Investigation: Fort "Red Hill" can not stand the last battle
“When I first moved here, in 1989, the two of us and my little daughter went to the Red Hill fort. I started climbing concrete debris in a blown up dungeon and got stuck. When I shone ahead, I saw what made me engage the fort all life...
In front of me appeared metal racks in six rows, on which the shells lay. Poured out of them jelly, frozen in time, spread over the floor and embraced steel structures. It was shimoza - the compound in 1,5 is more dangerous than any other explosive. I was shocked to the depths of my soul, I literally saw pictures of war in front of me! "- recalls Alexander Senotrusov, chairman of the military history society" Red Hill ".
RED - MEANS BEAUTIFUL
This is the case when the forgotten meanings of words surprisingly accurately describe reality. In one of the most prestigious and popular places for building up in the Leningrad region, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, surrounded by coniferous forests, is the fort "Krasnaya Gorka".
The unique fort is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as a monument of regional significance - not only numerous buildings and fortifications, but also instruments of the times of war have been well preserved on Krasnaya Gorka. At the same time, part of the fortifications were cleared and restored, and a local museum was created by local activists. stories with rare exhibits.
Weekly the fort is visited by many guests, at its base are held historical and cultural student meetings, there are children's circles, in which adolescents study the history and restore ancient tools.
However, the existence of a fort has always been associated with struggle and considerable difficulties. Favorable location, dense forests and well-preserved prints of history do not leave anyone indifferent.
NEW THREAT
The fort, built in 1909 year, was an important participant in many conflicts. Among them, the February Revolution, the "Winter War" and the Great Patriotic War.
It was here after the war that the first coastal complexes of anti-ship cruise missiles were put on combat duty, and the first railway artillery division was formed here.
The Red Hill combat service came to an end in 1962, when the dismantling of guns began at the fort. The long process of demining, the extraction of battery ammunition from the ground, began only in the 2004 year.
Steadfast in the Civil War, facing the threat of the British fleet and the war machine of the Third Reich, the fort year after year bows its head before the Russian bureaucracy. Only in the past ten years, Krasnaya Gorka has repeatedly been on the verge of destruction, being drawn into scandals and fraud by various officials.
It all started with the fact that by 2005, almost all the objects of the fort were written off - about 60 of various structures, which currently do not officially exist.
A few years later, the fort almost lost one of its unique weapons. For more than three months, the workers of the private museum near Moscow tried to dismantle and take away the TM-1-180 artillery transporter. However, no work permits have been received. "Dismantling was carried out on the territory of the monument of federal significance, any movements of parts of which can be made only by order of the government of the Russian Federation," Vitaly Kalinin, head of the Rosokhrankultura department for the North-West Federal District, cites the 47news publication. However, local activists managed to draw the attention of the public and the authorities to the situation that had developed, the dismantling was suspended, and the documents gathered at the end of the audit were transferred to the prosecutor's office. For some time calm reigned in the fort.
Despite the fact that the military department was engaged in clearing the fort from a dangerous legacy from the beginning of the 2000s, 2011 took the countdown to a new stage in the long-term process and the Defense Ministry signed a demining contract with the private firm Baltika Forpost Plus. But here it was not without problems. Despite the fact that the company did not perform the work, the officials signed acts and paid 25 million rubles to entrepreneurs. On the fact of abuse of official authority opened a criminal case.
Just a year later, in the process of demilitarizing the territory of the fort, the tsarist barracks, the galley and the sailor’s club were inexplicably demolished. The chairman of the local military-historical society, observing the groundless destruction of the monument, wrote to the head of the committee on culture of the Leningrad region about the need to urgently respond to the destruction of historic buildings. "The leaders of the Ministry of Defense took advantage of the liquidation of the balance holder 2001 OMIS Len of the naval base 1 in April of the current year and issued the write-off of buildings for demolition," the report explains.
In the autumn of the same year, the key high-rise objects of the Krasnaya Gorka monument, the radar turret and the observation post of one of the batteries, were destroyed. The pretext was the alleged threat to local residents.
“I don’t have it in my head, who sanctioned the systemic destruction of the historical and cultural heritage object in front of the residents of St. Petersburg and its environs for several years? Why, instead of dismantling debris, the sappers destroyed and continue to destroy unique buildings with equipment Does the process not interfere? ", - an eyewitness to starcom68 events is outraged in his blog.
Probably it is worth noting that at about the same time in the nearby village of Lebyazhye, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, the authorities sold 750 land plots for 15 acres, including the reserve, for illegal construction. The criminal scheme worked perfectly: land plots at low prices were provided to people with disabilities who, for a small fee, transferred it to a group of individuals selling land at market value.
The investigative committee opened a criminal case. As suspects, as of 2013 year, there were, among others, three district leaders, including the former head of the administration.
NEW ACTORS OF THE BALTIC THEATER
New activity at the fort began at the end of 2014, almost simultaneously with the change of the head of the local administration. The post was taken by Alexei Kondrashov, who for several years had worked together with the current head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Dmitry Kurakin in the administration of St. Petersburg.
With the advent of the new government at the fort, the miners suddenly resumed activity. According to eyewitnesses, the workers brewed all the door and window openings with gratings, began to fill the construction of the monument with excavators, justifying it with the continuation of the work to neutralize the ammunition left in the premises of Krasnaya Gorka since the war. The consequences of several days of such work, the correspondent of TsVMP managed to observe personally in the winter of 2015.
A month later, the local administration received a document from the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, signed by Kurakin, on the start of the transfer of military forests to municipal ownership. As reported by Voennoe.RF several sources familiar with the situation and who wished to remain anonymous, it was planned to transfer to the municipalities including 450 ha of the fort "Red Hill" and 108 ha of the fort "Gray Horse".
At the same time, the editors of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense, which should have been interested in the fate of the military monument, said that "the decision on the transfer of land is made by the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Defense Ministry."
FOCUSES OF A RADIOACTIVE CIRCUS
In the middle of summer, 2015, on the Red Hill, really mysterious events began to occur.
July 30 on all the beloved transporter TM-11180 suddenly appeared journalists with cameras and specialists with dosimeters who registered at least suddenly appeared radioactive contamination. A certain Artem Krivdin, a resident of St. Petersburg, who, according to him, is an amateur dosimetrist, and accidentally stumbled upon a point contamination, trying a newly purchased dosimeter, told journalists about radiation.
It is worth noting that the area of pollution was only 3х3cm, and finding such a small spot on a huge 190-ton gun in the middle of a vast fort located in 60km from the city is an incredible success.
By the way, despite the hobby of a Petersburger, the only record of radiation measurements that he managed to find on his page on the social network VKontakte is connected with the fort "Red Hill". "To anyone who finds out the place is radioactive dust as a gift! In the 6 510 frame, the x-ray x-ray per hour is on board the platform," reads the signature.
In a conversation with the correspondent of TsVMP, the chairman of the military-historical society “Krasnaya Gorka” explained that the place where radiation was found was allocated on the conveyor: it was cleaner and “as if painted on top with varnish”.
“In the middle of July, we spent a labor shift. In the evening, one of the guys came running and told us that a man was sorting something at the gun. We got on bicycles and went to the memorial. At the entrance I noticed a runaway guy. I caught up with him , but he had nothing in his hands, so I just let him go, "- said the historian. He clarified that it was this young man who later came with journalists and showed where to "measure".
The next day, when the Chemical Laboratory of the Leningrad Region arrived at the site, the pollution no less mysteriously disappeared.
However, the series of unexplained events did not end there. In early September, a second infection appeared on the fort, see 30х40 in size. Witnesses of a sudden outbreak of repeated radioactive contamination turned to law enforcement agencies with a request to open a criminal case.
In order to bring some clarity, it is worth explaining that if experts fixed the excess radiation level, the fort would have been sealed, and the memorable tools were sent to be melted in the complex for the processing and disposal of radioactive waste in Sosnovy Bor. Thus, it can be assumed that someone deliberately sought to close the fort.
PAPERS INSTEAD OF SNARS
Once the Red Hill was an impregnable fortress with tons of lead arguments and an unbending will of the defenders of the garrison. Today, fortifications of the fort are guarded only by papers that have, however, international status.
The fact is that the cultural heritage site "Former Fort" Krasnaya Gorka "has protected borders of a monument of regional significance and is included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.
In accordance with Article 50 of the Federal Law "On Cultural Heritage Objects (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation", cultural heritage objects included in the World Heritage List are not subject to alienation from state property.
In addition, cultural heritage sites are protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. By signing the Convention, the country undertakes to preserve and protect the World Heritage sites located on its territory.
"The components of the World Heritage sites can not be demolished or reconstructed," - said the UNESCO World Heritage Center. Thus, in carrying out any major restoration or other construction work on World Heritage sites, the States Parties to the Convention should inform UNESCO. However, the structures destroyed during demilitarization works were not reported, which is understandable - most of the buildings of the fort are currently written off. Officially, these structures do not exist, and therefore it is impossible to destroy them.
ELECTORAL MEMORY
What are the components of the fort exist on paper? According to the document received by the TsVMP editorial board from the Committee on Culture of the Leningrad Region, the fort officially includes a dugout with a command post of artillery battery and shelter for gunners, fraternal burial of Soviet sailors and soldiers of army units killed in 1919, 1921, 1941-XNUM years, the site on which there are five artillery pieces for various purposes, a monument-stele and an anchor monument.
These objects constitute the memorial complex "Former Fort" Krasnaya Gorka ", included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and have protected borders. The very same land plot Fort Krasnaya Gorka, as well as the military town №7 located on it, are registered by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation .
At the same time, according to the data of the North-West Territorial Department of Property Relations, as of September 1 2015, military camp No. XXUMX was considered for transfer to municipal property.
In fact, on the territory of the fort there is an order of 40 buildings and structures. The most interesting thing is that as such, the dugout with the command post to shelter the gunners on the Red Hill does not exist, but forgot to mention other parts of the monument in the Committee.
Among them:
- 3 batteries: 6, 10 and 11 inches;
- 2 batteries: 12-inch open and 12-inch turret, which currently belong to the naval arsenal;
- 5 batteries with command posts and shelters, with yard for guns and underground casemates for personnel and ammunition;
- ground defense of the fort with a length of 1700 meters, represented by 5 underground barracks, 17 shelters for guns and machine guns along the front line, machine-gun armored caponier;
- shaft of internal land defense;
- 2 barracks of the internal land defense, one of which is the museum of the military-historical community "Red Hill";
- half-destroyed brick barracks of gunners;
- 5 small powder cellar;
- mine-search station;
- remote command post Izhora fortifications;
- Naval car garage;
- garage air defense division;
- positions of armored trains "For the Motherland" and "Baltiets";
- diesel generator with a casemate battery charging;
- underground radio station receiving long waves;
- wooden house of the infirmary;
- bath and laundry plant;
- The foundation of the church of Mary Magdalena;
- railway water pumping station, as well as buildings of the railway stations of the forts "Alekseevsky" and "Krasnoflotsky".
This information, accompanied by photographic materials, with a request to include objects in the list of the Krasnaya Gorka facilities, was sent by the historian Alexander Senotrusov to various departments. Some of them encouraged the activist with new laws and regulations, another redirected the documents to neighboring departments, and some did not respond at all. The situation itself has still not moved from a dead center, except that these ghostly structures have become much smaller over the past years.
At the same time, for many years, the director of the military-historical society "Fort Krasnaya Gorka" has been trying to formalize the museum on the territory of the monument through inquiries to the Committee on Culture and the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for this piece of land. However, all these attempts have not yet yielded tangible results.
The Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage sites under the jurisdiction of the military department, told us that they had not received any requests for the museumification of the fort. “We provide our military authorities that are in any way connected with the use, preservation of cultural heritage sites with purely methodological assistance. We haven’t received any requests regarding the preservation of this object,” said Olga Faller
WHEN THE FARS TURNS INTO A TRADE
With the signing of amendments to the Federal Law "On Cultural Heritage Sites (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation" by the President of the Russian Federation at the end of 2014, citizens and organizations had the opportunity to rent monuments. At the same time, the object itself must be in an unsatisfactory condition, and it must be restored in time for 7 years.
In the case of the "Red Hill", there really is something to restore - these are burnt officer houses, barracks, and numerous outbuildings.
"Unused objects of cultural heritage included in the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, in an unsatisfactory condition, are federal property, by decision of the federal executive body authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation or to legal entities for rent for up to 49 years with the establishment of preferential rent, subject to the requirements, established by this article, "- says the Federal Law.
With the introduction of new standards, tricky schemes of buying and renting elite plots and objects by interested parties have appeared. One of the most common schemes is to conclude a lease agreement with one of the persons affiliated with the official for the subsequent surrender of cultural heritage objects at commercial value. All relationships in the chain are usually informal. At the same time, as noted in the report of the All-Russian Anti-Corruption Public Organization "Clean Hands", the controlling official can receive from 30% to 50% of the profits obtained from the sublease of objects.
Another scheme is the deliberate bringing of a cultural heritage object to a state that cannot be restored or requires major repairs. As the legal organization notes, this option is most often used for buying up elite land plots by large commercial organizations.
"An object of cultural heritage located on a commercially attractive land plot ... is deprived of this status and is sold to this commercial structure at an underestimated market value as actually to be demolished. As a result, commercial buildings in the form of office buildings, parking lots, etc., appear on the site of the object." - reported in the report of the organization.
Speaking about this scheme, a mysterious episode with radioactive contamination involuntarily comes to mind.
The Department of State Protection, Preservation and Use of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Committee on Culture of the Leningrad Region is responsible for the preservation of the cultural heritage sites of Krasnaya Gorka.
“We will look to whom it is transmitted and under what conditions,” said Andrei Yermakov, head of the department, in an interview with TsVMP. According to him, the land can be transferred into ownership, but with the restrictions and burdens that are spelled out in the Federal Law "On the Objects of Cultural Heritage".
HISTORY WITH CONTINUATION
Back in 2007, the Department of State Control over the Preservation and Use of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Leningrad Region noted that "there are numerous concrete, earth, brick, and wooden structures on the fort site that have signs of historical and cultural heritage." At the same time, according to the conclusion of the department, it was necessary to carry out work "on surveying, determining the boundaries, protection zones, modes of maintenance and use of both the regional monument and the object protected by UNESCO."
10 April 2015, the fort finally received the protected borders of the monument of regional importance. However, as part of the memorial complex, most of the existing structures of the fort are still not identified.
The explanation for this is not easy to find, because according to 48, the article 73 FZ "On objects of cultural heritage", the owner of the cultural heritage object assumes the burden of its content. In addition, the owner of the object is obliged to preserve it, including restoration.
Prior to 1 in January 2016, the fort's territory was protected by a government ban on approving transactions involving the disposal of federally owned land plots (RF Government Decree 03.04.2008 N 234 "On housing and other construction on federal land plots") . However, at the end of November last year, the ban was extended from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2021.
It would seem that you can breathe easy, but in June 2016, the amendments should come into force, according to which the aforementioned ban will not actually apply to land plots that are part of urban-type settlements. "Red Hill" refers to the settlement Lebyazhe urban type. Thus, the fort will not be able to protect this law anymore.
However, since the beginning of October, another law comes into force - on the protective zones of cultural heritage sites.
The protective zone of the cultural heritage object is the territory adjacent to the monuments included in the unified state register of cultural heritage objects. Within the boundaries of such a zone, construction and reconstruction associated with changes in such building parameters as height, area and number of floors is prohibited. The exception is the construction and reconstruction of linear objects.
For objects located within the boundaries of settlements, such a zone will be 100 meters from the outer borders of the territory of the monument. For monuments located outside populated areas, the protection zone will be 200 meters.
With the entry into force of the new federal law, it can be assumed that even decommissioned, officially anywhere else objects of the fort will be safe.
In addition, a source in the administration of the Lomonosov district reported to the TsVMP about a new decree of the Ministry of Defense, according to which the transfer of military lands to municipal property should be stopped. It was not possible to obtain documentary confirmation of the introduction of this editorship.
Nevertheless, the real danger of destroying the fort remains today. As historian Alexander Senotrusov told in the conversation with TsVMP, the real threat to the fort remains to deliberately bring it to a state that cannot be restored. A good example is radiation contamination. In order to at least a little protect the monument from such fate, members of the military-historical society "Krasnaya Gorka" decided to move the gun to its museum site of 1975. Thus, the objects of the monument will be located on a wider area and attackers will have to try to achieve their goal.
“We have doubled the third courtyard, expanded the entrance to it so that the truck and the crane could come in. Let's put the X-NUMX mm B-130 gun on this place,” said Senotrusov.
So the fort lives and its inhabitants - in the endless struggle for every bit of living history.
In front of me appeared metal racks in six rows, on which the shells lay. Poured out of them jelly, frozen in time, spread over the floor and embraced steel structures. It was shimoza - the compound in 1,5 is more dangerous than any other explosive. I was shocked to the depths of my soul, I literally saw pictures of war in front of me! "- recalls Alexander Senotrusov, chairman of the military history society" Red Hill ".
RED - MEANS BEAUTIFUL
This is the case when the forgotten meanings of words surprisingly accurately describe reality. In one of the most prestigious and popular places for building up in the Leningrad region, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, surrounded by coniferous forests, is the fort "Krasnaya Gorka".
View from the fort to the Gulf of Finland
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
The unique fort is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as a monument of regional significance - not only numerous buildings and fortifications, but also instruments of the times of war have been well preserved on Krasnaya Gorka. At the same time, part of the fortifications were cleared and restored, and a local museum was created by local activists. stories with rare exhibits.
Weekly the fort is visited by many guests, at its base are held historical and cultural student meetings, there are children's circles, in which adolescents study the history and restore ancient tools.
However, the existence of a fort has always been associated with struggle and considerable difficulties. Favorable location, dense forests and well-preserved prints of history do not leave anyone indifferent.
NEW THREAT
The fort, built in 1909 year, was an important participant in many conflicts. Among them, the February Revolution, the "Winter War" and the Great Patriotic War.
Fort "Red Hill"
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
It was here after the war that the first coastal complexes of anti-ship cruise missiles were put on combat duty, and the first railway artillery division was formed here.
The Red Hill combat service came to an end in 1962, when the dismantling of guns began at the fort. The long process of demining, the extraction of battery ammunition from the ground, began only in the 2004 year.
Steadfast in the Civil War, facing the threat of the British fleet and the war machine of the Third Reich, the fort year after year bows its head before the Russian bureaucracy. Only in the past ten years, Krasnaya Gorka has repeatedly been on the verge of destruction, being drawn into scandals and fraud by various officials.
It all started with the fact that by 2005, almost all the objects of the fort were written off - about 60 of various structures, which currently do not officially exist.
A few years later, the fort almost lost one of its unique weapons. For more than three months, the workers of the private museum near Moscow tried to dismantle and take away the TM-1-180 artillery transporter. However, no work permits have been received. "Dismantling was carried out on the territory of the monument of federal significance, any movements of parts of which can be made only by order of the government of the Russian Federation," Vitaly Kalinin, head of the Rosokhrankultura department for the North-West Federal District, cites the 47news publication. However, local activists managed to draw the attention of the public and the authorities to the situation that had developed, the dismantling was suspended, and the documents gathered at the end of the audit were transferred to the prosecutor's office. For some time calm reigned in the fort.
Transporter on the fort "Red Hill"
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
Despite the fact that the military department was engaged in clearing the fort from a dangerous legacy from the beginning of the 2000s, 2011 took the countdown to a new stage in the long-term process and the Defense Ministry signed a demining contract with the private firm Baltika Forpost Plus. But here it was not without problems. Despite the fact that the company did not perform the work, the officials signed acts and paid 25 million rubles to entrepreneurs. On the fact of abuse of official authority opened a criminal case.
Just a year later, in the process of demilitarizing the territory of the fort, the tsarist barracks, the galley and the sailor’s club were inexplicably demolished. The chairman of the local military-historical society, observing the groundless destruction of the monument, wrote to the head of the committee on culture of the Leningrad region about the need to urgently respond to the destruction of historic buildings. "The leaders of the Ministry of Defense took advantage of the liquidation of the balance holder 2001 OMIS Len of the naval base 1 in April of the current year and issued the write-off of buildings for demolition," the report explains.
In the autumn of the same year, the key high-rise objects of the Krasnaya Gorka monument, the radar turret and the observation post of one of the batteries, were destroyed. The pretext was the alleged threat to local residents.
Fort "Red Hill"
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
“I don’t have it in my head, who sanctioned the systemic destruction of the historical and cultural heritage object in front of the residents of St. Petersburg and its environs for several years? Why, instead of dismantling debris, the sappers destroyed and continue to destroy unique buildings with equipment Does the process not interfere? ", - an eyewitness to starcom68 events is outraged in his blog.
Probably it is worth noting that at about the same time in the nearby village of Lebyazhye, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, the authorities sold 750 land plots for 15 acres, including the reserve, for illegal construction. The criminal scheme worked perfectly: land plots at low prices were provided to people with disabilities who, for a small fee, transferred it to a group of individuals selling land at market value.
The investigative committee opened a criminal case. As suspects, as of 2013 year, there were, among others, three district leaders, including the former head of the administration.
NEW ACTORS OF THE BALTIC THEATER
New activity at the fort began at the end of 2014, almost simultaneously with the change of the head of the local administration. The post was taken by Alexei Kondrashov, who for several years had worked together with the current head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Dmitry Kurakin in the administration of St. Petersburg.
With the advent of the new government at the fort, the miners suddenly resumed activity. According to eyewitnesses, the workers brewed all the door and window openings with gratings, began to fill the construction of the monument with excavators, justifying it with the continuation of the work to neutralize the ammunition left in the premises of Krasnaya Gorka since the war. The consequences of several days of such work, the correspondent of TsVMP managed to observe personally in the winter of 2015.
Fort "Red Hill"
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
A month later, the local administration received a document from the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, signed by Kurakin, on the start of the transfer of military forests to municipal ownership. As reported by Voennoe.RF several sources familiar with the situation and who wished to remain anonymous, it was planned to transfer to the municipalities including 450 ha of the fort "Red Hill" and 108 ha of the fort "Gray Horse".
At the same time, the editors of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense, which should have been interested in the fate of the military monument, said that "the decision on the transfer of land is made by the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Defense Ministry."
FOCUSES OF A RADIOACTIVE CIRCUS
In the middle of summer, 2015, on the Red Hill, really mysterious events began to occur.
July 30 on all the beloved transporter TM-11180 suddenly appeared journalists with cameras and specialists with dosimeters who registered at least suddenly appeared radioactive contamination. A certain Artem Krivdin, a resident of St. Petersburg, who, according to him, is an amateur dosimetrist, and accidentally stumbled upon a point contamination, trying a newly purchased dosimeter, told journalists about radiation.
It is worth noting that the area of pollution was only 3х3cm, and finding such a small spot on a huge 190-ton gun in the middle of a vast fort located in 60km from the city is an incredible success.
By the way, despite the hobby of a Petersburger, the only record of radiation measurements that he managed to find on his page on the social network VKontakte is connected with the fort "Red Hill". "To anyone who finds out the place is radioactive dust as a gift! In the 6 510 frame, the x-ray x-ray per hour is on board the platform," reads the signature.
In a conversation with the correspondent of TsVMP, the chairman of the military-historical society “Krasnaya Gorka” explained that the place where radiation was found was allocated on the conveyor: it was cleaner and “as if painted on top with varnish”.
“In the middle of July, we spent a labor shift. In the evening, one of the guys came running and told us that a man was sorting something at the gun. We got on bicycles and went to the memorial. At the entrance I noticed a runaway guy. I caught up with him , but he had nothing in his hands, so I just let him go, "- said the historian. He clarified that it was this young man who later came with journalists and showed where to "measure".
The next day, when the Chemical Laboratory of the Leningrad Region arrived at the site, the pollution no less mysteriously disappeared.
However, the series of unexplained events did not end there. In early September, a second infection appeared on the fort, see 30х40 in size. Witnesses of a sudden outbreak of repeated radioactive contamination turned to law enforcement agencies with a request to open a criminal case.
In order to bring some clarity, it is worth explaining that if experts fixed the excess radiation level, the fort would have been sealed, and the memorable tools were sent to be melted in the complex for the processing and disposal of radioactive waste in Sosnovy Bor. Thus, it can be assumed that someone deliberately sought to close the fort.
PAPERS INSTEAD OF SNARS
Once the Red Hill was an impregnable fortress with tons of lead arguments and an unbending will of the defenders of the garrison. Today, fortifications of the fort are guarded only by papers that have, however, international status.
The fact is that the cultural heritage site "Former Fort" Krasnaya Gorka "has protected borders of a monument of regional significance and is included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.
The protected boundaries of the fort "Krasnaya Gorka" according to the data of UNESCO
In accordance with Article 50 of the Federal Law "On Cultural Heritage Objects (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation", cultural heritage objects included in the World Heritage List are not subject to alienation from state property.
In addition, cultural heritage sites are protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. By signing the Convention, the country undertakes to preserve and protect the World Heritage sites located on its territory.
"The components of the World Heritage sites can not be demolished or reconstructed," - said the UNESCO World Heritage Center. Thus, in carrying out any major restoration or other construction work on World Heritage sites, the States Parties to the Convention should inform UNESCO. However, the structures destroyed during demilitarization works were not reported, which is understandable - most of the buildings of the fort are currently written off. Officially, these structures do not exist, and therefore it is impossible to destroy them.
ELECTORAL MEMORY
What are the components of the fort exist on paper? According to the document received by the TsVMP editorial board from the Committee on Culture of the Leningrad Region, the fort officially includes a dugout with a command post of artillery battery and shelter for gunners, fraternal burial of Soviet sailors and soldiers of army units killed in 1919, 1921, 1941-XNUM years, the site on which there are five artillery pieces for various purposes, a monument-stele and an anchor monument.
These objects constitute the memorial complex "Former Fort" Krasnaya Gorka ", included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and have protected borders. The very same land plot Fort Krasnaya Gorka, as well as the military town №7 located on it, are registered by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation .
At the same time, according to the data of the North-West Territorial Department of Property Relations, as of September 1 2015, military camp No. XXUMX was considered for transfer to municipal property.
In fact, on the territory of the fort there is an order of 40 buildings and structures. The most interesting thing is that as such, the dugout with the command post to shelter the gunners on the Red Hill does not exist, but forgot to mention other parts of the monument in the Committee.
Among them:
- 3 batteries: 6, 10 and 11 inches;
- 2 batteries: 12-inch open and 12-inch turret, which currently belong to the naval arsenal;
- 5 batteries with command posts and shelters, with yard for guns and underground casemates for personnel and ammunition;
- ground defense of the fort with a length of 1700 meters, represented by 5 underground barracks, 17 shelters for guns and machine guns along the front line, machine-gun armored caponier;
- shaft of internal land defense;
- 2 barracks of the internal land defense, one of which is the museum of the military-historical community "Red Hill";
- half-destroyed brick barracks of gunners;
- 5 small powder cellar;
- mine-search station;
- remote command post Izhora fortifications;
- Naval car garage;
- garage air defense division;
- positions of armored trains "For the Motherland" and "Baltiets";
- diesel generator with a casemate battery charging;
- underground radio station receiving long waves;
- wooden house of the infirmary;
- bath and laundry plant;
- The foundation of the church of Mary Magdalena;
- railway water pumping station, as well as buildings of the railway stations of the forts "Alekseevsky" and "Krasnoflotsky".
Fort "Red Hill"
Central Naval Portal
Central Naval Portal
This information, accompanied by photographic materials, with a request to include objects in the list of the Krasnaya Gorka facilities, was sent by the historian Alexander Senotrusov to various departments. Some of them encouraged the activist with new laws and regulations, another redirected the documents to neighboring departments, and some did not respond at all. The situation itself has still not moved from a dead center, except that these ghostly structures have become much smaller over the past years.
At the same time, for many years, the director of the military-historical society "Fort Krasnaya Gorka" has been trying to formalize the museum on the territory of the monument through inquiries to the Committee on Culture and the Department of Property Relations of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for this piece of land. However, all these attempts have not yet yielded tangible results.
The Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage sites under the jurisdiction of the military department, told us that they had not received any requests for the museumification of the fort. “We provide our military authorities that are in any way connected with the use, preservation of cultural heritage sites with purely methodological assistance. We haven’t received any requests regarding the preservation of this object,” said Olga Faller
WHEN THE FARS TURNS INTO A TRADE
With the signing of amendments to the Federal Law "On Cultural Heritage Sites (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation" by the President of the Russian Federation at the end of 2014, citizens and organizations had the opportunity to rent monuments. At the same time, the object itself must be in an unsatisfactory condition, and it must be restored in time for 7 years.
In the case of the "Red Hill", there really is something to restore - these are burnt officer houses, barracks, and numerous outbuildings.
"Unused objects of cultural heritage included in the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, in an unsatisfactory condition, are federal property, by decision of the federal executive body authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation or to legal entities for rent for up to 49 years with the establishment of preferential rent, subject to the requirements, established by this article, "- says the Federal Law.
With the introduction of new standards, tricky schemes of buying and renting elite plots and objects by interested parties have appeared. One of the most common schemes is to conclude a lease agreement with one of the persons affiliated with the official for the subsequent surrender of cultural heritage objects at commercial value. All relationships in the chain are usually informal. At the same time, as noted in the report of the All-Russian Anti-Corruption Public Organization "Clean Hands", the controlling official can receive from 30% to 50% of the profits obtained from the sublease of objects.
Another scheme is the deliberate bringing of a cultural heritage object to a state that cannot be restored or requires major repairs. As the legal organization notes, this option is most often used for buying up elite land plots by large commercial organizations.
"An object of cultural heritage located on a commercially attractive land plot ... is deprived of this status and is sold to this commercial structure at an underestimated market value as actually to be demolished. As a result, commercial buildings in the form of office buildings, parking lots, etc., appear on the site of the object." - reported in the report of the organization.
Speaking about this scheme, a mysterious episode with radioactive contamination involuntarily comes to mind.
The Department of State Protection, Preservation and Use of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Committee on Culture of the Leningrad Region is responsible for the preservation of the cultural heritage sites of Krasnaya Gorka.
“We will look to whom it is transmitted and under what conditions,” said Andrei Yermakov, head of the department, in an interview with TsVMP. According to him, the land can be transferred into ownership, but with the restrictions and burdens that are spelled out in the Federal Law "On the Objects of Cultural Heritage".
HISTORY WITH CONTINUATION
Back in 2007, the Department of State Control over the Preservation and Use of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Leningrad Region noted that "there are numerous concrete, earth, brick, and wooden structures on the fort site that have signs of historical and cultural heritage." At the same time, according to the conclusion of the department, it was necessary to carry out work "on surveying, determining the boundaries, protection zones, modes of maintenance and use of both the regional monument and the object protected by UNESCO."
10 April 2015, the fort finally received the protected borders of the monument of regional importance. However, as part of the memorial complex, most of the existing structures of the fort are still not identified.
The explanation for this is not easy to find, because according to 48, the article 73 FZ "On objects of cultural heritage", the owner of the cultural heritage object assumes the burden of its content. In addition, the owner of the object is obliged to preserve it, including restoration.
Prior to 1 in January 2016, the fort's territory was protected by a government ban on approving transactions involving the disposal of federally owned land plots (RF Government Decree 03.04.2008 N 234 "On housing and other construction on federal land plots") . However, at the end of November last year, the ban was extended from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2021.
It would seem that you can breathe easy, but in June 2016, the amendments should come into force, according to which the aforementioned ban will not actually apply to land plots that are part of urban-type settlements. "Red Hill" refers to the settlement Lebyazhe urban type. Thus, the fort will not be able to protect this law anymore.
However, since the beginning of October, another law comes into force - on the protective zones of cultural heritage sites.
The protective zone of the cultural heritage object is the territory adjacent to the monuments included in the unified state register of cultural heritage objects. Within the boundaries of such a zone, construction and reconstruction associated with changes in such building parameters as height, area and number of floors is prohibited. The exception is the construction and reconstruction of linear objects.
For objects located within the boundaries of settlements, such a zone will be 100 meters from the outer borders of the territory of the monument. For monuments located outside populated areas, the protection zone will be 200 meters.
With the entry into force of the new federal law, it can be assumed that even decommissioned, officially anywhere else objects of the fort will be safe.
In addition, a source in the administration of the Lomonosov district reported to the TsVMP about a new decree of the Ministry of Defense, according to which the transfer of military lands to municipal property should be stopped. It was not possible to obtain documentary confirmation of the introduction of this editorship.
Nevertheless, the real danger of destroying the fort remains today. As historian Alexander Senotrusov told in the conversation with TsVMP, the real threat to the fort remains to deliberately bring it to a state that cannot be restored. A good example is radiation contamination. In order to at least a little protect the monument from such fate, members of the military-historical society "Krasnaya Gorka" decided to move the gun to its museum site of 1975. Thus, the objects of the monument will be located on a wider area and attackers will have to try to achieve their goal.
“We have doubled the third courtyard, expanded the entrance to it so that the truck and the crane could come in. Let's put the X-NUMX mm B-130 gun on this place,” said Senotrusov.
So the fort lives and its inhabitants - in the endless struggle for every bit of living history.
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