Moscow Triumph Gates. Part 4: 1936-1960. Second wind

1936-1960. Part 4: Second wind

Moscow Gate is one of the best classical monuments of St. Petersburg, and one of the most known and iconic images presenting the city; in the Soviet era, their image adorned anything: badges, postcards, calendars, match boxes, cigarette cases, chocolates, even a children's lotto - but the Gate itself was no longer there. If you stop pedestrians at the streets and ask them, most will be sincerely surprised to learn that the Gate not always was here ...

_{Year 2013: Gate at its historical place... again. But it was not always so.}

The search for a new location for the Gate began immediately after it was removed off the cityscape. Soviet architectural magazines saw more than one project arranging new Gates ensemble. In 1938-1940, the architectural workshop of Professor Katonin developed an intresting project where the Gate was no longer used for passage but was used to design the entrance to the Park of Culture and Rest of the Moscow District (located 20 minutes walk from the former location of the Gate, towards 'from the city' direction).

_{«Architecture of the USSR», «Architecture of Leningrad», «Architecture and Construction of Leningrad» magazines issues from 1939 to 1957, containing publications of the Gate projects.}

_{Project of the Gates relocated to the Moskovsky District Park.}

And then came the Second World War, which turned into colossal stress and losses for Russia. During the war years, and in the first post-war years, of course, there was no time for the Gate ... In the post-war years, it became generally accepted in architectural circles that the removal of the Gate was a major urban planning mistake. In 1947, the “disassembled” Moscow Gate was included in the list of architectural monuments of all-Union significance and was taken on a special account by the Main Directorate for the Protection and Restoration of Architectural Monuments of the Russian Federation.

In 1950, the avenue was named after Comrade Stalin, which meant exemplary reconstruction and improvement. The question of restoring the Gate again acquired relevance. Along with the Victory Park and the entrance to the city at Srednaya Slingshot, the option of restoring the gate in its original place was now being considered.

_{Year 1952. Architectural design for the construction of the Gate Square in its old, legal, historical place. Architects: Naumov, Metskhvarishvili.}

_{Year 1951. The design of the Gatees ensemble at its native historical place, proposed by the 'Lenproject bureau'.}

In the summer of 1952, the Leningrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) ordered the Leningrad department of the Soviet Architects Union to conduct a public talk with all concerned representatives (debates) on the expediency of restoring the Gate (which was done) -- a great political significance was attached to the issue. The architects adopted a resolution that the Gate must be restored, except of their most annoying element: a memorable tablet indicating the Gate originally were glorifying victorious tsarist epoch wars. Also, it was not planned to restore the blown up guardhouse that made up the ensemble of the Moscow Zastava.

Belekhov (the chief of Inspectorate for Monuments Protection), came up with a 'smooth' formulation satisfying everyone, how the destruction of such an outstanding monument, of great importance for the city, could have happened at all: “The reason was that at that time there were people in power who did not understand and did not like Russian art, who believed that it was harmful. They paid not only with their jobs and high status, but also with their lives". All acute discussion corners in the resolution were smoothed out, which allowed the authorities to "save their face".

In the summer of 1953 the Gate - nonexistent in real life, but existing in the form of "cold storage" - was "transferred" into the charge of Leningrad Urban Sculpture Museum, a kind of delegation of responsibility and accounting, sort of a bureaucratic trick; The Gate stood on the balance sheet of this institution, which took an inventory of all the remains. And let me remind you,- the scale of the Gate was such that the remains were scattered across four museums, and that space was not enough ...

The Artillery Historical Museum, the USSR Museum of the Arts Academy and the State Russian Museum were supposed to make an inventory of the parts they kept and issue security receipts with the Museum of Urban Sculpture. The parts stored in the open air spot (addressed as Ligovskaya St., 276) and 'in the barn' at the Novodevichy cemetery were to be inventoried by the Executive Committee of the Moscow District (city authorities).

The next step in this story happened in 1956. "Glavvtorchermet" (a powerful federal office that collects scrap metal) appealed to the Leningrad City Council about the inexpediency of further Gate's parts storage - it was a request to transfer them to scrap!! Can you imagine this grade of... rediculous. Authorities were not intrested in the further cold storage, of course, the they "forgot" to warn the Monuments Protection inspectorate of this request and transporting of some Gates parts to be melted down, began. Fortunately, in May 1956, finally a decision was made on the higher level to restore the Gate to its rightful historical place.

The restoration of the Gate was headed by the architect of the Spezmastersky Lenproekt I.G.Kaptzoug, and the architect E.N.Petrova. A significant event was planned for May 1, 1960... - but soon the difficulties have started. It turned out that "a simple collect and assembly of everything what was disassembled" is an option available on paper exclusively. So, the long preparatory operations began, which took more than a few years. E.Petrova conducted thorough a massive archival research, studying Stasov's drawings, letters, measurements and financial statements and accounts, dedicated to initial creating of the monument. (The text I have written, as well as many other articles on the history of the Gateway - surprise! - are based on her lengthy account created back in 1949, see the Bibliography section in my final post of the story).

First we counted all that was left. It turned out that of the 108 rings that made up 12 columns, 65 survived. If you read in other sources that "During the Great Patriotic War, some of the details were lost" - do not believe it! this is not what you think. Yes, during the war, the cast-iron rings of the columns were used as anti-tank barricades on Moskovsky Prospekt, and some of the rings (stored on Tsvetochnaya Street) served as shelters from shrapnel during shelling. After the war, these fragments, as often happens in our country, turned out to be "nobody's" - and were lost, but the fault is not the war, but the usual bungling. And most of the parts were damaged even during dismantling.

_{During dismantling, the geniuses figures were simply thrown onto the pavement from the height of the Gate (1936). For more information about the destruction of the Gate, check the part three.}

Of the 30 figures of geniuses, 13 were to be restored, and 17 were to be made anew from the scratch, according to the surviving samples! Overall, about one quarter was missing. Accurate drawings of the lost parts were created from the survived archival details, such as photographs and descriptions.

So, the missing figures of geniuses were recreated according to samples. The shields in their hands were recreated with greatest difficulty. Many were lost, and unlike the geniuses, the shields did not repeat each other, they had a varied configuration and an original design of the coat of arms. To accurately reproduce all the small details, the restorers had to study the intricacies of heraldry and recreate 17 coats of arms from scratch, i.e. more than half. In the process some errors were made, but thats a separate and quite complicated story, not sure I have to tell it -- at least not to be mixed with this post.

_{In the photo: the coat of arms of the Pskov province and the genius in the process of restoration.}

---

---

In the spring of 1959, preparation of the foundation began, casting of the missing fragments, restoration of figures and capitals. During the restoration, the same materials and technologies were used as in the original: all parts were cast from cast iron (although some of the facing plates, for strength, were made of steel). The figures were made by the method of embossing from sheet copper, the same as in the original.

Photo chronicles from the TASS archive: 'Workers performing the installation of decorations onto the Gate'. Photo (c) M.Blokhin

1960 year. The final stage of installation of the Gate.

I am slowly coming to the happy end of this story. One or maybe two more posts, and we will be there! Thank you for reading and appreciating my efforts. History (and all the errors made alongside it) are worth learning!

Previous parts can be found here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4.
Russian version will follow at some point, as well.