Bookshop “Piotrovsky” in Malaya Nikitskaya organized the presentation of the book: “The House of Truth. On the Front Page of Architecture.” It is published by the Kuchkovo Pole Muzeon publishing house and the Architectural Heritage Research Center. And the initiator of the publication of this work was Oleg Dedkov, the managing partner of the project, who undertook the restoration of the building of the Pravda newspaper factory.
A historical and cultural monument created by outstanding architect Panteleimon Golosov, looks dead almost two decades after the fire. After winning the auction organized by DOM.RF at the end of December 2023, in addition to starting large-scale research and design work, a team of historians, architects and book designers was formed with the goal of telling not only the masterpiece of Soviet architecture of the 1930s, but also the role of the Pravda newspaper factory in the life of the country.
Now the building on the street after which he was named is completely hidden behind a huge banner with portraits of the editors who once ran the country's main newspaper and various historical figures of the 20th century. This is the first sign of life on the ocean liner that emerged from the abyss of oblivion, with which the botanical building is often compared due to the metallic color of the facade, ribbon windows and the round “captain's bridge” of the main entrance. The authors of the book have undertaken to recount the journey this amazing ship has made from the past to the future and what may lie ahead for it.
– In my opinion, the Pravda newspaper factory is a unique example of a chronograph – a phenomenon that combines space and time. Moscow is rich in constructivist masterpieces, but few of them survive for such a long time, and this building was used for its intended purpose and continued to be an information center until 2006, Oleg Dedkov explained his interest to the audience. Such close contact with history is unusual for someone previously primarily involved in new construction, he admits. However, working with an architectural monument remained his second experience – the first was participating in the revival of the Narkomfin House complex, the fate of which worried not only Russians but also the world community.
Pravda newspaper factory built in the 30s of the last century has become the first full-cycle printing factory in our country and the largest in Europe. It publishes not only Pravda but also the newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda, Rural Life, Soviet Russia, Ogonyok magazine, Krokodil and other media. But it was built mainly for Pravda. Founded in 1912, it moved from Petrograd to Moscow in 1918. Together with the newspaper Izvestia, its editorial office worked in Sytin's house on Tverskaya Street, where they were cramped. To improve the working conditions of the Pravdists, in the same compound, they were first allocated a 6×6 meter plot of land to build a new building, but work never began. And only in 1929 the Central Committee of the Union of Printing Houses decided to build a new newspaper and magazine building in the Yamskoye Pole street area, and the country itself, which had not yet recovered from the First World War and the revolution, financed only the purchase of equipment. The factory allocated 12 million rubles – a huge amount at that time.
An architectural competition was soon announced. Four teams participated in the competition, and academician Shchusev and avant-garde artist Lisitsky won, as the author of the book, Professor Golosov, writes. They also remind you that 1929 was marked by the loss of the party favorite Nikolai Bukharin, one of the NEP's hybrid economy thinkers, Deng Xiaoping's “teacher,” as editor-in-chief of Pravda, and the country's switch to a five-year planning system. Their first plans included the future factory. Changes in the country's development also affected this large-scale construction project. Historians came to the conclusion that if the competition had been held not in 1929, but in 1932, Panteleimon Golosov could hardly have won: constructivism as a style had left the architectural scene. The architect could not help but take into account the needs of the time, and therefore the building was built significantly differently from competing projects. Experts see in it a combination of incompatibilism – constructivism with neoclassicism, considering Golosov's style as a style of art deco without order. Hence the contrast – the gray building on the outside is surprisingly bright on the inside, where all the floors are painted in different colors, with columns covered in cornflower blue, green and beige marble. But the interior, like the luxury furniture, was originally the work of workshop No. 12 of the Moscow City Council under the leadership of Naum Borov, and the lamps were made according to the designs of Abram Damsky, the leading Soviet lighting engineer in the 1930s and 1960s.
The main advantages of the Panteleimon Golosov project in the “reclining skyscraper” – a building 150 meters long – have been preserved. And above all, there is the function – the clear relationship between the editorial and publishing departments. If necessary, it is possible to build an 8-storey building up to 20 floors high. However, Muscovites can soon see all this with their own eyes. In 2028 – a year before the 100th anniversary of the architectural competition for the Pravda newspaper factory project, the restorers promise, the House of Truth – under this name the monument building will once again open its doors to everyone. As RG said, it will now have a multi-functional center with many public functions where you can work, give presentations, have snacks and even swim in the pool. “Currently, the main emergency work is almost completed, and next year the full restoration process will begin,” Oleg Dedkov told RG correspondent.
“RG” Help
Since 2011, more than 2,300 cultural heritage sites have been restored in Moscow. This is almost 1/3 of the existing monument houses in the capital. This year, the city government has issued permits to restore another 400 buildings.
