What monument was blown up in 1931. “The explosion of the Cathedral of the Savior was the highest degree of humiliation of the Russian people

The manifesto on the construction of the church was signed by Alexander I on December 25, 1812, when the last Napoleonic soldiers left Russia: to commemorate Our gratitude to the Providence of God, which saved Russia from the death that threatened her, We set out to create a church in the name of the Savior Christ in Our Moscow City, a detailed decree of which will be announced in due time. "

An international open competition, however, was held only two years later. The winner was the project of 28-year-old Karl Vitberg, not even an architect by education, moreover, a Lutheran. However, for the sake of approving the project, he converted to Orthodoxy. His project was three times the size of the current temple, with a pantheon of the deceased, a colonnade of 600 captured cannons and other impressive details. It was supposed to be placed on Vorobyovy Gory, where one of the suburban royal residences used to be located. A huge amount was allocated for all this: 16 million rubles from the treasury plus donations from the people.

Alas, Vitberg underestimated the peculiarities of the national construction. He did not have the experience of a manager, he did not carry out proper control, he filled out the outfits with a pencil, he treated contractors trustingly.

As a result, even the zero cycle was not completed in seven years, and the commission later counted the waste of almost a million rubles.

Vitberg was sent into exile in Vyatka "for abuse of the emperor's trust and for the damage done to the treasury." And according to the official version, they refused to build a temple on Vorobyovy Gory due to the insufficient reliability of the soil.

Nicholas I, who had ascended the throne by that time, decided not to hold any competitions, but simply to appoint Konstantin Ton as the architect of the temple, buy buildings on Chertolye (Volkhonka) and demolish them for the temple. At the same time, the Alekseevsky nunnery, located there, was also demolished, including a unique two-tent temple. By the way, in the new version of the HHS, the Transfiguration Church was built in memory of the monastery.

The solemn laying of the cathedral took place on the day of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino - in August 1837, and active construction began only two years later and lasted almost 44 years. The total cost of the temple has reached almost 15 million rubles. It is noteworthy that the main patronal holiday of the Church of Nativity of Christ until 1917 was celebrated by Orthodox Moscow as the holiday of Victory in the Patriotic War of 1812.

Contemporaries were critical of the temple. So, the artist Vasily Vereshchagin believed that the project of the cathedral, executed by the "rather mediocre architect Ton", "is a direct reproduction of the famous Taj Mahal in the city of Agra." And in his article "Two Worlds in Old Russian Icon Painting" published in 1916, Yevgeny Trubetskoy wrote:

"One of the largest monuments of costly nonsense is the Cathedral of the Savior - it's like a huge samovar around which patriarchal Moscow has gathered complacently."

Temple to the trash

In 1931 it became clear that the church would not celebrate its centenary. On June 16, a resolution of the Committee for Cult Affairs under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee appeared: “In view of the allotment of the site on which the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located, for the construction of the Palace of Soviets, the indicated temple should be liquidated and demolished. Instruct the Presidium of the Moscow Oblast Executive Committee to liquidate (close) the church within a ten-day period ... The petition of the OGPU economic department to wash off the gold and the petition for the construction of the Palace of Soviets for the transfer of building material should be submitted to the secretariat of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

On July 13, 1931, a meeting of the USSR Central Executive Committee was held under the chairmanship of Kalinin. At this meeting, it was decided: "The site for the construction of the Palace of Soviets to choose the area of ​​the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow with the demolition of the temple itself and with the necessary expansion of the area."

On July 18, Izvestia published a decree on the competition for the design of the Palace of Soviets, and literally the next day, urgent work began to dismantle the church. Sheets of the roof cladding and domes were thrown down, breaking the cladding and sculptures, the cross thrown from the temple did not fall, but got stuck in the reinforcement of the dome. But the work was progressing too slowly, so it was decided to blow up the temple. On December 5, 1931, two explosions were carried out - after the first explosion, the temple survived. According to the recollections of witnesses, powerful explosions were felt at a distance of several blocks. Yuri Gagarin later, at one of the plenums of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, called the temple "a victim of a barbaric attitude towards the memory of the past."

It took almost a year and a half only to dismantle the ruins of the temple left after the explosion.

The metro stations "Kropotkinskaya" and "Okhotny Ryad" were laid out with marble from the church, the benches were decorated with the station "Novokuznetskaya".

Some of the slabs with the names of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 were crumbled and scattered on the paths in Moscow parks, and some were used to decorate city buildings.

Meanwhile, Boris Iofan's project won the competition - he planned to build a building 420 m high, thereby overtaking the tallest building in the world at that time, the Empire State Building (381 m). The palace was to be crowned with a huge statue of Lenin. According to the architect's calculations, the building should be visible 35 km away.

The main construction began in 1937, and already in 1939 the foundation was laid for the high-rise part, the main entrance and seven floors of one of the sides (facing Volkhonka). For the construction of the palace, a special steel grade was made - DS, the most durable at that time in the USSR. However, already in September-October 1941, the metal structures prepared for installation were used to manufacture anti-tank hedgehogs for the defense of the capital. After the occupation of Donbass in 1942, only the constructed part of the palace had to be dismantled. Steel structures were used for the construction of an overpass on the Volokolamsk highway and for the superstructure of the Kerch bridge.

After the end of the war, it was decided to focus on rebuilding the country, and the project was first frozen and then completely closed.

The Palace of the Soviets metro station, which opened in 1935, was renamed Kropotkinskaya in 1957, so now we are reminded of the unrealized project only by the Kremlin gas station on Volkhonka (the gas station was one of the elements of the palace) and the panel-bas-relief at the entrance to the building Northern river station.

In 1960, an outdoor swimming pool "Moscow" appeared on the site of the cathedral, which existed until 1994. The pool was open all year round and has become an integral part of the memories of many townspeople. “Imagine: dark Moscow, a pool illuminated by floodlights, steam above the water, icicles on the head, and the smell of caramel and chocolate comes from the Red October,” said Archpriest Alexei Uminsky.

There were many legends about the Moskva pool. In particular, they talked about some drowners who used a curtain of steam in winter, grabbed the swimmers by the heel and held them under water until they were flooded. Thus, they allegedly took revenge on innocent people for the destruction of the temple. It was also said that the image of the demolished temple dawned over the water at night. Well, the Muscovites began to joke on this topic: "First there was a temple, then - rubbish, and now - disgrace."

The curse of the abbess

In April 1988, an initiative group was organized in Moscow for the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Almost a year later, the group grew into an Orthodox community and organized its own "popular referendum" for the revival of the church. On the anniversary of the destruction, December 5, 1990, a granite foundation stone was installed, two years later the foundation for the construction of the temple appeared, and the construction itself began in 1994 and was completed in a record three years.

On the reconstruction of the temple, according to the information on the website, “a little more than four billion denominated rubles was spent.

This includes all costs - from the preparation of the construction site and the dismantling of the Moskva pool to the operating costs incurred by the foundation of the temple since 1998. The share of expenses for the reconstruction of the artistic decoration of the temple amounted to just over one billion rubles. "

Yuri Luzhkov, who was then the mayor of Moscow, recalled the construction of the temple in the following way: “In the center of Moscow, the dump was depressing, which turned into a pit in the drained pool“ Moscow ”. Under it was the foundation of the Palace of the Soviets. The question arose: what to do with him? I took the archival materials and saw a grand platform on 128 piles driven into the rock foundation. The idea arose about the revival of the Cathedral of Christ on this foundation. "

Having received consent to the project of Patriarch Alexy II, the mayor's office turned to President Boris Yeltsin. He, according to Luzhkov, supported the project, but said that there was no money in the budget for it. “I answered: we will try to collect donations, many people want to recreate the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, expresses a desire for business to contribute funds. Yeltsin easily agreed. He had no time for the temple, ”the ex-mayor recalls. Suddenly, when the temple was almost completed, Luzhkov, according to him, was called by Yeltsin himself and asked "not to rush to the completion of the temple," to which the mayor told him: "This is not in my power."

However, the haste did not affect the appearance of the temple in the best way. Until 2010, the temple was decorated with copies of medallions made of white composite material, only then they were replaced with bronze ones. The high-reliefs also became bronze, which contradicts the original with marble compositions, six of which can still be viewed in the Donskoy Monastery. On the site of the temple, however, they explain this: the high reliefs were originally supposed to be bronze, but there was not enough money for them then, so the sculptures were made from cheap Protopop's limestone dolomite, which had already collapsed by 1910. How the original sculptures made of cheap and rapidly decaying material survived until 2016 is not reported on the website.

The painting of the interiors of the temple, carried out by the artists recommended by Zurab Tsereteli, and the replacement of the white stone cladding with a marble one, and the fact that instead of gilding the roofs of the roofs (except for the domes) were covered with a composition based on titanium nitride, was also criticized. All this led to a change in the color scheme of the facade from a warm to a colder one.

The structure of the temple has also changed: it became two-level, and the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior appeared in the basement level.

“There is a legend that the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Claudia, cursed this place. They say that everything that is built here will not stand for a long time.

The abbess's curse seemed absolute. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up. The Palace of the Soviets was not completed at all, the structures already installed were demolished, - said Luzhkov. - I got an idea: to build below, on the foundation of the Palace of Soviets, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in order to receive the abbess's forgiveness for the sacrilege of the 19th century, the forced destruction of her temple and convent by our ancestors, - said Yuri Luzhkov. - Therefore, there are now actually two churches. The upper, in fact, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior itself, restored in the form that Ton created it, and the lower one - of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in honor of the female Alekseevsky monastery that stood here earlier ”.

Protection with God's help

Now the temple performs not only religious functions. Under the temple there is a two-level guarded underground parking for 305 cars with a car wash. “Thanks to the modern air conditioning system, an optimal microclimate for storing cars is constantly maintained. A modern security system and a well-functioning security service allow us to be legally responsible for the safety of our clients' cars that are in our custody, ”the website of the church foundation says.

The church also has its own dry-cleaner-laundry, which is engaged in both cleaning the vestments of clergymen and washing secular robes. Security is monitored by its own private security company "Kolokol", which also offers services for the protection of other facilities. “Employees of the security company have extensive experience in ensuring the on-site regime, protecting material values, ensuring public order and security during mass events, as well as using technical means in carrying out security activities,” the fund's website says.

In the dining room "Refectory" it is proposed to arrange banquets, including those with lenten dishes, there is a conference hall, a gallery and a Hall of Church Cathedrals in the temple, where in the near future, judging by the poster, concerts of Vika Tsyganova, Lyudmila Senchina, Dmitry Pevtsov and the singer will take place Juliana.

But other concerts in the temple, to put it mildly, are not welcome.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior became world famous on February 21, 2012, when the members of the punk-rock group Pussy Riot performed what they called a "punk prayer".

They tried to sing the song "Mother of God, drive Putin away!" in front of the entrance to the altar of the temple. Two girls were sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a general regime correctional colony for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The participants also introduced a fashion for balaclavas, enriched the Russian language with the word "blasphemers", and the Criminal Code - with an article "for insulting the feelings of believers."

85 years ago, on December 5, 1931, it was blown up. According to legend, the destruction of the temple was prophesied by the abbess of the Alekseevsky monastery, which was in this place until the middle of the 19th century. In connection with the construction of the church, the monastery moved to Krasnoe Selo. Leaving, the abbess exclaimed: "There will be no temple here!"

It is difficult to say whether this is true or fiction, but since the restoration of the temple began in the early 1990s, many have recalled and continue to recall the words of the abbess and often interpret them as a curse. According to one version (and such stories are always presented in several versions), the abbess categorically objected to the relocation of the monastery, tried to convince the authorities that it was impossible to break the prayed walls, and when it was not possible to convince, she publicly cursed this place. Keeper of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev trusts more the other version, according to which the abbess had the gift of perspicacity and knew what terrible turmoil awaited Russia in the near future. According to this version, she uttered the following words: "Poor man, he won't be standing here for long." The temple really only stood for 50 years.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Built by the architect Konstantin Ton in 1837-1883. The main throne is consecrated in honor of the Nativity of Christ

Projects and plans

Initially, it was planned to build a temple on the site of the temple that was blown up in 1931. The Great Patriotic War prevented the project from being implemented. In 1960, a huge open-air pool was opened on the site of the temple. For more than thirty years, millions of people have visited the Moskva swimming pool, not even suspecting that they are bathing at the site of a destroyed shrine.

With the approach of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, proposals began to come in to build a monument to the destroyed church. “I proposed to make a spatial metal frame that would trace the silhouette of the lost temple in the air, and completely recreate the Royal Doors in the form of an octagonal chapel,” recalls architect Andrey Anisimov(for over 20 years he has been designing, building and restoring churches throughout the country and abroad).

Withdrawal of church valuables from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The artist and architect Yuri Seliverstov (1940-1990) submitted for discussion a project in which the temple was recreated in full size in the same place, but not of stone, but in the form of a shining frame made of light gilded pipes, exactly repeating all the lines of the cathedral.

Back in 1992, art critic Aleksey Klimenko suggested placing three laser cannons around the pool perimeter, making slides with the temple's iconography, and using a laser to recreate its holographic image in the evening. He even showed this project at a contemporary art exhibition at the bottom of the already closed Moskva swimming pool.

Provincial Moscow from a bird's eye view

Construction or renovation?

In 1988, an exhibition of projects of a monument in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory was held in the Manezh. The sculptor Vladimir Mokrousov presented a temple ensemble with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the center. All projects, including this one, were rejected, and a memorial was built on Poklonnaya Gora designed by Zurab Tsereteli, but like-minded people reached out to Mokrousov, and soon an initiative group of believers was formed, advocating the restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The community was registered, led by Archpriest Georgy Dokukin, who at that time served in the All-Sorrowful Church on Bolshaya Ordynka. On September 22, 1989, on the day of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the temple, the Fund for the Restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was established in the editorial office of the Literaturnaya Rossiya newspaper. The writer Vladimir Soloukhin became the chairman of the board of the fund, and many other cultural figures and scientists, including the composer Georgy Sviridov, were included in the membership. In April 1997, Vladimir Soloukhin was given a funeral service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This was the first funeral service in the still unfinished church. Less than a year later, the newly reposed servant of God George was buried there - Sviridov died on January 6, 1998.

Demolition of the temple in 1931

On July 16, 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree "On the establishment of a fund for the revival of Moscow", in which he identified objects for construction and reconstruction. In the first place was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But only on May 31, 1994, the Moscow government, in agreement with the Moscow Patriarchate, adopted a resolution to begin the restoration of the church. Today Yuri Luzhkov recalls the initial stage of construction with some pride. “I knew that after the explosion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the foundation was laid on this place for the Palace of Soviets, and I asked specialists to study how strong this foundation is,” the former Moscow mayor told NS. - Also, at my request, architects Mikhail Posokhin and Igor Pokrovsky checked what documentation for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was preserved in the archives. On the foundation, I was informed that it would withstand any structure. The documentation for the temple, as it turned out, was preserved in full, and elaborated to the smallest detail - the author of the project, the architect Konstantin Ton, was pedantic in German. And I realized that the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (exactly the reconstruction, not the construction of a new one!) Is not a utopia, but a completely feasible, albeit difficult, task. We made this proposal to the Patriarch. He supported the idea, and we included the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the list of construction and reconstruction projects for the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow. "

“Seeing the pace of construction, Yeltsin once called me and said:“ Yuri Mikhailovich, take your time, ”continues Yuri Mikhailovich. - I was stunned: “Boris Nikolaevich, what are you talking about? After all, this is our common task! The people are waiting for us to complete the work on the temple! ” He repeated: "Do not hurry!" - "But why?" “I said what I said,” he answered and hung up. On December 31, 1999, His Holiness performed a minor consecration of the church. It began at 12 noon, and this second per second coincided with the moment when Boris Nikolayevich announced his resignation to the people. What a mystical coincidence! "

Not a masterpiece

It took 44 years to build the temple in the 19th century, and. The debate about whether it was necessary to restore the temple continues to this day. At the same time, many are convinced that in 1931 the Bolsheviks blew up an architectural masterpiece, but the "remake" is far from perfect. Indeed, according to most experts, the reconstructed temple is not a masterpiece. But the one that was built according to the project of Ton was never considered an example of architecture.

"We build for centuries." Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II and other clergy inspect the interior facing of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under construction

“This is the architecture of the transition period - the search for the Russian style,” says Andrei Anisimov. "It leaves a lot to be desired."

“This is the embodiment of the imperial idea in such a heavy, low-expressive pseudo-Byzantine spirit. The temple corresponded to the ideology of that period - the second half of the 19th century ", - criticizes the temple from a completely different position art critic Alexey Klimenko.

It took more than forty years to build the temple in the 19th century, and four and a half years to rebuild it.

I largely agree with Klimenko architect Mikhail Filippov: “Ton designed the temple in the official Nikolaev style, in which nothing successful from the point of view of architecture could be done. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is absolutely not scaled. From so many points it seems that he is much closer than he really is. "

But there are other opinions as well. Archpriest Boris Mikhailov, rector of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin in Fili, Ph.D. in art history, considers Ton's project a success: “For the first time after the invasion of various architectural forms from Europe, an attempt was made to return to our church culture. The temple should be Heaven, the Kingdom of God. And the architecture of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior approached this ideal, which cannot be said about sculpture and icons - they did not correspond to the high level that church culture reached in the 15th-16th centuries. The temple was painted by great masters, but they did not create icons, but Catholic paintings on religious subjects. There are no complaints about contemporary artists - they simply reproduced these paintings. And the temple was recreated quite accurately. New premises have appeared, the lower temple, but they are below, not visible. The architecture of the temple has not changed. "

White stone high reliefs on the modern temple were replaced with bronze ones. This deviation from the original caused numerous complaints from experts. Nevertheless, the sculptor Zurab Tsereteli is confident in the correct choice of material: the bronze statues are much stronger than the previous ones, made of Protopop's limestone. The original compositions are today on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery

Mikhail Filippov also believes that the new temple is almost no different from the temple built according to Ton's project. He also highly appreciates the inner work: “The painting is exactly repeated. Memorial plaques of the war of 1812 are masterfully made. The stone work is better done than in the 19th century - amazing craftsmen worked. "

The only serious claim of many specialists to the reconstructed temple is the bronze high reliefs (in the old temple they were made of white stone). The book "The Cathedral of Christ the Savior", published in 2008, states that the former material - Protopop's limestone - was extremely fragile, and the old sculptures "suffered a huge amount of losses already at the beginning of the century: chipped hands, noses, small accessories, etc." ... Also, many experts consider the manufacture of domes from titanium nitrite instead of gold to be an unfortunate decision. President of the Academy of Arts sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, who directed all the artistic and sculptural work in the reconstructed temple, reacts calmly to such criticism: “I do not want to offend the creators of the former temple, but now is a completely different era. We repeated the plasticity, volume, architecture, but improved the quality. The nine-meter cross on the dome was breaking even before the explosion, because it was fragile. And we made it entirely of titanium, even chains - and it withstood when there was a hurricane. It was also important to make the frescoes durable. We did it for centuries - we created an air gap between the paintings and the main wall, so that now the paints do not suffer from temperature fluctuations. Modern technologies allow all this. We live in the 21st century. I remember how Patriarch Alexy II came to inspect the temple for the first time, opened the doors - and was amazed. He says that before it took 12 people to move these colossals. And now - automatic! "

The entire temple complex is the property of the city of Moscow, including the notorious underground garages. They are located in the part of the basement, not adjacent to the temple. Some local firms rent them for their employees. The proceeds go to the maintenance of the temple

Church is not a decree to the temple

Not many people understand the architectural intricacies, but there are things that are in full view of everyone. Non-church people often reproach believers for the fact that this or that event took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which is poorly compatible with the Christian faith. Their reproaches are not addressed - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior does not belong to the Church! Divine services are held there regularly, but the entire building is owned by the Moscow government. “This decision was made in agreement with the hierarchy,” explains Archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev, the priest of the church. - The operation requires a lot of funds, perhaps the Church on its own simply could not cope. Therefore, the maintenance of the temple complex was transferred to the trust management of the Foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The managers of the fund were appointed people who were far from the church tradition. At first they still listened to us, but then, apparently, they felt like masters. The main task of the foundation is to find material resources for the operation of the church - they solve it professionally, but, alas, sometimes they hold events that could not take place here if the church belonged to the Church. And the hall of church cathedrals was built exclusively with budget money, and it is even more the full property of the city. There is hope that the situation will change for the better. Recently, the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the church, headed by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, took place. Sergei Sobyanin was appointed co-chairman. I hope the Board of Trustees will be able to establish relations between the Church and the secular structures that are in the temple. So far, the executive director of the fund is accountable only for the budgetary funds that the city allocates to him. For everything else, no one asks him. And the presence of the Church in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is not determined by any document, even a formal one. "

Experts believe that the painting in the temple is reproduced quite accurately.

In the underground garages, for which many also reproach the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, according to Father Mikhail, there is no sedition. They are located in one of the parts of the basement, which is not adjacent to the temple. There are many offices on Kropotkinskaya, but there is nowhere to park, so some companies rent an underground parking lot from the Foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The proceeds are used for the operation of the church.

The former Cathedral of Christ the Savior was located on the banks of the Moskva River. After its destruction, a pit was dug for the planned Palace of the Soviets, then a pool was built in this pit. It was on the site of the foundation pit that the premises appeared that were not in the previous church. Including the lower temple, consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In the Alekseevsky monastery, which was here before the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the main temple was also the Transfiguration.

Just like others

On Christmas and Easter, Channel One broadcasts festive services from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Often, these services are attended by heads of state and other major politicians. In this regard, many are sure that an ordinary person cannot get here. Indeed, at Christmas and Easter, the entrance to the temple is limited. But on other days, the temple is open to everyone. More than a thousand people usually attend Sunday liturgy. Of these, about two hundred are parishioners. A big parish, considering that there are almost no residential buildings nearby: people come from the outskirts, and some also from the Moscow region. Someone came for Fr. Mikhail, who served in the Novodevichy Convent until 1994, someone came for other clergy (there are five priests and four deacons in the church staff), and some reached out for their children. For example, the head teacher of the Sunday school, Tatyana Yudina, brought her eight-year-old daughter to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Rather, Tatyana herself brought her daughter to the church - on an excursion, and the girl saw advertisements for recruitment to the younger group of the children's choir and asked to write her there. Tatiana began to go to church, help in Sunday school, and a year later moved here to a permanent job.

In 2004, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the relics of Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) of Moscow were transferred from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. St. Filaret took part in the design of the former temple, consecrated its foundation, but did not live to see the completion of the construction

And today the school is open to everyone. Sometimes grandmothers or godparents bring children from non-church families. They are accepted, although the Sunday school begins with the liturgy - this tradition developed back in the Novodevichy Convent, and Father Mikhail preserved it in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Today Sunday school consists of four children's groups and one adult. By the way, about a hundred people come to the classes of the adult group.

Due to the fact that the premises do not belong to the temple, not everything conceived can be realized. Among the parishioners there are those who could teach children painting and needlework. But at the temple there are no sections or circles. But all children, including those from the preparatory group, learn church singing. Regent Galina Alonzova works with them according to the system of mass music education by the famous teacher Georgy Struve. Like Struve, Galina is convinced that everyone has hearing, it just needs to be developed. Children sing twice a month at the Sabbath liturgy in the lower church. They also sing at the morning Easter service. A play is being prepared for Christmas. Plays are written by Galina Alonzova, another parishioner sews costumes and makes scenery. Usually the performance is staged at Christmas time. Children from orphanages and low-income families are invited. This year, 500 children and one and a half thousand parents came.

Shrines

Father Michael is convinced that without God's will there would be no church in this place. He also considers the return of the shrine from the old temple - the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands - a miracle. This image was brought to the construction site by the descendants of the Renovationist Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky. Since the 1920s, the temple belonged to the renovationists. According to Vvedensky's descendants, Lunacharsky summoned him and said: “It has been decided to blow up the temple. If you want, take something as a keepsake. " The image brought by Vvedensky was hidden and forgotten far away. Descendants stumbled upon him by accident when they were taking apart old things. “This image has been with us from the very beginning of construction. Is it not providential that the icon was found not earlier and not later, but precisely when the temple began to be recreated? " - says Father Michael. Today the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands is in the lower church.

On June 9, 1994, the relics of St. Philaret, which had previously been kept in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, were solemnly transferred to the church. Metropolitan Filaret was directly involved in the design of the former church, which is rarely remembered today. “You can always find disgruntled critics who do not distinguish between the main and the secondary,” says Father Mikhail. - A

Leonid VINOGRADOV

Exactly 76 years ago, on December 5, 1931, the Bolsheviks blew up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Volkhonka for the construction (fortunately, failed due to the war) in its place of a new, Soviet "temple" - a monstrously huge Palace of Soviets .

"Yesterday, most of the building of the former church on the square of the Palace of Soviets was demolished." Comrade Linkovsky, manager of the Dvoretsstroy trust, told us the following:

"Exactly at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the first explosion was heard: one of the pylons, on which the large dome of the building was held, collapsed. Half an hour later, another explosion brought down the second pylon, and another quarter of an hour later, and the rest. Subsequent explosions collapsed the inner walls and part of the outer ones. Remains buildings will be demolished in a few days.

A lot of preparatory work was done before the explosions. In particular, seismographic devices were installed around the building, which noted the slightest vibrations of the soil: special "canopies" were arranged to protect against possible scattering of fragments. As a result - not a single accident.

The building material (brick, facing stone) remained mostly intact; it will be used on various buildings. The other day "Dvoretsstroy" starts to remove bricks and facing stone from the square of the Palace of Soviets. It is supposed to finish all this work in 2 months. At the beginning of February next year, the area of ​​the Palace of Soviets will be cleared. "

Explosion of the Cathedral of the Savior, 1931
in a few hours, what had been created for almost half a century was destroyed:

Memoirs of cameraman V. Mikoshi, filming the demolition of the KhHS:

“The first time I saw a golden dome shining like the sun was long before the appearance of Moscow, where I was traveling by train to take exams to the university.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior! - said the elderly woman, who was standing next to the window, and crossed herself. The temple dominated the city and, together with Ivan the Great, created the main silhouette of Moscow.

After 3 years, I managed to shoot through the float of an amphibious aircraft far below, on the banks of the Moskva River, the Cathedral of Christ. Then I was the operator of the Newsreel. Now I hold this picture in my hands and cannot believe that there is a big puddle in its place.

I go back almost 60 years ago. In the middle of the summer of 1931 I was summoned by the director of Newsreel V. Iosilevich.

I decided to entrust you, Mikosha, with a very serious job! It will only be better if you talk less about it! Understood? There is an instruction from above! - and he raised his index finger above his head. Looking very closely into my eyes, he said:

Ordered to demolish the temple of Christ. You will shoot! It seemed to me that he himself did not believe in such a monstrous order. I don't know why, I suddenly asked him a question:
- And what, Isaac in Leningrad will also be demolished?
- I do not think! But I don’t know! I don’t know ... So, - from tomorrow you will be watching the film disassembly, filming as detailed and detailed as possible all the work from the fence to the very end, understand? "Do not spare patrons." As you understand - this is for a long time, I hope for you! No fluff!

When I said at home that they would demolish the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, my mother did not believe it.

It can't be! It adorns our Moscow - it shines over it like the sun. What are the marble sculptures, gold frames, icons, frescoes on the walls! How many names: Surikov, Kramskoy, Semiradsky, Vereshchagin, Makovsky, Klodt, Loganovsky ... In the galleries under the temple there is a marble chronicle of the victories of the Patriotic War with the names of the fallen heroes. Indeed, in honor of the victory of Russian arms, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was erected. All the Russian people donated their last savings to him. From poverty to gentlemen. God forbid! ..

The first minutes I could not even work. Everything was so monstrous that I stood in amazement in front of the camera and could not believe my eyes. Finally he pulled himself together and began to shoot.

Through the wide-open bronze doors, they could not bear it; they dragged out wonderful marble sculptures with hinges around their necks. They were simply thrown from high steps onto the ground, into the mud. The arms, heads, wings of angels were broken off. The marble high reliefs split, the porphyry columns split. With the help of powerful tractors, golden crosses were pulled from small domes with steel cables. The priceless marble wall cladding brought from Belgium and Italy collapsed with jackhammers. Unique picturesque paintings on the walls of the cathedral perished.

Day after day, like ants, swarming around the unfortunate cathedral, paramilitary troops. They were allowed to enter the building fence only with a special permit. Before receiving the pass, my assistant Mark Khatayevich and I filled out a long questionnaire listing all the relatives of the living and long-dead.

The beautiful park in front of the temple instantly turned into a chaotic construction site - with thousand-year-old linden trees felled and uprooted, chopped up by the caterpillars of tractors of the rarest Persian lilac breed and roses trampled into the mud.

As time went on, the domes were bare from the gold, they lost the picturesque painting of the walls, a cold wind with snow burst into the empty holes of the huge windows. The working battalions in Budenovka began to bite into the three-meter walls. But the walls put up stubborn resistance. Jackhammers broke. No crowbars, no heavy sledgehammers, no huge steel chisels could overcome the stone's resistance. The temple was made up of huge slabs of sandstone, which, when laying, were poured instead of cement molten lead... For almost the entire November, military battalions worked fiercely and could not do anything with the walls. They didn't give in. Then the order came. A handsome engineer told me in great secrecy:

Stalin was outraged by our impotence and ordered to blow up the cathedral. He didn’t even consider the fact that he was in the center of a residential area of ​​Moscow ...

Only the force of a huge explosion and more than one - on December 5, 1931 turned a huge, grandiose creation of Russian art into a heap of rubble and debris.

Mom cried for a long time at night. She was silent about the temple. She just said once:

Fate will not forgive us for what we have done!
- Why us?
- And to whom? To all of us ... Man must build .. And to destroy is the work of the Antichrist ... "

85 years ago, on December 5, 1931, the main cathedral of Russia, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was blown up in Moscow. And only more than 60 years later, it was rebuilt. On this occasion, MOSLENTA collected an archive photo gallery and decided to remember why it was built for the first time and why it was blown up.

The construction of the temple lasted almost 44 years: from September 1839 to May 1883. It was erected in memory of the soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army who died in the war with Napoleon. The temple quickly became the center of not only the spiritual, but also the cultural life of Moscow. On August 20, 1882, Tchaikovsky's Overture of 1812, written by the composer in honor of Russia's victory in the war with France, was performed there for the first time.

This continued until the 1917 revolution. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was one of the first to fall under the de-churching of the country - in its place they were going to build a new Palace of Soviets. The total height of the Palace of Soviets was supposed to be 415 meters, thus, the new building would become the tallest in the whole world. Another project was proposed to the Moscow authorities: the temple was to be replaced by a giant tower crowned with a statue of Lenin.

The fate of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was finally decided on June 2, 1931. On August 18, 1931, work began to dismantle it, but it turned out to be difficult, and then they simply decided to blow up the temple. On December 5, 1931, the monument to military glory was destroyed. According to legend, after the first explosion, the temple survived, and the workers had to lay a new charge of explosives.

Fragments of the temple were used in the construction of new buildings in Moscow - almost a Roman tradition. For example, the metro stations "Kropotkinskaya" and "Okhotny Ryad" were laid with marble tiles, benches from the main church of Moscow were installed at the "Novokuznetskaya" station, and some of the slabs with the names of the heroes were crushed into paths in parks.

The Palace of Soviets never appeared on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - the metal structures that had been prepared for large-scale construction were used for anti-tank hedgehogs in 1941, and later they were dismantled as well. After the war, they decided not to return to the imperial project, so for many years Muscovites saw a huge pit on the site of the temple. And only during the Khrushchev's "thaw" the legendary pool "Moscow" appeared there.

The idea of ​​restoring the Cathedral of Christ the Savior arose in the late 1980s. At the same time, a public initiative group appeared in the capital, which began collecting funds. The granite foundation stone was installed on December 5, 1990, and construction officially began in 1994.

On August 6 (19), 1996, on the day of the Transfiguration, Patriarch Alexy II performed the rite of consecration of the lower Transfiguration Church and the first liturgy there. By 1999, the building had already become two-level, as before, with the Church of the Transfiguration in the basement level. It was opened on December 31, 1999, and on the night of January 6-7, 2000, the first solemn Christmas liturgy was served.

Finally, on August 19, 2000, the great consecration of the temple took place by a council of bishops who were present at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church. And the very next day, the canonization of the royal family and the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia took place in the church.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior has again become the main cathedral of Russia, which is visited by the first persons of the state.

Day of military glory of Russia

Day of Military Glory of Russia - the day of the beginning of the Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow (1941).
In early September 1941, the fascist German command began preparations for an operation to seize Moscow. The idea of ​​the operation provided for powerful blows of large groupings to encircle the main forces of the Red Army covering the capital, and destroy them in the regions of Bryansk and Vyazma, and then swiftly bypass Moscow from the north and south in order to capture it. The operation to capture Moscow was codenamed Typhoon. General offensive of German troops on September 30, 1941. On October 2, the main groupings of German troops went on the offensive in the Smolensk region. The Nazis managed to break through the defenses and by October 7, encircle four Soviet armies west of Vyazma and two south of Bryansk. The way to Moscow, as the German command believed, was open. But Soviet troops for two weeks in stubborn battles pinned down about 20 German divisions. At this time, the Mozhaisk line of defense was hastily strengthened, reserve troops were urgently pulled in. Georgy Zhukov was recalled from the Leningrad Front, who on October 10 took over command of the Western Front. Despite heavy losses, the Nazis continued to push for Moscow. They captured Kalinin, Mozhaisk, Maloyaroslavets. The fighting was already 80-100 kilometers from the capital. In early November, the German offensive was stopped in almost all sectors. The enemy failed to capture Moscow and thus victoriously end the war in the east. But the Nazis did not resign themselves to failure and did not abandon their intentions to seize the Soviet capital. Reserves were hastily pulled in, troops were regrouped for a decisive blow. The Soviet command also took advantage of the respite in battles to pull up the divisions formed in Siberia and the Urals to the Western Front. Several divisions were transferred to Moscow from the Manchu border. In mid-November 1941, German troops again went on the offensive, but met stubborn and courageous resistance from Soviet soldiers. Particularly distinguished was the 316th Rifle Division under the command of General Ivan Panfilov, which repulsed several enemy tank attacks on the first day of the offensive. Stubborn battles were fought at the walls of Tula, in the area of ​​Naro-Fominsk and Klin, near Dmitrov and Kashira. The offensive of the German troops began to weaken. Favorable conditions were created for the transition of the Red Army to the counteroffensive. Soviet troops launched an offensive on December 5, 1941, defeated the strike forces of Army Group Center and removed the threat hanging over Moscow. On the fields of the Moscow region, the first major defeat of the German fascist army in the Second World War was inflicted, the myth of its invincibility was dispelled. In the battle of Moscow, the Nazis lost a total of more than half a million people, 1,300 tanks, 2,500 guns, more than 15,000 vehicles and many other equipment. The Red Army wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy and created the conditions for the transition to a general offensive.

Birthday of the King of the Kingdom of Thailand

The national holiday of the Kingdom of Thailand is the King's birthday.
King of Thailand - Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX-the Great) - was born on December 5, 1927 in Cambridge (USA) in the family of Prince Mahidol (1892-1929), brother of King Rama VII. In Cambridge, his father studied medicine at Harvard University. Rama IX studied at Lausanne and Bangkok universities, a lawyer by training. On June 9, 1946, he inherited the throne after the death of his older brother, King Rama VIII (Ananda Mahidol). On May 5, 1950, he was officially crowned King Rama IX of Thailand. In 1987 he was awarded the title of Great. Bhumibol Adulyadej takes an active part in the political life of the country. Founder of many charitable foundations. In Thailand, the king is not only the head of state, but also the patron and protector of all religions. In times of crisis, he acts as a conciliatory mediator, without taking sides. Leader king and national symbol above politics. Has an heir son, Maha Vachiralongkorn, and three daughters. His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is a man of versatile talents. He is a race car driver, yachtsman, a good photo artist, an excellent jazz musician and composer, fluent in English, German and French. On December 5, Thailand celebrates the main national holiday - the birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The first official event of the holiday - the colorful ceremony of taking the oath of office by His Majesty among the elite units of the Royal Guard - is held on December 3 at the Royal Square in Bangkok. On the birthday itself, nightlife Bangkok in the area of ​​the Royal Palace turns into an extravaganza of fire and light: all buildings are decorated with illumination, fireworks flare up, tourist boats sail along the river in lights, colorful shows, performances and sports events are held. In hotels, guests are presented with gifts, and discounts are made in stores.

1901 - Walt Disney is born

1901 - Walt Disney, American film director, animator, artist, producer, was born.
Walt Disney was born in Chicago and at the age of fourteen was already a student at the art college in Kansas City. In 1923 he founded his own company. Before the advent of sound films, he worked in the genre of silent animation. Disney created his famous Mickey Mouse in 1928. Mickey's popularity pushed Disney to create new characters, such as Mickey's girlfriend Minnie, Donald Duck the duck, Pluto and Goofy the dogs. Films with them appeared in 1931-1932. In 1932, Walt Disney received his first highest honor for Mickey Mouse - the Oscar. In 1933, Disney, one of the first to use color in cinema, released the short animated cartoon "Three Little Pigs" (based on an English fairy tale). The film appeared at the peak of the Great Depression and turned out to be more than welcome: the audience was delighted with the tale of a pig, who worked hard, but built a stone house and escaped from an evil, insidious wolf in it. Disney won a second Oscar for Three Little Pigs. And the song "We are not afraid of the gray wolf", which later became famous throughout the world, was sung then by all of America. In 1935, Disney began work on the first full-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Work on Snow White was completed in December 1937, and in February 1938 the film was released. For this film, Disney received another Oscar and a prize at the Venice International Film Festival. After Snow White, the Disney studio releases one after another cartoons that immediately become classics: Pinocchio, Fantasy, in which funny figures move to the music of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, Dumbo (about a flying elephant), Bambi (touching history of a fawn). In the 1950s, the Disney studio begins to produce feature and full-length cartoons such as Treasure Island, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, One Hundred and One Dalmatians ... construction of the grand Disneyland children's amusement park in the Los Angeles area and one of the first to guess what gigantic possibilities television is fraught with. Disney's most recent work in the 1960s was Mary Poppins, which featured both real actors and cartoon characters. At the same time, Disney was building Disney World - the second amusement park for children, this time on the east coast of the United States - in Florida, near the city of Orlando. Construction was already in full swing when Disney died. He died on December 15, 1966. On that day, American newspapers wrote: “The name Walt Disney is synonymous with creativity. Snow White, an all-time cartoon, is a figment of his fantasy. Mary Poppins, a 1964 film, showed that Disney ranks with the greatest masters of the arts. Disneyland in California is the embodiment of his idea. And although Yubby Iverks drew Mickey the mouse, it was Disney who made Mickey Mouse the favorite of millions and made millions on it. Walt Disney died of lung cancer today. He was 65 years old. " And a new generation of children continues to discover Mickey, Goofy and Donald the duckling.

1812 - Ambrose Optinsky was born

1812 - born Ambrose Optinsky (Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov), hieromonk, elder of the Kozelskaya Vvedenskaya Optina desert.
The Monk Ambrose of Optina (in the world Alexander) was born on December 5, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov province, into the large family of the sexton Mikhail Fedorovich and Martha Nikolaevna Grenkov. At the age of 12, Alexander was assigned to the Tambov Theological School, after which he entered the Tambov Theological Seminary. With a grave illness in the last class of the seminary, Alexander made a vow to God if he recovered, go to the monastery, but, having recovered, he postponed the fulfillment of the vow for several years. Having successfully graduated from the seminary, Alexander Mikhailovich was first a home teacher, and then a teacher at the Lipetsk Theological School. In 1839, Alexander entered the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage of the Kaluga province to the venerable elder Hieroschemamonk Leo. Alexander Grenkov was assigned to the skete of the monastery, where he bore the obedience of the assistant cook. The young novice’s work as a cook took most of the day, he didn’t have much to attend divine services, and this taught him to internal prayer. When Alexander was thirty years old, he was tonsured into monasticism with a name in honor of St. Ambrose of Mediolan and ordained a hierodeacon, and two years later - a hieromonk. Gravely ill, Father Ambrose was tonsured into the schema, after which he began to recover, but could no longer recover completely. He did not grieve about his illnesses, he considered them a necessary means of educating the soul and said in consolation to the sick: "God does not demand physical deeds from the patient, but only patience with humility and thanksgiving."
After the death of the Monk Macarius in September 1860, the Monk Ambrose became the spiritual mentor of the brethren. Thousands of believers and unbelievers from all over Russia came to him for guidance. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, F.M. Dostoevsky, V.S. Soloviev, K.N. Leontiev (monk Clement), A.K. Tolstoy, L.N. Tolstoy, M. P. Pogodin and many others. The Monk Ambrose never allowed himself an empty word and spoke only for the purpose of correction and edification. The Monk Ambrose had the gift of clairvoyance, he healed the sick, helped the needy and the poor. The elder established the Kazan Shamorda women's monastery, where he sent to live either the sick in need, or poor pious women, girls and orphans. The Monk Ambrose was a great prayer book for all of Russia; during prayer, his face was seen transformed. The Monk Elder died on October 23, 1891 at the Shamorda monastery and was buried in Optina Monastery near the grave of the Monk Elder Macarius. The Orthodox people deeply revere Ambrose of Optina. In 1988, at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Monk Ambrose was numbered among the saints of God. His venerable relics, which he acquired, rest in the Vvedensky Cathedral of Optina Hermitage. Remembrance is celebrated on October 23rd.

1931 - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was blown up

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the idea of ​​building which arose immediately after the end of the Patriotic War of 1812, was laid three times. Its first stone was consecrated three times over almost two centuries. In 1832, Emperor Nicholas I approved the project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, presented by the architect Konstantin Ton. The foundation stone of the temple took place in 1839. The majestic temple on the banks of the Moscow River, on Volkhonka, has been under construction for over 40 years. On the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, May 26, 1883, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was consecrated with extraordinary solemnity. Especially for the day of the consecration of P.I. Tchaikovsky wrote the inspired 1812 overture performed by the temple choir. The best architects, builders, artists of that time worked on the creation of the Temple. The unique painting was created by Russian painters V. Surikov, N. Koshelev, I. Kramskoy, G. Semiradsky, V. Vereshchagin, V. Makovsky, V. Vasnetsov, V. Markov, I. Pryanishnikov, F. Bruni, other authors of facade sculptures became Baron P. Klodt, N. Ramazanov, A. Loganovsky. The gates of the Temple were made using the technique of electroplating according to the models of Count F. Tolstoy. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was a monument not only religious, but also historical, "testifying to the divine intercession for the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812" and depicting his feat of arms. Military events were depicted on the walls of the Temple, 177 marble slabs were installed with descriptions of battles and the names of those awarded the Order of St. George, the memory of the soldiers who shed blood for the faith and the Fatherland was also immortalized. In the summer of 1931, the government of the USSR decided to demolish the temple, and in its place to erect a grandiose ensemble of the Palace of Soviets, on top of which to place the figure of V.I. Lenin. On December 5, 1931, at 12 noon, the temple was blown up in just 45 minutes. The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War did not allow the construction of the Palace to be completed, and from 1960 to 1994 an outdoor swimming pool "Moscow" was located on the site of the Christian shrine. In 1990, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church applied to the Council of Ministers for permission to restore the destroyed church. In September 1994, the Moscow government decided to recreate the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in its previous architectural forms (with the exception of the modified stylobate). On January 7, 1995, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II, together with the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov, laid a commemorative capsule in the foundation of the main church in Russia. The temple was built in less than six years. The walls of the Temple were erected on the basis of a monolithic reinforced concrete frame with an external brick lining and subsequent marble cladding. The height of the temple is the same as in the last century - 103 meters, the thickness of the walls is 3.2 meters, the area of ​​painting is 22 thousand square meters, the height of the iconostasis, the height of the iconostasis is 27 meters. The new church has a stylobate, a museum, a Hall of Church Councils for 1330 seats and a Synod hall, a refectory for 1200 seats, a multi-storey garage and a parking lot. Technically, the cathedral is equipped with dozens of computers, the latest air conditioning systems, and other utilities. The bells for the Temple were cast at the Likhachev plant, their scale is as close as possible to the lost one. The temple is designed for 10 thousand people. On August 19, 2000, on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II performed the Great consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

1924 - Palekh art workshops were created

The heyday of the ancient icon-painting craft of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus in Palekh dates back to the 16th-17th centuries. In the 18th century, the art of Palekh icon painters acquired a peculiar style, which was later called "Palekh letters". Palekh icons were famous for their special subtlety of writing, tempera paints with the use of gold on the clothes of the saints. The style of Palekh icon painting is based on the traditions of the ancient Uzdal school and some features of the Moscow icon painting of the 15th-16th centuries (Akathist to the Savior, Akathist to the Mother of God, Transfiguration). Many works of Palekh icon painting were created under the influence of Western European art and the Russian academic school, the so-called "fryazhsky" letter ("Don't cry for me, Mati). At the beginning of the twentieth century, icon painting in Palekh practically ceased. In 1920, the people of Palestine started painting wooden products. The Artel of Ancient Painting was formed. From the very first years of the Artel's existence, the question of training specialists arose. In 1924, the first students appeared in the Artel. Admitted to the test, they sat down with the master, and he learned the art of Palekh painting "at hand" of the mentor. In 1928, a vocational and technical school of ancient painting with a four-year period of study was opened in Palekh. In 1935 it was transformed into an art college. In 1936, the technical school was transferred to the system of the All-Union Committee for Arts and became known as a school. Nikolai Mikhailovich Zinoviev developed a program for teaching Palekh art. He was born in the village of Diaghilevo, Vladimir province. In 1906 he graduated from the educational and icon painting workshops of the Committee of Trusteeship of Russian Icon Painting in Palekh. In 1906-1915 he worked in Moscow for hire in icon-painting workshops. In 1926 he joined the Palekh Artel of Ancient Painting, taught at a vocational school from 1928 to 1970. He summarized his creative experience and the experience of a collective of artists - Palekh in the book "The Art of Palekh" (1968). Modern Palekh is one of the recognized centers of lacquer miniature. The Palestinians created a new style of miniature writing, distinguished by a special subtlety of artistic techniques.

2003 - there was an explosion in the carriage of the electric train Kislovodsk - Mineralnye Vody

2003 - there was an explosion in the carriage of the electric train Kislovodsk - Mineralnye Vody; 47 killed and 180 injured
On December 5, 2003, at 0742 hours Moscow time, an explosion occurred in the second carriage of the suburban electric train No. 6309 en route Kislovodsk - Mineralnye Vody. The train at that moment was within the city of Essentuki, 400 meters from the central station. The explosion was so powerful that the second car of the train was torn in two and turned over on its side. Dozens of people were found under the destroyed structures. A fire broke out. The number of victims of this terrorist attack was 47 people, of whom 34 died at the scene of the explosion, 17 more died from wounds in hospitals. In addition, 180 people received injuries of varying severity. These were mainly mine-explosive wounds. The bulk of the passengers are students who went to study in Pyatigorsk in the morning. The remains of the suicide bomber who detonated the bomb were found in the carriage, but the bomb did not fully explode. The remaining units were destroyed by the sappers who arrived at the scene. To enhance the destructive effect, the militants put an explosive device in a shopping bag filled with small metal objects - bolts, nuts, pieces of wire. The power of the explosion was about 10 kilograms of TNT.