Lydia Stroganova. The city of Kalinin became her destiny

Can one person transform a city? Of course not. But if he has enormous energy, the will to create and unite, then the space gives in, is renewed, filled with new forms and meanings. Lydia Stroganova believed that Kalinin should be comfortable and beautiful, so that the townspeople would feel cared for in him. And she spared no effort for this. For her outstanding personal contribution to the development of the city and long-term public activities, in 2018 she was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Tver. And before that…

Lidia Alekseevna began her career in 1954 at the Vyshnevolotsk cotton mill as an apprentice electrician. She immediately showed responsibility and talent as an organizer. And now she already heads the city committee of the Komsomol. Yuri Gagarin, taking a photo with a Komsomol leader from Vyshny Volochok, joked then: “Don’t be afraid of anything. Everything will be fine with us, because you and I are Alekseevichs!”

And then Kalinin became her fate. For more than two decades, Lidia Alekseevna was the secretary of the Kalinin City Executive Committee. And she not only held this high position – the second person in the city after the chairman, but lived it. The list of areas for which she was responsible not formally, but in reality, is long: urban healthcare, culture, sports, social security, the activities of 450 deputies, a cinema network, international relations, religion…

Stroganova was not afraid of scale or new tasks. And she put them before herself and others on a grand scale. She needed to draw up a plan for the construction of medical facilities for three million, but she is doing it for 30 million. It is clear that we had to fight for this, defend our rightness, and then prove in practice that we can do it.

In the end they did. Under Lidia Stroganova, the following were built in Kalinin: a cardiology building, which was later given to the 6th hospital for oncology, a tuberculosis hospital and a clinic at the Chemical Institute, several dental clinics, a cardiology center, clinics on Lenin Avenue and at the Khimvolokno plant, an ultrasound research center, a modern maternity hospital in Yuzhny, ambulance substation in all districts.

The antenatal clinic in the Zavolzhsky district held receptions in a two-room apartment. It was believed that this was enough, why more? Lidia Alekseevna resorted to a “forgery”: she prepared a project for a dental clinic on Schmidt Street. Upon acceptance from Gosstroy they found completely different chairs. Scandal. But there is already an antenatal clinic.

This is only one direction of Lidia Alekseevna’s work. The rest are no less important and expressive. And in conditions of shortage, providing materials for construction projects so that they do not end up in long-term construction is a real art. It was necessary to use diplomacy, ingenuity, courage, and stubbornness in a good sense.

To prevent the scarce covering for the Central Stadium from going to cowsheds, she “bribed” the workers. In order to build the Ice Palace, it was carried out through healthcare. She succeeded – and the Herzen library was transferred from the basement to a beautiful building, and the city registry office from two tiny rooms without any amenities, with plywood doors – to a new room. There was no budget for the registry office – familiar artists painted it, and I begged lampshades from the Krasny May factory. So that it is not shabby, but beautiful, in accordance with the event. The House of Friendship appeared in the building of a dairy store – with stucco, draperies, curtains, openwork stairs, parquet, and luxury furniture. Also through her efforts.

On the initiative of Lydia Stroganova, in addition to those already listed, the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren (now the Palace of Children and Youth Creativity), a puppet theater, a circus, a city orphanage, a perinatal center on Tverskoy Prospekt, a fluorography center at city hospital No. 1 were opened, the area of ​​maternity hospital No. was expanded 2 and the children’s hospital on Rybatskaya street.
I fought for every object. Living with my family in a small apartment.

His work and dedication to the city have been rewarded with high awards. For shock work – the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Gold medal from the Peace Foundation – for peacekeeping and charitable activities, for active participation in the preparation of the World Festival in Helsinki. Medal “40 years of the Association of Twin Cities” – for establishing friendly sister-city ties with the cities of France, the USA, Germany, Finland. Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga and the Medal of St. Simeon, 2nd degree – for attention to the Tver diocese, for insisting on the reconstruction of churches for many years. For example, in the village of the Chemical Institute, she achieved the eviction of a car depot from the church building, and the Church of the Kazan Mother of God was opened there.

Lidia Alekseevna lived a long, eventful life (April 25, 1936 – January 10, 2021). And until the very end I tried to give something to the world, to people. Stroganova headed the public editorial board to create the first book-memorial in the Tver region to soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War. She was one of the initiators of the establishment in 2006 of a new public organization – the Council of Veterans of the Municipal Service of the city of Tver.

Gagarin was right – everything turned out well for Lidia Alekseevna. Even if she left her mark not in space, but on earth. But he is kind and noticeable decades later.