Alleys of Moscow. Veskovsky and Vadkovsky are not even namesakes
Almost nothing unites them, with the exception of similar names and adjacent areas - Miussy, Novaya Sloboda, Butyrka and the path to the Savelovsky railway station, which was not recognized as capital for a long time. But today they are very close to each other, not so much in atmosphere, one is noisy, the other is quite quiet, but in spirit - let's call it student.
Both lanes are connected to at least two universities each. Veskovsky leads from the Novoslobodskaya metro station just to the Miussy, where life is in full swing among the humanities at the Russian State Humanitarian University and the techies - in Mendeleevka, once the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, and now the Russian Chemical Technical University (pictured).
Well, directly on Vadkovsky, which is located very close to the quarters occupied by MIIT, the legendary Stankin named after M. Yu. Solomentsev settled down.
Everyone considers himself obliged to joke about this higher school that there is no machine tool building in the country, and Stankin is almost flourishing. Well, firstly, there is no machine tool building only in Moscow, there was no point in shutting down the Sergo Ordzhonikidze plant so quickly. On the periphery, and with CNC, there are not only machine tools, but a lot of their own.
And, by the way, life shows that it works well, and even more so, 3D printers, again, domestic ones, those who really need it have long acquired. Enough about Stankin for now (he is on the left in the photo), we will limit ourselves to a reminder that two Russian prime ministers graduated from him, including the current one, Mikhail Mishustin, and his not so long-standing predecessor, Mikhail Fradkov.
The shortest in Moscow
Let us return, however, to the ordinary life of our lanes. Veskovsky existed even before the expansion of Moscow beyond the Garden Ring. From Novaya Sloboda along it, then still Vyazkoy or Vyazkovsky, in accordance with the nature of the area, and for some time even Lesnoy, just like the street in the neighborhood, people not only carried wood and firewood just to the Miussy, but also went to the temple.
Temples were always there, until the war, when a German bomb blew to pieces the very last one - the name of Alexander Nevsky. The city authorities were actually forced to demolish the remnants - even the patriarchy, which had just been restored in the USSR, did not have the funds for restoration.
Today on the Miussy there is a small cozy park and the Palace of Pioneers, and what it is now called is completely unimportant. In front of the palace there are monuments to the heroes of Alexander Fadeev from "Rout" and "Young Guard", now forgotten almost completely.
The buildings of the Russian State Humanitarian University stand with their backs to Miusskaya Square, to which Veskovsky Lane leads. According to him, the author counted only 210 steps, like the Guard of Honor in the verses of Rozhdestvensky. Shorter than him or on equal terms, probably, only the smallest street in Moscow - Lenivka with its official 160 meters. But a lot of things have managed to fit in here.
I will not repeat after the gossips who lived and lives on Veskovsky, although one of the many apartments of Zhirinovsky is still worthy of mention. She somehow reconciles with the most featureless ten-story building with the loud name "Eurodom" on the corner with 1st Musskaya Street. Nashi are still sitting there, who seem to have been replaced by Right Cause and the Saratov regional office.
Much more attractive is the house from which Veskovsky begins - a classic stalin. Its first floor is a kind of fair of coffee houses and fast food, quite decent and chosen by the students. The Karavaev Brothers and the French Bakery, Doubleby and Cofix, the inimitable, but still network Frau Brotchen, and, apparently, for the sake of completeness, also VkusVill.
And right next - elegant by today's standards, of course, the gates of the residential complex (pictured above). The general view of the lane is not very pleasing to the eye, but Veskovsky is rightfully called atmospheric. And here is the place to remember his name - our small, but so alive alley day and night.
It has always been customary to call lanes in Moscow either after the temple, but there is none on Veskovsky, either by professional signs, or by the name of the main homeowner. There is nothing of this here, and it is customary to take the word of the old Moscow publisher Sytin, who reminded that the area was still in the 1737-1745 census. called Vyazki or Veski.
Later, under the same name, on the corner with Dolgorukovskaya street (in Soviet times - Kalyaevskaya after the name of the murderer of Grand Duke Sergei), a drinking establishment functioned. So the lively Veskovsky maintains good traditions even now.
From Novoslobodskaya to Tikhvinskaya... and back
This lane, once Zadny, then Vitkovsky, is aptly named after the most important homeowner, Egor Vadkovsky, Catherine's colonel. It connects Novoslobodskaya street, a real highway - the path from the capital directly to the north, with really quiet Tikhvinskaya.
On this street, the main attraction is the already mentioned MIIT, now the University of Transport. And along the Vadkovsky, the Stankin building literally reigns. The main Stankinovsky building, with the exception of the quiveringly preserved decorative rosettes (photo), to put it bluntly, is a faceless building, although with traces of constructivism.
If not for the functionality, it is unlikely that the creation of forgotten architects would even be worthy of mention. Opposite the institute buildings there are typical 5-7-seven-story buildings and an even more faceless police quarter. Of course, without shops or catering establishments - there is simply no way with this in the alley, although there are enough canteens and coffee shops inside the university.
Stankin was built at the turn of the 20s and 30s of the last century on the site of the household courtyard of the former Sorrowful Monastery, by the way, the largest in pre-revolutionary Moscow. The main temple of the monastery - the All-Merciful Savior, served for many years as Stankin's laboratory building.
Today, the churches have been returned to the church, they are promptly brought into a divine form, although the matter has not yet reached the domes, but it still cannot boast of special popularity. But closer to Tikhvinskaya street in the lane you can see two real architectural masterpieces at once.
Modern and beyond
And the first of them, which is usually called simply the Children's Club, recently regained just such an original function. The years in which tenants replaced each other in the house of the Children's Labor and Recreation society passed as if they were not there.
All of them must be thanked for not spoiling the facades, windows and doors much, while preserving the interior of the mansion. At the beginning of the last century, the architect Alexander Zelenko managed to build a real fairy-tale house in the northern modern style. Of course, the funds of the Siberian millionaire Nikolai Vtorov helped.
Few people know that his personal mansion is the well-known Spaso House, the metropolitan residence of the American ambassador to Russia, on Peski, between the old and new Arbat. Vtorov, who during the First World War became the richest entrepreneur in Russia, was killed in this mansion in 1918.
Officially, it is believed that he was buried on the territory of the Sorrowful Monastery, and the grave was dug up at the end of the 20s, but, according to other sources, the philanthropist rested in the so-called Diocesan house in the area of Likhov and three Karetny lanes. Today, the Diocesan House has been restored to become an Orthodox University, and it is not difficult to get into its church of St. Prince Vladimir.
Returning to the creation of A. Zelenko, I note that the architect set up a very peculiar educational institution there, taking the school of Leo Tolstoy as an example. But he went further - in Vadkovsky Lane, he managed to combine the senior groups of the kindergarten, elementary school and vocational school, releasing skilled workers into life. The society even acquired its own library and theater.
Even before the revolution, Zelenko left for the United States, as he was suspected of spreading revolutionary ideas, but the Bolsheviks set up an experimental station for public education in the building, then the School of Joy and the House of Pioneers. Only in the 90s, after a surprisingly delicate repair, offices settled here, but in the 10s of our century, children returned to “their” home.
The beginning of the XNUMXth century endowed Vadkovsky with a neighboring house, where the Vatican embassy is now located. The architect Pyotr Kharko, like Zelenko, who was by no means hyped, skillfully brought together not the worst features of the classics, late baroque and modern.
It is clear that getting into such a wonderful house is even more difficult than getting into a kids club, especially now. Nevertheless, on Museum Day, even the Holy See opens the doors of the residence of its diplomats in Moscow.
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