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- Barracks by calculation: in Smolensk they argue over construction on the site of a concentration camp
Barracks by calculation: in Smolensk they argue over construction on the site of a concentration camp
In Smolensk, activists decided to appeal to the federal authorities to intervene in the situation with the development of the territory where the Dulag-126 concentration camp was located during the war, and next to it is a memorial where at least 45,000 Soviet servicemen were buried. The story has been dragging on for several years, the building permit has been issued and revoked. Now Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, has drawn attention to the planned residential complex, but the developer is sure that the excitement is artificially inflated by competitors. Izvestia investigated the situation.
Scandal around the housing estate near Dulag-126
In mid-January, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the head of the agency will be presented a report on the proposed construction of a comfortable housing estate on the territory near the memorial in Smolensk, where about 45 thousand Soviet soldiers who died in the concentration camp are buried. Investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Smolensk region are conducting an inspection under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Negligence").
Soon the governor of the region Vasily Anokhin said at a meeting with prisoners of Nazi camps that he had spoken with the developer and promised to "find a compromise" with him. "There will certainly be no construction on such memory sites under my [the region's leadership]," the head of the region said.
At issue are the demands of Smolensk activists - in particular, from the "Save Smolensk " project - to stop the development of the territory of the Dulag-126 concentration camp on Normandy-Neman Street. Activists claim that the construction will be carried out in the place where tens of thousands of people were killed - with reference to historical documents they estimate this number at least 60 thousand killed. This is more than in Buchenwald (where the number of victims was approximately 56 thousand people).
German concentration camp Dulag-126 operated in 1941-1943. In 1973 a memorial was erected there, accepted for state protection - it is a cultural heritage site of regional significance called "The mass graves of 45 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who died in concentration camp No. 126 in 1941-1943". There is also an approved site of regional significance "The location of the German concentration camp No. 126 for Soviet prisoners of war".
However, as Smolensk architect Oleg Savelyev explained to Izvestia, the scope of the latter was defined formally: the landmark included almost the same boundaries as the memorial - in fact, only the burial site, while the territory of the camp itself was not taken into account. During the Soviet years, most of it was built up with five-storey buildings, and, in fact, the only place that has not been developed and is now the subject of the dispute is the vacant lot next to the memorial, which was formed after the disbanding of the military unit that operated during the Soviet era.
History of the struggle for the site
The first attempts to develop the territory began in 2021. Public initially confused by the neighborhood of buildings with the memorial, then Smolensk local historian Sergei Amelin proved that this was the site of the gallows, the punishment cell and the barracks of prisoners of war. Former prisoners of the concentration camp shared horrible memories of their stay in Dulag-126: "Prisoners of war slept on top of each other in three tiers. When the frost came, the POWs sleeping below were freezing in the mud, and their clothes were always frozen to the ground.
Disputes around the site continued for several years, the project changed - in particular, the new buildings were moved a few meters away from the memorial. In 2022, Alexander Bastrykin intervened in the story , after which the building permit was revoked, and the Arbitration Court confirmed the decision.
At the very end of 2024, the Smolensk administration approved changes to the city's land use and development rules, according to which a comprehensive development of the territory was envisioned within the object's protection zone. The development should be carried out by the company "Garant-Zhilie", which provided the scheme of planning organization of the land plot.
- At the town-planning council, I, as a member of the council, made comments about the absence in the project of taking into account the protection and defense zones of the memorial, but by the majority of votes the project was adopted. I also participated in the public hearings, and many oral and written comments of those present were not taken into account," comments Oleg Savelyev.
Memorial to Soviet prisoners of war, camp No. 126 in Smolensk
After the approval of the changes, according to which within 100 meters from the border of the memorial should appear residential houses, activists and made their statements, demanding to stop the possible development, as well as to conduct prospecting work on the territory of Dulag-126.
Alexei Vydrin, Smolensk's deputy head for construction and architecture, told Izvestia that there is no new building permit for this land plot now, nor are there any applications from the rightful owner of the territory. Oleg Savelyev believes that the permit simply "has not yet had time to be issued after the city planning council and public hearings on this issue,held in December 2024, approved multi-storey construction on the territory of the former Dulag-126".
Nevertheless, the city administration states: "Construction on the site in question is not allowed by the city administration."
Alexey Vydrin, Deputy Head of Smolensk for Construction and Architecture
- Construction has not started, has not been and is not taking place. The plot is free of any buildings and structures, - Alexey Vydrin stated. - The developer twice - in 2022 and 2023 - submitted a building permit with a full set of documents and twice immediately the Smolensk city administration revoked it.
He emphasized that formally the company was refused because it did not provide the necessary information related to cultural heritage. But there was also an informal - "moral and ethical" - reason, because of which in fact "the administration of the city, the Smolensk region and the head of the region have been preventing construction in the specified place for more than two years".
Aleksey Vydrin added that the administration has no information about the search works conducted during the construction of the military unit, but for the purpose of further use of the territory such research will be organized.
In the company OOO NW "Garant Zhiloye" in a commentary to "Izvestia" said that the construction project of the housing estate provides for the erection of four ten-story houses.
- It is supposed to be a phased development of the site, the first stage - a two-unit house. And the permit was issued for the first phase of construction, moreover, the first share participation agreements have already been signed, - explained the director of NW "Garant Housing" Kirill Osherov.
He added that Governor Vasily Anokhin "is talking about finding a compromise option," and "the decision should take into account the costs already incurred for the acquisition and preparation of the site, as well as other financial losses in case of refusal to implement the project." The company is ready to discuss "provision of an alternative, economically equivalent site for construction, buyout or some other option".
Disputable 100 meters
Architect Oleg Savelyev emphasizes: under any circumstances, construction near the memorial would be illegal, as the protection zone around it is not defined, and therefore the general rule applies. Since 2015, paragraph 3 of Article 34.1. 73-FZ "On objects of cultural heritage" prescribes that the boundaries of the protection zone of the object of cultural heritage are established at a distance of 100 meters from the outer boundaries of the monument.
However, the Garant Zhiloye company in its comments to Izvestia referred to paragraph 2 of the same article, which specifies a list of objects for which the protection zone should not be established. Kirill Osherov stated that the housing project includes an expertly reviewed section on measures to preserve the cultural and historical heritage object on the adjacent plot.
Memorial to Soviet prisoners of war, camp No. 126 in Smolensk
- The Arbitration Court of Smolensk and the Arbitration Court of Appeal of Tula examined in detail all the documentation related to the construction permit issued and later revoked by the Smolensk city administration. By the decision of the courts of both instances the revocation was recognized as illegal, - stated the director of the company.
Kirill Osherov also refers to the fact that on the other side of the memorial, at the intersection of Normandy-Neman and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Streets, a ten-story house with 11 entrances was already erected several years ago. The house actually stands at a distance of 50 meters from the memorial. The official developer, according to public data, is the company LLC "Stroyinvestproekt". And no public outcry, according to him, this construction did not cause any public outcry at that time. However, Oleg Savelyev notes that the building appeared before 2015, when the hundred-meter protection zone was not yet in effect.
Who is developing the plot
"Garant Housing" is a large construction company, well known in the city, it appeared in 2001. Since 2014, there have been two organizations: LLC NW "Real Estate Agency Garant Housing" and LLC NW "Garant Housing".
According to SPARK-Interfax, the companies have two main founders with the same shares. The first is Nikolai Rebrik, son of Smolensk industrialist Yuri Rebrik. The latter headed Kristall, was the founder of the United Russia regional branch and chairman of the regional Public Chamber. Yuri Rebrik died in 2015, and his son Nikolai inherited half of the company.
The second founder is the firm Management-Yubiks LLC, founded in 2010. It is fully owned by Vladislav Khaletsky. He was the mayor of Smolensk from 2003 to 2009.
In "AN Garant Zhiloye" (it has been operating since 2001) Rebrik and "Management-Yubiks" own shares of about 49% each, but there are several other owners with micro shares, including the company OOO "Gestia", controlled by Nikolai Rebrik's mother.
Nikolay Rebrik is the director of NW Garant Zhiloye AN LLC. The head of NW Garant Zhiloye LLC is Kirill Osherov. It is the latter that is developing the plot near the memorial.
Both companies regularly participate and win municipal contracts. The vast majority of them are for providing housing under state programs for orphans, resettlers from dilapidated and emergency housing, etc. Basically, the contracts were concluded with the only participant of competitive procedures. The main customer for the two Garant Zhilya companies is the Housing and Utilities Department of the Smolensk Administration. According to "SPARK-Interfax" data, for the whole time only this administration structure has concluded 200 contracts with both firms (in the proportion of 120 and 80) for the total amount of about 2.5 billion rubles. In the aggregate, "Garant Zhiloye" is the largest counterparty of the housing and utilities administration. The organizations also received hundreds of millions of rubles under state contracts directly from the city administration.
Kirill Osherov is sure that around the disputed site "artificial excitement is created" with the sole purpose - "to prevent the realization of the project and cause damage" to the developer, this negative background "has a direct relation to unfair competition". The director of the company said that the organization guesses who "is the ultimate beneficiary", but considers it "incorrect to make direct accusations".
He explained that the land was given to the firm in 2017 following an auction from the Russian Ministry of Defense after the disbandment of a military unit. By that time, the territory had become overgrown, turning into a place of residence for marginalized and homeless people, said Kirill Osherov. At the same time, the land itself "has never been and is not part of any memorial complexes, monuments, historical sites". He emphasizes that the neighborhood of the territory with the memorial was taken into account when developing the project, and the architect was tasked with the most responsible and careful design.
"Nothing should detract from the memorial site."
Yevgenia Murinets, a lecturer at the Department of International Regional Studies and Regional Management of the Presidential Academy, and a member of the Russian Ministry of Construction's Expert Council on the formation of a comfortable urban environment, calls for an assessment of the social effect of the territory's development, taking into account the "sacredness of the place."
- In the case of the memorial on Normandy-Neman Street in Smolensk, the most important part of the composition was a green environment and a "clean" horizon. In other words, around such a memorial there should not be any dissonant development that would detract from the atmosphere, " she told Izvestia.
The atmosphere, however, has already been disturbed, says Evgenia Murinets, pointing to the construction of the same housing estate at the intersection of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street and Normandy-Neman Street. She calls the residential complex mediocre in terms of appearance and volumes. Besides, she points out with reference to the information of the public cadastral map, "in the place of this residential complex, in all likelihood, there should have been individual residential buildings, the height of which, according to the Russian town code, does not exceed three floors and 20 meters."
-If we look at other memorials dedicated to World War II and the Great Patriotic War, almost everywhere we can notice that there is a forest or a park around, and the memorial itself may even be located on a certain elevation with a staircase leading up to it, " said Evgenia Murinets. - One of the exceptions is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, opened in Berlin in 2005, designed by Peter Eisenman, because it is surrounded by already existing buildings at the time of design. Even so, the skyline is clear and there are no discordant objects.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin
When the memorial was erected in Smolensk in 1975, there was also virtually no background development, she recalled.
Tatiana Polidi, vice-president of the Institute of Urban Economics Foundation, notes that it is very important for the authorities to prevent such conflict situations around really sensitive places. The status of a landmark with properly prescribed boundaries and norms could resolve the situation. However, now there is a problem with the preservation of cultural heritage in general due to economic constraints: budgets simply do not have enough resources to develop projects of protection zones for OKN, for their further maintenance. Lack of investment in these objects will inevitably lead to the loss of a landmark.
This is also pointed out by the architect Oleg Savelyev, who noted that in Smolensk for a year were defined the boundaries of more than 300 places of interest - and it was done formally simply because of too much work. No real research was conducted, so the boundaries of the landmark on the territory of the former Dulag-126 and coincided with the boundaries of the memorial.
Are war graves protected
Elena Tsunaeva, executive secretary of the Search Movement of Russia, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, notes that there are indeed examples of people living in areas where fierce fighting took place.
- Such a vast private sector in Simferopol neighbors with the territory where the concentration camp Krasny was located. In my native Volgograd, where the fighting was everywhere, all areas of post-war construction are to some extent near the remains, during construction work they are still found. And the list could go on," she told Izvestia. - The graves of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War are protected by the law "On immortalizing the memory of those who died in defense of the Fatherland," the law "On burial and funeral services," and the Criminal Code.
Elena Tsunaeva notes that since 2022 a number of powers to perpetuate the memory of those who died in defense of the Fatherland have been transferred to regional authorities. They were to fix the list of territories and municipal districts with special status.
Oleg Savelyev notes that Smolensk has not yet adopted regulations that would establish the boundaries of the historical settlement and the subject of protection in the city.
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