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Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 10:41:42 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: build a Nabokov memorial and conference center ...
To: spklein52@hotmail.com
[1] http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm[2]
Letter From Russia
HOMECOMING FOR RUSSIA'S ERSTWHILE ELITE
HOMECOMING FOR RUSSIA\'S ERSTWHILE ELITE[5]
MAP: Russia[6]
Prince Yevgeny Meshchersky clambers out of a muddy trench where he is
laying a sewer line. "Excuse me, I am not prepared to greet guests,"
he says, wiping his hands on his brown coveralls. He ducks into a
dilapidated building, emerging in clean clothes to offer a handshake
and a tour of the Petrovskoye-Alabino estate.
The place is a shambles. A columned palace that once housed a
world-class art collection is now a roofless ruin. The lawns are
choked with weeds, and the outbuildings are boarded up. Nevertheless,
47-year-old Meshchersky plans to make this his home. For more than a
year, he has squatted in a fire-damaged gatehouse, fixing it up while
he fights for legal ownership of the property seized from his family
after the Bolshevik Revolution. On a ruined wall is a sign that
reads: "Monument to Soviet Vandalism."
NOBLE CAUSE. Meshchersky is in the vanguard of a push by descendants
of the Russian aristocracy to reclaim family holdings that were
seized in the wake of the 1917 revolution. Emboldened by
property-rights language in Russia's 1993 constitution, they are
petitioning the courts and pressuring local authorities to let them
occupy their ancestral homes. They're also seeking legislation that
would return confiscated properties to their precommunist owners.
Although only a handful are pursuing claims, some 14 million Russians
could be eligible for restitution if such a law passed. "We cannot
bring back the dead," says Meshchersky, whose grandfather was shot by
the Bolsheviks. "But we can show the world that Russia is no longer a
place where you can rob, loot, and destroy."
Maybe, but the nobles will have a difficult time rallying support in
the midst of Russia's recent economic collapse. Even before the
crisis hit, Parliament had blocked legislation that would have
allowed private ownership of land. President Boris N. Yeltsin's
government has returned only those properties that were confiscated
from churches. While local authorities have allowed the heirs of some
aristocratic families to occupy abandoned rural estates, they are
refusing to turn over more valuable urban property. Even Russia's
best-known survivor of the gulags, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, says that
the nobles' quest is misguided. "You cannot draw up a restitution law
on the principle of returning everything to everyone. In that case,
you will be causing new injustices," Solzhenitsyn told the newspaper
Izvestia recently. Many aristocrats' houses were split into
apartments decades ago and have been home to other families for
generations.
IDYLL WORSHIP. Still, Russia is heeding some aristocrats' pleas, and
it is doing so for economic, not altruistic, reasons. Local
governments are hoping that prominent families will develop returned
property as tourist attractions. Officials in the Gatchina region
south of St. Petersburg recently approached the family of the late
Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, offering to return part of the
family's holdings along the Oredezh River. In return, they want the
family to help build a Nabokov memorial and conference center, which
would include an apartment for the author's son, Dmitry Nabokov, an
opera singer who lives in Switzerland. Dmitry Nabokov wants to
recreate the place where his father spent idyllic boyhood summers.
Vladimir Nabokov was 18 when his family fled Russia. "His severest
sense of loss was not of lost samovars and icons and kopecks, but the
loss of his childhood and the scenery of his childhood," the son says.
Yevgeny Filatov, a descendant of a wealthy Moscow merchant clan, has
received little assistance from the government. Filatov has waged a
three-decade-long battle to live in his family's 174-year-old wooden
house in a fashionable Moscow neighborhood. Today, the property is
worth some $2 million. The house had been split into apartments, with
Filatov's family retaining one of the units. In 1965, the city decided
to demolish the building, and everyone moved out--except Filatov. He
saved the house by getting it designated an architectural monument,
then staved off eviction efforts after the state claimed the building
was unsafe. Last year, the city agreed to develop a small museum in
the house, with Filatov as live-in director. But the city doesn't
recognize him as the building's legal owner. And the place is badly
run-down. "It's dangerous even to go to the bathroom," he says.
GRAND PLANS. At least Filatov has a bathroom. The building where
Prince Meshchersky, his wife, and three children live has no running
water, no heating system, and until a few weeks ago, no electricity.
The acrid smell of a past fire clings to the rough wooden walls and
plank floors. "We have enough work here for our whole lives," sighs
Meshchersky's wife, Lyudmila. She hauls water from a well and tends a
large vegetable garden and a rabbit hutch. Her husband has grand plans
for the property, including a hotel and other amenities to attract
tourists, though he plans to leave the ruined palace as a reminder of
communism's folly.
The estate, which dates to 1780, once covered 10 square kilometers
southwest of Moscow. The palace was a cultural center where the
nobility attended concerts and dances and strolled through an art
gallery containing masterpieces by Velazquez and Botticelli. The
Communist government sold off the palace's contents and later turned
the property into a concentration camp. Surviving family members had
fled to a rural area outside St. Petersburg, where they attempted to
conceal their aristocratic background. Meshchersky recalls hearing
furtive conversations about the estate, but no one dared visit it.
He first saw it in 1996, after he had married and moved to Ukraine to
work as an engineer. Meshchersky rushed to the estate after relatives
sent word from Moscow that the government was planning to allow
wealthy families to build summer houses on the property. He cleared
away mountains of garbage and repaired a gutted gatehouse for his
living quarters. He and his family spent the winter huddled around a
woodstove. Meanwhile, Meshchersky filed a petition in the local
courts seeking to be declared the property's owner. The court ruled
against him, but he is appealing.
His chances look slim. At least five other families have filed
similar petitions, and none has succeeded, according to Alexei
Firsanov, chairman of the League for Property Rights Protection, a
group that seeks restitution for confiscated holdings.
Time is running out for some petitioners. Ninety-five-year-old Georgi
Shtruk filed a claim two years ago for his ancestral home near
Moscow's Garden Ring road and is still awaiting a final court
decision. Shtruk's family moved out of the building decades ago after
the property was broken up into communal apartments, and he realizes
that he will never live there again. But, says his nephew, Alexander
Kochetkov, who is assisting with the court case, "in his lifetime, he
would like to see justice restored."
"COURAGE AND RESPECT." The courts may be unsympathetic, but many
Russians admire the nobles' determination. Neighbors have welcomed
Meshchersky and his family, bringing food and supplies and addressing
him as "Prince Yevgeny" with a respectful tip of the hat. "People are
pleased that a man has found courage and respect for his ancestors,"
says Sergei, a neighbor who stops by to chat on a recent morning.
Sergei says the place is haunted, and neighbors have seen ghosts on
the lawns at night dressed in 19th century costumes. "I've seen them,
too," Meshchersky replies. "Don't worry, they won't hurt you." The
nobles may not win their legal battle, but they could help Russia
come to terms with the ghosts of a brutal past.
EDITED BY SANDRA DALLAS
Return to top [7]
* TODAY'S MOST POPULAR STORIES
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Get Free RSS Feed >>[13]
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[19]
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----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 10:41:42 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: build a Nabokov memorial and conference center ...
To: spklein52@hotmail.com
[1] http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm[2]
Letter From Russia
HOMECOMING FOR RUSSIA'S ERSTWHILE ELITE
HOMECOMING FOR RUSSIA\'S ERSTWHILE ELITE[5]
MAP: Russia[6]
Prince Yevgeny Meshchersky clambers out of a muddy trench where he is
laying a sewer line. "Excuse me, I am not prepared to greet guests,"
he says, wiping his hands on his brown coveralls. He ducks into a
dilapidated building, emerging in clean clothes to offer a handshake
and a tour of the Petrovskoye-Alabino estate.
The place is a shambles. A columned palace that once housed a
world-class art collection is now a roofless ruin. The lawns are
choked with weeds, and the outbuildings are boarded up. Nevertheless,
47-year-old Meshchersky plans to make this his home. For more than a
year, he has squatted in a fire-damaged gatehouse, fixing it up while
he fights for legal ownership of the property seized from his family
after the Bolshevik Revolution. On a ruined wall is a sign that
reads: "Monument to Soviet Vandalism."
NOBLE CAUSE. Meshchersky is in the vanguard of a push by descendants
of the Russian aristocracy to reclaim family holdings that were
seized in the wake of the 1917 revolution. Emboldened by
property-rights language in Russia's 1993 constitution, they are
petitioning the courts and pressuring local authorities to let them
occupy their ancestral homes. They're also seeking legislation that
would return confiscated properties to their precommunist owners.
Although only a handful are pursuing claims, some 14 million Russians
could be eligible for restitution if such a law passed. "We cannot
bring back the dead," says Meshchersky, whose grandfather was shot by
the Bolsheviks. "But we can show the world that Russia is no longer a
place where you can rob, loot, and destroy."
Maybe, but the nobles will have a difficult time rallying support in
the midst of Russia's recent economic collapse. Even before the
crisis hit, Parliament had blocked legislation that would have
allowed private ownership of land. President Boris N. Yeltsin's
government has returned only those properties that were confiscated
from churches. While local authorities have allowed the heirs of some
aristocratic families to occupy abandoned rural estates, they are
refusing to turn over more valuable urban property. Even Russia's
best-known survivor of the gulags, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, says that
the nobles' quest is misguided. "You cannot draw up a restitution law
on the principle of returning everything to everyone. In that case,
you will be causing new injustices," Solzhenitsyn told the newspaper
Izvestia recently. Many aristocrats' houses were split into
apartments decades ago and have been home to other families for
generations.
IDYLL WORSHIP. Still, Russia is heeding some aristocrats' pleas, and
it is doing so for economic, not altruistic, reasons. Local
governments are hoping that prominent families will develop returned
property as tourist attractions. Officials in the Gatchina region
south of St. Petersburg recently approached the family of the late
Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, offering to return part of the
family's holdings along the Oredezh River. In return, they want the
family to help build a Nabokov memorial and conference center, which
would include an apartment for the author's son, Dmitry Nabokov, an
opera singer who lives in Switzerland. Dmitry Nabokov wants to
recreate the place where his father spent idyllic boyhood summers.
Vladimir Nabokov was 18 when his family fled Russia. "His severest
sense of loss was not of lost samovars and icons and kopecks, but the
loss of his childhood and the scenery of his childhood," the son says.
Yevgeny Filatov, a descendant of a wealthy Moscow merchant clan, has
received little assistance from the government. Filatov has waged a
three-decade-long battle to live in his family's 174-year-old wooden
house in a fashionable Moscow neighborhood. Today, the property is
worth some $2 million. The house had been split into apartments, with
Filatov's family retaining one of the units. In 1965, the city decided
to demolish the building, and everyone moved out--except Filatov. He
saved the house by getting it designated an architectural monument,
then staved off eviction efforts after the state claimed the building
was unsafe. Last year, the city agreed to develop a small museum in
the house, with Filatov as live-in director. But the city doesn't
recognize him as the building's legal owner. And the place is badly
run-down. "It's dangerous even to go to the bathroom," he says.
GRAND PLANS. At least Filatov has a bathroom. The building where
Prince Meshchersky, his wife, and three children live has no running
water, no heating system, and until a few weeks ago, no electricity.
The acrid smell of a past fire clings to the rough wooden walls and
plank floors. "We have enough work here for our whole lives," sighs
Meshchersky's wife, Lyudmila. She hauls water from a well and tends a
large vegetable garden and a rabbit hutch. Her husband has grand plans
for the property, including a hotel and other amenities to attract
tourists, though he plans to leave the ruined palace as a reminder of
communism's folly.
The estate, which dates to 1780, once covered 10 square kilometers
southwest of Moscow. The palace was a cultural center where the
nobility attended concerts and dances and strolled through an art
gallery containing masterpieces by Velazquez and Botticelli. The
Communist government sold off the palace's contents and later turned
the property into a concentration camp. Surviving family members had
fled to a rural area outside St. Petersburg, where they attempted to
conceal their aristocratic background. Meshchersky recalls hearing
furtive conversations about the estate, but no one dared visit it.
He first saw it in 1996, after he had married and moved to Ukraine to
work as an engineer. Meshchersky rushed to the estate after relatives
sent word from Moscow that the government was planning to allow
wealthy families to build summer houses on the property. He cleared
away mountains of garbage and repaired a gutted gatehouse for his
living quarters. He and his family spent the winter huddled around a
woodstove. Meanwhile, Meshchersky filed a petition in the local
courts seeking to be declared the property's owner. The court ruled
against him, but he is appealing.
His chances look slim. At least five other families have filed
similar petitions, and none has succeeded, according to Alexei
Firsanov, chairman of the League for Property Rights Protection, a
group that seeks restitution for confiscated holdings.
Time is running out for some petitioners. Ninety-five-year-old Georgi
Shtruk filed a claim two years ago for his ancestral home near
Moscow's Garden Ring road and is still awaiting a final court
decision. Shtruk's family moved out of the building decades ago after
the property was broken up into communal apartments, and he realizes
that he will never live there again. But, says his nephew, Alexander
Kochetkov, who is assisting with the court case, "in his lifetime, he
would like to see justice restored."
"COURAGE AND RESPECT." The courts may be unsympathetic, but many
Russians admire the nobles' determination. Neighbors have welcomed
Meshchersky and his family, bringing food and supplies and addressing
him as "Prince Yevgeny" with a respectful tip of the hat. "People are
pleased that a man has found courage and respect for his ancestors,"
says Sergei, a neighbor who stops by to chat on a recent morning.
Sergei says the place is haunted, and neighbors have seen ghosts on
the lawns at night dressed in 19th century costumes. "I've seen them,
too," Meshchersky replies. "Don't worry, they won't hurt you." The
nobles may not win their legal battle, but they could help Russia
come to terms with the ghosts of a brutal past.
EDITED BY SANDRA DALLAS
Return to top [7]
* TODAY'S MOST POPULAR STORIES
* A Watershed In Iranian Politics[8]
* Ready For Chinese Merger Mania?[9]
* The Get-Rich-Slow Scheme[10]
* Microsoft Crashes The RSS Party[11]
* Mortgage Bankers: Desperate To Lend[12]
Get Free RSS Feed >>[13]
MARKET INFO
DJIA 10327.99 +30.10
S&P 500 1193.89 +2.32
Nasdaq 2052.11 -1.16
Stocks Set to Open Lower [14]
Create / Check Portfolio[15]
Launch Popup Ticker[16] Market Info sponsored by:[17]
[18][19]
Links:
------
[1] http://www.businessweek.com/index.html
[2] http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm
[3] #bottom
[4]
http://ads.businessweek.com/html.ng/chan=mz&adsize=300x250&pagepos=11&sub=archive&var=987654321?
[5]
http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm#B3601085
[6]
http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm#B3601086
[7] http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601085.arc.htm#TOP
[8]
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----- End forwarded message -----