Streets and houses: changes right before your eyes
Street of Glory, Penza, 1953
I'll get up
I'll go around the city
through the streets and squares...
Song of Solomon 3:2
I'll go around the city
through the streets and squares...
Song of Solomon 3:2
History around us. This material is on the VO on the account of the 2000th. Of course, we have authors who have more materials. But for me, this is a lot and, let's say, a nice rounded number. I calculated that since 2015 I have published an average of 250 articles. Sometimes more, sometimes less. There were also materials on other sites, in particular, on the Pravda.ru website, as well as in print magazines, and, of course, books that also had to be written before being published in print or electronic form. Once again I was convinced that when you write for others, you learn a lot yourself. Sometimes you learn things that you didn't know before.
I thought that the "anniversary material" should be different from the "serial". And so I walked along the streets of Penza and thought: once again, let this be memory material. But not just a memory, but in comparison with the present, so that one could imagine the whole wave of changes that have taken place in our country on the example of one very small territory.
And it happened that until 1959 the inhabitants of Penza and, in particular, of my native Proletarskaya Street, walked along wooden boards - sidewalks nailed to the transverse stumps of logs. It was inconvenient to walk on them, because they sagged under their feet, so that in the spring, when water accumulated under them, unpleasant fountains of water hit up through the holes in the knots under the coat. It was also simply dangerous to walk on them, because when the boards sagged under the person walking in front of you, their ends rose in your path, and it was very easy to stumble and fall for them.
The House of Soviets - at that time the largest administrative building in the city, was put into operation on June 30, 1959
And once it happened to me.
We were returning from guests - and then people often went to visit their relatives and just acquaintances - I was dressed up in short pants with sashes and a shirt with a lace collar. And ... we were already approaching our home when I decided to run along these boards to my grandfather, who was sitting on a bench. And someone was walking in front of me, the boards rose, I touched them with sandals, well, I flopped flat on these boards, and even drove my knees. I get up, all smeared in the dust, my knees in the blood, it hurts, it's a shame. In a word, he also took on a portion of abuse: “You will always run when you don’t have to!”, And then for another two weeks he walked with bandaged knees.
And then 1959 came, and as if something broke through. In the center, they demolished all the shopping arcades that Mayakovsky wrote about, and built the House of Soviets. They erected a tower and a television center, but most importantly, they removed all these wooden boards from the streets and made huge fires out of them. A kind of auto-da-fé for the past, that's what it looked like. Well, the streets themselves were laid with gravel and gravel and asphalted. Moreover, what circumstances then contributed to this, I can not say. But tens of millions of rubles were invested in Penza at once, and, I believe, not only in it, it would be strange if it were in one. But ... from somewhere in 1958-1959. money for this came from, and the money is not small. Well, then the construction of Khrushchev began, and the city became unrecognizable.
True, asphalt was not laid everywhere then as it should, and most importantly, the terrain itself in our area remained basically unchanged, as well as wooden three-window houses that stretched along our entire Proletarskaya street. A lot of years have passed since that time, and not all of the good things have been preserved.
For example, this fountain in the center of the city has disappeared, however, another, new one has appeared
And instead of the fountain at the Palace of Culture. Kirov is also now such a wonderful ... circle
But suddenly last year I remembered 1959, such an active improvement began everywhere in our country. The old streets were widened, a granite curb was laid, crushed stone was covered, and then asphalted. And in particular, they finally put my Proletarian Street in order along its entire length.
Because even after 1959, at the end of it, it was like this: a lowland resting against the bed of the Koshavka River, which flowed behind two orders of houses - one on Zhemchuzhnaya Street and the other on the street ... Blacksmith order. Since slops were poured there from all the yards and garbage was poured in, the smell was still the same there. True, the channel right in front of the street was hidden in a pipe. But how did they hide it? Water still flowed there, and after the rains and in the spring, when the Koshavka flooded, it was impossible to pass it along the asphalt part.
And finally, they did everything right, hid it underground and laid good asphalt to the end! And look how shady and cozy the street has become?! And then after all, before there, at the end, it was after the rain and you couldn’t get through ...
And in our area there were many such houses made of red brick, built in 1963-1965.
And what? Already last year, a number of them were sheathed with insulation and plastered.
And here the photo shows the thickness of the insulation ...
From Soviet times, this building of the factory canteen remained on Proletarskaya. They tried to arrange both a building supplies store and a grocery store there, but nothing came of it. So this building stood as a monument to the era, but ... now, I see, and they took it up, and how great. It takes on a completely different look right before your eyes. I wonder what will be inside it?
Last year, they did not begin to repair the 6th language gymnasium, but on the other hand, it was taken up in a capital way this year. Update the facade, change the roof. In short, it will be a completely different, practically new building.
Here it is this school, and it’s funny that the pine tree on the left is the work of my own hands - together with classmates I planted it in the 9th or 10th grade
Another school is the 47th, where my granddaughter studied. She complained that it was cold there in winter. And now you don’t recognize her at all, her entire building was sheathed with insulation, all the windows were changed and painted in beautiful pastel colors.
A small stadium is also being built in front of the school building. But the photo under it is digging a ditch. Now this place is already concreted ...
With this house, the story turned out like this: last year, both end walls and two lower floors were insulated. And they didn't work anymore! I thought, will they still work on it or not? And this year, work on the insulation of this house continued. Apparently, now it will be completely covered with insulation
On Chaadaev Street, which leads from Penza to the M5 highway, work began only this year. If you look at the map, you can see how long it is. And along this entire street, new footpaths are being laid on both sides, and the roadway itself is being significantly expanded.
Works on the streets of Chaadaea
You drive along this street, and here and there orange vests flash by, there are cranes, excavators, asphalt combines. Moreover, if in the past it often happened in our country that asphalt was laid, and the earth was not brought to the lawns around at all, or it took a long time to wait, now the work is going downright rapidly: rubble is laid, rolled, smeared with tar, asphalted, they roll and immediately carry the earth, cover the lawns with it and immediately level them. I wouldn't be surprised if lawn grass is also sown at the same time.
The path is ready, you can lay the asphalt!
Everything is ready here!
And here they just finished spreading the black soil ...
In general, the improvement of the city over the past two years has taken a giant step forward. Many tens, if not hundreds of millions of rubles have been spent, and living in the city has become many times more comfortable than before.
And what a cleanliness on the M5 federal highway! You drive along it and you see people with tongs walking and collecting garbage. And not only near the city, but also far from it.
Lights on the crossings with solar panels, so that the road is no worse than the highways in France and Italy, where I once had to travel. There are a few heaps of garbage left at the crossroads to remove from the dachas, and it will not be worse at all than in the West.
And we have such large-scale changes in just two years.
And again, I do not think that this is the case only in Penza, for sure the same thing takes place in other places.
In a word, I have something to remember, and something to tell the young people I know. They listen, look out the windows and wonder: has it ever happened here?!
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