KEVIN O'FLYNN, MOSCOW
THIS IS AN OFFICE NOW
The good people of Vladivostok recently had the chance to see my mug on their televisions. Or the chance not to watch it. Anyone further west however was denied that chance after NTV pulled reporter Andrei Loshak's documentary from the schedule even though it had already been shown in the Far East.
I was a small participant in Andrei Loshak's documentary "This is an office now," having helped set up the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society with two other foreign journalists a few years ago, which appeared and then did not appear on NTV. The documentary, which was later leaked onto the internet and has had more than 150,000 views, shows how Moscow, like many other cities in the West in the 1960s and 1970s, is going through a turbulent period where its historical heritage is being destroyed as the city tries to modernize itself.
Nobody has explained why the film was taken off the air but it is depressing sign that there is a deep reluctance to look at the problem. Moscow has lost more than a thousand historical buildings in the last decade and a half and around 200 protected buildings as the construction boom has swallowed up whole parts of the centre.
If you're wondering about the title of the documentary then it comes from one of those wry jokes that is more for telling you about the situation than for making you laugh. Little Red Riding Hood goes to visit her grandmother who lives in the centre of Moscow. She knocks on her door and a wolf opens the door. “Where's grandmother?” she asks. "This is an office now," growls the wolf.
If you want to see the old Moscow, take a walk down ulitsa Pechatnikov, a few minutes from Tsvetnoi Bulvar. As you walk along a hill, one of the most charming structures is the Sysoev House, a wedding cake confection built by a nineteenth century merchant, which is now overshadowed by the new huge buildings that are going up around it and is almost certainly doomed itself.
The film touches on the wider themes of the loss of old Moscow. A loss of neighborhood, of a sense of community as the inhabitants of the center have been squeezed out, often illegally, and forced to relocate to the outskirts of the city. The process is super gentrification as the rich move in and areas lose its basic social functions without any meaningful discussion or debate.
One thing missing from the documentary - perhaps because of fears that it would not get in - was any substantial criticism of those in charge. Or any suggestion of what to do. Despite much hot air talk of preserving Moscow's historical heart, the authorities, hampered by corruption and a far too close relationship with the construction business, have done little to stop the demolition. Instead, they have betrayed those who lived in the center and the city's history.
When history is written, as with the architects and city planners who blighted many English cities, they will be remembered as destroyers of a city. The only way to stop further destruction is via the huge efforts of local activists who battle to save their neighborhoods or buildings and if the media continues to cover what is really happening.
One of the last oasis of old Moscow, Khitrovka, is now under threat and is the next battleground for those trying to save the city's historical heritage. Preservatonist Alexander Mozhayev and local residents are campaigning to turn it into a historical preservation zone so that at least one part of Moscow remains.
Nineteenth century writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky described the area in his book on pre-revolutionary Moscow "Moscow and Muscovites” when it was a seedy neighborhood populated with criminals and flophouses. Today, it has suffered far less than other areas in the centre, preserved perhaps because of its bad reputation. Mud sticks, especially if it comes from social chronicaller Gilyarovsky.
However, there are now plans to build a new business centre in the heart of Khitrovka which will almost certainly lead to further development and the loss of the area. Local residents have collected thousands of signatures against the development, suggesting instead that the site be returned to its original purpose - a public square. The move would be a symbolic way of returning part of the city back to its inhabitants.
It is not only Moscow that faces such painful changes. What happens in Moscow is quickly repeated in other cities around Russia. The documentary showed footage of solid nineteenth century buildings being demolished in St Petersburg. There is likely to be many more such losses in the northern capital and the same will be seen in other Russian cities such as Samara and Nizhny Novgorod in the future.
Kevin O'Flynn, a British freelance journalist based in Moscow
July 25, 2008
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