you about what we found at the White Chambers when the plaster was removed: hewn brick, spatulas typical of the late 17th century, white-stone sandriks, cornices, even one window completely in a bookmark with a grate. The outline of the window bracket and the balls crowning it were determined. Everything in the masonry was perfectly readable. Although the form itself, the profile, could be anything. In the final version, we settled on the simplest ones.

Found all the cornices. The windows of the first floor and the second, crowning the multi-tiered cornice, interfloor. All this has been found. By the time Nixon arrived, all the remains had been whitewashed. And it made a huge impression. This technique served to the fact that the houses were accepted for state protection. The students subsided, and we began work on identifying and preparing a restoration project.

But all this, as they say, is obvious. And the White Chambers brought many surprises. For example, we found a fragment of an archivolt. He, of course, is always located above the arched opening. They began to remove all extensions, layers, and on the “back” side they found pieces of quarters and two metal bases, which were embedded in the masonry, and gates were hung on them. And when everything was drawn, then, according to the modern level of the soil, the arch and the gate turned out to be of such a height that only Gulliver could open them! What is it? Traces of the vault of the arch are also inside, indoors. We came to the conclusion that, apparently, it was a through passage to the courtyard. A very unusual decision, but it is quite understandable that the site is small and, in fact, was limited by the dimensions of the house. However, to the question - where and why Gulliver? – this opening did not answer. Then we decided to make a pit on one of the walls of the chambers, to which the oldest annex adjoined, in case there was a basement. They poked around a little, almost under the floor - and really, a whole basement! It's just not clear at all. The brick plinth is higher than the modern ground level by human height. That is, it turns out ... a cultural layer that ... is stolen? Then they got into the works of Sytin and found that during the reconstruction of this part of Moscow, when the walls of the White City were broken and made a boulevard, when Chertory was filled up, the steep slope of Prechistenka was leveled. And the house stood on the very hillock. That is, he remained after that almost without a foundation. It stayed that way for so many years. We had to put the house on the foundation. Our engineers tore off a pit of a meter and a half, “hung out” a wall, started metal beams, pulled out the ground and concreted. That is, piece by piece, the foundation was laid. Well, steps were made to the arch.

While we were identifying and thinking about all this, a real hell was going on inside the houses. Residents rushed about, moved, everyone was nervous. We immediately noticed that some of the old vaults were preserved. We found the heel of the vault - that is, where the brick goes downhill. Then, with Lena Trubetskoy, they determined it with a special ruler and drew the initial arch curve. We also found the original doorways: somewhere we found a slope, somewhere pieces of a quarter. We found an internal staircase, perfectly preserved. It connected the first and second floors. The stairs were covered with new brick. The wall seemed suspiciously thick to us. We broke it and found white stone steps.

In general, it was then possible to make historical sketches based on many finds. Here, for example, in the first floor of the White Chambers, we found a bricked stove. Previously, stoves were made like this: on one side of the wall - a beautiful front tile, on the other - a flood. So, we opened the bookmark of the furnace, suddenly something blurted out with the garbage and fell out. It turned out to be a very interesting candlestick - made of strip iron on four legs. On the base there is a vertical for a candle along which the cup and handle move. That is, you put a candle, the whole structure is below, as it burns, you raise the candle with a handle. And immediately - like a voice from the past. Smoked the oven. They gave Vanka a candlestick to go upstairs to look. When he was awake, he dropped the candlestick into the chimney. He was taken to the stables and probably whipped.

The Red Chambers were not so generous with riddles. We found a very large spiral staircase - this is a rarity, it almost never happens in housing, and it has been preserved in its entirety. White-stone steps went from the first to the second floor. Moreover, on the first floor we found traces of doorways and masonry. It was removed and ... found the continuation of the outer walls, cut down. That is, there was a ward that was broken during the expansion of Ostozhenka.

We also found this moment to be strange. The crowning cornice of the Red Chambers was suspiciously “poor”, more like an ordinary interfloor one. Moreover, on the above-mentioned spiral staircase, two steps have been preserved that lead above the second, last, floor. Lena Trubetskoy and I went to the attic to inspect the top of the wall. There is a terrible mud, pigeons. We immediately became chimney sweeps. I laugh and say: “Yes, Elena Vladimirovna, your ancestors should see you now.” And she was born Golitsyna (The Red Chambers in the 18th century belonged to the princes Golitsyn. - Ed.). So, we found five rows of brickwork over the eaves and traces of facade blades. This means that the Red Chambers had a third floor! But here's what - is it over the whole house or only a part? - unknown. The tops of the vaults are different in height, so as a result we made the roof high, but simple.

The fate of the Red and White Chambers, it seems to me, has made a zigzag. When the "house-iron" of the Lopukhins was placed in front of them, they lost their significance for the "completion of the square." Then the Soviet government broke the “iron”, and it turned out that there were just two real toys of the 17th century on the square. They are a wonderful "preface" to the entire architectural reserve of Ostozhenka - Prechistenka, oversaturated with iconic names - Vsevolozhsky, Denisov, Lopukhin ...

Poor Engels! He must be so uncomfortable in this place ...

Villa Emelyanovna Khaslavskaya

In 1972, he was the architect-restorer of workshop No. 7 of the Mosproekt-3 Institute.

Then I was 43 years old, in Libson's workshop No. 7 I was engaged in complex security zones and even already led my object as an architect-restorer: the corner house of the 18th century on Verkhnaya Radishchevskaya. I did a historical and architectural survey of the territory of Metrostroevskaya and part of Kropotkinskaya, including the arrow of streets, and examined the “iron house”.

I, like everyone in our workshop, was very worried about the fate of the two houses, which later became the Red and White Chambers. But my personal role was reduced to drafting a telegram addressed to Brezhnev. This was our last hope, and we thought through all the smallest details that could damage or turn the general secretary against our houses. By the way, I even wonder if he personally read our message.

The telegram was signed by many of our employees, often out of sheer enthusiasm. But we decided long list reduce and leave only those people who really had a relationship with the objects. In case they start calling by name, the person has something to say.

The second criterion emerged by itself. There were signatures - Libson, Domshlak, Bernstein ... In general, there are too many Jewish ones. We thought that this might cause irritation and lead to some bad thoughts. Reduced the number of people and nationality leaving only the bosses.

Having perfected the telegram in this way, Elena Vladimirovna Trubetskaya and I went to the post office, which was then practically opposite the White Chambers. They rewrote the text on a form by hand, address: Moscow, the Kremlin, to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, personally. I went to the window and tried to block the text so that no one in line would read it. I waited with horror for the reaction of the receptionist woman ... She did not follow. The woman in the window did not even raise an eyebrow, as if telegrams addressed to the Secretary General were a common thing. I counted the words, we paid, received the check and left.

It was the first and last time in my life when I wrote to such high authorities.

Glad it worked. That's just a pity the corner house. Parts of the 18th and 19th centuries were found there. It could have been a good restoration.

IV

Alexey Alekseevich Klimenko

Architectural historian. In 1972, he was an employee of Workshop No. 7 of the Mosproekt-3 Institute. Organized volunteers to work on the "disclosure" of the Red and White Chambers.

I was then 30 years old. In 1972, I was an architect in a workshop for the restoration of architectural monuments at Mosproekt-3 under the direction of Vladimir Yakovlevich Libson. We have an island of freedom there. We went to Averintsev's lectures, went to Sakharov in Nizhny Novgorod. There were several teams in the workshop. Ours was not engaged in restoration, but in surveys. It was led by Dmitry Nikolaevich Kulchinsky. The brigade consisted mainly of historians and art historians. We searched for historical plans, various archival materials, conducted field surveys. We learned to see ancient structures and value in sheds, we learned to read brickwork. Developed "X-ray vision". I was engaged in pits, soundings. We, like surgeons, cut open superficial tissues and got to the valuable essence. They worked with scarpels, sledgehammers, hammers. They made their way through the plaster, cement. It must be understood that the workshop was a design one, and we did not have workers, which greatly weakened us. We did everything ourselves, with our own hands, even menial and unskilled work.

In the 1970s, a quarterly survey of Moscow began. As for the arrows of Kropotkinskaya and Metrostroevskaya, to be honest, I don’t remember that the quarter belonged to our brigade. Apparently, someone told me about these two houses. Probably Vilya Khaslavskaya: she designed the security zone between the Arbat and the Moscow River. The buildings were to be demolished, and colleagues suspected them of the 17th century. It was necessary to do something urgently, and, I think, they attracted me to help, knowing that if I did something, I would not leave it halfway. At first I went there alone. On the arrow stood a corner house, which had the status of a monument. He was associated with the Decembrists and Surikov, who wrote "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" there. In the courtyard of the house there was a building that would later turn out to be the Red Chambers - along Metrostroevskaya (Ostozhenka). A house overlooked Kropotkinskaya (Prechistenka), which would later become the White Chambers. Both houses seemed ordinary, neglected, dusty, dirty buildings of the Pushkin era. For the layman - wrecked. The courtyard of the corner house was littered with some kind of light boxes - apparently, the packaging of shops that were once on the ground floor.

What to do if there is already a decision to demolish? With the Soviet government jokes are bad. Therefore, it was necessary to urgently prove that the two houses were outstanding buildings of value. It was necessary to expose antiquity in them. In other words, find something to show the authorities and impress them. But this requires a lot of working hands, which were not there. And at that time I took students of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University through the VOPIIiK on excursions, I knew many of the guys, I still keep in touch with many. I acted, as they say, without further ado. I made large leaflets, wrote them directly by hand, with an appeal: SOS, we need volunteers for subbotniks, to work on two old houses, we need to clear them and find the old masonry. Uniform - working, preferably mittens and scarves, work is dirty. Address such and such, you are welcome. I distributed leaflets at the philological faculty of Moscow State University, then I also connected the Historical and Archival and InYaz.

So, at first fifteen people came, then more and more. At first, they worked in the regime of Saturdays and Sundays. When the situation escalated, the guys were on duty around the clock. My phone was next to my pillow at home. And the numbers were lying - the department of culture in the Central Committee of the CPSU, in the City Committee. If something happens, the guys call me, I'm there.

But that's later. From the very beginning, the question arose - what to work with? There is no tool. We don't have anything in the workshop either. I went to construction sites, begged, collected inventory from the world. I found some iron sticks, got hold of scarpels, sledgehammers. This is the main thing. I had to knock down the plaster. He explained to the guys: it is necessary to beat to the ancient masonry, to find an ancient brick-large gauge. It was necessary to make a strobe - vertical or horizontal, so that the wall began to play, so that it became visually obvious: something was not at all trivial under the dirty plaster.

There were no forests. We got up on boxes from under the container, which were lying everywhere. Well, it was necessary to reach the windows, openings. The children worked with their arms outstretched and their heads thrown back. The dust flew straight into my eyes. The girls wrapped themselves in scarves, leaving only slits for the eyes. Passers-by looked very disapprovingly, surprised at this form of clothing. At first we were engaged in the Red Chambers, then the White Chambers.

The very first vertical strobe gave the interfloor belt of the Red Chambers - such a roller. It was evident that the belt was made of ancient brick, which had been cut down. Consequently, it separated the lower floor, which had gone into the cultural layer, from the large front one. They figured it out, retreated one and a half meters and looked for platbands there. They expected "rooster style" or "wonderful pattern."

In general, the guys managed to make some important disclosures. There was such a first-year student Andrei Kofman. The very first blow of his scarpel on the wall of the White Chambers - and the scarpel "flew" inside, behind the plaster was an old cube-shaped lattice. Gradually, we partially revealed the facade of the White Chambers. The work was accompanied by scandals with the builders, who had to break it all down and close their percentages. They all cursed: “When will you finish messing around with this junk ?!”

Over time, we understood the structure, calculated the rhythm of the openings, and simply painted the architraves and the system of windows on the plaster with lime. The painted chambers already marked something ancient, it looked impressive. Houses became an event, part of the life of the city.

I began to pull up the specialists of our workshop. Vice-President Vladimir Semyonovich Kemenov was called from the Academy of Arts. He came and looked. We turned to Baranovsky. I don't remember who exactly did it. But everyone tried, it was necessary to attract professional communities to their side - artists, architects, restorers. As for the media, we somehow didn’t think about it then. A certain Henrietta Alova appeared by itself - she worked in the Leninskoye Znamya newspaper, she was given interviews on the go, she eventually wrote a note.

We did not deal with the corner house on the “strelka”, we believed that it was out of danger, since it was under state protection. And absolutely in vain. Everything happened in the worst traditions, which continue today. There was such a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Vyacheslav Ivanovich Kochemasov, concurrently - the first chairman of the VOPIIiK. He removed the monument from protection, and the house was demolished instantly. May days.

At that time, it was necessary to launch an offensive on all fronts and fight in high offices. To prove to the bosses that the existing demolition decision needs to be canceled. And in the offices, as you know, you need to show something convincing. Then we attracted Karl Karlovich Lopyalo, a master of artistic reconstruction, he masterfully drew and conjectured what we found the architectural remains of. He made drawings of what the chambers could be like. In such a fabulous, very kind way. And with them I went to the city committee of the CPSU to Igor Nikolaevich Ponomarev. He was an engineer, responsible for everything related to construction and architecture in Moscow under Grishin. He was the second secretary of the city committee. I waited five hours for him to receive me: a meeting was going on. It is clear, I am young, in general, nobody.

It turns out that after my preliminary written appeal, he gathered the bosses. There was such Vladimir Nikolaevich Ivanov - the first deputy chairman of the Central Council of the VOOPIIK, Veniamin Aleksandrovich Nesterov - the deputy chief architect of Moscow. And when they finally let me in, this huge Ponomarev began yelling at Nesterov: “Here, the architects complain that you are destroying monuments in Moscow, damn it.” And this Venya - a veteran, a lot of orders of all kinds, a handsome man, a dandy, a favorite of women - for some reason he was standing in the doorway. He looked like a scalded yard dog. After all, the party leader is yelling at him! This must be understood: then the basis of everything in general, of any well-being, is a party card. Everyone has an animal horror to lose it. It was an instrument of unconditional influence. And when Ponomarev, in front of everyone and in front of me, yelled at Nesterov, he simply became dumb: suddenly they would tell him - the party card is on the table. This made a huge impression on me. Ponomarev summed up: "Stop destroying the old Moscow." All the bosses left, I stayed. Igor Nikolayevich stood in front of me. Such a person is a mountain. And, imagine, he began to complain to me how hard it was for him. He says, as I remember now: “Do you think it’s easy for me with your Posokhins? The industry has made 27 million pieces of thermal bricks. Where will I take it? He doesn't take it!" And he raised his hands like that, and I look: his trousers are unbuttoned. And I told him: “Well, yes, I don’t even have time to fasten my fly.” He laughed so hard. And he said: “Go to Promyslov (Vladimir Fedorovich Promyslov, in 1963-1985 the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council. - Ed.), I'll give him a call. Your question will be finally answered by him. I keep up with him and ask: what about the corner house. He told me: “Do you think we will follow you on a leash? Here we will leave your two dirty houses. We can't do this one." I understood later, but I did not know then: he should have put Engels in full view of everyone. You can't stick it in the yard. So because of Engels, the coal house was destroyed.

I did not participate in the conversation with Promyslov. There were authorities - Baranovsky and, apparently, someone else. But the fact remains. Then, in 1972, we got the demolition decision overturned. It turned out to be possible. True, at the time it didn't seem like a big deal to me. It wasn't some kind of action. We all just did what we could.

Well, I thanked my fellow activists who went to Saturdays and Sundays as best I could. For a long time afterwards I took them on various interesting excursions.

V

Victor Viktorovich Kollegorsky

Poet. In 1972 he was a student of the Russian department of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. He worked as a volunteer at the "opening" of the chambers.

I worked as a volunteer at the house that is now called the White Chambers. I was in the second year of the Russian department of the philological faculty and saw such an interesting announcement: “Those who wish to break and destroy old houses are invited.” In quotes, of course! Many houses were being demolished for Nixon's visit, and these were being assembled. And Aleksey Alekseevich Klimenko had a crazy idea that these were houses of the 17th century. I knew Klimenko, I went on his excursions. So he came, as they say, by invitation. The houses were evicted, it was possible to enter all the apartments. Alexey Alekseevich explained: you can do anything - break, beat, but you need to open the old masonry. I crashed only on Sundays, on Saturday there were classes. To be honest, I did not really believe in the success of the venture. The houses gave the impression of simply buildings of the 19th century, evicted communal apartments. We "had fun" for several weekends in a row. And nothing. No openings. But Alexey Alekseevich was unshakable. And then one day it all happened...

I have a fear of heights. And there I worked on some kind of liquid ladder or something like it. Around the second floor. Well, I work as ordered, I destroy myself and I destroy. In the area of ​​the first window from the end, looking towards the Garden Ring. Suddenly my stairs began to shake wildly and shouted for me to stop. I almost fell off. It turned out to be Klimenko. He saw that I fought back to the masonry of the 17th century and already began to destroy it! I immediately stopped, of course. And literally at the same moment - they scream again, already from inside the house. They found a 17th-century stove brickwork in one of the apartments! Everyone rushed to look, then they began to carefully clear further and “preserve” everything.

The next Sunday specialists began to come. I witnessed how Klimenko brought such a very old man, I don’t remember his last name, and said that this was the same specialist who figured out how to move houses, and moved them in the 1930s. He arose directly from non-existence, confirmed that yes, this is the 17th century.

Gradually, we realized that we had achieved what we wanted. The houses, indeed, turned out to be "with a secret." The hidden 17th century was now coming to the surface. But we were already working more calmly: now the houses were protected, it became known that they would not be demolished.

Alexei Alekseevich thanked us royally. For two years I drove along country routes: Rostov, Murom, saw the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl from afar. The trips were amazing. Well, soon I wrote my first poem. It was dedicated to Moscow:

Barely allowed to roam
Moscow gloomy skies -
Don't stop being surprised
Architectural wonders:

Vasily dome of Shemakhan,
Chinese tea copper kite,
Kislov Castle Moorish
And the Yucatan mausoleum.

And Melnikov, in the bird market
I bought a cockatoo in Paris
Elephant ramps of Stromynka
Deploying on the go

Behind the Yauza, where they rule
Princess Swan and Budur,
In Buddhist rhombuses already erects
Arbatsky own Borobudur.

VI

Lidia Alekseevna Shitova

Architect-restorer. In 1990-1994, she supervised the restoration and adaptation of the Red and White Chambers.

My role in the life of the Red and White Chambers is the most modest. I just brought to mind what my teachers started - Elena Vladimirovna Trubetskaya and Dina Petrovna Vasilevskaya. I implemented their project of restoration and adaptation to the needs of the Book Chamber. She received the buildings for rent and undertook to carry out their complete restoration during 1972-1973.

In the hottest time of the defense, in 1972, I sat with a small child. She went to work in August, when the buildings became monuments and work began on identifying and developing the project. Dina Petrovna gave me tasks, mainly according to the drawings: I drew the curves of the vaults in order to put the formwork. And the vaults there are very complex, I had to do everything according to all the rules of descriptive geometry. I also made a set of carpentry fillings. In general, she worked, as they say, in the wings.

The active beginning of the restoration work did not foreshadow further "long-term construction". The first warning signs appeared by September 1973: all skilled workers were transferred to the Kremlin. Interruptions in financing began, besides, Moscow began to prepare for the Olympics-80 and threw all its forces into the Olympic facilities. In 1975, Elena Vladimirovna Trubetskaya moved to another job. And Dina Petrovna, right up to her retirement in 1982, continued, in parallel with her other objects, to carry out the restoration of the chambers. By this time, the work had almost completely stalled at the level of adaptation, but the main thing had been done: the chambers of the Naryshkin baroque had almost completely returned to their original appearance.

In 1979, work on the buildings slowed down. They removed the scaffolding without even fixing the temporary roof. She was running strong. In March 1979, a meeting was held at the Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments (GIOP, now the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage. - Ed.) about the fact that the restoration of the chambers was inexcusably delayed. However, despite the threatening letters of the Inspectorate, instructions, work did not go either to the Olympics or later. The All-Union Book Chamber had no money. And now the second project of the adaptation of the chambers became obsolete.

By the early 1990s, the Book Chamber had barely overcome the restoration of the Red Chambers, and abandoned the White Chambers. Therefore, the contract with her was terminated. And they handed over the White Chambers to the Moscow Heritage Center. In August 1990, work was reopened on the house. And that's when I got there. It was a restoration project - fixtures, all the painstaking work had been done before. The drawings lay, and the monument was destroyed. The vaults are wet. The black floors laid under the parquet rotted away.

Two projects for the adaptation of the White Chambers were intended for the Book Chamber, that is, they were not suitable. GIOP ordered the project from another organization. An underground extension was designed there, which still exists. But it was planned to design it, but I never saw the author, the architect Bartoshevich, there. All the work was carried out by the foreman, and I - in what I could help - helped. After all, there are many problems in adaptation - obtaining the conditions for connecting communications, all this had to be done. But, as you understand, this has nothing to do with restoration. The only thing I had to do was adjust the roof. Dina Petrovna Vasilevskaya wanted to make the roofs large, high, with bulky chimneys. But one must understand that genuine chimneys are rarely preserved; they are in the Poteshny Palace in the Kremlin. What they looked like, how it was customary to make them - no one knows, there are simply no samples. So, we were given a task, and we designed the roof and chimneys in a simpler way. In addition, Dina Petrovna Vasilevskaya wanted to cover them with a board. But now, with its current quality, it makes no sense to do so. Previously, the tes was different for the upper layer and the lower one. He was wide. And now it's all the same. It will rot in three years. In general, methodologically it is not even justified. The revised version of the roof provided for a galvanized iron finish, while retaining an elevated separate tent above the corner dining room. The change in material also led to a reduction in chimneys. They were made minimal in accordance with the requirements of ventilation.

I also completed work at the Red Chambers. But they were not so ruined by leaks, work began earlier.

The “working act” for the acceptance of the White Chambers was signed in December 1994. To this day, work has not been interrupted for a single week. They arranged a holiday, to which they invited Elena Vladimirovna Trubetskaya and Dina Petrovna Vasilevskaya. They saw the fruits of their labors and courage after 23 years.

Recorded and published by Evgenia Tvardovskaya

Red Chambers

Built in late XVII century, at the beginning of the XVIII century belonged to the nobleman Nikita Evstratievich Golovin, then to his son Dmitry Nikitich. In 1713, the widow of D.N. Golovina sold the property to Prince M.M. Golitsyn Jr. By his first marriage, Golitsyn was married to Maria Dmitrievna Golovina (genealogies call her the son of Dmitry Ivanovich, and not Dmitry Nikitich Golovin).

Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, Jr. (1684-1764) in 1703, at the behest of Peter I, was appointed to the naval service, in 1708 he was sent to Holland to study maritime affairs. In 1717 he returned to Russia and took part in northern war. In 1721 he distinguished himself at the battle of Grengam, commanding a detachment of galleys. Did brilliant career under the successors of Peter I, becoming president of the College of Justice (1727), privy councilor and senator (1728), commander of the fleet (1749), president of the Admiralty College (1750), general admiral (1756). He was awarded the highest Russian orders - Alexander Nevsky (1743) and St. Andrew the First-Called (1746). He outlived all the famous associates of Peter I. He was buried in the Moscow Epiphany Monastery.

In 1738 M.M. Golitsyn Jr. acquired the estate in Maly Znamensky Lane (house 1/14), where the main house, outbuilding, gates, built at the turn of the 1750s - 1760s with the participation of the Admiralty architect S.I. Chevakinsky. At the same time, Golitsyn did not part with the estate on Ostozhenka.

Not later than 1778, the ownership passed to the Lopukhins; here lived the Decembrist, one of the founders of the Union of Welfare, His Serene Highness Prince P.P. Lopukhin.

white chambers

According to modern data, built by Prince B.I. Prozorovsky the Lesser in two stages: 1685 - 1688 and 1712 - 1713.

Prince Boris Ivanovich Lesser Prozorovsky (1661 - 1718 or 1719) - from the Yaroslavl branch of the Rurikovich. At the age of 8, he miraculously survived when Stepan Razin captured Astrakhan, killed his father, the Astrakhan governor Prince Ivan Semenovich Prozorovsky, his uncle and older brother Boris the Great, and hung him up by his legs, leaving him lame for life. Room steward of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. From 1682 he was a boyar. In 1684-1690 he accompanied Tsar Ivan V Alekseevich on pilgrimages. In 1691 - 1697 - governor of Novgorod and at the same time a close boyar (since 1692). The owner of the Zyuzino estate near Moscow (now within Moscow). The childless prince left his property at the complete disposal of Catherine I, with the condition of life-long possession of the widow, depriving his niece, Princess A.P. Golitsyn, because of her participation in the case of Tsarevich Alexei.

D.3, p.1

Coordinates : 55°44′38″ s. sh. 37°35′59″ E d. /  55.74389° N sh. 37.59972° E d. / 55.74389; 37.59972(G) (I)

White chambers on Prechistenka street- monument architecture XVII century and museum in Moscow.

Story

The construction of the chambers was started in 1685 and completed in 1688. The White Chambers served as the main house of the estate of Prince Prozorovsky. The prince worked as the manager of the Arms Order. Despite the fact that houses were built at that time in the back of the courtyard, this building is on the red line of the street.

In January 2009, lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova were killed in front of the White Chambers.

Currently, the chambers house a museum. The museum has an exhibition hall and Cultural Center.

Architecture

The L-shaped building has 2 floors, an arch and a semi-basement. A driveway leads to the front yard. A high angular volume facing the city center stands out. The windows of the second floor are decorated with platbands with broken ends. In the upper part of the facades are completed with a heavy cornice. The ceilings of the premises are vaulted. On the first floor there are 2 rooms. An internal staircase leads up from the first floor. On the second floor there is an enfilade, including a huge dining room.

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Notes

1. (Russian). Retrieved March 29, 2015.
2. (Russian). Retrieved March 29, 2015.
3. (Russian). Retrieved March 29, 2015.
4. Konstantin Mikhailov.. - M ., 2010. - S. 294.
5. White Chambers // Moscow: Encyclopedia / Head. ed. S. O. Schmidt; Compiled by: M. I. Andreev, V. M. Karev. - M. : Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1997. - 976 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-85270-277-3.

An excerpt characterizing the White Chambers on Prechistenka

Prince Andrei looked sternly at her. Anger suddenly appeared on the face of Prince Andrei. He said nothing to her, but looked at her forehead and hair, without looking into her eyes, so contemptuously that the Frenchwoman blushed and left without saying anything.
When he approached his sister's room, the princess was already awake, and her cheerful voice, hurrying one word after another, was heard from the open door. She spoke as if, after a long period of abstinence, she wanted to make up for lost time.
- Non, mais figurez vous, la vieille comtesse Zouboff avec de fausses boucles et la bouche pleine de fausses dents, comme si elle voulait defier les annees ... [No, imagine, old Countess Zubova, with fake curls, with fake teeth, like as if mocking the years…] Xa, xa, xa, Marieie!
Exactly the same phrase about Countess Zubova and the same laugh had already been heard five times in front of strangers by Prince Andrei from his wife.
He quietly entered the room. The princess, plump, ruddy, with work in her hands, sat on an armchair and talked incessantly, sorting through Petersburg memories and even phrases. Prince Andrei came up, stroked her head and asked if she had rested from the journey. She answered and continued the same conversation.
The stroller stood in six at the entrance. It was a dark autumn night outside. The coachman did not see the drawbar of the carriage. People with lanterns bustled about on the porch. The huge house burned with lights through its large windows. In the hall crowded the courtyards, who wanted to say goodbye to the young prince; all the household were standing in the hall: Mikhail Ivanovich, m lle Bourienne, Princess Mary and the princess.
Prince Andrei was called to his father's office, who wanted to say goodbye to him face to face. Everyone was waiting for them to come out.
When Prince Andrei entered the office, old prince in old man's glasses and in his white coat, in which he received no one except his son, he sat at the table and wrote. He looked back.
– Are you going? And he began to write again.
- I came to say goodbye.
- Kiss here, - he showed his cheek, - thank you, thank you!
- What do you thank me for?
- Because you don’t overstay, you don’t hold on to a woman’s skirt. Service first. Thank you, thank you! And he continued to write, so that the spray flew from the crackling pen. - If you need to say something, say it. These two things I can do together,” he added.
“About my wife… I’m so ashamed that I’m leaving her in your arms…”
- What are you lying? Say what you need.
- When your wife has time to give birth, send to Moscow for an obstetrician ... So that he is here.
The old prince stopped and, as if not understanding, stared with stern eyes at his son.
“I know that no one can help if nature does not help,” said Prince Andrei, apparently embarrassed. “I agree that out of a million cases, one is unfortunate, but this is her fantasy and mine. They told her, she saw it in a dream, and she is afraid.
“Hm ... hm ...” the old prince said to himself, continuing to finish writing. - I will.
He crossed out the signature, suddenly turned quickly to his son and laughed.
- It's bad, isn't it?
- What's wrong, father?
- Wife! said the old prince shortly and significantly.
“I don’t understand,” said Prince Andrei.
“Yes, there’s nothing to do, my friend,” the prince said, “they are all like that, you won’t get married.” Do not be afraid; I won't tell anyone; and you yourself know.
He grabbed his hand with his bony little hand, shook it, looked straight into his son's face with his quick eyes, which seemed to see right through the man, and again laughed his cold laugh.
The son sighed, confessing with this sigh that his father understood him. The old man, continuing to fold and print letters, with his usual speed, seized and threw sealing wax, seal and paper.

At the very beginning of Prechistenka there is an unusual white building with a hipped roof. It differs sharply from the nearby Classicist and Empire buildings: thick white stone walls, forged gratings on the windows, small, like loopholes, window openings - all this tells us about the antiquity of this house. Indeed, this is not just a city estate, but chambers of the 17th century, miraculously preserved to our time. The term "chambers" means residential or administrative buildings of the Russian Middle Ages. Unlike wooden "choirs" and other residential buildings of that time, the chambers were built to last for centuries - from stone or brick.

Only representatives of the most prosperous boyar families could afford the luxury of stone chambers. The chambers on Prechistenka were built in two stages: from 1685 to 1688 and from 1712 to 1713. Once they stood on the very edge of the steep ravine of the Chertoryya stream. Until the end of the 18th century, the fortress wall of the White City passed along the site of the modern Boulevard Ring, at the foot of which - in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Gogolevsky Boulevard - the Chertory Stream flowed. In the spring, this capricious stream overflowed, washing away the walls of the ravine: thus, until the end of the 18th century, at the beginning of Prechistenka, a decrease in the terrain remained.

The customer of the chambers was Prince Boris Prozorovsky, a prominent court figure, a member of several embassies, a trusted person of Peter I. Prozorovsky's father was a governor in Astrakhan when the troops of the rebel Stepan Razin invaded there. Not wanting to take the side of the rebels, the governor was thrown from the fortress walls, and his two young sons were hanged by the legs for a day. The eldest son was also executed after torture, and the youngest, Boris, was begged not to be killed by the Metropolitan of Astrakhan. Subsequently, Boris made an excellent court career: he was an intimate person, first of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, and then of his brother, Peter I.

Boris Prozorovsky took an active part in the creation of the Russian fleet. The own ship of the brothers Boris and Peter Prozorovsky "The Ball" was considered at one time one of the best ships of the Azov Fleet. Prince Boris had a reputation as an honest, incorruptible dignitary, in connection with which Peter I entrusted him with important diplomatic missions. IN Tretyakov Gallery and today you can see a portrait of this stately statesman: dressed in a black European dress, broad-shouldered, dark-haired man holding a cane in his hands, reminiscent of how, as a boy, Boris was crippled by Stepan Razin and barely escaped death.

Boris Prozorovsky, having lived to an advanced age, was left without heirs: his marriage turned out to be childless. Court lady Avdotya Prozorovskaya, a friend of Empress Catherine I, who became famous throughout Moscow for her ability to drink without getting drunk, counted on the property of the prince. However, she was implicated in a serious state crime - the conspiracy of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich against her father, and Prince Prozorovsky, loyal to the sovereign, refused her inheritance. Since the 1730s, the chambers belonged to the Famitsyn family. In the 19th century, the building was repeatedly reconstructed and by the beginning of the 20th century it was overgrown with extensions, having changed almost beyond recognition.

After the revolution, Moscow families settled here, in communal and separate apartments, not even suspecting the antiquity of their housing. In 1972, the arrival of US President Richard Nixon was expected in Moscow. In the city center, work was underway to prepare for the meeting of an important guest: facades were being repaired, dilapidated buildings were being demolished. On the arrow of Prechistenka and Ostozhenka streets and nearby, the city authorities immediately noticed three such candidates for demolition, including an unsightly residential building at the beginning of Prechistenka. Just before the demolition, it turned out that this Prechistensky old-timer, forgotten by everyone, still has the features of luxurious chambers of the 17th century.

Moscow restorers fought to save the building. It was required to prove the historical value of the ancient building. Architects Dina Vasilevskaya and Elena Trubetskaya worked tirelessly in difficult conditions: the residents of the house often met the researchers not hospitably. The titanic work of many artists, as well as the help of students from Moscow University, helped save the seemingly doomed building. In 1995, it was restored, and now we see it as it appeared to the eyes of Prince Prozorovsky. Today, the White Chambers house the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow, as well as an exhibition center.

Alexandra Gurianova

Gorgeous Prechistenka

Moscow Saint-Germain. Gorgeous Prechistenka

Photo by Ancora / fotki.yandex.ru

Prechistenka Street is one of the oldest Moscow streets. In addition, this is also one of the most beautiful and luxurious streets of the capital, keeping memories of famous aristocrats, richest businessmen and great writers and poets who inhabited it at different times. Perhaps, on no other street in Moscow you can find such a number of solemn and elegant manor houses and luxurious tenement houses as on Prechistenka. No wonder that this street and its surroundings are often compared with the fashionable suburb of Paris - Saint-Germain. Here, each house is the crown of creation, and the name of its owner is a separate page of the encyclopedia.

The history of Prechistenka is closely intertwined with the history of Russia, the history of Moscow. In the 16th century, on the site of modern Prechistenka Street, there was a road to the Novodevichy Convent. The monastery was built in 1524 in honor of the liberation of Smolensk from the Polish invasion. From the end of the 16th century, urban buildings began to appear along the road, and the resulting street began to be called Chertolskaya after a stream flowing nearby, called local residents Chertoroy. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich decided that such a name, associated with devils, was not appropriate for the street leading to the Novodevichy Convent, the abode of the Most Pure Mother of God. In 1658, the street was renamed Prechistenskaya by royal order, and the Chertolsky gates of the city, which existed at its beginning, were renamed Prechistensky. Over time, the name of the street in colloquial speech was reduced to the pronunciation "Prechistenka", and later the abbreviated name was approved and officially. At the end of the 17th century, Prechistenka Street became especially popular among Moscow nobles. Mansions belonging to the aristocratic families of the Lopukhins, Golitsyns, Dolgoruky, Vsevolzhsky, Eropkin and many others appear on it. The best architects of that time worked on the construction of luxurious noble mansions, sometimes creating real palaces. Since the second half of the 19th century, Moscow merchants have chosen Prechistenka, and merchant families of the Konshins, Morozovs, Rudakovs, and Pegovs appeared among the homeowners. The merchants, who had grown rich in production and trade, did not want to lag behind the aristocracy in their desire to live beautifully, and the former manor estates on Prechistenka are often rebuilt by new owners with even greater pomp and pomp. Luxurious tenement houses were later erected here, intended for renting out to wealthy tenants.

During its history, the street changed its name several times, we have already mentioned some of these changes, but these are far from all transformations. In 1921, the street was renamed in honor of P.A. Kropotkin, a famous anarchist revolutionary, he was born in a house located in one of the Prechistensky alleys - Shtatny. Until 1994, Prechistenka was called Kropotkinskaya Street. In 1994, the historical name was returned to her.

Well, let's go for a walk along this interesting street Moscow.

White and Red chambers (Prechistenka, 1, 1/2).

The idea of ​​architecture early period The existence of Prechistenka Street can be obtained thanks to the relatively recently restored White and Red Chambers, located at Prechistenka No. 1 and No. 1/2.

White Chambers of Prince B.I. Prozorovsky

The "White Chambers" belonged to Prince B.I. Prozorovsky, who was in charge of the Arms Order; they were built back in 1685 as the main house of his estate.

The three-storey L-shaped house has a passage arch leading to its front yard. The type of house refers to buildings "on the cellars", that is, its lower floor is a basement partially buried in the ground, given over to household needs. The upper floors are the master's and dining rooms. Interestingly, the chambers were built not in the depths of the manor plot, but along the street; such an arrangement of the main house is a rarity for Moscow architecture of the late 17th - early 18th centuries.

The uniqueness of this building also lies in the fact that it has generally survived to our times. The fact is that at the end of the 19th century, when the walls of the White City were dismantled, and many old buildings were removed, most of the boyar towers have not survived to this day, but, thanks to the miraculously surviving "White Chambers", we have an idea about them.

The "White Chambers" were restored in 1995, now they house the Exhibition Complex of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the City of Moscow.

Red chambers of the boyar B.G. Yushkov

Around the same time, at the end of the 17th century, the “Red Chambers” were built, which first belonged to the boyar B.G. Yushkov and the former main house of his estate, and later - the steward Imperial court NOT. Golovin. Then this building passed into the possession of Golovin's son-in-law - M.M. Golitsyn, General-Admiral of the Russian Navy, who was later appointed Governor of Astrakhan. Perhaps it was in this house that Golitsyn's son, A.M. Golitsyn, the future Vice-Chancellor of Catherine II, was born. From the middle of the 18th century, the "Red Chambers" passed to the Lopukhin family, P. Lopukhin, one of the active members of the Decembrists' movement, lived here. After Patriotic War In 1812, the owners of the building were mainly representatives of the merchant class.

The "Red Chambers" were built in the Moscow baroque style, the main facade of the building was exquisitely and richly decorated. Originally a three-story building (the top floor was subsequently lost during rebuilding) was located on the highest point of the relief, towering over the district and, together with the White Chambers, for a long time was the dominant architectural ensemble of Prechistenka. The building of the "Red Chambers" faced Ostozhenka with its end, and the main facade, richly decorated, was turned towards the Chertolsky Gates of the White City. According to the tradition of pre-Petrine architecture, the lower floor of the chambers was given over to household needs, and on the upper two floors there was an extensive chamber for receiving guests and the master's quarters. It was possible to get to the second floor of the building both by an internal staircase from the lower and upper floors, and immediately from the street, from a separate red porch, located at the northern end of the house (for some reason, this porch was not restored during the restoration).

In the 1820s, on the spit of Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, a two-story stone building with benches on the lower floor was erected, which for a long time blocked the Red Chambers. In 1972, the building, already pretty dilapidated by that time, was demolished in connection with preparations for the official visit to Moscow of US President Richard Nixon, along with him, the Red Chambers and White Chambers, modified almost beyond recognition by multiple cultural layers and looked like absolutely ordinary buildings by the 70s of the XX century. Fortunately, the architects were able to identify the architectural and historical value of both buildings in time, and the chambers managed to avoid the deplorable fate of destruction.

Pharmacy Vorbricher (Prechistenka, 6).

Pharmacy Andrey Fedorovich Forbricher

Opposite the White Chambers, at 6 Prechistenka, there is a mansion built at the end of the 18th century. The building was repeatedly rebuilt by the owners, so it is difficult to say how it looked originally, while the current appearance of the decor is attributed to the second half of the 19th century. The facade of the building is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, which seem to divide the building into five equal parts. The central arched window is decorated with stucco decoration depicting garlands of fruits and flowers. The first floor of the building has rather large display windows - the project of the building was developed taking into account the prospect of placing trade enterprises in the house. Now the building has been renovated to preserve the appearance it acquired in the 1870s.

In 1873, he bought the building and on the second floor it was equipped with a pharmacy by Andrey Fedorovich Forbricher, a pharmacist from the famous Vorbricher dynasty, who was included in the nobility in 1882. There is an opinion that Andrey Fedorovich Forbricher is none other than Heinrich Forbricher himself, the founder of the dynasty of pharmacists Forbricher, Master of Pharmacy, a pharmacist at the Imperial Moscow Theaters on his own, who changed his name in order to become more akin to Russian culture.

The pharmacy still operates in this building.

City estate Surovshchikov (Prechistenka, 5).

Outbuilding of the city estate of V.V. Surovshchikova

From the wooden manor of the XVIII century, built for Princess Saltykova-Golovkina, there was only an outbuilding and a couple of outbuildings. After the princess, the estate was owned by the merchant V.V. Surovshchikov. The surviving manor outbuilding was rebuilt in 1857, it was expanded, a second floor was added, and a small outbuilding turned into a pretty mansion with stucco decoration and a cast-iron balcony above the entrance. In the depths of the site, which was previously part of the property, two two-story houses have also been preserved, which previously served as the side parts of the back building of the estate. Also, a small square remained from the city estate of the merchant Surovshchikov.

In the 1920s, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, the first commissar of the Kremlin, chairman of the aggressive Union of Militant Atheists, who was engaged in the extermination of religion - opium for the people, and initiated the destruction of temples, lodged in this house among other residents. Yaroslavsky is the author of the atheistic book "The Bible for Believers and Unbelievers", as well as "Essays on the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks"

Manor of the Rzhevsky-Orlov-Philip (Prechistenka, 10).

Manor of Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov

At the corner of Prechistenka Street and Chertolsky Lane, there is a mansion built in the middle of the 18th century; it is based on vaulted chambers with cellars erected in the 17th century. This house has a very interesting history.

Built in the 18th century, the mansion at various times belonged to the Rzhevsky, Likhachev, Odoevsky families. In 1839, the house was purchased by the famous general, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov, it was his signature that stood under the act of capitulation of Paris in 1814. The brave general was the descendants of Grigory Orlov, a favorite of Catherine II, he was one of the founders of the "Order of Russian Knights", which gave rise to secret communities of future Decembrists, in whose ranks Mikhail Orlov himself turned out to be. In 1823, he was removed from his position as head of a division in Chisinau for the political propaganda of the Decembrist V. Raevsky, which he allowed in military units subordinate to him. Later, he was completely dismissed and subjected to investigation in the case of the Decembrists and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Orlov was saved from exile in Siberia only by the intercession of his brother A.F. Orlov, who led the investigation into the case of the December uprising and petitioned the emperor about the fate of his brother. Thanks to this patronage, Mikhail Orlov was able to return from exile to the village to Moscow in 1831, although he was already deprived of any opportunity to conduct political activities. In the mansion at 10 Prechistenka, he lived from 1839 to 1842 with his wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna, daughter of General N.N. Raevsky.

The Orlovs were friends with A.S. Pushkin. Even in Chisinau, Mikhail Orlov was connected with the poet on friendly terms, they saw almost every day, and until now, among literary critics, disputes about which of the two women was Pushkin's “southern love” - Maria Volkonskaya or Orlova's wife Ekaterina . Be that as it may, Pushkin captured the features of Ekaterina Nikolaevna in the image of Marina Mnishek in the poem “Boris Godunov”, and the poet dedicated the poem “Alas! Why does she shine with a momentary, tender beauty? ”, And he spoke of her as an “extraordinary woman”.

In 1842, Mikhail Orlov died, he was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and his house on Prechistenka passed to other owners.

In the 1880s, part of the former Oryol household was occupied by furnished rooms intended for rent to guests, one of them was hired by the artist Isaac Levitan, who had just graduated from the Moscow School of Painting. The room with a partition, in which he was located, served him both as a dwelling and a workshop. There is evidence that A.P. Chekhov visited him in this house, with whom they were friends, having met back in the 1870s, being students.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner of the house was a French haberdasher, famous collector of porcelain and painting M.Philippe. In March 1915, for his son Walter, Philip hires a home teacher, who becomes none other than the young Boris Pasternak.

After the revolution of 1917, various public organizations were housed in the mansion, in particular, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, many of whose members were destroyed as a result of Stalinist repressions. Today, the house of the Rzhevsky-Likhachev-Philip has been carefully restored, and the appearance of the early twentieth century has been returned to it.

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate / A.S. Pushkin (Prechistenka, 12).

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate

ancient noble estate at Prechistenka, 12, which is commonly called the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate, was formed in the second half of the 18th century, burned down during a fire in 1812 and was rebuilt. Since then, the manor house has almost completely retained its appearance acquired in the first third of the 19th century. Before the war with Napoleon in 1812, the famous families of princes owned the house: the Zinovievs, the Meshcherskys, the Vasilchikovs.

Before the Patriotic War of 1812, this estate belonged to Prince Fyodor Sergeevich Baryatinsky, an active statesman during the reign of Catherine II, who, through his direct participation in the coup of 1762 and allegedly even the murder of Peter III, contributed to the accession to the throne of Catherine the Great. Being subsequently close to the empress, he made a brilliant career at court, reaching the rank of chief marshal. Under Paul I, he was expelled from St. Petersburg and probably lived on his estates, including in Moscow, on Prechistenka, becoming one of the typical representatives of the wealthy non-serving nobility and nobles who left the court and lived out their lives, indulging secular life: departures, balls, visits.

Immediately after the death of Fyodor Sergeevich in 1814, his heiress, for a not very significant amount, cedes the estate to a retired guard ensign, a wealthy landowner Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev, a close friend of Fyodor Sergeevich. The amount of the transaction was small, since the estate was badly damaged in the fire of 1812, and only the stone basement of the main house and charred outbuildings remained from it.

Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev belonged to the ancient noble family. During the Patriotic War of 1812, he fought as part of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, in 1814 he retired and surprisingly soon got rich, which caused numerous gossip in society. It was said that he made a fortune on farming, which was considered indecent for a nobleman. He was the owner of estates in the Tambov, Penza and Moscow provinces.

Immediately after buying the ashes of the Baryatinsky estate, Khrushchev started building a new house on the preserved basement of the old one, and in 1816 Muscovites were able to see on Prechistenka incredible beauty empire mansion. The new house, also built in wood, is smaller in area than the previous one, so wide terraces turned out on the stone plinth, which received beautiful forged fences and became an original feature of the house. The house is small, but it is so elegant, picturesque and solemn at the same time that it looks like a miniature palace. The two facades of the house overlooking Prechistenka and Khrushchevsky Lane are decorated with porticos that differ from each other in architecture. The one that overlooks Prechistenka is especially good, it is made in monumental forms, decorated with six slender columns of the Ionic order, visually separating high arched window openings from each other, with an excellent stucco frieze of plant themes and medallions. From the side of the main facade, the house is built on a mezzanine with a balcony. The side façade, more intimate, is punctuated by a portico, which includes 8 paired columns, behind which a relief panel is placed on the wall. In general, in the design of the house, the uniqueness of the composition is combined with typical Empire details honed to perfection, numerous decorative elements are designed in strict stylistic unity.

Khrushchev-Seleznev estate. front facade

The authorship of the project of the Khrushchev house was the subject of numerous disputes for a long time, it was assumed that the author of this magnificent mansion was the famous architect Domenico Gilardi, later it turned out that the student of Giovanni Gilardi and Francesco Camporesi worked on the project - Afanasy Grigoriev, a talented architect, a former serf who received his freedom in 22 years old and worked on the reconstruction of many Moscow buildings after 1812, together with Domenico Gilardi.

After the death of A.P. Khrushchev in 1842, his heirs sell the estate to honorary citizen Alexei Fedorovich Rudakov, a Verkhovazhsky merchant, a wealthy tea merchant, who decided to move to Moscow for permanent residence and transfer to his white-stone trading company. Thus, this manor house did not remain aloof from social changes, which A.S. wrote about in the 1830s. Pushkin: "The merchant class is getting richer and begins to settle in the chambers abandoned by the nobility."

In the 1860s, the estate passed into the possession of retired staff captain Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, a nobleman. But such a return of the estate to the noble hands was already an unusual phenomenon for that time. Another rare phenomenon in the fate of the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate is that, with all the numerous owners, the house was preserved almost unchanged - in the one in which it was restored by Khrushchev. Unless the Seleznevs placed on the pediment an image of their coat of arms, which still adorns the building. All other repeated repair work did not affect the appearance of the house - a rare case, happy for this magnificent mansion. Apparently, the exceptional artistic value of the house was so undeniable that no one even thought of changing something in such a harmonious ensemble. Well, and, probably, the high culture of the owners of the house played a certain role.

D.S. Seleznev was a very rich man, before the reform of serfdom, he owned 9 thousand souls of serfs, and the Seleznev family coat of arms was included in the “General Armorial noble families Russian Empire".

In 1906, the daughter of the owner of the house decided to perpetuate the memory of her parents and donated the estate to the Moscow nobility to house the children's school-orphanage named after Anna Alexandrovna and Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, which was located here before the 1917 revolution. After the October Revolution, the building of the estate passed from one institution to another, which was not there: the Toy Museum, and Literary Museum, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Institute of Oriental Studies and many others. In 1957, the Moscow authorities decided to create a museum of A.S. Pushkin, and in 1961 the museum was placed here, in the manor house on Prechistenka, 12, restored specially for this purpose. features of the construction of the Pushkin era, in addition, A.S. Pushkin probably visited the mansions of his relatives and acquaintances on Prechistenka, perhaps he visited this house number 12 as well. The museum halls today recreate the atmosphere of the Pushkin era, the exposition tells about the life and work of the poet, there is an extensive collection of books, paintings, applied art of the 19th century, manuscripts, pieces of furniture.

Profitable house E.A. Kostyakova / Central Energy Customs (Prechistenka, 9).

Central Energy Customs

Literary associations with Prechistenka arise not only in connection with the Khrushchev-Seleznev mansion. Many events of the famous story by Mikhail Bulgakov " dog's heart are associated with this street. For example, Professor Preobrazhensky meets the dog Sharik for the first time and treats him to Krakow sausage near the house number 9. Now there is the Central Energy Customs. And during the events described in Bulgakov's story, the Tsentrokhoz store was located, from which Professor Preobrazhensky left before meeting the frozen and hungry dog ​​Sharik, who was watching him from the opposite side of the street.

The building, which now houses the Central Energy Customs, is tenement house E.A. Kostyakova, built in 1910, presumably according to the design of the architect N. I. Zherikhov (in some sources the name of the architect G. A. Gelrikh appears). The neoclassical building at the level of the second floor is decorated with a number of sculptural panels on antique themes. Here once lived the artist Boris Shaposhnikov, a friend of Mikhail Bulgakov, to whom the writer often visited and thanks to whose person he probably decided to mention this house in his work.

Manor A.I. Konshina / House of Scientists (Prechistenka, 16).

The House of Scientists on the territory of the estate of A.I. Konshina. Entrance gate and modern building

The property, which now houses the building with the address Prechistenka Street, 16, with the House of Scientists located in it, belonged to Ivan Petrovich Arkharov in the late 18th - early 19th centuries, who served as Moscow military governor in 1796-1797. In addition to his appointment to this position, Paul I granted him a thousand souls of peasants and this mansion on Prechistenka. Ivan Petrovich lived in a donated estate as a real gentleman. Every day at least 40 people dined in the Arkharovs' house, and on Sundays luxurious balls were given, gathering the best Moscow society. The estate was even visited by Emperor Alexander I, who had a great respect for Ivan Petrovich's wife Ekaterina Alexandrovna, nee Rimskaya-Korsakova.

In 1818, the Arkharovs' house, badly damaged in the Napoleonic fire, was bought by Prince Ivan Alexandrovich Naryshkin, chamberlain and chief ceremonial master at the court of Alexander I. Presumably, the Naryshkins restored the estate and moved into it in 1829 after the resignation of Ivan Alexandrovich. Under the Naryshkins, the life of the estate was organized in much the same way as under the previous owners: the same receptions, the same balls, well, except that the atmosphere became even more luxurious and refined, because the Naryshkins were higher in rank than the Arkharovs.

Ivan Alexandrovich Naryshkin was the uncle of Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, and when A.S. Pushkin married Natalya on February 18, 1831, and was the appointed father of the bride. Of course, the acquired relationship obliged A.S. Pushkin to make visits to the homes of his wife's relatives, so Pushkin and Goncharova sometimes visited the Naryshkins at the estate on Prechistenka.

From the Naryshkins, the house passed into the ownership of their relatives Musin-Pushkin. It is interesting that the nephew of Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin, Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin, a former Decembrist, sentenced to hard labor and exile for participating in the uprising, illegally visited here, in this house on Prechistenka, at the Musin-Pushkins. And on one of these visits, M.M. Naryshkin was visited by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who at that time was working on the second volume of Dead Souls and was interested in this regard in the activities of the Decembrists.

Subsequently, the estate changed two more noble owners - the Gagarins and the Trubetskoys - before being owned by representatives of the merchant class - the Serpukhov merchants Konshins in 1865. In this sense, the estate at Prechistenka, 16 was no exception, and, like many estates in Moscow, after the abolition of serfdom, it passed from the ruined nobles to the “new Russians” of the 19th century - wealthy industrialists and entrepreneurs.

Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who acquired the estate from the Trubetskoys, was a hereditary merchant, inherited from his parents the Staraya Myza paper-weaving and cotton-printing factory and about a million rubles, which he, skillfully conducting commercial affairs, increased tenfold by the end of his life, and in 1882 even received, together with his brothers, the title of nobility for the merits of their family "in the field of domestic industry for two hundred years." Konshina's spouses had no children, therefore, after the death of Ivan Nikolaevich in 1898, the entire ten millionth fortune and the factory remain in the hands of Konshin's widow Alexandra Ivanovna, who at that moment was already 65 years old. Realizing her inability to continue doing commercial business, Alexandra Ivanovna liquidates her husband's enterprise and sells the factory to his brothers. She herself continues to live in seclusion in the estate on Prechistenka, surrounded by only a couple of people closest to her and actively manifests herself only in charity. In 1908-1910 Alexandra Ivanovna, being already quite old age 77 years old, suddenly starts a large-scale reconstruction of the estate. It is difficult to say what prompted the lonely elderly woman to start rebuilding the house of her estate, and even spending a huge amount of money on this project. According to contemporaries, the Konshin family lawyer A.F. Deryuzhinsky, a confidant of Alexandra Ivanovna, once during a walk drew attention to a dangerous crack in the wall of the Konshins' house from the side of Dead (Prechistensky) lane, about the appearance of which he was not slow to inform the owner of the house. Allegedly, this was the decisive reason to demolish the old mansion and build in its place. new house- a palace, which would befitting the now noble status of the owner. Deryuzhinsky hires a familiar architect, Anatoly Ottovich Gunst, to rebuild the building.

Gunst took up construction on a large scale, not constraining himself in the means. He designed and implemented the project of the present palace ensemble. Thanks to the idea of ​​a talented architect and the almost unlimited financial possibilities of the customer, in 1910 a building appeared in Moscow that rightfully took one of the leading places among the most luxurious buildings of the early 20th century. The architect tactfully preserved the harmonious dimensions of the previous mansion, building a new house, as requested by the customer, according to the demolished plan. He devoted the most to the decor of the building and especially to its interiors. close attention. He placed the accents in the building, placing a large attic above the cornice in the center and small ones on the sides, and evenly divided the extended facade with flat pilasters of the Ionic order, all this was done in the best traditions of neoclassicism. And in the frames of the windows, small fancy decorative stucco molding, a bas-relief panel on one of the walls of the house, features of eclecticism can be traced. The front facade of the house overlooks the garden, enclosed from the side of Prechistenka by a high stone fence with elegant arched niches, balustrades and flowerpots rising from above. The massive pylons of the entrance gate are decorated with sculptures of lions.

Manor A.I. Konshina

The interiors of the building were truly luxurious, in the creation of which the architect proved himself to be a great master. Particularly beautiful were the Winter Garden with a skylight and a glass bay window, the White and Blue Halls: here are Italian marble, and stone sculptures, and French bronze decorations, and rich stucco ceilings, and fancy chandeliers, and expensive parquets. The bathroom was also furnished with chic, all plumbing was brought straight from England. The house did not lag behind in technical terms, it was literally “stuffed” with all kinds of modern technology: plumbing, sewerage, various devices, there was even a special system of exhaust vacuum cleaners in the house that worked through the ventilation openings. All this amazing beauty and technical innovations brought to last years the life of a pious widow is a sense of celebration.

But, unfortunately, it did not take long to enjoy the magnificent palace of Konshina. 4 years after the completion of its construction, she died. The palace was inherited by the relatives of Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who at the beginning of 1916 sold the Prechistensky estate for 400 thousand rubles to Alexei Ivanovich Putilov, a large businessman and banker, who was the chairman of the board of the Russian-Asiatic Bank and was also a member of the leadership of fifty other reputable joint-stock enterprises and firms. But the new owner was not lucky enough to live in a magnificent estate for long - the October Revolution broke out, and all the banker's property, including the palace on Prechistenka, was confiscated.

In 1922, the House of Scientists was located in the Konshina Palace. The initiative of its creation belongs to Maxim Gorky. He allegedly explained to Lenin that the Moscow scientific community simply needed such a club. And the location for the House of Scientists was chosen precisely on Prechistenka in connection with a large number of people who were nearby from here. educational institutions, scientific institutes, libraries, museums. They "sheltered" scientists no less than in Konshina's palace, here everything was created for them the necessary conditions and a favorable environment for the communication of workers in science, technology and art and for their recreation. Needless to say, the communication and recreation of Soviet scientists did not positively affect the state of the once luxurious palace, of course, most of the magnificent interior decoration of the house was lost and damaged irretrievably and hopelessly. And it is impossible to speak about the addition of an additional building in the constructivist style to the building of the palace in 1932 except with regret - it simply disfigured the manor ensemble. Moreover, even if we discard the issue of aesthetics, historical and architectural value, it is not at all clear why this new building was needed at all, even functionally, because the estate was quite large without it and was quite capable of satisfying any needs of the House of Scientists both at that time and now. .

Lopukhin-Stanitsky Estate / Museum of L.N. Tolstoy (Prechistenka, 11).

Manor of Lopukhins-Stanitskys

As a striking architectural example of the Moscow Empire style, one should pay attention to the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate, built in 1817-1822 by the architect A.G. Grigoriev. The estate consists of a plastered wooden main house built on a white stone plinth, stretching along the red line of the street, an outbuilding along the line of Lopukhinsky lane, outbuildings inside the courtyard and a stone fence of the site with an entrance gate. The main building of the estate is very elegant, the monumentality of forms in it is in harmony with the chamber scale of the building, everything in it is very proportional and natural. The street facade of the house is decorated with a light six-column Ionic portico, in its depth, behind the columns, on the facade one can see a relief multi-figured stucco frieze, the triangular tympanum of the pediment is decorated with a noble coat of arms. The building of the estate has almost completely retained its original appearance and is a unique example of building post-fire Moscow.

Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate. Portico

Since 1920, the Leo Tolstoy Museum has been located in the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate. Here is the main literary exposition, which tells about the work and life of the great writer. The museum houses the archives of the Russian educational publishing house Posrednik, founded on the initiative of Lev Nikolaevich, a collection of photographs taken by Sofya Andreevna, Tolstoy's wife, and, most importantly, Tolstoy's manuscript fund, numbering more than two million pages of the writer's manuscripts. Looking here, you can see with your own eyes Tolstoy's personal belongings, his letters, the original manuscripts of "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and many other works of the writer.

Monument to L.N. Tolstoy on Prechistenka

In 1972, a monument to L.N. Tolstoy, the author of which is the famous sculptor S.D. Merkulov. This monument was moved here from the park on Devichye Pole. Granite Tolstoy stands among the trees, his head thoughtfully bowed and his hands tucked into his belt, supporting his wide, flowing shirt. The look of him, an old man wise by worldly experience, is deeply thoughtful and sad.

House of Isadora Duncan (Prechistenka, 20).

House of Isadora Duncan

Among the buildings with which the fate of many famous people, it is worth mentioning the mansion at Prechistenka, 20. It was built at the end of the 18th century, possibly according to the design of the famous architect Matvey Kazakov. In the middle of the 19th century, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, the conqueror of the Caucasus, General Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, lived in it, and at the beginning of the 20th century, millionaire Alexei Konstantinovich Ushkov settled in the mansion, who owned the large tea company Gubkin and Kuznetsov, which had representative offices not only in Russia, but also in all the famous tea markets of the world: in London, in India, in China, on the islands of Ceylon and Java.

A.K. Ushkov, along with his relatives, patronized the Moscow Philharmonic and the Bolshoi Theatre, the industrialist's involvement in charitable activities helped him get acquainted with the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Alexandra Mikhailovna Balashova, who later became his wife. For his beautiful wife, Ushkov ordered the restructuring of his mansion on Prechistenka and equipped it with a special rehearsal dance hall for her.

1917 was a surprise for the family of a merchant and a ballerina, and the first 4 years after the revolution were not the easiest in their biography, only Balashova's involvement in the world saved them from persecution, persecution and complete confiscation of property high art and her close acquaintance with Boris Krasin, appointed to the post of head of the Musical Department of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Alexandra Balashova continued to perform at the Bolshoi Theater and in 1922 even took part in the theater's Paris tour. Probably, just these tours gave Ushkov and Balashova the understanding that it is not necessary to put up with the new state of affairs in Russia, they brought some confidence in their future in exile and the necessary connections. And in the same 1922, under the guise of traveling along the Volga, the couple left Russia forever. In Paris, they settled on the Rue de la Pompe, and Alexandra Mikhailovna continued her ballet career already on the stage of the Grand Opera.

Already in France, Balashova became aware that her mansion on Prechistenka with a mirrored rehearsal room was given over to the dance school of the famous “sandal” Isadora Duncan who arrived in Russia. Ironically, it so happened that the house on Rue de la Pompe, in which Ushkov and Balashova settled upon their arrival in Paris, previously belonged to Isadora Duncan. So two great dancers unwittingly exchanged mansions. Duncan, subsequently learning of the exchange, laughed and called it a "quadrille".

House of Isadora Duncan. Decor elements

Isadora Duncan is an American innovative dancer, considered the founder of free dance. Being a professional ballerina, she created a radically new direction in dance, abandoning classical dance costumes, she danced barefoot, dressed in a Greek chiton, which pretty much shocked the audience. Traveling the world and performing, she gradually gained fame and continued with inspiration and creative enthusiasm to search for that dance "which could become a divine reflection of the human spirit through the movements of the body." Constant creative research and experiments, a special gift to express one's emotional state and spiritual freedom through movements, an amazing intuitive feeling for music, naturalness, beauty and plasticity of performance helped Isadora Duncan find her dance and make it the subject of delight for huge halls. She also gave several concerts in Russia in 1904-1905 and 1913. And in 1921 she received an official invitation from the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky to open his own dance school in Moscow. Lunacharsky, who lured the world-famous “divine sandal” to Russia, did not skimp on promises, one of the promises of the People's Commissar was permission to dance in ... the Cathedral of Christ the Savior! They say that Duncan longed to dance there, because the usual theatrical premises did not give such scope for the realization of her creative impulses and ideas. And in what other country, if not in Russia, where such cardinal changes are taking place, is it possible to look for new forms in art and in life!? In addition, Duncan really dreamed of opening her own dance school for girls for a long time. And in Russia they promised to provide her with “a thousand children and a wonderful imperial palace in Livadia, in the Crimea. Believing the numerous promises of the Soviet authorities, Isadora arrived in the country of "vodka and black bread." Here some disappointment awaited her: much of what was promised was never fulfilled, the great dancer did not have a chance to show her “pagan art” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, she had to perform “only” at the Bolshoi Theater, she was not destined to see the Livadia Palace of Nicholas II . Isadora was allocated a smaller “palace” for the creation of a school and personal residence - a luxurious mansion on Prechistenka.

In Moscow, Isadora Duncan met the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, and their sudden outbreak of love turned into the marriage of these two most talented personalities. Duncan and Yesenin lived together in a mansion on Prechistenka. It was here that Yesenin created his "Confession of a Hooligan" and many other works. But the union of the eccentric dancer and the young poet did not last long, already in 1924 their marriage, which had turned into a whirlwind of scandals, alcohol intoxication and misunderstanding, was terminated. In the same year, Isadora leaves Russia and goes to France to escape from the emotional upheavals associated with parting with Yesenin and with a fading career, take care of her real estate and resolve the issues of a shattered financial position. Already in Europe, she receives news of Yesenin's suicide. Tragically and absurdly ends the life of Isadora herself. September 14, 1927 in Nice, after a new dance just created in the studio, inspired, in high spirits, she gets into a Bugatti 35 sports car, exclaiming “Farewell, friends! I'm going to glory! ”, And after a minute she is strangled by her own scarf, caught on the axle of the car.

In the Duncan studio school, the children, having learned about the death of their great mentor, danced Bach's Aria on the day of her funeral, and it seemed that Isadora Duncan herself was dancing among the children's figures in her flowing tunic, again telling people about her spiritualized and tragic life…

House N.I. Mindovsky / Embassy of Austria (Prechistensky per., 6).

House N.I. Mindovsky

In 1905-1906, at the corner of Starokonyushenny and Prechistensky lanes, architect Nikita Gerasimovich Lazarev built for Nikolai Ivanovich Mindovsky, one of the heirs of the well-known dynasty of textile manufacturers Mindovsky, director of the board of the Volga Manufactory Partnership. This house can rightly be called the best in the work of the architect. The mansion is the finest example of Moscow neoclassicism. The two wings of the building, stretching along the lanes, are united by a spectacular angular domed rotunda, surrounded by unusual squat and powerful paired Doric columns. The street facades are decorated with large columned porticos with enlarged entablature, decorated with exquisite stucco friezes with mythological Greek scenes, corner palmettes on the roof and lion mascarons. The composition and style of the building clearly express the principles of neoclassicism, the restless silhouette of the mansion, the somewhat exaggerated and even distorted proportions of the classic elements betray the hand of the master, who worked in the modern era, when there was already some kind of denial of the harmony of the classics. Some art historians do not quite benevolently notice in the architecture of this house that the features of the Moscow Empire style are brought literally to the grotesque. Be that as it may, it is simply pointless to deny the character of this mansion, its individuality and unique beauty, it is magnificent, regardless of whether its individual features are positively or negatively perceived.

After the revolution of 1917, Mindovsky's mansion in Prechistensky Lane was transferred to the archives of the Red Army and the military-scientific archive, and in 1927 it was bought by the Austrian embassy. After the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, the mansion began to be used as a guest house of the German Embassy. In August 1939, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop stayed in this house when he came to Moscow to discuss a non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. And there is information, although not confirmed, that if the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact itself was signed in the Kremlin, then in order to avoid publicity, the secret treaty to it was discussed and signed here, in former mansion Mindovsky. Another no less famous guest visited this mansion in October 1944 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed here when he came to Moscow to negotiate with Stalin. In 1955, when the independence of Austria was restored, the Austrian embassy was again located in the Mindovsky mansion, which is located in it to this day.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova (Prechistensky lane, 10).

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova

The owner of the land, on which houses No. 6, 8 and 10 are now located on Prechistensky Lane, in the 18th century was Prince I.A. Gagarin, however, his vast estate, spread out on this site, like many houses of that time, was badly damaged in the fire of 1812 and has not survived to our time. In 1899, Gagarin's property was acquired by the newly formed Moscow Trade and Construction Society for the construction of three private houses on this site. The activities of this building society are extremely important and indicative of the nature of the development of Moscow turn XIX-XX centuries. The goal of the society was the construction, with the involvement of young talented architects, of luxurious turnkey mansions with their subsequent resale. wealthy people. The development of the property acquired by the company in Prechistensky Lane was conceived by the organizers as a kind of exhibition of "exemplary" villas in the new style, the mansions built here were original exhibits demonstrating the possibilities of Art Nouveau, and they were made in completely different, not similar friend on the other directions of modernity.

The author of the house project at 10 Prechistensky (Dead) Lane was the architect William Walcott, a native of Odessa, who came from a Scottish-Russian family. This building of the architect is the first example of a Moscow villa in the style of "pure" Art Nouveau. The house is made in a rational, slightly prim style of Scottish Art Nouveau. Walcott built this building, inspired by the work of the famous Glasgow architect Charles Mackintosh. Mackintosh's works were distinguished by their simplicity of form, extensive glazing and almost complete absence of decor, and in this house built by Walcott, these same features can be traced: rectangular strict outlines, trapezoidal, not very protruding bay windows, large windows with thin bindings, a flat roof. The only feature, nevertheless, introduced by the Russian character, the love of self-expression through external showiness, is a slightly more diverse decoration: forged lattices of balconies and fences, brackets supporting the roof, miniature stucco rosettes, green-brown majolica panels with a floral pattern, successfully harmonizing with a soft yellow-orange color of the facing brick of the walls, and Valcott's visiting card - a female head framed by luxurious, intricately curly curls - the nymph Lorelei. The tops of the pylons of the entrance gate, lined with green ceramics and crowned with sculptures of female heads, also stand out in the decor.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova. entrance gate

The first owner of the house built by Walcott, even before the completion of construction, was the niece of Savva Mamontov, Maria Fedorovna Yakunchikova, the wife of Vladimir Vasilyevich Yakunchikov, the owner of brick factories and a textile factory. Maria Feodorovna took an active part in the activities of the Abramtsevo art workshops of Savva Mamontov, and the memorable relief ceramic decor of the house in Prechistensky Lane was introduced into the design of the house at her suggestion and made according to her own sketches in the ceramic workshop in Abramtsevo.

After the revolution, when the property, factories and workshops of the Mamontovs and Yakunchikovs were nationalized, Maria Fedorovna emigrated to Europe, her mansion in Prechistensky Lane housed first the Khamovnichesky district committee of the Komsomol, then the library named after. N.K. Krupskaya. In the second half of the 20th century, the embassy of Zaire was located in the mansion. The building is currently under renovation.

House-workshop of V.I. Mukhina (Prechistensky, 5a).

House-workshop of sculptor Vera Mukhina

A two-story house with a glass roof and a wall lurks in a green courtyard in Prechistensky Lane. This is the house-workshop of the famous sculptor Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. This workshop with an apartment was given to her in 1947. According to the descriptions, on the plank floor in the large hall flooded with light, there was a turning circle, reminiscent of a theatrical one, only smaller in size, and almost under the very ceiling there was a balcony, from where it was convenient for the master to examine his creations. Now the building gives the impression of being abandoned, the glass wall is almost completely hidden behind overgrown trees, and, unfortunately, the internal structure of the workshop cannot be seen from the street. But fantasy draws pictures of the past of this house, imbued with an atmosphere conducive to solitude and the creative process.

Mukhina did not always have such an excellent workshop. Until 1947, Vera Ignatievna lived and worked in Gagarinsky lane, and then not far from the Red Gate, where she occupied a room on the second floor of the building, where she had to constantly lift stones and clay. It was there, in seemingly not very convenient conditions for sculpting, that the work that glorified Mukhina all over the world was born - the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", which has become so firmly entrenched in our minds as a symbol of communist ideology and Soviet era. In fact, Vera Mukhina herself was not too “convenient” for such a project, her biography did not particularly fit into the generally accepted framework of the Soviet system, so the rise of her career and recognition was, if you think about it, an amazing fact.

Vera Mukhina was born in 1889 in Riga into a wealthy merchant family. After the death of her mother, she spent her childhood and youth in Feodosia. At the end of his life, Vera's father began to be haunted by commercial failures, and he almost went bankrupt, however, the family, in which they had never before boasted of prosperity and always led the most modest way of life for the merchants, almost did not feel this. Vera began to draw early, and her father, who himself was a little interested in painting, noticed the girl’s abilities in time and contributed to their development: he forced them to copy Aivazovsky’s paintings, and constantly hired teachers. After the death of their father, Vera and her sister Maria came under the care of rich uncles and moved first to Kursk and then to Moscow, where Vera began to study painting in studios famous landscape painters K. F. Yuon and I. I. Mashkov, and also visited the workshop of the self-taught sculptor Nina Sinitsina. The Mukhina sisters in Moscow led a lifestyle generally accepted among the industrial merchants, who were already closely related to the nobility: they went out, danced at balls, took care of the outfits, flirted with the officers; the girls moved in the highest Moscow merchant society, were familiar with the Ryabushinskys, Morozovs. But neither dresses, nor coquetry, nor trips brought Vera such pleasure and did not occupy her thoughts as much as creativity, and she is more and more removed from the comforts of the world and plunges into art.

In 1912, Vera received a severe injury that left a scar on her face, and relatives, in order for the girl to unwind and recover from this incident, sent her abroad, where she continued her studies. In Paris, she attended the "Academy de la Grande Chaumière", studied in the sculpture class with the famous French muralist E. A. Bourdelle. It was this experience that determined the main line in her work: she turned to monumental sculpture. In 1914 she traveled to Italy, studying painting and sculpture of the Renaissance. She returned to Moscow in the summer of 1914, just before the start of the First World War. Together with her cousin, after graduating from nursing courses, Vera got a job as a nurse in hospitals and did this until 1918. At the same time, she continued to work on her sculptural works in her own workshop in Gagarinsky Lane, she tried herself as a theater artist, graphic artist, and designer. While working in a hospital, Vera met her future husband, doctor Alexei Zubkov, and their wedding took place in 1918.

After the revolution, Vera Mukhina returned to her work interrupted by changes in the country, she became interested in creating projects for monuments. In sculpture, she was attracted by powerful, plastically voluminous, constructive figures, expressing the power and strength of nature with their forms, her works were permeated with symbolism and romantic pathos. They say that her work "Peasant Woman" at the international exhibition in Venice in 1934 impressed Mussolini so much that he even bought a copy of it and put it on the terrace of his villa on the seashore. Such a recognition by a well-known foreign leader did not prevent the Soviet authorities from taking up arms against Vera's husband Alexei Zubkov and exiling him in 1930 to Voronezh, where Vera Ignatievna followed him. They were able to return from exile only thanks to Maxim Gorky, who highly appreciated Vera's talent and helped smooth out the conflict between her family and the authorities.

Of course, the main creation of Mukhina was the large-scale sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman