Demolition of the Sukharev tower. The Sukharev Tower is a history bit by bit of a bygone architectural monument. The history of the demolition of the Sukharev tower

In the first third of the 20th century, shortly after the Bolsheviks came to power, Moscow lost a number of its symbols, although not related to religion, but which were annoying obstacles to the new government, which was going to build a "new world." These are the Red Gate (dismantled in 1927), the Sukharev Tower (demolished in 1934), the Triumphal Gate at Tverskaya Zastava (dismantled in 1936). In the mid-1930s, as part of the Stalinist reconstruction of the capital, all the gardens on the Garden Ring were destroyed, and the street itself turned into the wide highway as we know it.

My acquaintances from the Megabudka architectural bureau offer to return Sadovoye and Sady and the Sukharev Tower to the Gardens ... Oh, do you hear the rumble? It was bombed by Moscow motorists! After all, it was for them that 100,500 lanes of traffic in the center of Moscow were destroyed by the Sukharev Tower and the Red Gate.

But times are changing. It's time to restore historical justice! This is why Moscow needs the Sukharev Tower:

We want to put an end to the discussions on the reconstruction of the Sukharev tower, demolished for the sake of expanding the Garden Ring.

The tower needs to be restored! Not somewhere nearby, as was suggested (in the park), but right where she stood - in the middle of the Garden Ring. The foundations have been preserved, the Garden Ring is in place - what are the problems?

The Megabudka bureau tried to present this intersection with a tower. They called a transport specialist to the bureau, arranged discussions and drew what it might look like. Here's what happened:

This is how the intersection of Sretenka, Garden Ring and Prospekt Mira may look like. Now there is a traffic light and a through passage.

According to our scheme, in order to go to Prospekt Mira, you need to move along the ring around the tower. It seems that this will noticeably complicate the situation, but at the same time there will be U-turns in both directions along Sadovoye!

Larger. There is a spacious square in front of the entrance to the Sukharev Tower. Before the square there is a green square in the place where the market was historically. There may be a permanent fair.

We return the tram, which moved along the ring along the route "B". Now it is a high-speed, comfortable and modern form of transport.

The entrance to the tower is a staircase to the second tier. We have the right to make the first floor more permeable: walkways will help create a comfortable environment for the flow of people.

The building itself has always been considered an important historical dominant in Moscow. Her return is a new stage in the life of the city. Now Moscow will have the outline of the Old City, and this outline can be completely pedestrian. The Garden Ring is first a ring of gardens, and only then it is a ring of roads.

And most importantly: the return of the tower to its original location will launch the irreversible process of transforming the Garden Ring into a ring of gardens and boulevards.

There will be no transport collapse

Now Sadovoe is the Moscow Ring Road in the city center: the same large number of lanes, while their number varies from 6 to 10. This is the biggest disadvantage of Sadovoe as a transport highway. At the same time, there is no traffic light on the Moscow Ring Road and the entrances and exits are constantly being modernized.

It is believed that Sadovoe cannot be improved without demolishing the buildings. And what if, for example, the magnificent Crimean Bridge, a monument to engineering and architectural thought, was demolished and rebuilt? Do you want more lanes instead of the Crimean bridge? Not! There will never be more than 4 lanes in one direction: Muscovites will not let this happen.

The Garden Ring has the same environmental problems as the Moscow Orbital: the noise load is almost the same here. Now walking along the Garden Ring is unpleasant.

On the Moscow Ring Road, it was decided correctly: from the highway to the houses, several tens of meters of greenery. Not very environmentally friendly, but you can live. Living on Sadovy, where there is no green buffer, is not possible at all.

What happens in other countries? Nowhere else in the world is there a highway in the city center.

Compare the Moscow Ring Road:

And Sadovoe:

And not so long ago Sadovoe looked like this:

Gardens on Sadovy! It used to be better!

But for now we are talking about an idea. The next step should be transport and urban planning analysis. Such projects cannot be implemented without an experiment for at least a year.

What will happen to the transport if the Sukharev tower is returned to its original place?

Everywhere the same number of lanes (along the entire length of the ring) and a speed limit of 60 km / h due to the narrowing of the lanes. In the meantime, streets such as the Garden Ring, Tverskaya, Novy Arbat remain generators of fatal accidents in the center of Moscow.

At the same time, the Third Transport Ring is that high-speed circuit, inside which there should be only city streets with controlled traffic, dedicated lanes for public transport and a maximum of two lanes in one direction.

What will the city get if the Tower is returned?

Consider the pros:

The first plus: the famous dominant will return to its place

Yes, this is a new building, but on an old foundation. Much more important is the true value of the tower, its ideological nature for Russia and Moscow, the character in urban development. Moscow already has returned buildings: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Resurrection Gate, Nikolskaya Tower, the Round Tower of Kitai-Gorod, the Moscow Hotel. The triumphal gates lay dismantled for decades until they were reassembled at Kutuzovsky.

Plus the second: tourist value

Now tourists to this area can be lured only by Sretenka lanes, theaters and the old-regime cheburek "Druzhba". With the advent of the tower, the value of this place will grow many times over. The city will have another cultural center of attraction.

Plus the third: transport

Calming the traffic flow will give safety to everyone on the Garden Ring.

Plus the fourth: tram

At one time, the tram was abandoned for the sake of fashion: a trolleybus, which was fashionable in the 30s, was launched. But now it is the tram that is becoming the leader in terms of ease of movement: rails are a constant, you cannot give up on them and the route cannot be altered - the townspeople appreciate such constancy.

Plus five: year-round cycling environment

This is where you can start introducing bicycle culture all year round. For those who need it, of course!

Plus six: circular walking route

Along the way, pedestrians will meet environmental objects of varying saturation - green spaces, warm winter pavilions (in the summer - just a cafe), sheds, small reservoirs, temporary objects (for example, fairs, skating rinks, summer theater or music venues), and so on.

Plus the seventh: the Garden Ring is a monument

In the 19th century, the Garden Ring was an endless landscape exhibition; the owner of the building was obliged to look after his front gardens. Nice, why not repeat it now?

Plus the eighth: the ecology of the city center will noticeably improve

Plus ninth: the center of Moscow acquires its own pronounced contours

The old town may end at the Garden Ring.

Plus ten: the tower could become a new museum or cultural center

The appearance of each new all-season public space in Moscow is a world event. Zaryadye, Garage, Gorky Park have thundered all over the world and have become cult places.

So far, this is just an idea, a sketch, a quick sketch. We are collecting comments on the next stage - the concept of the Garden Ring. We want to get feedback, write to [email protected]

See what an important dominant feature for Moscow was the Sukharev Tower at the beginning of the 20th century:

Small Sukharevskaya square in the 30s

View from the side of the present Prospect Mira

From Sretenka:

Bolshaya Sukharevskaya square

1929/2008 years

1900s / 2005

Do you think Moscow needs the Sukharev Tower?

If you agree that the Sukharev tower should be returned to Sadovoe, rather repost and share the link with your friends! Let as many people as possible see and support this project.

The Sukharev Tower is a unique monument of Russian architecture, which no longer exists today, but it lives in the memory of the people, in paintings and in books.

Story

The history of the Sukharev Tower in Moscow began in the seventeenth century. It was built in 1692-1695. The initiator of the construction was Peter I, and the project was developed by M.I. Choglokov. The location of the tower was chosen at the intersection of Sretenka Street and the Garden Ring. First, the lower floor was erected - it was formed by two boards with a passage.

A tent pedestal was arranged over the vaulted ceiling, and on it one could see a battle clock. In the corners it was decorated with four pointed turrets, the shape of which resembled the superstructure of the Kremlin's Trinity and Spasskaya towers. The third floor almost completely smoothed the base of the already existing low tower, so it was decided to build a fourth tier as well.

In the years 1698-1701, the tower was reconstructed and acquired the form in which it survived until the beginning of the twentieth century. The main element of the building was a tent, thanks to which the tower resembled a Western European town hall.

Architecture

The architecture style of the Sukharev Tower combined Lombard and Gothic elements. She was an example of the Naryshkin architectural style. The structure was remarkable for its incredible strength, which was achieved due to the deep foundation. The total height of the tower reached sixty meters. The people christened her the bride of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

The appearance of the Sukharev tower resembled a ship with a mast. Its eastern part symbolized the bow of the ship, and the western part symbolized the stern. A clock was installed on the tower, and a double-headed eagle adorned the top. His image was original - arrows were located around his strong paws, it was believed that they symbolized lightning. In Russia, the Sukharev Tower became the first civilian structure of this scale. Previously, only church bell towers were built so high.

The symmetry of the structure is typical for all tiers, except for the lower one: here the asymmetric arrangement of the staircase-entrance was balanced by different arches - two large arches to the west of the central passage and three small ones to the east of it. The Sukharev Tower became an important link in the transition to the architecture of modern times and the result of the development of ancient Russian architecture.

Tower functions

In 1701-1715, the astronomical observatory of Ya.V. Bruce and the School of Navigation and Mathematical Sciences. Subsequently, the building was transferred to the Moscow office of the Admiralty Collegium, which began to use it as a warehouse. During the reign of Peter I, subscribed foreign actors performed comedies here.

In 1829-1890, the tower housed the reservoirs of the Mytishchi water supply system. In 1926, the Moscow Communal Museum began to work in the building. Eight years later, in connection with the reconstruction of the square of the same name, the Sukharevskaya tower was demolished, as it interfered with tram and car traffic.

Legends

In the nineteenth century, every guest of the capital considered it his duty to pray in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, to visit the Ivan the Great bell tower and the Sukharev tower. The structure is shrouded in many legends. Almost all the secrets of the Sukharev Tower are somehow connected with Ya.V. Bruce - a faithful ally of Peter I and the author of the Brusov calendar, which for two hundred years was the main Russian agricultural reference book. Legends say that meetings of the secret society "Neptune" (the society of Russian freemasons) were held in the rapier hall, while Bruce himself was called a warlock or a sorcerer from the Sukharev Tower.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the dungeons of the Sukharev Tower were thoroughly investigated - as a result, several underground passages were discovered, directed towards Bruce's estate.

The Sukharevskaya tower was built in 1692-95 on the site of the old wooden Sretensky gates of the Zemlyanoy city (at the intersection of the Garden Ring and Sretenka Street). The tower was built on the initiative of Peter I according to the project of the architect M.I. Choglokova. The tower was named in honor of Lavrenty Sukharev, whose rifle regiment was at the end. XVII century guarded the Sretensky gate. In 1689, Peter fled from his sister, Princess Sophia, to the Sergius Lavra, and Sukharev's regiment defended Peter. In gratitude, the tsar ordered to build on the site of the old gate a new stone one with a clock. Later, the building of this gate housed the naval "navigation" school, and then the Moscow office of the Admiralty Board.

After the construction of the first tiers of the tower in 1692–1693, a small wooden chapel in honor of the Iverskaya Icon of the Mother of God was added to the north, attributed to the Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery, and in 1755 the Iverskaya wooden chapel was replaced by a stone one. It was a small rectangular structure. In the 1870s. under the direction of the architect A.L. Auber went through the restoration of the tower. The chapel was dismantled in 1883 "because of the inconvenient arrangement and location" and moved to the western part of the first floor of the tower. Adjacent to it were two cells located behind the iconostasis. Nothing is known about the decoration of the chapel.

Since April 1700, the tower passed into the possession of the Naval Navigation School, and the history of the school is closely connected with the name of Yakov Vilimovich Bruce (1670-1735), the most educated man of his time, astrologer, mathematician, engineer, geographer, botanist, artilleryman, meteorologist, collector of rarities. The tower originally contained a variety of instruments and outlandish things - astronomical and navigational instruments, a copper globe brought to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from Holland, an old library, in a special shed near the tower - a "mashkerad ship", on which the tsar traveled around Moscow after making peace with Sweden ... After the next “great fire”, Peter and Bruce discussed the future structure of Moscow, and it is to him that we owe the 12-ray zodiacal structure of Moscow.

In the years 1698-1701. the gates were rebuilt in the form in which they reached the beginning. XX century, with a high, hipped-roofed tower in the center, similar to the Western European town hall. After the Patriotic War of 1812, a cast-iron reservoir of the Mytishchi water pipeline for 6.5 thousand buckets was built in the Sukharev Tower, from where water was supplied to the central part of the city to the water-folding fountains.

M.Yu. Lermontov wrote about the tower in his Panorama of Moscow: “... On a steep mountain, strewn with low houses, among which only a wide white wall of some boyar's house can be seen occasionally, there rises a quadrangular, gray, fantastic bulk - the Sukharev Tower. She proudly looks at the surroundings, as if she knows that the name of Peter is inscribed on her mossy brow! Her gloomy physiognomy, her gigantic dimensions, her resolute forms, everything keeps the imprint of another century, the imprint of that formidable power, which nothing could resist. "

In 1925-34. the tower housed the exposition of the Moscow Communal Museum. The head of the museum in those years was P.V. Sytin, who compiled one of the most detailed descriptions of the Sukharev Tower.

Despite the protests of many famous architects and historians, the Sukharevskaya Tower was demolished in 1934 in connection with the reconstruction of the square. Stalin was directly involved in making this decision.

On August 17, 1933, the newspaper "Rabochaya Moskva" published an article "Demolition of the Sukharev Tower", which said that on August 19, construction organizations would begin to demolish the tower. On August 28, the famous painter I.E. Grabar, academician of architecture I.A. Fomin and academician of architecture I.V. Zholtovsky sent I.V. A letter to Stalin, in which they pointed out the erroneousness of the decision made and promised to develop their own project for the reconstruction of Sukharevskaya Square. “The Sukharev Tower,” they wrote, “is an unfading example of the great art of building, known to the whole world and equally highly valued everywhere. We strongly object to the destruction of a highly talented work of art, which is tantamount to the destruction of a painting by Raphael. ” September 4 L.M. Kaganovich stated that the tower dispute is an example of a bitter class struggle in architecture. On September 18, 1933, Stalin and Voroshilov sent a telegram to Kaganovich: “We studied the issue of the Sukharev Tower and came to the conclusion that it must be demolished. Architects opposed to demolition are blind and hopeless. " On March 16, 1934, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) agreed with the proposal of the Moscow Committee to demolish the Sukharev tower and the Kitaygorodskaya wall. On April 17, K.F. Yuon, A.V. Shchusev, A.M. Efros, I. Grabar, I. Zholtovsky, I. Fomin and others, but Stalin refused. The tower was demolished and at the suggestion of Kaganovich on October 25, 1934 Sukharevskaya square. was renamed to Kolkhoznaya. A memorial sign was installed in the square.

V.A. Gilyarovsky described the demolition in a letter to his daughter: “They are breaking it. First of all, they took off her watch and will use it for some other tower, and then they broke off the porch, knocked down the spire, dismantled the upper floors brick by brick, and not today or tomorrow they will break her slender pink figure. Still pink as it was! Yesterday was a sunny evening, a bright sunset from the side of the Triumphal Gate gilded Sadovaya from below and scattered in the dying remains like a glow.
Eerie something! Crimson, red,
Sun illuminated by a sunset ray,
Turned into a pile of living ruins,
I still see her yesterday -
A proud beauty, a pink tower ... "

During the dismantling of the Sukharev Tower, one of the frames of the double windows on the third floor was preserved and moved to the Donskoy Monastery, where it was embedded in the arcade of the monastery wall. The clock from the tower is currently installed in the tower of the Front Gate of the Moscow estate Kolomenskoye. The foundations of the tower, which were not destroyed during the demolition, also survived, but are currently hidden by the square. In 2006, during the construction of the underground passages, partial excavations and study of the foundations were carried out.

The tower can be seen in the 1928 silent film House on Trubnaya

As in any city, there are legends in Moscow associated with this or that building. One of these buildings is the Sukharev Tower, sometimes called the sorcerer's tower. Once there was the outskirts of the city, so it was decided to build a wooden tower for security. At the time of Peter I, it was rebuilt from stone. It was home to Peter's ally, popularly known as a warlock, Jacob Bruce. There were various rumors about this a little strange, but intelligent man. It was rumored that he had magical powers and knew how to heal the sick, and also more than once unlocked doors that were locked with the help of some unknown forces. Most of all, the rumor was that he hid his countless treasures in the Sukharev Tower.

The name of the building is also overgrown with legends. It was believed that she was so named in honor of Lavrenty Sukharev, colonel of Petrov's streltsy army, who remained loyal to him during the streltsy revolt in 1689. But historians consider this version unlikely. Most likely, the tower was named so because it and the Sretensky Gate were guarded by the Sukharev regiment.

The appearance of the building was pseudo-Gothic, and in this regard, there are also many myths circulating. One of them says that the architect of the Sukharev tower was the emperor himself, who wanted to give the structure a semblance of a ship. According to another version, the German Franz Lefort participated in the project, who made the tower an exact copy of the town hall in one of the German cities. In 1700, the Sukharevskaya Tower was transferred to the Navigation School. New tiers were completed with a rapier hall, an observatory for astronomical observations and classrooms. It was here that the midshipmen studied, who became the prototype of the heroes of the film "Midshipmen, forward!". The history of this school is inseparable from the legends about the first Masonic lodge in Russia.

After the revolution in 1919, the Sukharev tower was rebuilt as a museum. In 1934, it was demolished in connection with the reconstruction of Sukharevskaya Square, aimed at improving the car traffic in the capital. I. Stalin took part in making the decision. The scientific and artistic community of Moscow opposed the demolition, arguing that the object is of great historical value. But the authorities did not listen to the scientists. The people explained this by the fact that in the process of dismantling the building they hoped to find the treasure of the "black sorcerer" (but they never found anything). The old tower was destroyed, Sukharevskaya Square was renamed Kolkhoznaya.

In the process of dismantling the structure, one double window frame was saved - now it is in. The tower clock also survived - it is installed. And the foundation of the Sukharev Tower is intact, but it is hidden under the surface of the square. Some Muscovites claim that on the site of the legendary tower on Sretenka Street, a ghost sometimes appears in the form of a warlock who wants to see his home, but cannot find it.

Address: Sukharevskaya square

The Sukharev Tower, also called the Sukharev Tower, was built in Moscow in 1692-1695 on the site of the old wooden Sretensky Gates of the Zemlyanoy City. To be more precise, then they decided to rebuild the Sretensky Gate from stone, and strengthened them with a battle tower. The gate was located at the intersection of the present Garden Ring with Sretenka Street.

The Sukharev Tower has become a unique structure, the only one of its kind in the whole of Russia. The tower, along with the Kremlin and its cathedrals, with the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed and Christ the Savior, was a symbol of Moscow until 1934.

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov in 1834, a hundred years before the Sukharev tower was destroyed, wrote about it in the "Panorama of Moscow": "... On a steep mountain strewn with low houses, among which only a wide white wall of some boyar at home, a quadrangular, gray-gray, fantastic bulk - the Sukharev Tower rises. She proudly looks at the surroundings, as if she knows that the name of Peter is inscribed on her mossy brow! Her gloomy physiognomy, her gigantic dimensions, her decisive forms, everything keeps the imprint of another century that formidable power, which nothing could resist. "

Indeed, the Sukharev Tower was gigantic for Moscow at that time, it seemed to hang over the nearby quarters, being one of the architectural dominants of the city. Since the tower was built on the site of the Sretensky Gate, it retained their main function - the Northern Gate of Moscow, from where the road to Yaroslavl began. Ahead of the events, we can say that during the years of the October Revolution, the Sukharev Tower became one of the strongholds of the revolutionaries, from here the Red Guards fired at the cadets in the square from two machine guns.

The Sukharev Tower was so unusual that it immediately overgrown with many legends and traditions. There was an opinion that the project of the tower was developed by the Emperor Peter I. In fact, the author of the tower was Mikhail Choglokov. Perhaps he erected the tower, guided by some instructions from Peter or according to his sketches. Mikhail Ivanovich Choglokov was not only a talented architect, but also a painter. It is known that he painted battle banners, was the author of frescoes in the royal chambers.

The architectural style of the Sukharev Tower was a symbiosis of Lombard and Gothic. The tower's strength was colossal, and an unusually deep foundation served as the main guarantee of this strength. Several centuries after the construction of the Sukharev Tower, when water pipes were laid at the location of the foundation, the builders could not reach the base of the foundation. The total height of the Sukharev Tower was 60 meters, and the people called it the bride of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The tower housed the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, the savior of Moscow in the war of 1612.

According to researchers, the Sukharev tower was not just built on the model of Western European town halls, but, rather, was arranged as an allegorical ship with a mast. The eastern part of the tower symbolized the bow of the ship, and the western one - the stern. Therefore, knowing about Peter I's predilection for everything related to the fleet, it can be assumed that he really participated in the development of the tower project. In the likeness of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, the Sukharev Tower was decorated with a clock, and was crowned with a two-headed eagle. The image of the eagle was unconventional, its strong legs were surrounded by arrows, perhaps they symbolized lightning.

The Sukharev Tower became the first civil construction of this scale in Russia. Before her appearance, only church bell towers were built so high. One of the legends of the tower says that a day before the entry of Napoleon's troops into Moscow, a hawk was flying over the Sukharev Tower with its paws entangled in a rope. Clinging to the wings of an eagle, the hawk fought for a long time, trying to break free, but lost his strength and died. Muscovites interpreted this event as a good omen, deciding that Bonaparte, like a hawk, would die from the wings of a Russian eagle.

But all this will happen much later. And at first, the tower served as a regimental hut, in which Colonel Sukharev's archers were housed, guarding the Sretensky Gate. Actually, the name of the tower originated from the name of Sukharev. It is known that the regiment of Lavrenty Sukharev was the only one of the nine rifle regiments that remained loyal to the young sovereign, and came to his defense in August 1698, in the days of the confrontation between Peter I and his half-sister Sophia.

After Peter suppressed the Streletsky revolt, Sukharev's regiment was disbanded along with other regiments. From 1700 to 1715, the famous mathematical and navigation school worked in the tower. The school became the first higher specialized educational institution in Russia and the first naval school, the progenitor of the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy.

The military leader, astronomer, chemist, engineer and diplomat Jacob Bruce headed the navigation school. On one of the last floors of the Sukharev Tower, he organized an astronomical observatory. Count Jacob Bruce led a rather secluded lifestyle, which is why his personality was shrouded in mystery during his lifetime, he was even considered a sorcerer-warlock. Most of the legends of the Sukharev Tower are associated with the name of Bruce. The most famous of them is about the "black book" hidden at the base of the building, consisting of seven wooden tablets with incomprehensible letters. It was rumored that anyone lucky enough to find this book would acquire unlimited power over the world. Fearing that the book would fall into the wrong hands after his death, Bruce seemed to walled it up somewhere in a tower.

Then, for a long time, the Sukharevskaya Tower was under the jurisdiction of the Moscow office of the Admiralty Collegium. The warehouses of the Baltic Fleet and the Arkhangelsk port were located here. In 1829, a reservoir of the Mytishchi water pipeline was built from cast-iron slabs in the Sukharev tower, which could hold 7,000 buckets of water. So the tower became a water tower. In 1854, the volume of the reservoir was increased. From the middle of the 19th century to the 1920s, the Sukharevskaya flea market, known throughout Moscow, opened trade at the foot of the tower on weekends. In the 1870s, the tower was restored; the work was supervised by the architect A.L. Aubert. Since 1925, the Moscow Communal Museum, which was the predecessor of the Museum of the History of Moscow, was located in the Sukharev Tower.

In 1931, it was decided to develop a plan for the General Reconstruction of Moscow, the implementation of which was to change the appearance of the Soviet capital, and its very essence. A completely new city was supposed to appear on the map - the center of the world proletarian revolution. In accordance with this plan, the systematic destruction of unique monuments of history and architecture began. In addition, an anti-religious campaign was gaining momentum, during which there were also many outstanding monuments of Orthodox culture.

All efforts of the new government were aimed at expanding the central part of the city. It was planned to create new transport routes, build high-rise buildings here, and to implement these projects it was necessary to vacate built-up areas. The Sukharev Tower, in the opinion of the country's leadership, interfered with the development of the movement on Sukharevskaya Square, and should have disappeared from the face of Moscow. Ordinary Muscovites could not support the old tower, but prominent cultural figures attempted to save the Sukharev Tower. In August 1933, the famous artist and art critic I.E. Grabar, academician of architecture I.A.Fomin and academician of architecture I.V. Zholtovsky wrote a collective letter to J.V. Stalin, in which they tried to explain the erroneousness of the decision. They said that their opinion is not alone, but is shared by the entire scientific and cultural community, regardless of beliefs and tastes.

"The Sukharev Tower is an unfading example of the great construction art, known to the whole world and equally highly valued everywhere. Despite all the latest technological advances, it has not yet lost its enormous indicative and educational value for construction personnel." "We ... strongly object to the destruction of a highly talented work of art, tantamount to the destruction of a painting by Raphael. In this case, it is not about breaking an odious monument of the era of feudalism, but about the death of the great master's creative thought" - this is an excerpt from a letter to Stalin.

But the letter contained more than just a request. Its authors offered to develop a project for the reconstruction of Sretenskaya Square within a month, which would allow solving the transport problem while preserving the Sukharev Tower. In particular, it was proposed to cut through six arches in the lower part of the tower, through which to lay tram tracks, and direct the traffic and pedestrian flow. Together with the letter, an approximate timetable for the movement of vehicles on this section was also sent. At the same time, the same letter was sent to the first secretary of the Moscow Committee of the CPSU (b) L.M. Kaganovich.

A few days later, on September 4, at a meeting of Moscow communist architects, Kaganovich said that the dispute over the tower was the clearest example of a fierce class struggle in architecture. “I don’t enter into the essence of these arguments, perhaps we will leave the Sukharev Tower, but it’s characteristic that the case doesn’t manage with any overwhelming church, so that a protest on this matter is not written ... But do the communists create an atmosphere of sharp rebuff and public condemnation to such reactionary elements of architecture? " Be that as it may, Kaganovich agreed with the proposal of the architects, saying that if the reconstruction project is successful, the Sukharev Tower will remain on Sretenskaya Square.

But it so happened that Stalin himself was responsible for the demolition of the tower, and then nothing could be done about it. On September 18, 1933, a telegram from Stalin and Voroshilov came from Sochi to Kaganovich, which literally said the following: “We studied the issue of the Sukharev Tower and came to the conclusion that it must be demolished. We propose to demolish the Sukharev Tower and expand the movement. demolition, - are blind and hopeless. "In a response letter to Stalin, Kaganovich asked to postpone the demolition of the tower, as he gave the architects a promise to consider their projects." I did not promise that we are already abandoning the demolition ... wait, then, of course, I will organize the case faster, that is, now, without waiting for their project. "

Despite all the efforts of the defenders of the tower, on March 16, 1934, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved the proposal of the Moscow Party Committee to demolish the Sukharev Tower and Kitaygorodskaya Wall. The fate of the ancient Moscow monuments was decided. In response to this decision, on April 17, 1934, Honored Art Worker K.F. Yuon, Academician A.V.Shchusev, A.M. Efros addressed a collective letter to Stalin, who were also joined by the authors of the first letter I. Grabar, I. Zholtovsky, I. Fomin and others. The letter said: "Suddenly (after the question was, it seemed, was settled), they began to destroy the Sukharev tower. The spire has already been removed; the balustrades of the outer staircases are already being knocked down. The significance of this monument, a rare example of Peter's architecture, a magnificent landmark of historical Moscow, is undeniable and enormous. They are demolishing it for the sake of streamlining traffic ... We urgently ask you to urgently intervene in this matter, suspend the destruction of the Tower and propose to convene a meeting of architects, artists and art critics right now to consider other options for redeveloping this section of Moscow that will meet the needs of the growing traffic, but also will save a wonderful architectural monument ".

Stalin's answer came on April 22, 1934, and it was extremely unambiguous. "I received a letter with a proposal not to destroy the Sukharev Tower. The decision to destroy the tower was taken at the time by the Government. I personally think this decision is correct, believing that Soviet people will be able to create more majestic and memorable examples of architectural creativity than the Sukharev Tower, it is a pity that, despite all my respect for you, I am not able to render you a service in this case. Respectful Stalin. "

The destruction of the Sukharev tower proceeded quickly and methodically. There is another legend about its destruction. It was said that Stalin, like many tyrants, had a penchant for mysticism and wanted to find Bruce's book. That is why it was ordered to dismantle the tower brick by brick, and then, when nothing was found, in anger, he ordered to blow up the remains of the building. In fact, this story is hardly true, in those years, architectural monuments were often dismantled, and then streets were paved with old bricks, or they were allowed to build new houses.

The chronology of barbarism remained in the newspapers of that time. You can trace them. How one of the symbols of Moscow, the Sukharev Tower, gradually disappeared:

April 19, 1934 - the top 6 meters of the Sukharev tower have already been dismantled. The dismantling of the main granite staircase was also completed.

April 29, 1934 - yesterday the analysis of the prism (upper part) of the Sukharev Tower was completed. The demolition of the main building began.

May 24, 1934 - the dismantling of the Sukharev tower ends. The work plan was fulfilled by more than 80%.

The famous journalist and Moscow scholar Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was an eyewitness to the events, who wrote in a letter to his daughter: “It is being broken. floors and not today or tomorrow will break her slender pink figure. Still pink as it was! Yesterday was a sunny evening, a bright sunset from the side of the Triumphal Gate gilded Sadovaya from below and crumbled into the dying remains like a glow. " He added these words with his poems:

"Something terrible! Crimson, red,
Sun illuminated by a sunset ray,
Turned into a pile of living ruins,
I still see her yesterday -
A proud beauty, a pink tower ... "

So, June 12, 1934 - on the night of June 11, work on the demolition of the Sukharev Tower was completed. It was believed that this was done for the benefit of the city and Muscovites. After the tower was destroyed, Sukharevskaya Square was renamed Kolkhoznaya Square at the suggestion of Kaganovich.

During the dismantling of the Sukharev Tower, the casing of one of the double windows on the third floor was preserved. He was transported to the Donskoy Monastery, where a branch of the State Museum of Architecture worked at that time. There he was walled into the arcade of the monastery wall. This platband has survived to this day, but access to it is limited, since this section of the wall is located in an area closed to visitors. The clock of the Sukharev Tower has also survived; it is installed on the Front Gate of the Kolomenskoye Estate Museum.

The unusually strong foundations of the Sukharev Tower were not destroyed during the demolition, they are hidden under the Sukharevskaya Square. In 1982, the Moscow Executive Committee announced a competition for the best project to restore the Sukharev Tower, but as a result, not a single proposal was accepted. In 2006, when underground passages were laid under Sukharevskaya Square, partial excavations and studies of the foundations were carried out, as the commemorative plaque says.

The Sukharev Tower is often mentioned both in literary works and on the canvases of painters. It can be seen on the canvas by A. Savrasov, painted in 1872, which is called the Sukharev Tower. In the famous novel by Ilf and Petrov, The Golden Calf, the convention of the children of Lieutenant Schmidt was signed in a tavern located at the Sukharev Tower. And in the story of science fiction writer Kir Bulychev "News of the Future Century" at the end of the 21st century, the Sukharev Tower will be restored ...

History reference:

1692-1695 - Sukharev Tower was built on the site of the old wooden Sretensky Gates of the Earthen City
1700-1715 - a mathematical and navigation school worked in the tower
1715-1829 - was under the jurisdiction of the Moscow office of the Admiralty Collegium
1829 - Sukharev tower began to be used as a water tower
1870s - the tower was restored
1925-1934 - for years the Moscow Communal Museum was located in the Sukharev Tower, which was the predecessor of the Museum of the History of Moscow
April 19, 1934 - work began on the demolition of the Sukharev Tower in Moscow
June 11, 1934 - work on the demolition of the Sukharev tower was completed Kaganovich was renamed Kolkhoznaya.