Officials sentenced to demolition a unique house-monument in Volgograd

Raisa Puzakova has lived in a unique historical house at 2 Kapitana Tryaskin Street all her life. For many years now, residents of a beautiful two-story building have been forced to fight to save it from destruction. People claim that the house was declared unsafe under unclear circumstances. There is nothing here that Volgograd residents usually complain about from typical dilapidated buildings: huge cracks, collapsing floors and the like. For what reason do officials give the go-ahead for the demolition of the monument is still a big question to this day.

Residents independently tried to refute the recognition of the house as unsafe. But it didn’t work out for them. And now they have two examinations that indicate that the building can be lived in. However, bureaucratic oddities continue.

The two-story building No. 2 is recessed deep into the courtyard. On either side of it there are similar houses from the same ensemble at No. 1 and No. 3. A couple of years ago, house No. 3 underwent a major renovation. Residents of the house, which was declared unsafe, hoped that the workers would reach them. But somehow it didn’t work out:

“All these houses are playing tricks, but ours still stands like an outcast!” I recently looked up the technical data sheet for the house; in 2004, it was given a technical wear and tear rating of 37%. Look at the yard – a normal closed yard, children are walking here. I want to say that our house is not in disrepair, I don’t understand why it should be considered as such and the residents should be evicted somewhere!We ask for help and support for information about the ongoing lawlessness in our home. Only the investigation can establish in whose interests this is being done. We have already gone through many instances, including courts.

Video message from a resident, where she asks to save her house

Raisa Borisovna gave us a mini-tour, showing us how everything looks here outside and inside, at the entrance. The building is really very good, a little different from its neighbors, it is simpler. The last major renovation was seen here more than 40 years ago, around 1983.

— Back in 2015, the interdepartmental commission recognized it as unsafe and subject to demolition. This didn’t suit us. And we began to fight for it. Through the courts, it seems they managed to stop it from being demolished. Since this is an architectural monument, a new decision was made in August – to still recognize it as unsafe based on an expert opinion, but already subject to reconstruction. We also challenged this decision in the prosecutor’s office. They sent a document to ensure that the violations were eliminated. With this we calmed down.

8 years later, in November 2022, the residents from Tryaskina, 2 suddenly received a call and were told that this house was being moved out, and it was time to prepare with their things to leave.

So the residents of the monument building (there are 8 apartments in total) received a conclusion from another expert bureau, a response to the conclusion recognizing the two-story building as unsafe. People believe that a strange document that decides the fate of an entire house was “slapped together” on the knee:

— It was made illegally, according to those GOSTs that were no longer in force – this time. Two – it turned out that this bureau did not have the right to carry out an examination of the house, which is an object of cultural heritage. And we devoted the entire year of 2023 to recapturing this house. They went to court again. This time we ordered our own examination. It says that our house is in working condition and only requires major repairs.

Raisa Borisovna continues to insist that the house on Tryaskina is absolutely suitable for human habitation:

– Water, heating, gas – no problems. In winter it’s warm. I don’t understand where all this came from? Who needed it? For what? After all, architectural monuments are not demolished!

The resident adds that the last trial could not help them. Everything continues to be based on the first examination, which says that the house is in disrepair, is subject to resettlement, reconstruction, and nothing can supposedly be done about it:

“But we didn’t stop there.” We contacted the investigative committee, made an appointment for a personal meeting with Bastrykin, and representatives of our regional investigative committee talked to us last week. We continue to really hope that all this will be sorted out. Now we really hope for the investigative committee.

Several years ago, beacons were installed on the side walls of the house to monitor the spread of cracks. But no global external changes happened to them:

— Even the beacons from 2009 are still there, they are not cracked, nothing happens to them. I don’t see anything like that in my apartment either. Nothing falls on your head, nothing diverges. People have stories like this – it’s creepy. Either the floors are falling into the basement, or the ceilings are collapsing. We’re fine! We are extremely surprised why such a decision was made.

Raisa once again reminded that the entire Mansardny village is considered an architectural ensemble. She does not exclude that by destroying the house on Tryaskina, 2, the city may completely undeservedly lose a unique piece of history. The neighbors together sounded the alarm, including turning to the regional committee for the protection of culture, which issued a conclusion that the house could not be demolished, and reconstruction must be carried out very carefully:

– This is causing damage to the city – I think so. Monuments should be maintained instead of demolished. For some reason, officials have absolutely no desire to figure out why a normal residential building needs to be demolished. After all, it was the captured Germans who built it, the buildings can last just as long.

It is curious that in April 2021, news was published on the website of the regional administration that major renovations of the historical building were ongoing. The residential village of Mansardny on Tryaskina Street was promised a new life. Each of the houses is a unique object, it was said here:

— According to the UNO “Regional Fund for Major Repairs”, all the houses of the residential area on Tryaskina Street are objects of cultural heritage of regional significance – the contractor begins major repairs only after checking the design documentation, which undergoes a state historical and cultural examination. When carrying out work, the re-operator strictly ensures that the new appearance of the objects does not disturb the usual architectural atmosphere of the building.

Open sources of information have preserved data on the historical and cultural examination of the house on Captain Tryaskina Street, 34. These are the so-called monuments – residential attic (standard) houses built in 1948. The document says that the architect Efim Levitan had a hand in the post-war restoration of these buildings (many of his buildings became the hallmark of Volgograd), subsequently Efim Iosifovich was awarded the title of Honored Architect of the RSFSR, and in 1951 he became a Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the second degree. The village of Mansardny, now a building on the street named after Captain Tryaskin, was restored in 1946-1948. After all, this is also a special place for Stalingrad; fierce battles with the Nazi occupiers took place here in 1942. The village was practically destroyed to the ground as a result of bombing, shelling, battles and fires. New two-story houses, built on the site of the previous foundations, still stand today on Captain Tryaskin Street.

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Irina Rasskazova