Thirty years ago, a concrete high-rise appeared in the center of Sverdlovsk, which was supposed to become the second tallest tower in Russia after Ostankino. Similar towers based on a standard design with a revolving restaurant at the top were built in Vilnius and Tallinn in those years. But the project stopped halfway in the late 80s: the spire was never raised onto the 200-meter concrete frame, the money ran out, and the builder state was gone. The symbol of Yekaterinburg has turned into an abandoned long-term construction site and a monument to Soviet ambitions.
At the top it was proposed to open a registry office or install a figure of St. Catherine; base jumpers and those who decided to commit suicide jumped from the tower. But only now things have moved on dead center- in January, construction equipment appeared under the TV tower, and the governor announced that the concrete pipe, surrounded by a vacant lot, will be demolished. The unequivocal decision upset the townspeople, and the tower even had a nostalgic telegram channel, where people recall stories about the high-rise and offer alternatives to demolition. The Village tracked down Walter Reingold, who oversaw the construction of the tower decades ago, and asked him to talk about the past of the legendary unfinished building.
Names: TV Tower, “Tower of Death”, “Stone Flower”, “Trumpet”
Address: st. Stepana Razin, 15
Planned height: 361 meters
Actual height: 220 meters
Start of construction: 1983
Termination of work: 1991
Start
“It was the most significant and ambitious project Soviet power in Sverdlovsk. In the reception room of the chief architect for a long time there was a three-meter model of a television tower made of plastic and wood,” recalls Sergei Skrobov, curator of the Yekaterinburg History Museum. The tower was supposed to become part of a comfortable quarter on the Iset embankment. Between Dekabristov and Kuibyshev streets, on the site of a pre-revolutionary residential wooden block, city planners conceived a beautiful area with a large park. A circus with an openwork dome, a nature museum with a planetarium, the Palace of Pioneers, located right above the river, and a television tower with a restaurant and an observation deck at the top - the complex was supposed to become the main vacation spot for Soviet citizens.
The circus was built in the early 80s, and it quickly became business card Sverdlovsk. Then, in 1983, construction of the TV tower officially began. The townspeople saw the frame only towards the end of the decade, when the foundation was ready and the pipe crawled up to a 200-meter height. The main part was built very quickly - in six months. The tower was built from heavy-duty concrete and using the method of monolithic casting, that is, the pipe runners rose to the top step by step without stopping.
Towards the end of construction, they wanted to demolish the small 192-meter TV tower in the park named after Pavlik Morozov. Built in 1955, it no longer satisfied the growing demands of television - its signal barely reached Shuvakish (a village on the northwestern outskirts of Yekaterinburg), and then only intermittently. And the new one would broadcast to the whole of Sverdlovsk and the nearest cities right up to Nizhny Tagil. They were also planning to open the Seventh Heaven restaurant in the tower, like in Moscow, and house the equipment of state security agencies. Because of them, the construction site was given military significance, and photographs of construction could not be published in the press.
The project was typical: exactly the same towers were built in Vilnius and Tallinn with a difference in the shape of the platform at the top. On the territory of the RSFSR, standard towers were supposed to appear in Sverdlovsk, as well as in Perm and Vladivostok. By 1991, the builders had only completed the concreting phase - they erected a frame of a concrete pipe with portholes and made a hole at the top so that parts of the metal spire could be lifted. But with the beginning of perestroika, the facility was no longer funded, and people simply left. No one cared what would happen to the tower next - it was not protected from bad weather and cold, and the iron reinforcement remained sticking out of the concrete walls.
Walter and his tower
The family of 75-year-old Walter Rheingold still lives in the house he inherited from working on the TV tower. Workers used to live in a three-room apartment in Zarechny; sweatshirts hung on nails in the hallway. Now there is nothing at home that reminds us of the collective past. On the bookshelf there are volumes on pipe construction, and from the window you can see the boiler room chimney. The builder points to the red and white tower and says: “A TV tower and a pipe are one and the same. The tower is a prototype of a reinforced concrete chimney, only taller and more voluminous, it has portholes and ceilings with rooms for equipment.”
When I arrived, the tower was 20 meters high. I built another 200 meters. We worked non-stop - the essence of the monolith is continuous concreting without joints or seams
Three decades ago, Walter went on a business trip from Kazakhstan to closed Sverdlovsk to work a little on the local TV tower, and then go to Perm and build exactly the same high-rise there. “My wife set a condition for me: enough business trips, it’s time to hit the shore. I was supposed to build a facility on the Kama, but there was not enough money, and the Perm project was closed. Then the boss said, stay here, and then you will build pipes in the region. He handed me the keys to the apartment, I called my wife and said that we would live in Sverdlovsk.”
Reingold worked as a foreman. Every day he went upstairs and made sure that the formwork was lubricated and that there were no traces of rust on the reinforcement. In addition, he dealt with documents, submitted concrete samples for testing, and controlled the quality of building materials: “If you pick up the documents now, they will all have my signature.”
“When I arrived, the tower was 20 meters high. I built another 200 meters. We worked non-stop - the essence of the monolith is continuous concreting without joints or seams,” he recalls. The construction of the reinforced concrete shaft was carried out by two teams of eight people. From morning until evening, and in recent months around the clock, they climbed to a height, knitted a mesh of reinforcement, assembled formwork, and poured concrete. As a result, the 200-meter shaft was erected in six months. “We did our job and passed it,” says Walter. “After that, heating engineers, fitters, elevator operators, plumbers, and electricians began working there. The next step the spire was to be built.”
The builder is confident that the right place was chosen for the construction of the tower: “They planned to open an observation deck at the top, and the city center was perfect for this. During the first climbs, I liked to look at Sverdlovsk from such a height: wide avenues, houses, factories, parks. And then I quickly got used to it, and the romance went away. It was never scary. Many people think that pipelayers are desperate people, but in reality there is nothing special: there are fences and strict safety precautions everywhere at the top.”
Exactly the same towers were built in Vilnius and Tallinn with the difference being the shape of the platform at the top. On the territory of the RSFSR, standard towers were supposed to appear in Sverdlovsk, as well as in Perm and Vladivostok
When the concrete work was completed, Walter went to other city sites, but kept an eye on the fate of the main city tower. “When we handed it over, we didn’t even think that everything would end like this. I remember there were some problems with the cranes that were supposed to install the spire. And then perestroika began and everything went to hell. The tower turned out to be of no use to anyone,” recalls the builder.
IN last time Reingold came to the tower about ten years ago: the structures that were supposed to hold the spire at the top were rusting on the ground. The builder cannot say unequivocally what to do with the tower: “On the one hand, for National economy she is no longer needed. On the other hand, I cringe inside when I think that she will be gone. Thanks to her, my wife and I came to this beautiful city, my children and grandchildren grew up here. I am proud that I built it, but it hurts me when I see this dead monument.”
Desolation and end
After the tower was abandoned, fires started. “The wooden scaffolding inside and the cabins around were burning. The tower gained particular popularity in 1998, when people lined up to watch the fireworks in honor of the city’s anniversary,” says historian Sergei Skrobov. There are no exact statistics on how many people have crashed here. Numbers ranging from a few to 50 people are flashed in the media. Local TV channels often filmed trash stories at the foot of the mountain - the iron mine easily crushed people who had escaped, and more and more epitaphs began to appear on the walls.
Urban folklore renamed TV tower to the “Tower of Death”, and visitors began to be told legends about the bloody floor and ghosts on the tower. In the early 2000s, the authorities decided to stop the madness, welded up the entrance, and organized a parking lot around it, where guards with dogs made sure that no one approached the tower.
Five years ago, the tower and 4.5 hectares around it were transferred to the ownership of the regional authorities. They promised to hold a competition and decide what to do with the object next. Architects proposed opening a registry office at the top, building high-rise residential buildings around it, making a lighthouse or a giant church inside, or simply placing a statue of St. Catherine holding a cross on the top. But the competition ended ingloriously.
“We haven’t progressed beyond a few pictures where the banter is indistinguishable from a rational idea,” urban researcher Dmitry Moskvin says he doesn’t see the point in aestheticizing the tower. - It is impossible to treat it as a functional structure, rather as an art object. However, in our country, even installing an ordinary street sculpture is a whole epic. This tower does not have any distinct meaning or value for the townspeople, and I believe that dismantling the tower is possible and permissible.”
“The tower is definitely not a monument. And not a symbol of some kind historical event. This is a symbol of mismanagement. We searched different shapes use of a television tower. And I must state that there are no investors to implement any idea. It’s bad that we can’t bring this territory into circulation. That is why the decision to demolish it was made. And even during discussions on my Instagram, the majority supported him,” the governor said at the annual press conference Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev.
Using directed destruction technology, the upper part will first fold into the lower part, and then the trunk will fall towards the Iset River, onto an earthen embankment. The process will take place in two stages with a difference of 1 to 5 minutes
The authorities seriously announced that the tower would be demolished for the first time in 2017. The tower and the land around it were transferred to the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, so that in its place Ice Palace For hockey club"Motorist". Metallurgists held a competition and told how they would demolish the TV tower. Using guided destruction technology top part first it will fold into the lower one, and then the trunk will fall towards the Iset River, on earth embankment. The process will take place in two stages with a difference of 1 to 5 minutes. The demolition of the tower will be carried out by a company from Magnitogorsk - the company "Special Explosive Works".
In mid-January, the equipment goes to the foot of the tower. While some specialists are on site designing the demolition, others will install a new construction site fencing and begin building an earthen embankment for falling debris - a damper. The city does not find any compelling arguments for preserving the tower, but at the same time the authorities announce the start of construction of a new television tower at Uralmash.
Since 2000, the tower has been decorated with garlands for Christmas, and since 2015 - with 36 laser beams. During the World and European Basketball Championships, a basketball hoop was placed on the tower, and the TV tower is also decorated with medals of the winners of the Vilnius marathons. In 2018, when Yekaterinburg TV tower will disappear from the horizon, the TV tower in Vilnius is planned to be closed for reconstruction.
The third sister of the towers, the Tallinn one, was opened a year earlier than the Vilnius one, in 1980. The tower with 50-centimeter concrete walls reaches a height of 314 meters and weighs more than 20 thousand tons. There are 1,050 steps leading from the tower's basement to the spire. It has already been reconstructed more than once - in 1994, for example, a new antenna installed from a helicopter pierced the roof and windows of the observation restaurant. The last time the tower was closed for reconstruction was for five years and was reopened in 2012.
The unfinished TV tower is one of the main symbols of Yekaterinburg and at the same time the tallest abandoned building in the world. On March 24, by the sole decision of Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn, an object that could have been turned into a unique world-class attraction was blown up despite the protests of the townspeople...
History of the construction of the television tower
Construction of a new TV tower near the circus building in Sverdlovsk began at the end of 1983. Perhaps this was the most ambitious project of the Soviet government in this city. In addition to the tower, there should have been a park, a museum, a planetarium, and a house of pioneers.
Active construction continued until 1989, then problems with financing began. However, construction continued until 1991, then it was frozen. The construction was carried out by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy trust, which previously erected the Ostankino TV tower. Left without funding, the builders simply left without mothballing the tower and leaving it exposed to unfavorable external conditions.
Construction stopped at 219.25 meters (according to other sources, 220.4 meters). And if we take into account the metal structures rising above, the height of the tower is 231.7 meters.
A metal antenna with a height of 141 meters was to be installed above. The design height of the structure was 361 meters. For comparison, the height of the tall skyscraper city - Iset tower - is 209 meters. If the TV tower had been completed, it would have become the second tallest in Russia - after the Ostankino Tower in Moscow.
At an altitude of 188 meters, a restaurant was to be located on a rotating platform (analogous to “Seventh Heaven” in Ostankino).
After the completion of the construction of the new television tower, the 192-meter tower in the park named after Pavlik Morozov was to be demolished. New tower would significantly expand signal coverage - right up to Nizhny Tagil.
The prototype of the television tower was an ordinary reinforced concrete chimney, only higher and more voluminous, with appropriate rooms for equipment. The tower is a monolithic structure made of reinforced concrete with a wall thickness of 50 centimeters at the base to 30 centimeters at the top. High-strength concrete grade M400 was used (in modern classification B30). This type of concrete is used in the construction of bunkers, weapons depots, and protective structures.
The thickness of the protective layer of concrete on the outer surface of the trunk is 40-70 millimeters, according to inner surface– 30-50 millimeters. The design volume of shaft concrete is 3066 m3.
Concrete was brought from the concrete factory, lifted upstairs and poured onto reinforcement welded for strength. The work platform was ascended by a shaft lift inside the tower.
Inside the tower trunk there is a hollow cylinder with a diameter of 15 meters at the bottom and 7 meters at the top. There are numerous window openings along the entire height of the trunk. various shapes and sizes.
At levels from 199.6 to 208.9 meters, an installation opening measuring 9.3 x 5.72 meters was left in the tower trunk on the southwestern side. Through it (using a beam crane installed inside the television tower) it was planned to install the elevator shaft, elevator equipment and the elevators themselves. After this, the hole would be concreted.
At the level of 231.7 meters, a platform with a diameter of 12 meters was built on the trunk, with a fence.
The metal structures of the mine hoist are mounted along the entire height of the reinforced concrete shaft of the tower. When the tower was abandoned, extreme sports enthusiasts who were eager to conquer the tower climbed up them. The mine hoist was installed to the level of 239.7 meters.
A walking staircase was installed outside along the entire height of the tower. Over time, it rusted and in some places moved away from the trunk. After the accident that happened there bottom part the stairs were cut off.
After graduation construction work appearance The tower did not change, except that, at the request of the prosecutor's office, red altitude lights were installed for flight safety and, over time, the huge inscription “Kisa” that appeared at the top was erased for the sake of the Russian tricolor.
Unfinished for extreme sports enthusiasts
The huge abandoned area near the circus soon began to attract extreme sports enthusiasts and simply informal people. Risking their lives, they climbed to the very top along internal structures and external stairs. Some even spent the night on the tower with tents. There were many who climbed the tower dozens and hundreds of times. Sometimes paratroopers jumped from here.
TV tower restoration projects
The construction of the tower at that time was carried out according to a new standard design. In addition to Sverdlovsk in Russia, similar towers were supposed to appear in Perm and Vladivostok, but the crisis prevented them. But towers according to this project were built in Tallinn (Estonia) and Vilnius (Lithuania), only the platform at the top was different. Looking at them, you can understand what the TV tower in Sverdlovsk-Ekaterinburg would be like.
TV tower in Tallinn. Photo from Bookingcar.su
TV tower in Vilnius. Photo from the site votpusk.ru
Even in the form of unfinished construction, according to many Yekaterinburg residents, the tower adorned the city. This is the dominant thing that the eye clings to. The tower was also visible in the outskirts of the city, for example from the Devil’s Settlement (long before high-rise buildings and skyscrapers began to appear in the city).
Thanks to the tower, the view from Plotinka downstream of the Iset River was reminiscent of the panorama in the city of Washington (USA) with the monument to George Washington. At one time, this photo comparison was widespread on the Internet.
From time to time, regional authorities announced plans to restore the site. In 2007, an investor was found who expressed his readiness to invest about 500 million rubles in the completion of the tower, and to build business centers nearby to recoup the costs, but the financial crisis of 2008 prevented it.
The unfinished tower was listed on the balance sheet of the federal state unitary enterprise RTRS. In 2012, by decision of Governor Kuyvashev, the Sverdlovsk region bought unfinished TV tower, paying 500 million rubles from the regional budget.
The following year, 2013, the regional authorities held a competition for best project reconstruction of an unfinished television tower. The winner was the company "NAI BEKAR Ural" with the project "Green Hill Park". According to the project, it was planned to build a registry office and an observation deck on the tower, and hotels, shops and entertainment centers in the lower part.
Second place in the competition went to the Global Lighthouse project, which proposed turning the tower into a scientific and educational center. And the third is the “Star of the Urals” with floating rings using the principle of magnetic levitation.
In total, more than 70 projects were submitted to the competition. Some suggested installing a statue of St. Catherine on top (for example, instead of a temple on a pond). There was also a proposal to turn the tower into a “dandelion” - to create a huge art object. According to the idea of the project authors from the TigerTiger agency, there should be an observation deck at the top of the tower, and at the bottom there could be exhibition or office space. At night, the stem of the “dandelion” would be illuminated green, and the top is white.
In 2017, it became known that the Tengo Interactive studio had created a VR project about the Yekaterinburg TV tower. The project was called " The Tower VR". Wearing a helmet virtual reality, you can play the game by visiting the famous TV tower and climbing to the top. A video with renderings of the project has been posted on the studio’s YouTube channel. It can be seen that the tower is reproduced in great detail. To do this, company employees carried out careful photography inside and outside the tower. You can read more about this project on the website vc.ru.
Demolition of the Yekaterinburg TV tower
On February 22, 2017, the authorities put the tower and the land around it up for auction. Starting price determined in the amount of 652.8 million rubles. The Atomstroykompleks company, which planned to build 120 thousand square meters, showed interest in the auction. m. of housing and commercial real estate. The tower was planned to be reconstructed by installing a long spire, due to which its height would increase to 361 meters. They wanted to build an observation deck on the tower. However, after deliberation, Atomstroykompleks refused to acquire the unfinished property. The auction did not take place.
At the same time, the owner of UMMC, billionaire Andrei Kozitsyn, showed interest in the site. As a result, in 2017, the Sverdlovsk authorities freely transferred the unfinished television tower, purchased from the federal authorities for half a billion budget rubles, to the UMMC company - in exchange for a promise to demolish the television tower and build another ice arena in its place (literally a few blocks from here there is an ice sports palace " Uralets" and Datsyuk Arena). The new ice arena will have a capacity of 15 thousand people. However, the corresponding infrastructure (in particular, extensive parking) is not provided. According to experts, on the days of major events there will be a traffic collapse in this part of the city.
Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina
In November 2017, the Sverdlovsk organization of the Union of Architects of Russia sent a letter to the head of UMMC Andrei Kozitsyn asking him to reconsider the decision to demolish the TV tower and build an ice arena in this place.
Some townspeople compare the demolition of the TV tower with the destruction of Ipatiev's house, believing that in the future descendants will remember Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn with unkind words for the destruction of one of the symbols of the city.
Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina
The former governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Eduard Rossel, also spoke out against the demolition of the television tower:
“There are 165 meters of metal structures left to complete. This needs to be done, paint the TV tower, install the equipment. You can do good there Cultural Center - new item attraction for city residents, for youth", he told reporters.
But the current governor Kuyvashev, who came to the Urals from Tyumen region, welcomed the demolition of one of the symbols of a city alien to him.
“The tower is definitely not a monument. And not a symbol of some historical event. This is a symbol of mismanagement. We were looking for different uses for the TV tower. And I must state that there are no investors to implement any idea. This is a purely economic issue. It's funny to call it some kind of symbol. It’s bad that we can’t bring this territory into circulation. That is why the decision was made to demolish it. And even during the discussion on my Instagram, the majority supported", - Kuyvashev said at his press conference.
It is worth noting that under the leadership of Kuyvashev, who talks about the tower as a symbol of mismanagement, the debts of the Sverdlovsk region have grown to stratospheric heights. Thus, according to data at the beginning of 2018, the region’s debt amounts to more than 75 billion rubles. This is twice as much as the entire annual budget of the capital of the Urals.
Started in January 2018 active work for the demolition of the tower. They were in a hurry to finish it in time for the FIFA World Cup, four matches of which will be held in Yekaterinburg. By order of UMMC, the demolition was carried out by a company with the simple name “Special Explosive Works” from Magnitogorsk ( Chelyabinsk region). The same company demolished an elevator near the Makarovsky Bridge for Kozitsyn. The cost of demolishing the TV tower has not been disclosed.
This is how the demolition process was described in the project documentation. At the first stage, the lower structure at the base of the tower is dismantled. At the same time, it is preparing Earthworks, which should become a kind of “cushion” when the structure falls.
The dismantling of the tower barrel will take place in two stages. Holes will be drilled and cuts will be made at 70 and 10 meters. The blastholes will contain an Enamat impulsive gas generator. It was planned to put a net on top of the TV tower - a kind of “mourning stocking”. However, a few days before the demolition, this rag, which was supposed to protect against flying concrete fragments, was torn to shreds by the wind.
Scheme of drilling holes for the Enamata backfill at an altitude of 70 meters.
In Yekaterinburg, an unfinished television tower that stood in the city center for 30 years and became one of the main attractions and an indispensable element of the urban landscape was demolished. At 9 am on Saturday, March 24, an explosion at the bottom of the tower collapsed the building, which fell towards the river, the correspondent reports.
The demolition of the tower was preceded by heated public discussions, which developed into a conflict just before the demolition and became part of a number of other high-profile changes in the city landscape (this includes the battle between supporters and opponents of the construction of a “temple on the water” and the situation with the return of the Red Banner group to Plotinka).
Conducted since the beginning of 2018. The demolition date was not announced for a long time; many residents of the surrounding area reported that they were not warned about the demolition work even the day before.
Opponents of the tower's demolition tried to stop the work by the most different ways: ; collected signatures for petitions; contacted various authorities, for example, the prosecutor's office; wrote letters to high-ranking officials up to the president of the country; On March 23, several young people climbed the tower and intended to stay on the top platform all night to prevent demolition, but their plan was unsuccessful (you can read and watch a detailed report on last day in the history of the Yekaterinburg tower).
This is how Ekaterinburg residents said goodbye to the tower on March 22 - a traditional “hug” for the city.
In the summer of 2017, the Sverdlovsk Legislative Assembly approved the transfer land plot under the unfinished tower for the use of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company for the construction of an ice arena for 15 thousand spectators. Preliminary construction of the facility is estimated at no less than 1 billion rubles.
Yekaterinburg TV Tower - roof height 231.7 m (design height with spire/antenna - 361 m). Years of construction: 1983 - 1991 (construction was not completed, the bulk of the work was carried out in 1986-1989). Was the most tall structure in the city.
In the 2000s, the tower was transferred to FSUE RTRS. Over the course of ten years, rumors periodically appeared about possible investments in the reconstruction of the tower and turning it into a business center, but no one was willing to actually invest in the project. In 2012, the process of transferring the property to the ownership of the region began. In 2017, the site on which the tower was located was transferred to the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which plans to build an ice arena on this site.
The unfinished TV tower is expected to be demolished in April this year. An earthen cushion has already been poured on the site, where the concrete trunk will fall, and metal petals have been cut off from the stylobate; Below, workers are drilling holes in the wall so that the tower will fall in the right direction when it explodes.
A grandiose unfinished building and one of the informal symbols of Yekaterinburg, the tallest abandoned building in the world, the TV tower could have become one of the most attractive tourist sites in the Urals, or even throughout Russia, but the city authorities and the current owners of the tower decided that it would be demolished and an ice arena built. better. Construction of the television tower began in 1983 and stopped after the collapse of the USSR. The tower began to live its own life. It was a popular hangout spot where you could drink beer, meet new people, and spend the night with a girl. Experienced tower climbers climbed the internal structure in half an hour. Extreme sportsmen climbed the external stairs - in some places there were not enough rungs, or even the stairs lagged behind the wall at a negative angle. The Tower of Death claimed many lives. 
In the early 2000s, the entrances were welded shut and guards were posted below. They still climbed, but not as often, and did not crash as before. The question arose, what to do with this gigantic unfinished project?
Let's make it...
"Eurasian Lighthouse" and the symbol of EXPO2025
Column with a 20-meter tall Saint Catherine at the top
Guess whose project this is.
The chapel, to which you need to climb a spiral staircase
Christmas tree
Dandelion
Offer from TigerTiger agency.
Temple
Siphon
Stone Flower, torch, mirror, glowing art object
Options by designer Pavel Omelyokhin.
Attraction for the brave
Icicle
Tent
and so on... The TV tower was tattooed on the body
Painted on the walls
Filmed reports from the top
They wrote poems about the tower
I watched the dawn on the tower.I was at the tower on my birthday
I was at the tower on December 31 (see above)
I was on the tower at -27 degrees (see above)
I spent the night on the tower
I walked on a tower in the clouds and above the clouds
I was on the tower shouting “Freedom!”
I left my name on the tower
At its highest point
I climbed the tower in 13 minutes
And I went down for 18
I conquered all my fears on the tower.
Forever!
==================================
My soul is high...
During the day among the clouds,
And at night between the stars.
In the summer heat it cools with a salty rain of pain, sadness, and sometimes joy...
In the frosty winter, it glows with the heat of former passion or rage, wraps itself in the warmth of a ghostly love caress...
In drizzling autumn it envelops you in an impenetrable thick blanket of loneliness...
Thawed spring, blinding with the awakening sun, more than fills the lungs with a mixture of bitter sighs of powerlessness and the cloying breath of boundless freedom...
But only in a dream, when I have not yet fallen into the abyss of absolute emptiness, but I no longer touch reality with my fingers,
I rise to her in the clouds, to the stars...
I hug her...
I merge with her...
And then I’m finally able to experience it all myself...
Then I Myself... Feel...
Alexander Mamaev 
On the edge of night and light
On the edge of peace and darkness
On the verge of frost and summer
We face death
Yes, we are the ones who fly
Yes, we are one of those who do not sleep
Yes, we are one of those who want
One day choose suicide
We are always our own judges
We are our own executioners
We are our own godmen
Doctors of wounded destinies.
Or maybe it’s not logic that rules the whole world?
Absurdity and chaos married the dream
And the thought of a rope covered in soap
It pops up on its own, but I don’t understand.
Will you tell me what's coming soon?
my time will come
and sharpened
Show me the blade
The hilt is in your hands
I'll put it in gently
Through the ridiculous sounds
I'm leaving for you!
With them in the battle for the snow
I'm a joined man
We knife each other
We cut with stakes and scrape
Nothing awaits ahead
Someone will die and someone will die.
City of poor and rich
Prostitutes gypsies whips
There are hurrying but dead people everywhere
In general, it’s common, which means no one’s!!!
These are poems by Sasha Palyanov. He was the most desperate conqueror of the tower. Crashed October 27, 1998. 
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the city from above.
We touched the wind with our hands.
It turned out that he was very gentle.
It turned out that he doesn't love
Just like us, if they get into your soul.
He even cried out of resentment
And he left, overtaking the cloud.
We saw the sky today.
We searched for God above the sky.
He probably went out on business,
When we got so close.
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the old city.
Maybe in two hundred years we will remember
How close we were from the flight.
Elena Soroka, 1996, August-September, Ekaterinburg 
They remembered how they climbed it
More stories and photos - using the hashtag #mytower on social networks. The atmosphere of the nineties in all its glory.
Greetings from past life, thank you, Rzhavoy, for getting up on August 21, 2001, I just turned sixteen. This is our generation of streets without comment... At that time the tower was already guarded, but you can always find loopholes. I conquered it once and remembered it forever. Climbing was scarier than climbing, but we climbed on internal reinforcement. I think I'll sleep better if it's demolished... It's cool that there's still a photo left. Natalya Bykova, instagram.com
One winter in high school a classmate, having acquired his mother’s gold, took us instead of lessons to Weiner, where we successfully sold as much as 3.5 grams of gold to Uncle Zhenya at Brilliant, for incredible money for schoolchildren. Since we weren’t screwed, we realized that we were incredibly lucky that day, and decided to add adrenaline to it; and the wildest thing that came to mind was to climb the tower.
No one had climbing experience, but that didn’t stop anyone. We caught a taxi (we must have looked funny) and drove to the Tsarsky Bridge. What’s surprising now is that they didn’t even get drunk before this, although they already seemed to have started drinking a little. The tower was still completely open for climbing. No fence, no signs of any kind.
At the very bottom of the tower, a person has no choice - to climb the internal structure or the external ladder, so they climbed the internal one. Very inconvenient for schoolchildren in height, cold, rusty-polished design in the form of rectangles with a diagonal crossbar. I will forever remember the pipe through which I had to literally fly to the stylobate. It extended from the structure to the stylobate - so small in diameter and polished; and the concrete edges where it was necessary to fly over are snow-covered and look like a polished slope into the abyss. Of course, no fences or railings were installed for anyone. I don’t even understand how I didn’t immediately kill myself in those first half an hour in the tower, climbing onto the stylobate.
We walked along it, shook the external staircase - it went so far up in funny waves if you rocked it; We realized that we didn’t want to climb it. And more so because one of us will start joking - rocking it, or whatever else he thinks of. And returned to internal structure. I remember a terrible feeling herd feeling, which only happens at school - no one wants to interfere, but everyone teases and pushes each other, so it’s necessary.
Since everyone was straight from school, they climbed in trousers, school boots, with backpacks - everything was quite exhausting and looked pathetic. It seems that there were sections with stairs closer to the top along the way, or I wanted them to be, and I came up with them then out of overexertion). We climbed the tower for a long time and sadly, we cursed everything along the way and no one got much of an impression from all this.
On the way back, it turned out that it was even more inconvenient to climb down; , whether))). Something very heavy that flew past with a cheerful whistle, scattered into dust somewhere nearby and greatly accelerated the fall from the tower. We wanted to stay and deal with them when they got down, but either we realized that we didn’t have enough strength, or it was simply too late and our parents wouldn’t understand us, and we all went home. I never wanted to repeat this extreme again).
The author wishes to remain anonymous 
Since childhood, I dreamed of climbing the TV tower. Firstly, I constantly saw her along the way - past her there was a road to both grandmothers and to the first kindergarten, then to school. Secondly, throughout my childhood Sheremet constantly talked about the tower. He talked about cool extreme guys and suicides, but for some reason only the first ones impressed me.
At the end of school, I came to the tower several times to see how everything worked there. I was not aware that they closed something there and specially made guarded parking areas. I thought that everyone kept getting in there, so I was left somewhat bewildered when I didn’t find any way to get inside. I remember that university friends from other cities made fun of me when I told them that I had wanted to climb a tower since childhood. They said: “You had a harsh childhood here in Yekaterinburg.”
In the end, I met a man who had visited the tower dozens of times. And it so happened that just at that moment there were temporarily no parking areas around the tower. In general, in 2009 I finally realized my childhood dream. I climbed there only once, I didn’t need more. This, of course, was a very cool experience. Precisely because before it seemed completely impossible. Almost like flying into space. In general, I’m certainly glad that I managed to get there.
Marina Miritskevich, facebook.com 
I don't remember my first time...
I climbed the tower a lot and often.
Sometimes every day.
Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.
Then there were no Vysotskys and Anteevs, and such an awesome view was only from one point. From the Tower.
Was alone interesting case. One day we decided to climb on it in the evening, watch the sunset and sunrise and hang the flag. We arrived, and some men were welding the entrance, despite the fact that there were people inside. They were motivated by the fact that water bottles were falling from the tower and interfering with their lives. Then they called “Nightly News” and other news like 4 or 41. The most interesting thing was that inside there were grown-up young ladies who came to see where their children were climbing every day. They were saved by the whole crowd of caring people; when the men left, they all broke down the entrance and saved the children and parents. It would be interesting to find this video. Maybe someone remembers or witnessed it. The year is approximately 98-99. There were also poems inside at the level of the big failure, maybe someone has photographs of the inside?
***
The tower nail pierces the sky,
Those who have not been here lose a lot.
Anyone who has not been here does not understand himself
the smoky fog embraced the spire.
and then something about the heart of the city...
***
Geneva Nefedova, vk.com 
One day in the cold August of 1999 we were carried up the tower. We got together essentially spontaneously, I only had time to take a sweatshirt and a camera with an unknown film “just in case.” As it turned out, it was not in vain.
We entered the tower easily, there was no security then, and climbed up the internal elevator frame. It was easy to climb, almost half of the way was on ladders, while we were climbing, excellent shots were revealed from the windows, especially when we crawled past a large opening :) A little before crawling to the top platform, we couldn’t resist and climbed out onto the “skirt”, which is located just below . You had to get out there through a small window, bending in half. And when I climbed out through it, I was so stunned by the view that I didn’t look at my feet at all, tripped over a concrete influx, and almost fell down. Luckily, I grabbed onto the remains of the railing, with which I’m posing in the third photo.
We climbed up safely. I used up the remaining film panoramic views and photos of us against the backdrop of the city. Unfortunately, only five photos were printed then, then I gave the film to the guys, and it didn’t come back to me. Perhaps since then I have never risen so high above the ground myself, and even in the center of a residential city, it was a very cool experience.
PS: when we were going downstairs, we came across a drunken group, either they threw a bottle, or there was a terrible crash from the brick below. And fortunately for me, I climbed into the adjacent shaft 20 seconds before this thing flew down, where I had just crawled. I decided not to wait for the third “warning” and didn’t feel much desire to climb the tower again. Now, if they made a cultural and safe observation deck, it would be a super attraction, world-class, seriously.
modzoku, instagram.com
And they regretted that they never climbed
But my dream remained a dream. Everything seems to be real, but unrealistic, alas: (I remember, I was about 7-9 years old, I looked at the photos, listened to the story about climbing the TV tower and to myself: “Now I, too, will grow up and will definitely climb it!”And so I grew up. I came to the TV tower for the first time with friends at the age of 18, I even took my passport, in case they wouldn’t let me in. With desire and lack of fear, inspired and burning eyes looked at her. And now, here she is, and now everything will happen. But at the entrance a guard meets us and says that entry is prohibited, one of the students recently jumped out and now they are not allowed to climb. How angry I was with these suicides, there were no real words, just continuous piiiiii...
But I’m stubborn, there were other attempts where security also met us at the entrance.
And one day I went to a shoe store on March 8th, it’s just not far from the TV tower. And without fear, alone, I went to try my luck. I climbed through the fence. Nobody stopped me. The doors were open. I enter in anticipation of a dream coming true and.... The structure inside for lifting has been cut down. Now it is being demolished. My dream remained a dream. And yes, I am sitting here now and crying. So I remained in my dreams #mytower.
Olga Starodubtseva, instagram.com
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In Yekaterinburg, in the Ordzhonikidze district, it is located architectural monument, which dates back to the era of constructivism. This is a former water tower, built in 1928 - 1931 and abandoned in our time.
The need for a tower arose when construction of the Ural plant began in the north of Sverdlovsk. The architect of the structure was Reisher M.V. According to his plan, the structure had two observation decks at the very top. Two geometric bodies– the prismatic plate of the tank cylinder and the ladder had to intersect. The tower reached 29 meters in height, its tank was entirely made of iron. In 1931, the tower was ready, but an hour after it was filled with water, the bottom bent, broke, and all the water poured onto the street.
The bottom was redone by Prokhorov, and this time it turned out to be reliable and made of reinforced concrete. The tower was painted with white lime and people began to call it “ White Tower" Now she unofficial symbol Uralmash and a prototype for many other similar structures. In 2006, Red Cross activists planned to revive the monument, which was already included in the list of objects cultural heritage. They wanted to create a security zone around the structure.
Today, only piles of rubbish can be seen inside the tower; in 2012, the Red Cross abandoned custody of the monument and is now taking care of it public organization called "Architectural Initiatives Group".
Unfinished abandoned TV tower
The Yekaterinburg TV Tower is an unfinished telecommunications tower in the Sverdlovsk region, the city of Yekaterinburg.
Its construction began in 1983, when the regional government decided to move all television and radio communications to this site. According to the project, it was planned that the height of the tower would be 361 meters. There were also plans to create a high-rise restaurant, like the Seventh Heaven in the Ostankino TV tower.
The construction was undertaken by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy company, which already had experience in the construction of the Vilnius and Ostankino television towers. Construction continued until 1991, after which problems with financing began and the project was frozen.
A total of 11 million rubles were allocated for construction, but only 2 of them were spent.
Nowadays, the height of the tower is 220 meters, and it is highest point Yekaterinburg. Options for its restoration are being considered, but so far only in plans.
The tower has become a popular place for extreme sports enthusiasts, climbers and suicides; according to some reports, over 20 people have already committed suicide on this tower.