Khitrovskaya Square - one of the legendary squares of Moscow, which gained great fame thanks to the collection “Moscow and Muscovites” by Vladimir Gilyarovsky. The square is located between and Khitrovsky lanes on the territory of the historical White City.
Modern Khitrovskaya Square is a quiet and well-maintained place. There is a large square with quaint circular alleys, benches and flower beds, and in the very center of the square there are information stands from which you can learn about the history of the square and the surrounding area. Architectural ensemble area has high degree preservation and includes a number of buildings built or rebuilt in the 18th-20th centuries. Among them, the Khitrovo house, the Yaroshenko house, city estate Lopukhins - Volkonskys - Kiryakovs (the profitable property of the Bunins), the "Iron" house on the corner of Pevchesky and Petropavlovsky lanes, as well as the former Myasnitsky police house (the estate of Count Osterman).
The uniqueness of Khitrovskaya Square is associated with its notoriety: at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was the center of a crime-prone quarter, in whose shelters the poor and unemployed settled, as well as where fugitives took refuge. The life of Khitrovka was described most vividly and in more detail by Vladimir Gilyarovsky in the cult collection of essays “Moscow and Muscovites”: the writer describes it as gloomy and dirty place With big amount cramped cheap lodgings and taverns. And although these days the square and its surroundings are well landscaped and completely safe, the atmosphere of historical Khitrovka is carefully preserved in the memory of the townspeople.
Khitrovskaya Square and the surrounding quarter are recognized as an object cultural heritage- the interesting place "Khitrovka". In the vicinity of the square there are often excursions and historical walks dedicated to the past of Khitrovka and the criminal life of old Moscow.
History of Khitrovskaya Square
In hoary antiquity, the area of Ivanovskaya Gorka and Kulishki, where Khitrovka later arose, was a fairly prestigious area: in the 15th century, the summer palace of Moscow Prince Vasily I and the princely gardens were located in the vicinity, as well as the occasional nobility. The development was not dense: it began to become denser and acquire urban features only in the 18th century.
Before Patriotic War In 1812, on the territory of modern Khitrovskaya Square, there were two estates that were completely burned out during the Moscow fire of 1812. Their owners were in no hurry to restore the property, and they stood abandoned for about 10 years, until they were bought by retired Major General Nikolai Khitrovo in 1824. Khitrovo lived in a mansion not far from here and decided to develop a city square on the site of the purchased estates, which he donated to Moscow. At his expense, the ashes were paved with cobblestones, oil lanterns were installed here, and new buildings appeared along the perimeter of the square: on its southern side, shopping arcades with a courtyard for meat and green market traders, and the remaining 3 sides were decorated with palisades. Before major church holidays and on weekends, people traded not only in the rows, but also in the square itself - from trays or carts. After the death of Khitrovo in 1827, its buildings passed to new owners: in a rebuilt form, they have survived to this day.
During the 19th century, development around the square continued to develop, with remaining undeveloped three sides shopping arcades appeared in the square, at the same time the Yaroshenko house, the Utyug house, the apartment building of the Alexandria courtyard and other buildings were built, many of which have survived to this day (some in a rebuilt form).
After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, Khitrovskaya Square began to completely new life: it has turned into a kind of labor exchange. The fact is that there is a large oversupply of unskilled labor on the market. work force, and people flocked to the cities - the shelters of Khitrovka turned out to be filled with beggars and unemployed, the area quickly became criminalized and began to turn into the urban “bottom”. Escaped prisoners and criminals stayed here while hiding from the police. Gradually, the square changed its appearance: the shopping arcades and buildings around it were rebuilt into rooming houses, cheap taverns and taverns ("Peresylny", "Sibir", "Katorga"), and cheap apartment buildings appeared in the area. Merchants from the ranks migrated to the square itself, where the Khitrov market appeared, where it was possible to purchase stolen items. City authorities drew attention to this problem: in 1873, Moscow chief of police Nikolai Arapov proposed moving the Khitrov market to Horse Square to make the city center safer, but the Moscow City Duma did not accept his proposal, deciding that moving the market would only change the localization of the problem; in addition, due to large quantity police officers in the center, it was easier to control the problem on Khitrovka than if it happened on the outskirts of the city.
In the 1880s, a metal shed was built on Khitrovskaya Square for the labor exchange: here peasants freed from serfdom looked for work, and a little later they began to organize charitable meals for the poor. IN former house Nikolai Khitrovo, the Oryol hospital opened, where the inhabitants of Khitrovo were provided with medical care.
Photo: canopy of the labor exchange on Khitrovskaya Square, 1913-1914, pastvu.com
After October revolution The scale of crime in Khitrovka grew to a completely indecent degree, and the Soviet government decided to “clean up” its surroundings. In the 1920s, the Khitrov market was liquidated, and for the 100th anniversary of the square in 1924, a green square was laid out in its place. The inhabitants of the buildings surrounding the square were taken under control by organizing housing associations, and some buildings were rebuilt. In the 1930s, it was decided to develop the area: a standard school building appeared here (later - Electromechanical College, and then a college), and Khitrovka turned into an ordinary residential area.
In 2009-2010, the building of the Electromechanical College was demolished, and in 2014-2015 a park was landscaped on Khitrovskaya Square.
Modern Khitrovskaya Square is a very popular place among lovers of Moscow antiquity. People come here for excursions and historical walks, artists paint views of the square, and filmmakers make films against their backdrop; however, on a citywide scale, the square is not so well known - the average Muscovite is unlikely to remember where it is located and what it is famous for.
Khitrovskaya Square is in Basmanny district Moscow. You can get to it on foot from the Kitay-Gorod metro station on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines.
How Moscow streets were namedIt was named after General N.Z. Khitrovo, son-in-law of Field Marshal Kutuzov. The general owned a house in the area and planned to build a large market nearby for trading greens and meat. The Khitrovo mansion has been preserved and stands on the corner Yauzsky Boulevard and Podkolokolny Lane in the courtyard of a Stalinist house.
There were two estates on the site of the Khitrovsky market, but they burned down in 1812. For a long time, no one undertook the restoration of these mansions, and their owners were unable to pay taxes. And in 1824, General Khitrovo bought these properties and built a square, and then donated it to the city.
In 1827, Khitrovo died, and the shopping arcades changed owners. The square began to gradually transform: if previously there were front gardens on three undeveloped sides, now there are shopping arcades. On holidays and Sundays, trade extended to the square itself, where portable trays were installed.
In the 1860s, a shed was built on Khitrovskaya Square, where the Moscow Labor Exchange was located. Workers, freed peasants and even unemployed intellectuals flocked here in search of work. Basically, servants and seasonal workers were hired at the Khitrovskaya Exchange. Stock traders became “easy prey” for pickpockets. Not everyone was able to find a job, and many settled in the vicinity of Khitrovka, earning a living as a beggar.
Gradually, inexpensive taverns and taverns were opened around Khitrovskaya Square, charitable organizations fed the poor for free, and the surrounding houses turned into flophouses and apartment buildings with cheap apartments.
Khitrovka was a gloomy sight in the last century. There was no lighting in the maze of corridors and passages, on the crooked, dilapidated staircases leading to the dorms on all floors. He will find his way, but there is no need for someone else to come here! And indeed, no government dared to delve into these dark abysses... The two- and three-story houses around the square are all full of such shelters, in which up to ten thousand people slept and huddled. These houses brought huge profits to homeowners. Each rooming house paid a nickel per night, and the “rooms” cost two kopecks. Under the lower bunks, raised an arshin from the floor, there were lairs for two; they were separated by a hanging mat. The space an arshin in height and one and a half arshin in width between two mattings is the “number” where people spent the night without any bedding except their own rags.
By the end of the 19th century, Khitrovka turned into one of the most disadvantaged areas of Moscow. The flophouses overlooked Khitrovskaya Square - Yaroshenko's house, Bunin's house, Kulakov's house and Rumyantsev's house. And in the mansion of General Khitrovo there was a hospital for Khitronov residents.
In Rumyantsev’s house, for example, there was an apartment for “wanderers.” The heftiest kids, swollen from drunkenness, with shaggy beards; The greasy hair lies over the shoulders; it has never seen a comb or soap. These are monks of unprecedented monasteries, pilgrims who spend their entire lives walking from Khitrovka to the church porch or to the Zamoskvoretsk merchant houses and back.
After a drunken night, such an intimidating uncle crawls out from under the bunk, asks the tenant for a glass of fusel wine on credit, puts on a wanderer’s cassock, slings a satchel full of rags over his shoulders, puts a skufa on his head and walks barefoot, sometimes even in winter, through the snow to prove his holiness. for the collection.
And what kind of lies will such a “wanderer” lie to the shady merchants, what will he foist on them to save their souls! Here is a sliver from the Holy Sepulcher, and a piece of the ladder that forefather Jacob saw in a dream, and a pin from the chariot of Elijah the Prophet that fell from the sky.
In addition to the shelter, in Rumyantsev’s house there were taverns “Peresylny” and “Sibir”, and in Yaroshenko’s house there was a tavern “Katorga”. These were unofficial names common among the Khitrovans. Each tavern was visited by a certain type of public. In “Peresylny” there were beggars, homeless people and horse dealers. “Siberia” gathered pickpockets, thieves, large buyers of stolen goods, and in “Katorga” there were thieves and escaped convicts. A prisoner returning from prison or from Siberia almost always came to Khitrovka, where he was greeted with honor and given a job.
Cleaner than the others was Bunin's house, where the entrance was not from the square, but from an alley. Many permanent Khitrovans lived here, subsisting on day jobs such as chopping wood and clearing snow, and women went to wash floors, clean, and do laundry as day laborers. Here lived professional beggars and various artisans who had completely become slums. More tailors, they were called “crayfish” because they, naked, having drunk their last shirt, never came out of their holes. They worked day and night, altering rags for the market, always hungover, in rags, barefoot. And the earnings were often good. Suddenly, at midnight, thieves with bundles burst into the “crayfish” apartment. They'll wake you up.
- Hey, get up guys, go to work! - shouts the awakened tenant.
Expensive fur coats, fox rotundas and a mountain of different dresses are taken out of the bundles. Now the cutting and sewing begins, and in the morning the traders come and carry armfuls of fur hats, vests, caps, and trousers to the market. The police are looking for fur coats and rotundas, but they are no longer there: instead of them there are hats and caps.
IN sharp corner Petropavlovsky and Pevchesky (Svininsky) lanes include the Iron House. The owner of the building was Kulakov. Here was one of the most famous and terrible night shelters in Khitrovka with underground corridors. They have been preserved and Soviet years there was a bomb shelter here.
The gloomy row of three-story stinking buildings behind the iron house was called “Dry Ravine”, and all together - “Pig House”. It belonged to the collector Svinin. Hence the nicknames of the inhabitants: “irons” and “wolves of the Dry ravine”.
After the October Revolution, the Iron House and Kulakovka began to fall into disrepair. The shelters refused to pay the owners, and the owners, unable to find anyone to complain to, abandoned the matter.
Also, in the post-revolutionary years, crime increased sharply on Khitrovka. In this regard, in the 1920s, the Moscow City Council decided to demolish the Khitrov market, and on March 27, 1928, a public garden was built on the square. At the same time, the old shelters were converted into housing associations.
In 1935, Khitrovsky Square and lane were renamed in honor of Maxim Gorky. Historical names were returned only in 1994.
They say that the morals described by Gilyarovsky reigned in Khitrovka for only a short time - in the 20th century, when the authorities weakened control. And in XIX century in this area there were many aristocratic houses that simply could not coexist with rooming houses. But many people associate Khitrovka with the “bottom” and play of the same name Maxim Gorky. And although Gorky drew the “scenery” for the play “At the Lower Depths” from the area of the slum “Millionka” Nizhny Novgorod, in 1902 Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko and the artist Simov came to study the life of the “lower classes” to stage this play in Khitrovka.
On March 20, 2008, the Don-Stroy construction company developed a project for the development of the former Khitrovskaya Square. It was planned to build an office center on the site of the Electromechanical College (Podkokolny Lane, 11a). This caused protest from local historians and local residents.
After collecting signatures for state security They took the whole area “The noteworthy place “Ivanovskaya Gorka - Kulishki - Khitrovka””. Proposals to develop the area arose many more times, but local residents made it clear that they were against construction on Khitrovskaya Square.
Now all that remains of the Khitrov shelters are the basements and partly the first floors. The rest was rebuilt into prestigious housing.
They say that......Sonka Zolotaya Ruchka hid the treasure in one of the houses on Khitrovka. But no one managed to find him. Those who tried went crazy or disappeared. They also say that the ghost of a woman still wanders the streets of Khitrovsky, wanting to reveal the secret of her treasure.
...Kulakov’s daughter, Lidia Ivanovna Kashina, came to Konstantinovo to see Yesenin.
"You know,
He was funny
Once in love with me, "-
says Anna Snegina, heroine poem of the same name. Its prototype was L.I. Kashina. IN Soviet time she lived in Moscow, on Skatertny Lane, and worked as a translator and typist. Few people know that Sergei Yesenin and the prototype of his “Anna Snegina” are buried not far from each other at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
... Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Gogol and other famous writers often visited the salon of Elizaveta Mikhailovna Khitrovo, the wife of General Khitrovo. It is known that Elizaveta Mikhailovna woke up late and received the first visitors in her bedroom. Soon a joke appeared in society. Another guest greets the lying hostess and is about to sit down. Mrs. Khitrovo stops him: “No, don’t sit on this chair, this is Pushkin’s. No, not on the sofa - this is Zhukovsky's place. No, not this chair - this is Gogol's chair. Sit on my bed: this is a place for everyone!” .
...the artist Alexei Savrasov ended his life in poverty on Khitrovka. It is believed that Makovsky depicted the artist as an old man in a scarf and hat in the foreground in the painting “The Lodging House”.
... lived on Khitrovka Senya One-Eyed, who drank his eye away. He really wanted to drink, but had no money. And his friend Vanya lived nearby, also one-eyed. Senya came to him and exchanged his glass eye for a quarter of vodka.
Do you have anything to tell about the history of Khitrovka?
Almost in the center of the city (a stone's throw from the Kremlin), without exaggeration, the entire criminal elite gathered Russian Empire- escaped convicts, thieves, murderers, whose company included impoverished officials, lost gamblers, and professional beggars. It was called scary place– Khitrovka, in honor central square, which was surrounded along its entire perimeter by cheap accommodations.
A lot has been written about this place. Slums became one of the main characters in Boris Akunin’s book “Death’s Lover” (dedicated to the adventures of detective Erast Fandorin). And even though the novel is a purely artistic work, the Khitrovsky flavor is conveyed brilliantly there. The book of the famous Moscow journalist of the late 19th - early 20th centuries Vladimir Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites” example painstaking work with the word. Life in the slums is written so colorfully that even after 100 years you can see its inhabitants, smell the smells, and hear the cacophony of hundreds of voices.
“For some reason, the Khitrov market was pictured in my imagination as London, which I had never seen. London always seemed to me the foggiest place in Europe, and the Khitrov market is undoubtedly the foggiest place in Moscow.”
Slums weren't always here. Back in the early 19th century, there was a respectable, elite area. But the fire of 1812 made serious adjustments; many buildings burned down, leaving behind a wasteland. The house of Major General Nikolai Zakharovich Khitrovo, the son-in-law of Field Marshal Kutuzov, survived. He, who was reputed to be not just a military man, but also a philanthropist, decided to improve the ashes, equipped the square and donated it to the city in 1824. At first it was something like a promenade, then it began to acquire shopping arcades, in the 1860s a labor exchange appeared, those who could not find a job settled here and engaged in theft.
Gradually, Khitrovka turned into the most criminal place in Moscow, with its own laws, concepts, and clans. People were divided into the following classes:
- "maruhi"- lovers, ladies of the heart, and most often girls of easy virtue. In Khitrovka they became marukhas early; at the age of 10, girls were already making a living from this non-childish craft.
- "bars"- those who overturned shopping malls and stole everything that was on sale. Ogoltsy usually acted in groups.
- "tailworts" they could rip off a passerby's fur hat, take away a beggar's entire tax, they did not go to big affairs and did not think about them.
- "train drivers"— they deftly jumped onto the carriages and stole suitcases and other property from the owners.
- "fortachi"- they had no equal if it was necessary to crawl through a window or squeeze through a narrow space.
- "shirmachi"— they silently took money and valuables from the pockets of passers-by.
- "business guys"- the top of the Khitrov hierarchy, with the onset of darkness they went out for luck, hunted on a grand scale, everyone had weapons.
Khitrovka looked like a huge spider. Khitrovskaya Square acted as a massive body, with giant tentacles stretching from it in different directions alleys: Podkolokolny, Svininsky, Podkopaevsky, Maly and Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky, Solyanka Street and Pokrovsky Boulevard served as the borders. Once caught in the web of this predatory spider, few escaped. Some were born and died right here, knowing nothing except Khitrovskaya beggar or bandit life.
The neighbors of the poor, ragged Khitrovans were the richest merchant families of the Morozovs, Korzinkins, Rastorguevs, Olovyanishnikovs, and Khlebnikovs. Along Solyanka and Pokrovsky Boulevard there was not just a territorial border, but a border between luxury and life at the bottom, luxurious mansions with ornate balconies and shabby flophouses packed to capacity with people. The rich, rootless neighbors nearby, of course, did not like it; they used all their influence to demolish Khitrovka from the map of Moscow. But the slums had their patrons. From a poor life, many made a lot of money by renting out tiny rooms.
“Each lodging house paid a nickel per night, and the “rooms” cost two kopecks. Under the lower bunks, raised an arshin from the floor, there were lairs for two; they were separated by a hanging mat. The space of an arshin in height and one and a half arshin in width between two mattings is the “number” where people spent the night without any bedding except their own rags”... (Vladimir Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”)
Famous shelters of Khitrovka
Khitrovka's shelters were named after their owners. This is how the house of Yaroshenko, Bunin, Kulakov, Rumyantsev existed. General Khitrovo's mansion housed a hospital for slum residents. This house still stands today on the corner of Yauzsky Boulevard and Podkokolny Lane. Now there is Medical College named after Clara Zetkin.
Buninskaya shelter
It was located in building 3 on Khitrovsky Lane and was the closest to human conditions. Handymen lived here: men chopped wood, cleared snow, women washed floors, washed clothes. The rooms were also inhabited by cut-off priests and dismissed officers. Here, in the poor student family of Nikolai Scriabin, the future famous composer Alexander Scriabin was born.
“Crayfish” also lived in the Bunin shelter, which was the name given to those who altered stolen clothes. They usually worked day and night and hardly left their rooms.
“Suddenly, at midnight, thieves with bundles burst into the “crayfish” apartment. They'll wake you up.
- Hey, get up guys, go to work! - shouts the awakened tenant.
Expensive fur coats, fox rotundas and a mountain of different dresses are taken out of the bundles. Now the cutting and sewing begins, and in the morning the traders come and carry armfuls of fur hats, vests, caps, and trousers to the market. The police are looking for fur coats and rotundas, but they are no longer there: instead of them there are hats and caps.” (Vladimir Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”).
The area in front of the main building was called the “Bunin House”; prostitutes worked in a small one-story shed. The space is now rented by a design company. And in the shelter itself there are several cafes.
It was located in Podkolokolny Lane, now it stands there with serial number 12. Mostly drunkards lived here, and professional beggars who went begging alone or with small children.
“Children in Khitrovka were at a premium: they were rented out from infancy, almost at auction, to the poor. And the dirty woman, often with traces of a terrible illness, took the unfortunate child, stuck a pacifier made of a dirty rag with chewed bread in his mouth, and dragged him out into the cold street. The child, wet and dirty all day, lay in her arms, poisoned by the pacifier, and moaned from cold, hunger and constant pain in the stomach, causing sympathy among passers-by to the “poor mother of the unfortunate orphan.” There were cases when a child died in the morning in the arms of a beggar, and she, not wanting to waste the day, went with him until nightfall for alms. Two-year-olds were led by the hand, and three-year-olds were already learning to “shoot” on their own. (Vladimir Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”).
In the Rumyantsevskaya shelter there were two taverns: “Siberia” and “Peresylny”. In the first, thieves gathered, in the second, beggars and beggars whiled away their time over bottles. A couple of rooms on the ground floor of the house were given over to a brothel.
House of Yaroshenko
Can be found at the address: Podkolokolny Lane, building 11, building 2. The owner of this building for a long time was State Councilor Platon Stepanov, after his death the mansion was inherited by his daughter Elizaveta Yaroshenko. She lived with her husband in Kaluga region, and rented out the house.
Quite quiet people lived in the shelter: small artisans, census takers, and traders. It was here that Stanislavsky came with his troupe, in preparation for the play “At the Lower Depths,” in order to study the life of the lower classes. For one thing, the director gave local “scrawlings” work and ordered roles to be rewritten for the actors. Despite this apparent silence and orderliness, this shelter was a noisy and sometimes very dangerous place. The "Katorga" tavern operated day and night on the ground floor; its name was not chosen by chance. Runaway criminals, thieves, and convicts reveled here.
To the left of Yaroshenko’s doss house you can see a house-iron; it stands at the intersection of three lanes: Pevchesky, Podkolokolny, Petropavlovsky. In appearance, it really does resemble an iron. Now it looks respectable, with two floors added after the revolution. And before this was the most terrible and dangerous shelter in Khitrovka.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the house belonged to the engineer-captain Ivan Romeiko, then it was bought by the Katorga barman Ivan Kulakov, who became rich. It was, perhaps, the most densely populated building in Moscow, resembling a beehive in terms of the number of inhabitants. The shelter had 64 apartments and more than 700 beds. Every night about 3 thousand people spent the night here, occupying the passages, flights of stairs, i.e. all available space.
After the revolution
After the revolution, Khitrovka was not treated on ceremony for a long time, the square was razed to the ground, and the shelters were dispersed. The area is no longer scary and dangerous. Now there are residential buildings, beauty salons, design studios and much more. Excursions are often conducted here, showing tourists the famous Khitrovsky courtyards. They say that the basements and the entire underground part of the former slums have been little studied. And according to rumors, many looted treasures are hidden in the endless labyrinths of passages.
Although Moscow Khitrovka is no longer at all what it was in the second half of the 19th century, its name remains a household name. Of course, no one thought to sing about her, but stories about her occupy a prominent place in the works of Vladimir Gilyarovsky and Maxim Gorky. Apparently, having thoroughly studied the books “Moscow and Muscovites” and “Slum People,” Boris Akunin repeatedly transferred the actions of his cycle about Erast Fandorin to Khitrovka. And Alexander Roznenbaum, if you believe his song, is waiting there for the above-mentioned Gilyarovsky.
I started the excursion to Khitrovka from Slavyanskaya Square (Kitay-Gorod metro station, exit to Solyansky Proezd). Yes, yes, in the past, a slum and incredibly crime-prone area was literally a quarter of an hour’s walk from the Kremlin.
On the south side of the square you can see the Church of All Saints (All Saints) on Kulishki. There are several hypotheses regarding its origin. According to one of them, a wooden church on this site was built by Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy (ruled 1359–1389) in 1380 in memory of those who fell in the Battle of Kulikovo. Meanwhile, historians sometimes give an earlier date for the birth of the church - 1367 and connect the construction of the temple with the period of settlement of this area, which at that time was adjacent to the Moscow suburb. It is generally accepted that in the 14th century this area was very swampy and unattractive in the eyes of the townspeople.
One of the interpretations of the word “kulishki” defines it as a marshy swampy place. There is also a legend that once upon a time there was indeed a swamp here where waders lived. Perhaps this is where the name of this area of the city came from. Other researchers believe that at the dawn of Moscow history there was a dense forest here, and therefore the word “kulishki” can mean cleared areas among the forest. By the way, one of the local churches in the name of John the Baptist was then called “under the forest.” In the 15th century, this forest was replaced by the luxurious Sovereign Gardens, which left a memory in the name of Starosadsky Lane adjacent to Kulishki.
There is also an opinion that the name of the area comes from the word “kulki” (purses). The fact is that the neighboring section of the city, now known as the Yauz Gate, was called Koshely in the old days. This pre-revolutionary version of historians gained the right to exist also because Solyanka was formerly called Yauza Street (now this is the name of the section that continues Solyanka to Kotelniki across the Yauza River). Solyanka began to be called from the state-owned salt warehouse located here. By the way, Slavyanskaya Square adjacent to the All Saints Church was also formerly called Solyanaya, and then Varvarskaya. It received its modern name not so long ago, when a monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius, who laid the foundation for Slavic writing.
The most unconvincing, but historically justified version of the meaning of the word “kulishki” dates its origin to the times of Dmitry Donskoy and the Battle of Kulikovo. Some believe that the name of the city district came from this battle, since the prince walked here twice with his army: going from the Kremlin to the battle and returning to Moscow with victory. Then he allegedly ordered a wooden church to be founded here in the name of All Saints in memory of the fallen Russian soldiers and to call this area Kulishki in honor of the deceased great battle. But here it is worth noting that the All Saints Church is by no means the only Moscow church erected in memory of the Battle of Kulikovo and in gratitude for the victory. The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Nativity Monastery was also erected, and a church of the same name with a chapel of St. Lazarus was built in the Kremlin.
The Kulishki area has been reliably known since the 14th century, but it began to be developed long before the Battle of Kulikovo. Then it was already adjacent to the Moscow suburb, which extended from the eastern wall of the Kremlin and Red Square. Hence the opinion of historians that the first church stood here since ancient times, when the first settlements had just appeared in Kulishki. For a few local residents it could have been an ordinary parish church. Therefore, it is very likely that in 1380 Prince Dmitry Donskoy ordered its reconstruction as a monument temple in honor of the victory and dead soldiers.
However, the current appearance of the All Saints Church was formed much later, already in the 16th–17th centuries. The temple was badly damaged in 1612 during the liberation of Moscow from Polish invaders, as there was an artillery battery next to it people's militia. The church was rebuilt again in 1687, in particular, it was then that the bell tower and chapels were built. The church was renovated several times in subsequent times. Nevertheless, throughout its history it continued to remain an ordinary Moscow parish church.
The church played the most noticeable and dramatic role in its long history during the Plague Riot of 1771. In ancient times it was she who owned the famous chapel of the miraculous Bogolyubsk Icon Mother of God, which was placed on the Varvarskaya Tower of the Kitay-Gorod wall. By the way, even now the remains of the foundation of this tower can still be seen in the underground passage connecting Slavyanskaya Square with Varvarka.
When an epidemic of the plague, which was not uncommon in those years, struck the city, one Muscovite had a dream that the disease was sent for insufficient veneration of the Bogolyubsk Icon. He sat down at the gate and began collecting money for a “world candle,” telling everyone about his vision. Apparently, the priest of All Saints Church began talking about the same thing with him. As a result, people rushed to the Barbarian Gate, climbing up the stairs to venerate the image. Crowds of people and kissing the icon during the epidemic only accelerated the spread of the disease. When the enlightened Archbishop of Moscow Ambrose decided to remove the icon to the church and sealed the donation mugs, a riot of panicked fanatics, supported by riot lovers, began. The archbishop was killed in the Donskoy Monastery, where he was trying to hide from an angry crowd, and for two days the city plunged into the abyss of anarchy. The dark commoners transferred part of their anger to foreigners, especially doctors. The rioters, of course, were pacified, but September 16, 1771 became tragic page in the history of the city.
The Church of All Saints has not shown itself to be anything else. During Soviet times it was closed, but, fortunately, it was not destroyed, but was transferred to various institutions. In the 90s of the 20th century, after restoration, the temple became operational again. By the way, during the history of its existence, the church sunk about three and a half meters into the ground, and its bell tower acquired a slight slope.
In the background of the photo you can see the perspective of ancient Varvarka, decorated with many old churches. I won’t talk about them within the framework of this album, since I’ve already overloaded the text quite a bit. It’s time to head to the immediate destination of the walk – Khitrovka.
The road to Khitrovka is simple: from Slavyanskaya Square you should first walk a block along Solyansky Passage, then turn right onto Solyanka. Having reached the intersection with Podkolokolny Lane, you should turn into the latter. Here you can clearly see the indicated intersection: Solyanka passes to the right, and the lane goes to the left. At the place where they fork, there is the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Kulishki (or on Strelka).
The church first appeared here around 1460, but it was originally made of wood. In the 14th century, there was a fork in the roads to Zayauzye (now Solyanka Street) and the village of Vorontsovo (Podkolokolny Lane passes in its place), where in 1484 the Prince of All Rus' Ivan III (ruled 1462–1505) built a country courtyard.
The stone church, like most Moscow churches, became XVII century. The existing building was built after 1773. In 1800–1802, a refectory and a four-tier bell tower were added to it. The author of this project is considered to be D. Balashov, although other sources name Dmitry Bazhenov (brother of the famous architect Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov).
The temple was rebuilt and updated several times after the fire of 1812. Now it is covered in scaffolding - restoration is underway. Although the building has the shape of an equilateral cross, the mentioned refectory was built in a triangular plan with rounded corners, which was most likely caused by the need to design the facades of both the street and the alley. I read that the architectural appearance of the church embodied the transition from late Baroque to early classicism.
I considered the massive building with burnt-out windows on the third floor to be the first harbinger of approaching Khitrovka. :)
It is worth telling how this slum area came into being, which has terrified Moscow residents for more than half a century. Until the second third of the 19th century, the area east of Kitai-Gorod, although not completely respectable, was nevertheless considered relatively decent. The transformation did not happen instantly, but it was unexpected for the city authorities. This is what Vladimir Gilyarovsky wrote about this.
In the Moscow address book for 1826, the list of homeowners says: “Svinin, Pavel Petrovich, State Councilor, on Pevchesky Lane, house No. 24, Myasnitskaya part, on the corner of Solyanka.” Svinin was sung by Pushkin: “Here comes Svinin, the Russian Beetle.” Svinin was a famous person: a writer, collector and museum owner. Subsequently, the city renamed Pevchesky Lane to Svininsky(now he goes back to his original name) .
On the other corner of Pevchesky Lane, which then overlooked a huge, overgrown wasteland crossed by ravines, a permanent hangout for vagabonds, nicknamed the “free place”, like a fortress surrounded by a fence, stood a large house with the offices of Major General Nikolai Petrovich Khitrov(actually, his last name correctly sounded like Khitrovo, a derivative of the word “cunning”, and his patronymic is more often indicated as Zakharovich, so the classic could well be wrong) , the owner of the empty “free space” right up to the current Yauzsky and Pokrovsky boulevards, which then still bore the same name: “White City Boulevard”. On this boulevard, as it was listed in the same address book, there was another house of Major General Khitrov, No. 39. Here he lived himself, and in house No. 24, in a “free place”, his servants lived, there were stables, cellars and basements. In this huge property, the Khitrov market was formed, named after the owner of this wild estate.
In 1839, Svinin died, and his vast estate and manorial chambers passed to the merchants Rastorguev, who owned them until the October Revolution.
The House of General Khitrov was purchased by the Orphanage for the apartments of its officials and resold it in the second half of the 19th century to the engineer Romeiko, and the wasteland, still inhabited by vagabonds, was purchased by the city for the market. The house required expensive repairs. His entourage did not encourage anyone to rent apartments in such a dangerous place, and Romeiko let him live as a rooming house: both profitably and without any expenses.
On the one hand, near Khitrovka, there is the trading Solyanka with the Guardian Council, on the other, Pokrovsky Boulevard and the adjacent alleys were occupied by the richest mansions of Russian and foreign merchants. Here are Savva Morozov, and the Korzinkins, and the Khlebnikovs, and the Olovyanishnikovs, and the Rastorguevs, and the Bakhrushins... The owners of these palaces were indignant at the terrible neighborhood, used all measures to destroy it, but neither the speeches that thundered to please them at the meetings of the Duma, nor The administration couldn't do anything with the costly efforts. There were some secret springs that squeezed out all their attacking forces - and nothing came of it. Now one of the Khitrovsky homeowners has a hand in the Duma, now another has a friend in the office of the Governor-General, the third himself occupies an important position in charitable affairs.
A gloomy gateway, eloquently sealed by a wittily parked car owner.
Ahead you can already make out houses in the very heart of the once terrible Khitrovka. In former times, the pure public was already afraid to go up to this point, even during the day.
At the corner of Podkolokolny and Podkopaevsky lanes you can see the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Podkopayi.
There are some very depressing stone bags here...
It is worth paying attention to the external decoration of buildings late XIX and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Sometimes it becomes obvious that certain houses were completed and expanded in more late period, while trying not to stray too far stylistically from the original project. There is, of course, little elegant stucco here: a more severe brick ornament predominates.
Another gateway. I think it's still creepy to walk here in the evenings.
A characteristic touch of the area!
The temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Podkopayi was first mentioned in written sources in 1493, when Ivan III retired here after a fire that destroyed the palace in the Kremlin. In 1686, a cemetery was established at the church, and it is described as a stone structure. It was then called the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Podkopaev. Probably, the name came from the surname of some Podkopaev, most likely the builder of the temple.
However, there is a legend about this. Allegedly, thieves were planning to steal property from the church and dug under its wall. They entered the temple through a tunnel and stole a silver robe from the icon of St. Nicholas. However, on the way back, one of the thieves fell to death in a tunnel. This is why the church received the name “in Podkopayi”.
Another version also explains the name by digging: here, on the banks of the Rachka River, in the old days there was a quarry for clay extraction. By the way, when excavation works are carried out here, deposits of red clay are still found under the asphalt.
During a recent opening of the floor, it turned out that under the church there is an abandoned vaulted room, from which buried underground passages. However, literally the entire center of Moscow has been dug up: this work began back in the era of the Tatar-Mongol game, when the townspeople made underground caches in case of an enemy attack.
The church was remodeled several times, in particular in late XVII And early XVIII centuries, as well as mid-18th century centuries. As a result of the fire of 1812, it was severely damaged and was restored only in 1855–1858 according to the design of N.I. Kozlovsky. At that time, the temple received the status of an Alexandria metochion. The late decoration still hides 17th-century decor.
At Soviet power the church was closed in 1929. Then they destroyed the tent and dismantled the crosses and domes on the side chapels. Living quarters were installed in the building, and a little later a galvanizing shop was opened. The church became a functioning temple again in 1991.
By the way, those who read Boris Akunin’s book “Death’s Lover” may remember that on the porch of this particular church, Semyon Skorikov, under the guise of a beggar, acted as a postman, delivering letters from Erast Petrovich Fandorin to a girl nicknamed Death and reverse order.
There are literally fifty steps left from the church to the former heart of Khitrovka.
Here it is - the intersection of several lanes at once: Podkolokolny (it crosses the frame), Pevchesky (it’s practically invisible here, it’s to the right of the border of the photo) and Petropavlovsky (it goes to the right).
Less than a century ago, there was Khitrovskaya Square with the market of the same name. This is how Gilyarovsky described it.
Big square in the center of the capital, near the Yauza River, surrounded by peeling stone houses, it lies in a lowland into which several alleys descend like streams into a swamp. She's always smoking. Especially in the evening. And if it’s a little foggy or after rain, you look from above, from the height of the alley - horror takes over a fresh person: the cloud has settled! You go down the alley into a moving rotten pit. Crowds of ragged people move in the fog, flashing around the foggy lights, like in a bathhouse. These are food vendors sitting in rows on huge cast iron pots or pots with “stewed meat”, fried rotten sausage, boiling in iron boxes over braziers, with broth, which is better called “dog joy”...
And all around, steam bursts out in clouds from the doors of shops and taverns that open every minute and merges into a general fog, of course, fresher and clearer than inside the taverns and lodging houses, which are disinfected only by tobacco smoke, which slightly destroys the smell of rotten footcloths, human fumes and burnt vodka.
The two- and three-story houses around the square are all full of such shelters, in which up to ten thousand people slept and huddled. These houses brought huge profits to homeowners. Each rooming house paid a nickel per night, and the “rooms” cost two kopecks. Under the lower bunks, raised an arshin from the floor, there were lairs for two; they were separated by a hanging mat. The space an arshin in height and one and a half arshin in width between two mattings is the “number” where people spent the night without any bedding except their own rags...
Artels of visiting workers came to the square directly from the train stations and stood under a huge canopy, specially built for them. Contractors came here in the mornings and took the hired crews to work. After noon, the shed was put at the disposal of the Khitorov residents and traders: the latter bought up everything they could get their hands on. The poor people who sold their clothes and shoes immediately took them off and changed into bast shoes or props instead of boots, and from their suits into “changes up to the seventh generation”, through which the body is visible...
The houses where the shelters were located were named after the surnames of the owners: Bunin, Rumyantsev, Stepanova (then Yaroshenko) and Romeiko (then Kulakova).
Here in the center of the frame appears the Rumyantsev house, on the ground floor of which there were two taverns overlooking the square. They bore the unspoken but very eloquent names “Peresylny” and “Siberia”. Gilyarovsky says that homeless people, beggars and horse dealers gathered in Peresylny. It was cleaner, since the audience there was, from the point of view of the average person, more decent. But according to the Khitrovan canons, visitors to “Sibir” were of a higher degree, since the regulars there were more authoritative thieves, pickpockets and large buyers of stolen goods.
Look to the right – the intersection of Pevchesky Lane (it’s to the left) and Podkolokolny. The well-kept building on the corner is the former Buninka, that is, Bunin’s house. I’ll quote Gilyarovsky again.
Cleaner than the others was Bunin's house, where the entrance was not from the square, but from an alley. Many permanent Khitrovans lived here, subsisting on day jobs such as chopping wood and clearing snow, and women went to wash floors, clean, and do laundry as day laborers. Here lived professional beggars and various artisans who had completely become slums. More tailors, they were called “crayfish” because they, naked, having drunk their last shirt, never came out of their holes. They worked day and night, altering rags for the market, always hungover, in rags, barefoot.
And the earnings were often good. Suddenly, at midnight, thieves with bundles burst into the “crayfish” apartment. They'll wake you up.
- Hey, get up guys, get to work! - shouts the awakened tenant (of the apartment). Expensive fur coats, fox rotundas and a mountain of different dresses are taken out of the bundles. Now the cutting and sewing begins, and in the morning the traders come and carry armfuls of fur hats, vests, caps, and trousers to the market. The police are looking for fur coats and rotundas, but they are no longer there: instead of them there are hats and caps.
The main share, of course, goes to the tenant, because he is the buyer of stolen goods, and often the chieftain of the gang.
Also living here were the completely degraded “aristocrats”: drunken officials, officers expelled from service and defrocked priests. A little further along Pevchesky Lane was Bunin’s yard, where “young ladies” offered themselves.
As I was told, the Australian Embassy is now located in the Bunin House.
The same house, but from a different angle. Podkolokolny Lane, along which I came here, goes into the distance. Pevchesky Lane is visible on the left. Somewhere at their intersection in the 19th century there was a police booth. At that time, two famous police officers with the names Rudnikov and Lokhmatkin served here.
Khitrovka was a gloomy sight in the 19th century. There was no lighting in the maze of corridors and passages, on the crooked, dilapidated staircases leading to the dorms on all floors. He will find his way, but there is no need for someone else to come here! And indeed, no government dared to venture into these dark abysses.
The entire Khitrov market was run by two policemen - Rudnikov and Lokhmatkin. Only the “punks” were really afraid of their pood-sized fists, and the “business guys” were on friendly terms with both representatives of the authorities and, upon returning from hard labor or escaping from prison, the first thing they did was bow to them. Both of them knew all the criminals by sight, having taken a closer look at them over the course of their quarter-century of continuous service. And there’s no way you can hide from them: they’ll still report that so-and-so has returned to such-and-such an apartment.
And when the investigator for especially important cases V.F. Keizer asked Rudnikov:
– Is it true that you know by sight all the fugitive criminals on Khitrovka and will not arrest them?
“That’s why I’ve been standing there on duty for twenty years, otherwise I can’t stand a day, they’ll kill you!” Of course, I know everyone.
And the Khitrovites “prospered” under such power. Rudnikov was a one-of-a-kind type. He was considered fair even by escaped convicts, and therefore was not killed, although he was beaten and wounded during arrests more than once. But they did not wound him out of malice, but only to save their own skin. Everyone did their job: one caught and held, and the other hid and ran. This is the convict logic.
Over twenty years of serving as a policeman among rags and runaways, Rudnikov developed a special view of everything:
- Well, a convict... Well, a thief... a beggar... a tramp... They are also people, everyone wants to live. But the fact that? I am alone against them all. Can you catch them all? If you catch one, others will come running... You have to live!
Once upon a time there was such a case. An employee of “Entertainment” Epifanov, who decided to study the slums, got confused in a drunken case on Khitrovka. They stripped him naked in the square. He's in the booth. It knocks, it rattles, the “guard” shouts. And so he returned home naked. The next day, having come to the “Entertainment” to ask for an advance payment on the occasion of a robbery, he told the end of his journey: a huge watchman, barefoot and in only his underwear, to whom he called himself a nobleman, jumped out of the booth, turned his back to himself and barked: “Every bastard will disturb you at night!” - and kicked so hard - thanks for being still barefoot - that Epifanov flew far into the puddle...
Rudnikov was not afraid of anyone or anything. Even Kulakov himself, with his millions, whom the entire police were afraid of, because “the Governor General shook hands with Ivan Petrovich,” was nothing for Rudnikov. He directly came to him for the holiday and, having received a hundred from him, thundered:
- Vanka, are you kidding me or what? Al forgot? A?..
Kulakov, who was receiving congratulators in his home on Svininsky Lane, in a uniform with orders, remembered something, trembled and babbled:
-Oh, sorry, dear Fedot Ivanovich. And he gave three hundred.
It was from Rudnikov that Boris Akunin copied the image of policeman Ivan Fedotovich Budnikov in the above-mentioned story “Death’s Lover.”
The intersection of Petropavlovsky and Pevchesky lanes forms an acute angle into which a massive building nicknamed Utyug is inscribed.
In previous years, it belonged to Kulakov’s rather extensive domains. Kulakovka was not just one house, but a whole series of buildings between Khitrovskaya Square and Svininsky (Pevchesky) Lane. The iron is just a front house, with its narrow end opening onto the square. According to Gilyarovsky, the police did not enter Kulakovka at all.
That Iron, which is shown in the photograph, has only an indirect relation to the “original” slum of a century ago. Only the basements and part of the first floor have been preserved from the original building; the rest has been rebuilt.
And in this building, Yaroshenko’s house, (standing on the corner of the square and Podkolokolny Lane) there was the most terrible of the Khitrovka taverns - “Katorga”. It first belonged to the famous harborer of fugitives and robbers Mark Afanasyev, and then passed to his clerk Kulakov, who made a fortune in the place occupied by his old owner.
According to the description of Vladimir Gilyarovsky, “Katorga” was a den of violent and drunken debauchery, an exchange for thieves and fugitives. Anyone returning from Siberia or prison did not pass this place. The arrival, if he is truly “businesslike,” was greeted here with honor. He was immediately “put to work.”
Police reports confirmed that the majority of criminal fugitives from Siberia were arrested in Moscow at Khitrovka.
In the basement of this house, Boris Akunin settled a beggar kalyaku (that is, a clerk), who knew the secret of the treasure in Serebryaniki, only slightly changing the name to Eroshenkovsky basement. True, in reality, very extensive catacombs were still not here, but under the hill behind the Iron.
It was in “Katorga,” according to Akunin, that Ksaviry Feofilaktovich Grushin, Erast Fandorin’s mentor, was killed, after which in the basement of this tavern the still young detective dealt with the henchmen of the “businesslike” Misha the Little.
Judging by what I read on the Internet, Yaroshenko’s house has a very interesting and “authentic” courtyard, but I couldn’t get into it: the gate was tightly closed...
On the site of this building of the Electromechanical College (former technical school, and previously just a school) there was an extensive Khitrov market. As far as I know, a project is currently being prepared for a multifunctional business center, which they plan to build on the site, demolishing the college.
Podkolokolny Lane runs in the foreground. By the way, in the middle of the 20th century there was a tram line here.
During Soviet times, the square itself bore the name of Maxim Gorky.
Iron's patio. In some places, the surviving semi-basement windows belong to the old house of Romeiko (Kulakov). Now it is a completely clean and civilized courtyard, although local residents continue to call this house the Iron.
A look from the same point as in the last frame, but in the opposite direction. According to Gilyarovsky, there used to be a gloomy row of three-story stinking buildings here, called the Sukhoi Ravine. Hence the nicknames of the inhabitants - irons or wolves of the Dry Ravine.
On the left you can see the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
Only in 1923 did the city authorities find the strength to destroy the old Khitrovka.
Quite unexpectedly, the entire market was surrounded by police, stationed in all alleys and at the gates of every house. Everyone was released from the market - no one was allowed into the market. The residents were warned in advance about the upcoming eviction, but none of them even thought of leaving their “khazy”. The police, having surrounded the houses, offered to move out immediately, warning that the exit was free, no one would be detained, and gave a period of several hours after which “measures will be taken.” Only some of the disabled beggars were left in one of the outbuildings of Rumyantsevka...
In one week... they cleared the entire area with the centuries-old hangouts surrounding it, in a few months they converted the recent slums into clean apartments and populated them with workers and office people. The very main slum “Kulakovka” with its underground dens in the “Dry Ravine” on Svininsky Lane and the huge “Iron” was razed to the ground and rebuilt. All the same houses, but clean on the outside... There are no covered with paper or rags or simply broken windows from which steam is pouring out and a drunken roar is rushing...
However, this is not my entire walk around Khitrovka. I will continue in the direction former Third Myasnitsky city police station.
55.7525 , 37.642778Khitrovskaya Square on the plan of 1853
Khitrov market (Khitrovka) - a square in the center of Moscow that existed in the s. It was located on the site of the current house 11a on Podkolokolny Lane, between Podkolokolny, Pevchesky, Petropavlovsky and Khitrovsky lanes (on the border of the current Basmanny and Tagansky districts). In the second half of the 19th century, Moscow became a hot spot; thousands of unemployed people and criminals gathered in local dens; described by V. A. Gilyarovsky, K. S. Stanislavsky, B. Akunin and other authors.
Story
On the spot Khitrov Market (Khitrovskaya Square) there were two estates that burned out in the Moscow fire of 1812. The estates were not restored for almost a decade, and their owners were not able to pay taxes. In the city, Major General N. Z. Khitrovo, whose mansion was preserved in the courtyard of the current “Stalinist” house of the architect I. A. Golosov on the corner of Yauzsky Boulevard and Podkolokolny Lane, bought the property of the fire victims at auction, built a new square in their place and donated it to the city. Creation work new square were carried out at the expense of N.Z. Khitrovo by military workers with the permission of the then Moscow Governor-General D.V. Golitsyn. On the territory of his property, which stretched from Yauzsky Boulevard to Petropavlovsky Lane, he built shopping arcades with a courtyard for meat and green market traders. The details of this case are confirmed by the surviving correspondence of N.Z. Khitrovo and D.V. Golitsyn. After the death of N.Z. Khitrovo in the city, the shopping arcades passed to other owners and have been preserved in a rebuilt form to this day. But Khitrovo’s business was continued and instead of the “polisads” he planted around the undeveloped three sides “for appearance’s sake”, shopping arcades were built. Before major church holidays and on Sundays, they also traded in the square itself from portable patches.
In fact, Khitrovka (more precisely, and all the possessions that form it) are places of exceptional state, historical And cultural values.
It is enough to remember the settlement here of Ivan III and look at the biographies of the owners of the houses, be it: “Utyug”, Podkopaevsky 11, Khitrovsky 3/1 and even Petropavlovsky 1 / Podkolokolny 12 (where the SMU Metrostroy has been located since the 80s of the 20th century, and in the 17th century there was the Singing Compound of the Krutitsky Bishop), or the remaining house of Nikolai Zakharovich Khitrovo himself, who, being himself a remarkable person, as is known, was in direct kinship with Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov. Not to mention the fact that the estate passed into his hands a century later from the great Golovin!
These places in the second half of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century were repeatedly visited by L. N. Tolstoy, G. I. Uspensky, T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, V. A. Gilyarovsky, K. S. Stanislavsky, V. I. Nemirovich -Danchenko, artist V. A. Simov, who painted the scenery for the production of M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” from life, artists of the Moscow Art Theater. On Khitrovka, in poverty, A.K. Savrasov ended his life. Also here lived Svinin P.P. - a famous collector, historian, author and publisher of “Notes of the Fatherland”, the first adviser in the United States of America, when Philadelphia was still the capital, honorable Sir Moscow, recommended, unfortunately, by A. S. Pushkin to N. V. Gogol as a prototype for Khlestakov in The Inspector General.
The great Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin was baptized in the Church of the Three Saints in Kulishki, F.I. Tyutchev’s sister was baptized there, and the funeral service was held for his young brother (in both cases, the minor future poet was the successor).
Some details about the events taking place in these places and names famous people who left their mark here are given below.
More details on the addresses of households (biographies, photographs, documents)
After the October Revolution, crime in Khitrovka reached unprecedented levels. By decision of the Moscow City Council in the 1920s. The Khitrov market was “cleaned up,” and for the square’s centenary, a green park was laid out on it. At this time, housing associations were formed in old rooming houses, which lasted relatively short. The famous house Utyug, described by Gilyarovsky, was built on two floors.
In the 30s, a standard school building was built on the square, which after reconstruction became the Electro-Mechanical College, and then a college. B tram service is open along Podkolokolny Lane, B - a temporary line along Pevchesky Lane (due to the closure, traffic along Yauzsky Boulevard); the lane lines were finally removed in 1963.
Current situation
In 2008, the construction company DON-Stroy developed a project for the development of the former Khitrovskaya Square. On the site of the Electromechanical College, located at 11a Podkokolny Lane, it is planned to build an eight-story office center. The unveiling of plans for the construction of a modern high-rise building made of glass and concrete in the very heart of the famous Khitrovka caused an unprecedented scale of protest from both local history organizations and ordinary Muscovites. More than 12,000 signatures of citizens of Russia and foreign countries were collected
Attractions
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Church of the Three Saints, corner of Khitrovsky and Maly Tryokhsvyatitelsky lanes |
Temple ap. Peter and Paul, view from Yauzsky Boulevard towards Khitrovka |
Former shelters in Petropavlovsky Lane |
Electro-Mechanical College |
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Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Podkopayi |
The ensemble of Khitrovskaya Square itself has an exceptionally high degree of preservation. Components architectural environment, city-forming objects are:
- cultural heritage site house of Nikolai Zakharovich Khitrovo (XVIII century) ( Podkokolny Lane, 16A);
- cultural heritage site federal significance(Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 624 of December 4, 1974) city estate of the Lopukhins - Volkonskys - Kiryakovs - profitable ownership of the Bunins (mid-18th century - early 19th century) - Main house- apartment building (mid-18th century, 1878, 1900). Here, on December 25, 1871, the outstanding Russian composer and pianist A. N. Scriabin was born ( Khitrovsky lane, 3/1, building 2);
- identified object of cultural heritage - the chambers (XVII century) of the steward Buturlin ( Podkopaevsky lane, 11/11/1 building 2).
At one time this house belonged to the actual state councilor, the Arkhangelsk civil governor (06/07/1839-12/09/1842). Knight of the Order of St. George 4th class, St. Anne 2nd class, St. Vladimir 4th class with a bow, who had a silver medal in 1828, a gold sword with the inscription “For bravery”, Polish insignia for military merit 3 1st degree and insignia of blameless service for 15 years to Platon Viktorovich Stepanov (1798-1872) and - later - his daughter, Elizaveta Platonovna Stepanova (in the 1st marriage Schlitter, in the 2nd marriage Yaroshenko) (b. 1850), wife of V. A. Yaroshenko, brother of the artist N. A. Yaroshenko. It was to this house that Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko and Simov came before the production of Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” to get acquainted with its inhabitants to get used to the characters.
- identified cultural heritage site - former Osterman's estate (XVIII century) - former Myasnitsky police house (XIX century). The Russian poet F.I. Tyutchev spent his childhood in this house. The police house itself is closely connected with the names of V.V. Mayakovsky, I.G. Erenburg, who at different times were kept there and left their memories about it. The apartment of Dr. D.P. Kuvshinnikov was also located here. Kuvshinnikov and his wife Sofya Petrovna became the prototypes of the famous story by A.P. Chekhov “The Jumping Girl”. The Chekhov brothers, V.G. Perov, I.I. visited the Kuvshinnikovs. Levitan, artists A.I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, A. P. Lensky, T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik ( Khitrovsky lane, 2).
In the house 13/1 on Podkokolny Lane in the 1960s. lived actor E. A. Morgunov.
All three churches in the vicinity of Khitrovka have survived:
- Church of St. App. Peter and Paul at the Yauz Gate (1700, bell tower 1771)
- Church of St. Nicholas in Podkopayi (17th century, bell tower 1750)
- Church of the Three Saints on Kulishki (1670-1674)
One block from Khitrovka there is the St. John the Baptist Convent and the Temple of Prince Vladimir in Starye Sadekh. Further along Starosadsky Lane there is a Lutheran church.
Between Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky and Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky lanes there is the Morozovsky Garden; During the July rebellion of 1918, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were based in the Morozov house. In Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane there is the house-workshop of Isaac Levitan. It was from the Morozov mansion that they escorted him on his last journey.
In movie
- Strike, Sergei Eisenstein (1924).
- Black Triangle (TV movie) (1981)