Sokol or "village of artists" in Moscow: description

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Probably everyone is familiar with such a term from the recent past as "cooperative". In short, a cooperative is an association of people (or organizations) with the aim of achieving common economic or social goals or projects. It is no secret that membership in a cooperative was conditioned by the presence of a share in the general fund.

The very first cooperative settlement on the territory of the capital of the Russian Federation was the "village of artists" on Sokol. What is remarkable about this town? This will be discussed in our article.

Construction concept

The "village of artists" in Moscow was erected in accordance with the town-planning concept that arose in the early twentieth century, called the garden city. The idea of such a settlement was described by E. Howard back in 1898. He, criticizing the generally accepted city of that time, exposed its unsanitary conditions and general pollution. The utopian proposed his vision of a well-maintained city, combining not only industrial, but also agricultural motives.

In short, according to Howard's plan, the garden city was supposed to be a circle intersected by boulevards, in the center of whichthere would be a square with public buildings placed on it (administration, hospital, library, etc.).

Industrial and manufacturing premises were to be located outside the city ring.

The idea of such urban development was introduced in the UK, Sweden, Germany and other developed countries. In the USSR, an attempt was also made to create a garden city. Thus, the "village of artists" was erected on Sokol, as well as other small settlements in Mytishchi, Rostov-on-Don, Ivanovo and Vologda.

Where is it?

Where exactly is the settlement "Falcon"? This settlement occupies a whole block at the intersection of Volokolamsk highway and Alabyan street. Thus, residential buildings of the "village of artists" border on the numerous buildings of Levitan, Vrubel, Kiprensky and, of course, Alabyan streets.

How to get to this place?

This can be done in two ways. First, using the underground. Not far from the settlement there is the Sokol metro station and the Panfilovskaya metro station. Thanks to the subway, you will reach the village quickly and without traffic jams.

How long will it take to walk from these stations? Naturally, this depends on your walking speed. For example, the Sokol metro station is located half a kilometer from the village, while the Panfilovskaya metro station is only 350 meters away.

It is noteworthy that these stations belong to different metro lines. This should also be taken into account by those who are going tovisit the "village of artists". Metro "Sokol" belongs to the Zamoskvoretskaya line of the capital's underground transport, so the station is located to the east of the village. Metro "Panfilovskaya" is a passenger platform of the Small Ring from the Moscow Railway, therefore it is located in the south of the village we are interested in.

Of course, it can also be reached by land transport, from the side of Halabyan Street. These are buses No. 691K, 175, 105, 100, 88, 60, 26 and trolleybuses No. 59, 19 (stops "Levitan Street" or "Alabyan Street"".

As you can see, the transport hub is quite branched and diverse.

Construction history

How was the "village of artists" founded and what contributed to its construction?

It happened in the summer of 1921, when Lenin signed a decree allowing cooperative organizations and even individuals to build up city plots. This decision was forced, as the newly formed government could not find funds to build housing for everyone.

After almost a year and a half, the Sokol cooperative partnership was formed. Less than a month later, the shareholders gathered for a general meeting. Representatives of various professions were present here: people's commissars, teachers, economists, agronomists, engineers, artists and even workers. The first contributions of the participants amounted to 10.5 gold chervonets each, with the allocation of land - 30, and at the start of construction work - 20. The price of the entire city house was to cost the shareholders six hundred chervonets. Of course, such a cost for those times was high, and not everyone could afford it. Vasily Sakharov became the first chairman of the cooperative.

The state allocated a fairly decent piece of land to the newly formed cooperative on the condition that new houses would appear here in seven years. The right to use them was given to the family of each shareholder for a limited period of time - 35 years.

By the autumn of 1923, large-scale work on the construction of a cooperative residential village began.

Where does the name come from?

The opinions of modern inhabitants differ on the question of why the settlement "Sokol" is named that way and not otherwise. One of the versions is that the cooperative was promised to allocate land in Sokolniki, but then the decision was changed, but the name of the enterprise remained the same.

Another assumption regarding the name is due to the fact that the well-known livestock breeder Sokol A. I. lived in the village, who bred thoroughbred pigs on his plot.

The third version is rather prosaic. According to her, the cooperative got its name from a common construction tool called a "plaster falcon".

A little about the main creators

Six famous Soviet architects took part in the design and construction of the "village of artists" at once - Nikolai Vladimirovich Markovnikov, the Vesnin brothers (Leonid, Victor and Alexander), Ivan Ivanovich Kondakov and Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev. By joint efforts, a little more than a hundred houses were built, designed according to individual plans. Yes,the town planning of the cooperative provided for individual housing construction (IZHS) for each shareholder separately.

House style

financial) position. And at the same time, each building was distinguished by its quality factor and strength of the structure, as well as the presence of the necessary benefits of civilization.

And this despite the fact that the houses in the "village of artists" were built according to an experimental system. During their construction, new materials such as fiberboard, peat plywood, cinder blocks, straw blocks, volcanic tuff were used.

The architectural style of the buildings was varied and many-sided. There were also brick cottages, and frame-fill buildings, and buildings reminiscent of examples of an 18th century estate. Here you can even find houses resembling fortress watchtowers.

Despite this diversity, the requirements for homeowners were the same. For example, everyone was ordered to have the same low fence. Moreover, the facades of some houses overlooking the main streets were built without windows. Thus, the buildings did not draw attention to themselves, and the streets seemed larger and longer.

Finally, the "village of artists" wasbuilt by 1932. Taking into account the fact that by this time the ideology of building collective workers' buildings was in full swing in the state, several small apartment buildings were erected on the territory of the cooperative.

Architectural ensemble

Since the territory of the "Falcon" was small, the streets and houses were decided to be arranged in such a way as to visually increase the area of \u200b\u200bthe place and create the appearance of its vastness. To do this, the streets were “broken” at a 45-degree angle, narrowed towards the end, and also framed their ends with flowering gardens.

Initially, the streets in the cooperative had names typical for the city - Central, Bolshaya, School … However, they were soon renamed after famous Russian painters: Vrubel, Levitan, Shishkin, Surikov and so on. From here came the second name of the cooperative - "village of artists".

Greening of the cooperative was carried out with great care. Each street was planted with special types of trees. For example, Bryullov Street is buried in Tatar maples, Kiprensky Street - in Norway maples, Vrubel Street - in ash trees.

Beautiful rare plants were planted in the park, some of them were even listed in the Red Book of the USSR.

Infrastructure Development

As the houses were settled, both social and administrative buildings were erected here: shops, a library, a canteen, a sports ground and even a kindergarten. In the "village of artists" he occupied an entire building. True, only one teacher worked there, and the rest of the duties were distributed among themselves by working mothers who were on duty in the garden in turn.

A little later, a maternity hospital was erected in the center of the cooperative, which is an impressive four-story building.

All kinds of harassment

In the early 1930s, undeveloped land was taken away from the "village of artists" in order to build houses for employees of the NKVD on it.

Starting from 1936, the cooperative urban planning in the USSR was closed, so the houses of the village became the property of the state.

The period of Stalinist repressions did not bypass the residents of Sokol either. The chairman of the cooperative and his deputy were repressed. The same fate befell the other inhabitants of the "village of artists".

Remembering the 1930s, it is impossible not to mention another tragic incident - the crash of the ANT-20 (at that time the largest Soviet passenger aircraft). In this aviation accident, all 49 people (including six children) on board the liner died. The plane that broke up in the air fell on the houses of the Falconers. True, none of the local residents were injured, but several cooperative buildings were thoroughly destroyed.

Years of the Great Patriotic War

This tragic page in the history of our country left its mark on the cooperative place. In the 1940s, self-defense groups were formed here, the capital's fortification line passed, and an anti-aircraft battery was located.

The Co-op Territory was bombed, destroying houses and other buildings.

Modernization and struggle for survival

The 1950s became crucial for the Sokol village. During this period, the cooperative houses were renovated and improved. For example, stove heating was canceled and replaced with water (later - gas). The village was also connected to the city's sewer system.

Despite such improvements, there was a real danger of demolition over the Sokol. In place of the private sector, they wanted to build residential high-rise buildings, but local residents have repeatedly stood up to protect their homes. It was during this period that the village was first talked about as an architectural and historical monument.

Transition to self-government

Since the city authorities allocated little funds from the city budget for the maintenance of the village, municipal public self-government was established.

Thanks to this, most of the houses and administrative buildings in the "village of artists" were reconstructed and renovated, a playground was built, festive events were regularly held for the residents of the village, and even their own local newspaper was published.

1998 was marked by another important milestone in the history of the former cooperative - a museum dedicated to the history of the Sokol village was opened.

Place in the 2000s

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the cost of houses in the village jumped sharply, some buildings even became included in the list of the most expensive capitalmansions.

In general, during this period the population of the village began to change dramatically. Some indigenous people sold their cottages, which immediately grew into elite and expensive buildings.

In the recent past, a serious scandal erupted around this village. The legality of the demolition of old buildings and the erection of new ones in their place was questioned. There was even a rally of local residents protesting against this situation.

Famous residents

At different times, such famous personalities as director Rolan Antonovich Bykov, artist Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov, architect Nikolai Vladimirovich Obolensky and many others lived in the cooperative.

Instead of afterword

As you can see, the history of the Sokol village is rich in interesting facts and incidents. Built as an unusual urban planning experiment, it still remains an important architectural monument of Moscow, a special attraction of the capital's way of life.