Who lives in the artists' village. The village of Sokol, also known as the village of artists

Sokol is the first cooperative residential village in Moscow, founded in 1923. The idea of ​​a settlement that would combine the best properties of a city and a village was put forward by the Englishman Ebenezer Howard at the end of the 19th century. In 1903, an unrealized project for the construction of a similar garden city in Moscow on Khodynskoe Field appeared. Already in Soviet times, the Moscow outskirts were supposed to be built up with cottage villages with their own libraries, clubs, sports and playgrounds, and kindergartens.

They say that soon you will be able to get to the village of Sokol by train. The railway tracks of the Small Ring of the Moscow Railway were laid next door; back in 1908, the Serebryany Bor station with a station, barracks, warehouses, and switch centralization booths was built here. Some buildings have been preserved, having lost the details of the facade design. The 54-kilometer-long circular railway was conceived as a transport interchange for the transfer of goods to the main radial highways. Over the years, the ring was also used to transport passengers.

Switch centralization booth. 1907: http://www.oldmos.ru/old/photo/view/22866

Since 2012, the Moscow Government has been implementing a program for the reconstruction of this railway; since the fall of 2013, the tracks have been replaced.

In August 1921, Lenin signed a decree on cooperative housing construction, according to which cooperative associations and individual citizens were granted the rights to develop urban plots. Two years later, the newly formed Sokol partnership included employees of the People's Commissariats, economists, artists, teachers, agronomists, and technical intelligentsia. The share payments were quite high; it’s nice to have a house in a village on the outskirts of the capital, but it’s expensive.

Of the several versions of the origin of the name, the most common is associated with the Sokolniki district at the opposite end of the city. There really were a lot of summer cottages there, and the new settlement was supposed to be adjacent to them. But something went wrong, construction was moved to the village of Vsekhsvyatskoe. But on the seal of the partnership that had already been made, a falcon was depicted, hence the name.

The houses on an area of ​​21 hectares were built according to individual designs by architects Nikolai Markovnikov, brothers Alexander, Victor and Leonid Vesnin, Ivan Kondakov, Alexey Shchusev. Each plot accounted for approximately 9 acres. By the early 1930s, 114 residential buildings, two grocery stores, a kindergarten, a canteen and a library had been built.

"Watchtower" by the Vesnins. 1924: http://www.oldmos.ru/old/photo/view/14060

The village is cut into sections by several streets, which since 1928 began to bear the names of Russian artists: Bryullov Street (from 1923 to 1928 - Stolovaya), Venetsianova Street, Vereshchagina Street (Uyutnaya), Vrubel Street (Central), Kiprensky Street (Vokzalnaya), Kramskoy street, Levitan street (Parkovaya), Polenova street (Bolshaya), Savrasov (Tchaikovsky) street, Serov street, Surikov street (Telephone), Shishkin street (Shkolnaya). The renaming was initiated by the artist Pavel Pavlinov to perpetuate the memory of the great Russian painters. Since then, Sokol has received an unofficial name - the Village of Artists.

Each street of the village, at the suggestion of horticulture specialist Professor A. Chelintsev, is planted with a certain species of trees. Large-leaved lindens grow on Surikov Street, Tatarian maples on Bryullov Street, Norway maples on Kiprensky Street, ash trees on Shishkin and Vrubel Streets, silver maples and small-leaved lindens are planted in two rows on Polenov Street, and poplars on Savrasov Street.

Modern layout of the Sokol village:

On May 18, 1935, a plane crash occurred in the sky above Sokol. A piece of the fuselage fell on house No. 4 on Levitan Street: http://www.oldmos.ru/old/photo/view/30586

The largest Soviet aircraft of that time, the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, piloted by Nikolai Zhurov, literally disintegrated in the air after a collision with an escort fighter. The culprit of the tragedy was considered to be the I-15 pilot Nikolai Blagin, who undertook to perform aerobatic maneuvers and lost control. Soon the NKVD authorities found out that the pilot was performing maneuvers around the giant with the sanction of the Air Force leadership, so that a cameraman from another plane would spectacularly capture this demonstration flight. One way or another, 11 crew members, 38 passengers of the ANT-20 and test pilot Blagin died. They were buried with honors at the Novodevichy cemetery. There were no casualties among the village residents.

"Red Pantheon" Novodevichy Cemetery

In 1936, cooperative construction was curtailed and the surrounding area began to be built with high-rise buildings. Thus, Vrubel Street, originally conceived as the central one, became the border of the Sokol village.

Apartment buildings on Vrubel and Savrasov streets

In 1938, maternity hospital No. 16 was built in the center of the village, which is still used for its intended purpose. You can always see excited dads in the yard, waiting for a new addition to their families.

The village idyll was also invaded by several apartment buildings, built in the 1920s and 1930s according to a new concept - the construction of workers' towns.

After the war, the village was connected to the city sewer system, many houses were thoroughly renovated, most of the log houses were covered with boards and painted. At the same time, stove heating was replaced with local water heating using water heating boilers that fired coal. In 1963-1964, gas was supplied to the village.

Since the 1950s, attempts have been made to “knock down chicken coops” that were located near one of the main avenues of Moscow. Residents defended their homes and since 1979 the village has been under state protection as a monument to urban planning of the first years of Soviet power. Indeed, initially the ensemble of the Sokol village was unique in many ways; it became a testing ground for architectural solutions. Logged wooden huts in the style of Vologda architecture stood side by side with experimental houses made of cinder blocks, Armenian tuff, peat plywood, and fiberboard.

Since 1936, all houses became the property of Moscow. The situation has changed with the return of private ownership of land; over the past two decades, old residents or their heirs have sold off their plots, which suddenly became more expensive. Despite the protected status of the village, the new owners began to demolish Vologda architecture in favor of Novorussian stone haciendas and literally built 30 new buildings in just a few years. In its current state, this settlement is certainly unexpected in the middle of the high-rise buildings of the metropolis, but it has largely lost its local historical appeal.

Photos: Evgeny Chesnokov

• History and modernity of the village of Sokol

  The village "Sokol" is a monument to urban planning of the first years of Soviet power. In 1918, architects I.V. Zholtovsky and A.V. Shchusev created the “New Moscow” Master Plan. The plan provided for the creation of many small centers on the outskirts of Moscow, conceived as garden cities, directly connected to the historical center of the capital by transport routes.

  Sokol was the first experimental step in the implementation of this project, which was to serve as a standard for further housing construction. Construction of the village began in the fall of 1923 in accordance with the “New Moscow” master plan. At that time, the Sokolniki district was actively being developed in Moscow, where the village was originally planned to be located, and therefore it was called “Sokol”. But due to damp soil, this area was abandoned, and the area between the village of Vsekhsvyatskoye and the Serebryany Bor station of the Moscow Circular Railway was allocated for development. On the site where the village was built, at the time of its development there was a landfill of the Izolyator plant and a vacant lot on which several pine trees grew. There was once a part of All Saints Grove here that was damaged by the 1911 hurricane.

  After the construction of the village was moved from the Sokolniki area, it was decided to keep the name so as not to change the documentation and the emblem: a flying falcon with a house on its paws.

  According to the original project, the village should be surrounded from the west by the village of Vsekhsvyatsky, from the south by Pesochnaya Street and a dense pine park, in the depths of which the Romashka sanatorium was located since pre-revolutionary times (on the site of the modern house 12 building 14 on Alabyan Street), from the east - by the District Railway road, from the north - Volokolamsk highway.

  Vrubel Street was supposed to divide the village in half. Today the village is located between Alabyan, Levitan, Panfilov, Vrubel streets and Maly Peschany Lane. The village project was created during the NEP era by outstanding Russian architects and artists, including: academician A.B. Shchusev, N.V. Markovnikov, P.Ya. Pavlinov, Vesnin brothers, P.A. Florensky, N.V. Colley, I.I. Kondakov and others.

  The first chairman of the board of the village was the chairman of the artists' trade union V.F. Sakharov. This determined the entry into the cooperative of several famous Moscow artists and sculptors, who played a significant role in the life of the village.

  The main architect of the village and its resident (house 12/24 on Shishkina Street) was the architect Nikolai Vladimirovich Markovnikov (1869-1942). Construction was carried out under the leadership of foreman A.K. Lukashov (Vereshchagina street, 4) and foreman E.A. Gavrilina (Surikova street, 20). The village was built entirely at the expense of developers, who became only wealthy people, since membership in the cooperative was not cheap: 10 gold chervonets when joining the Partnership, 30 when allocating a plot, 20 when starting construction. The cost of one cottage was about 600 gold chervonets. Those who could not contribute a share to the cooperative for a separate cottage could count on a cheaper apartment in six-apartment buildings. The developers of the village were party leaders, people's commissariat workers, economists, doctors, teachers, artists, technical intelligentsia, and workers of the Izolyator plant. Several versions of the master plan for the Sokol village were developed with the participation of academician of architecture Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev, architects Nikolai Vladimirovich Markovnikov, Vesnin brothers - Leonid Alexandrovich and Viktor Alexandrovich. According to the approved plan, signed by V.A. Vesnin, it was planned to build 320 houses. However, this project was not fully implemented - the entire area was divided into 270 construction sites, on average 200 square fathoms each. The first meeting of developers decided to build a village with a large supply of green space and a minimum permissible building area, with small two- and one-apartment buildings, with convenient communication routes connecting the village with the center. Blind fences were not allowed and it was forbidden to develop more than a third of the site. The main avenue of the village (Bolshaya Street, now Polenova Street) - 20 fathoms wide (about 40 meters) allowed for a significant area of ​​plantings, with two-row planting of trees on each side. In the original project, the streets were named differently than they are now: Bolshaya, Shkolnaya, Telefonnaya, Uyutnaya. New names in honor of Russian artists (Shishkin, Savrasov, Polenov, Bryullov, Kiprensky, Vereshchagin, Serov, Kramskoy, Surikov, Levitan) appeared when the village was already populated, and with them the legend that these famous artists lived here in order to protect themselves from attacks on the land. This idea belonged to one of the developers, a graphic artist, one of the leading professors of VKHUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Workshops) Pavel Yakovlevich Pavlinov (23B Surikova Street). By the end of 1924, the first block of houses between Surikov, Kiprensky, Levitan and Polenov streets was “turnkey”.

  They were the first in the country to begin to master the experience of self-government in a partnership called the Sokol Housing and Construction Cooperative Partnership. On a voluntary basis, residents organized: a store (1926), a kindergarten, a canteen, a library, sports grounds, a club theater, a children's toy club (under the ideological leadership of the director of the toy museum N.O. Bartram), a dance club (taught by a student Isadora Duncan), the first cell in Moscow of the “Society of Friends of Green Spaces” (organized by agronomist N.I. Lyubimov), sewing artel “Women’s Labor” (organized by A.G. Lyubimova).

  The Sokol cooperative was created on the basis of a construction company, which used it as an exhibition site where the best examples of low-rise construction were presented. Initially, three types of houses were designed: log houses imitating Russian architecture, frame-fill houses similar to English cottages, brick houses with attics similar to German mansions.

  In 1936, by decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the activities of housing cooperatives were terminated. The cooperative was liquidated, the village board ceased to function, and all the houses in the village became the property of the city.

  In the early 1930s. More than half of its territory from Vrubel Street to Volokolamsk Highway was confiscated from the village of Sokol. Over the course of 4 years, 18 houses were built on this territory for NKVD workers (2 houses have survived to this day), a boiler room and a club.

  During Stalin's repressions there were mass arrests in almost every house.

  In 1941, the German army approached Moscow. Sokol was located at the very beginning of the Volokolamsk route, from where the Germans were advancing. In the fall of 1941, Sokol became part of the second line of defense on the border of Moscow: women and children cut down the pine trees of the park to build a defensive line along the Circular Railway and in the village itself. A barricade with embrasures, an anti-tank ditch and gouges stretched across the entire territory of the village. 13 high-explosive bombs fell on the village. Several buildings were razed to the ground, a bomb hit the bomb shelter of house No. 17 on Surikov Street and killed five members of the Shatilov family.

  After the Great Patriotic War, the residents of the village were forcibly compacted, their houses were turned into communal apartments according to the norm of 6 meters per person.

  In 1946-1948. All houses in the village were connected to the city sewerage system (before that there were cesspools) and gas stoves were installed in the kitchens.

  In the early 1950s, when mass housing construction began in Moscow, the Sokol village was under threat of demolition. The struggle of the residents of the village began for its preservation, because its territory has always represented a “tidbit” for developers.

  In 1979, the Moscow City Council accepted the Sokol architectural and planning complex for state protection as a “monument of urban planning of the first years of Soviet power.”

  The village became the third on the list of monuments of that period of history, after the Mausoleum and the Northern River Station. This protected it from demolition, but did not provide funds for maintenance and repair. The district executive committee wrote that it had not been able to finance the maintenance of the village for 15 years, and until 1989 the residents swept the streets themselves.

  In 1989, the village residents decided to recreate the territorial public administration (TPS) in order to preserve the Falcon. By the time self-government was organized, the heating had failed in 6 houses, the roofs were leaking in half the houses, there was not a single janitor left in the village, and the district had no funds for repair work.

  The community of the village created the Sokol agency, which provides legal, accounting and organizational services to teams of workers and individuals who performed work under contracts. According to the agency's charter, its creators worked there on a voluntary basis, and all profits from their activities were directed to the repair and improvement of the village.

  The local government managed to prepare all the houses in the village for the winter of 1989. In 1991, the Sokol Council achieved the transfer to self-government of residential and part of non-residential buildings on the territory of the monument. On the 75th anniversary of the village, the Sokol village museum was created. The director of the museum is Ekaterina Mikhailovna Alekseeva, Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

  In 2013, the village turned 90 years old. In the years since construction began, the village has found itself practically in the center of the metropolis and has miraculously survived to this day. Currently, there are 117 houses in the Sokol village. Many famous people still live there.

  Now the Sokol village is also a 24-hour open city park with a rich collection of thousands of green spaces. Its streets are one of the favorite walking places for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Here all year round you can meet students from the Moscow Art Institute named after Surikov, the College of Architecture and other art universities in Moscow in the open air.

  However, gradually, one after another, the old wooden houses that remember the first inhabitants of the village are disappearing into oblivion, and their place is taken by sophisticated cottages of the newly minted nouveau riche, striking in their tastelessness and unintentional kitsch. The visual violence is completed by five-meter fences, which deprive the village of Sokol of its value as a “monument of urban planning of the first years of Soviet power.” Now it is a monument to the urban chaos that has been going on here for the last two decades.

Architectural monuments of the village of Sokol

• Halabyana street, 8/2

  Sokol village, Alabyana street, 8/2, Sokol metro station

  The house in the depths of an apple orchard has retained its original structure and appearance.




• Levitana street, 4

  Sokol village, Levitana street, 4, Sokol metro station

  Residential building 1923-1933 the buildings. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

  
  

  In 1935, this house was damaged and was included in news reports. On May 18, 1935, in the sky above the village of Sokol, as a result of a collision with an escort fighter, the largest Soviet aircraft, the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, crashed. Plane debris fell on the village. Everyone on board the planes died, but there were no casualties among the village residents.




• House-workshop of artist A.M. Gerasimova

  Sokol village, Levitana street, 6A, Sokol metro station

  People's Artist of the USSR Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov (1881-1963) lived here.

  The house was built in 1936 according to the design of A.M. Gerasimova.




• Levitana street, 10

  Sokol village, Levitana street, 10, Sokol metro station




• Levitana street, 20

  Sokol village, Levitana street, 20, Sokol metro station

  Residential wooden house from the 1930s. the buildings. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

  One of the few buildings that has retained its original appearance.




• The building of the Serebryany Bor railway station complex

  Sokol village, Panfilova street, 6A, Sokol metro station

  Built at the beginning of the 20th century in the Art Nouveau style under the leadership of the author of GUM, architect Alexander Nikanorovich Pomerantsev.

  The complex of buildings of the Serebryany Bor railway station with a station, barracks, warehouses, switchboard centralization booths was built in 1908 on the Okrug Railway. Some buildings have retained their authentic appearance, while others have partially or completely lost the details of their historical façade design. The Serebryany Bor railway station of the Moscow Circular Railway was the main transport hub of the Sokol village - Vrubel Street (formerly Tsentralnaya Street) is oriented towards it.




• Surikova street, 3

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 3, Sokol metro station

  Residential building from the 1930s. the buildings. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

  One of the recognizable projects of a residential building, the author of which was the architect N.V. Markovnikov.




• Vereshchagina street, 2/8

  Sokol village, Vereshchagina street, 2/8 (Surikova street, 8/2), Sokol metro station

  A two-story residential building built in 1929. Architect I.I. Kondakov.




• Surikova street, 9/1

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 9/1, Sokol metro station

  Wooden house built in 1924. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.




• Two-story six-apartment house

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 14/2, Sokol metro station

  Built in the 1930s. Architect N.S. Durnbaum. Demolished at the beginning of 2009.

  The two-story, six-unit building was built in the 1930s. for the organizations “Zagotzerno” and “Moskhleb”. Before the war, a swimming pool was built on the roof of the house. Film actor Vsevolod Safonov lived here. Demolished at the beginning of 2009. Currently, in its place stands a mansion that has nothing to do with the historical buildings of the village.




• The central square of the village "Sokol" ("Star Square")

  Sokol village, Central Square, Sokol metro station

  It was formed at the intersection of Polenova, Surikova, Shishkin streets.

  In different parts of the square there are: a granite monument to the residents of the village of Sokol who died in the Great Patriotic War, a memorial sign in the form of numbers that display the number of years since the founding of the village and a children's playground.




• Surikova street, 16/7

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 16/7, Sokol metro station

  Residential building built in 1923. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

  The facade of the house faces the central square of the village - Zvezda Square. Wonderful grapes and flowers grow in the garden.




• "Watchtower" by the Vesnin brothers

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 19/5 (Polenova street 5/19), Sokol metro station

  Residential 2-storey house 1923–1924. the buildings. Architects: Vesnin brothers.

  Four residential buildings in the form of two-story watchtowers designed by the Vesnin brothers adorned the beginning and end of Polenov Street. This house, facing the central square of the village, was remodeled for the new owner according to the design of the village architect Mikhail Aleksandrovich Posevkin in the 2000s. in compliance with historical proportions.




• Surikova street, 21

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 21, Sokol metro station

  A two-story log house with a sloping hipped roof was built according to the design of architect Viktor Vesnin in 1923–1924.

  The Vologda hut by architect Viktor Vesnin is also the “calling card” of the village.




• Surikova street, 21A

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 21A, Sokol metro station

  Experimental two-story red brick residential building. Architect Z.M. Rosenfeld.




• Surikova street, 22/2

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 22/2, Sokol metro station

  Wooden two-story residential building. Built in 1923–1924. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

  A wooden two-story residential building is a kind of “calling card” of the Sokol village.




• The house in which the architect V.A. lived Vesnin

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 23/2, Sokol metro station

  Log residential building built in 1924. Architects: Vesnin brothers.

  Architect Viktor Aleksandrovich Vesnin lived in this two-story log house with a sloping hip roof.




• The house in which the graphic artist P.Ya lived. Pavlinov

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 23B, Sokol metro station

  Log residential house. Built in 1925. Architects: Vesnin brothers.

  In this house from 1925 to 1966. lived the graphic artist P.Ya. Pavlinov (1881–1966).




• House of the family of artist-sculptors Faydysh-Krandievsky

  Sokol village, Surikova street, 29/6, Sokol metro station

  Built in 1930. Architect N.V. Markovnikov.

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

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

Construction concept

The "Artists' Village" in Moscow was built in accordance with the urban planning concept that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, called the garden city. The idea of ​​such a settlement was described by E. Howard back in 1898. He, criticizing the generally accepted city of that time, exposed its unsanitary conditions and general pollution. The utopian proposed his vision of a well-maintained city that combined not only industrial, but also agricultural motifs.

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

Industrial and production facilities were to be located outside the city ring.

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

Where is?

Where exactly is the village of Sokol located? This settlement occupies an entire block at the intersection of Volokolamsk Highway and Alabyan Street. Thus, the residential buildings of the “artists’ village” border on numerous buildings on Levitan, Vrubel, Kiprensky and, naturally, Alabyan streets.

How to get to this place?

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

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

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

Of course, you can also reach it by land transport, from Halabyan Street. These are buses No. 691K, 175, 105, 100, 88, 60, 26 and trolleybuses No. 59, 19 (stops “Levitan Street” or “Alabyan Street”.

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

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

Where does this name come from?

The opinions of modern ordinary people differ regarding the question of why the village "Falcon" is named this way and not otherwise. One of the versions is that the cooperative was promised to be allocated land in Sokolniki, but then the decision was changed, but the name of the enterprise remained.

Another assumption regarding the name is related to the fact that the famous livestock breeder A. I. Sokol lived in the village, who bred purebred pigs on his property.

The third version is quite prosaic. According to it, the cooperative got its name from a common construction tool called a “plaster falcon.”

A little about the main creators

Six famous Soviet architects took part in the design and construction of the “artists’ village” - Nikolai Vladimirovich Markovnikov, the Vesnin brothers (Leonid, Victor and Alexander), Ivan Ivanovich Kondakov and Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev. Together, a little over a hundred houses were built, designed according to individual plans. Yes, the urban planning of the cooperative provided for individual housing construction (IHC) for each shareholder individually.

House style

Any plot of individual housing construction in the “village of artists” (on “Sokol”) had unique, characteristic features only for it, since it was built for people who differed from each other not only in different social and cultural qualities, but also in their material (financial) situation. And at the same time, each building was distinguished by the quality and strength of the structure, as well as the presence of the necessary benefits of civilization.

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

The architectural style of the buildings was varied and multifaceted. There were brick cottages, frame-and-fill buildings, and buildings reminiscent of 18th-century manor houses. Here you can even find houses that resemble fortress watchtowers.

Despite this diversity, the same requirements existed for homeowners. For example, everyone was required to have the same low fence. Moreover, the facades of some houses facing the main streets were built without windows. Thus, the buildings did not attract attention, and the streets seemed more spacious and longer.

The “artists’ village” was finally built up by 1932. Taking into account the fact that by this time the ideology of constructing collective workers' buildings was in full swing in the state, several small apartment buildings were erected on the territory of the cooperative.

Architectural ensemble

Since the territory of "Falcon" was small, they decided to arrange the streets and houses in such a way as to visually increase the area of ​​the town and create the appearance of its enormity. To achieve this, the streets were “broken” at a 45-degree angle, narrowed towards the end, and their ends were framed with flowering gardens.

Initially, the streets in the cooperative had names typical for the city - Central, Bolshaya, Shkolnaya... However, they were soon renamed in honor of famous Russian painters: Vrubel, Levitan, Shishkin, Surikov and so on. This is where the second name of the cooperative came from - “artists’ village”.

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

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

Infrastructure development

As the houses were populated, social and administrative buildings were erected here: shops, a library, a canteen, a sports ground and even a kindergarten. In the "artists' village" he occupied an entire building. True, only one teacher worked there, and the remaining responsibilities were distributed among the working mothers, who took turns on duty in the garden.

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

All kinds of harassment

In the early 1930s, undeveloped land was taken away from the “artists’ village” in order to build houses for NKVD employees.

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

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

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

Years of the Great Patriotic War

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

The cooperative territory was bombed, as a result of which houses and other buildings were destroyed.

Modernization and the fight for survival

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

Despite such improvements, there was a real danger of demolition above the Falcon. They wanted to build residential high-rise buildings in place of the private sector, but local residents repeatedly defended their homes. It was during this period that people first started talking about the village as an architectural and historical monument.

Transition to self-government

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

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

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

Shtetl in the 2000s

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

In general, during this period the population of the village began to change dramatically. Some indigenous residents sold their cottages, which were immediately replaced by elite and expensive buildings.

In the recent past, a serious scandal erupted around this village. The legality of demolishing old buildings and erecting new ones in their place was questioned. A rally of local residents was even organized to protest against this situation.

Famous residents

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

Instead of an afterword

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

The artists' village "Sokol" is an unusual for modern Moscow, a quiet, almost dacha quarter. It covers an area of 21 hectares and is limited by Alabyan, Vrubel, Levitan streets and Maly Peschany Lane. The cute houses with peaked gable roofs of the Sokol village are an experimental example of low-rise urban planning in the first years of Soviet power. Today the village has two protection certificates - as a natural complex and as an object of cultural and historical heritage.

On September 7, 2013, the “Village of Artists” solemnly celebrated its 90th anniversary. Left behind is the difficult history of the struggle for survival in a developing metropolis.

Buy a house in the village "Sokol"

Once upon a time, three types of houses predominated in the village: log huts in the traditions of Russian architecture, frame-fill houses in the style of English cottages, brick mansions with attics of the German type. Nowadays, a significant proportion of houses (more than 30) are modern elite mansions with plots from 8 to 16 acres.

History and design

The village project was developed in accordance with the New Moscow Master Plan of the 1920s. “Sokol” became one of the first districts connected to the historical center of the capital directly by transport routes.

The leading architect of the village, and later its resident (house No. 12/24 on Shishkina Street), was the architect Markovnikov. The most famous architects took part in the project: the Vesnin brothers, Shchusev, Kondakov, Pavlinov, Florensky and others.

The “elite” village, even for that time, became known far beyond Moscow. Delegations flocked here, excursions came to inspect new types of low-rise buildings, and get acquainted with the embodiment of the modern concept of a “garden city.”

Description and architecture of the “Village of Artists”

Cooperative houses designed for one or two families were built on plots of 8-9 acres. It was allowed to build small (up to 70 sq.m.) houses with low hedges, so that a holistic perception of the overall development was preserved. As a rule, such houses were designed for 3-4 living rooms, a living room, a kitchen and an open terrace with access to the garden.

The projects differed in layout, number of rooms, types of bay windows and balconies. There were no identical houses here.

In 1928, when most of the houses had already been built, in order to emphasize the connection of the village with the world of art, its streets were named after Russian artists - Polenov, Vereshchagin, Surikov, Levitan, Vrubel, Shishkin, Kiprensky, Serov, Savrasov, Bryullov, Venetsianova.

Each of the 11 streets was planted with trees of a certain type: oaks grew on Shishkin Street, red maples on Bryullov Street, linden trees on Surikov Street... Since then, a legend has begun to circulate that all these artists used to live here. Subsequently, the decree on the formation of the village “Sokol” with Lenin’s signature and this parable about artists more than once served as a safe-conduct for the village, which the city authorities repeatedly prepared for demolition.

The last time the artist’s village “Sokol” was subjected to another “attack” was in 2010. Then Oleg Mitvol, a fighter against “self-construction” who at that time held the post of prefect of the Northern Administrative District, set the question of the legality of the appearance of thirty “new builders” on the territory of the village. They were erected on the site of old houses, which, despite their historical status, were destroyed. The living area of ​​the houses was increased significantly - up to 500-700 or more square meters. Where documents showed small-sized apartments, entire mansions sprang up.

Nevertheless, the “nouveau riche” managed to defend their property in the artists’ village. Now all issues of reconstruction and redevelopment of houses in the Sokol village are under special control of the Moskomnasledie department.

Next to the cozy wooden houses there are now legalized high fences and brick cottages.

“Real estate in the village soared in price to several million dollars and began to appear in the lists of the most expensive houses according to the Forbes rating, along with modern Moscow deluxe class mansions”

The opportunity to live on your own land with your own garden, 10-15 minutes drive from the center of the capital, is a highly unique offer in our time.

The social composition of the village has also changed over time. The lists of residents of the artists' village were replenished with the names of bankers, owners of large companies, businessmen-landowners, politicians, and scientists.

Great for cycling. Don't ask why - just believe. And try it. You can start a cycling trip from a variety of places - it all depends on where you live. But I started the route from the Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo railway platform ( Riga direction - editor's note.). Firstly, a very beautiful name, and secondly, a fascinating path to the village itself. I haven’t finished the route: from Sokol it goes to Oktyabrskoye Pole, to admire the ensemble of post-war buildings. And then there are many options. Fortunately, there are plenty of interesting places in the area.

This is an abandoned station building at the Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo station, a stone's throw from the platform of the same name. Modern, built in 1908. What will be inside? And will there be anything? There is currently a for sale notice posted on the building.

Remains of ceramics on the side facade of the building. What size was a ceramic panel a hundred years ago? What was depicted there?

Tram tracks are a kind of calling card of the areas in the vicinity of Shchukinskaya, Sokol, Voikovskaya and Timiryazevskaya. There are more trams left here than in the rest of Moscow. The tram tracks in the middle of the park look picturesque and a little mysterious. The tram rushes between the trees, headlights flashing and desperately ringing...

When Tushino was a separate town (until 1960) the only connection with the mainland, i.e. with Sokol, it was tram number 6. Several years ago, in connection with the construction of the “interchange” on Leningradka, this route was changed and the “six” went to Voikovskaya. But now she will again take passengers to Sokol.

Behind this house is Panfilov Street. The village "Sokol" is a green oasis in the north-west of the multimillion-dollar city, occupying a block in the triangle formed by the Volokolamsk highway, Alabyan and Panfilov streets. Architect Karo Semenovich Alabyan and military leader Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov shake hands, smiling at the artists lurking in the alleys.

A long fence with funny sayings at the end of Panfilov Street. Here, in one of the houses, there is an amazingly tasty and inexpensive Uzbek canteen next door to the Stroganov Art University. The canteen is open from 9 to 22.

This is the end of house number 4 on Panfilov Street. Four huge houses on the corner of Panfilov and Alabyan streets form a single architectural ensemble, also known as “New Houses on Levitan Street”. The houses were built in the early 1950s.

Vrubel Street is the northern border of the Village of Artists. If artists don’t really want to cook at home, they can go to a cafe, fortunately it’s not far away.

In the original project, the streets of the village were called differently than they are now: Bolshaya, Central, Shkolnaya, Vokzalnaya, Telefonnaya, Stolovaya, etc. In 1928, the streets were named in honor of Russian artists: Levitan, Surikov, Polenov, Vrubel, Kiprensky, Shishkin, Vereshchagina and others. Therefore, “Falcon” became known as the “Village of Artists”. The author of the new toponymy of “Falcon” is the famous graphic artist Pavel Yakovlevich Pavlinov. Streets in the northwestern part of the original territory, seized from the village in the 1930s, were supposed to be named after Russian composers. If they had not been confiscated, there would have been a village of “artists and composers” in Moscow. The names of the streets of “Sokol” show a connection with the pre-revolutionary tradition: already in 1910, the dacha village “Klyazma” appeared near Moscow, where the streets bore the names of Russian writers, poets and artists.

Initially, it was planned to build up the Sokol village with three types of cottages: log, frame-fill and brick. Later, each type of house varied many times. According to the architects' plans, various designs and materials were used. Since Sokol was the first-born of the Soviet housing and construction cooperation, it became a kind of base for testing architectural solutions. Many of the buildings in the village were experimental. According to the project N.Ya. Kollie, for example, built a house from Armenian tuff to test the properties of this material before using it in the cladding of the Tsentrosoyuz building on Myasnitskaya Street.

What's here now? Yes, everything is the same. Over the years, the trees have grown taller than houses and hide them with their crown. Someone sold their plot and “dissolved” in a multimillion-dollar city. Others, on the contrary, are in no hurry to part with their native, precious land.

The central square of the village (the same one where Polenova Street breaks at an angle of 45°) is called by local residents Zvezda (or Zvezdochka) - because streets run away from it in five directions. In the early 1990s. a children's playground and an obelisk in memory of those killed in the Great Patriotic War appeared on it. The children's playground - in itself almost a monument of wooden architecture - is always full of children. Adults sit side by side in a carved gazebo and read thoughtfully.

Polenov and Surikov streets run away from Zvezda Square along nice wooden fences.

Now about the cottages themselves. These are log huts with wide overhangs, tower huts (an image of Siberian Cossack fortresses), frame-fill houses, like English cottages, brick houses with attics, similar to German mansions. The photo above is a classic English cottage. Although I saw exactly the same houses in Herrang, Sweden.

In the photo below, the symmetrically located wooden houses on Polenova Street remind those in the know of northern watchtowers. The architects are the Vesnin brothers.

The territorial community, created in 1989, is the self-government body of the Sokol village. The activities are financed through the rental of non-residential premises, deductions from the rent of village residents and sponsorship contributions. Address of the territorial community: Shishkina street, building 1/8 (pictured below). The Sokol Village Museum was opened in 1998 in the same building. The museum contains many old photographs, stories about the residents of the village, as well as a fragment of the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky aircraft. The head of the museum is a native resident of the village, Ekaterina Alekseeva.

One of the streets of the village is named after the outstanding landscape artist Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasov.

The Foreign Language School on Vereshchagina Street fits well into an empty area under the canopy of spreading trees.

The area of ​​the village today is 21 hectares, each individual plot is approximately nine acres. “Sokol” has about a hundred houses on eleven streets and about 500 residents.

There are also apartment buildings in the village. They had to be built after the concept of developing the area with individual residential cottages was criticized in the early 1930s. And in the photo below there is a house with an interesting facade - windowless.

Sergei Sergeevich Tserivitinov, 81 years old, honorary head of the Sokol self-government.

There is still no consensus on where the name “Falcon” came from. According to the most common version, the first Soviet garden city was originally planned to be built in Sokolniki - hence the name. Even an emblem of the partnership appeared: a seal with the image of a falcon holding a house in its paws. But then the plans changed, and land was allocated for the village near the village of Vsekhsvyatskoye on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow. However, they decided not to change the name - they just shortened it.

According to another version, the village is named after the surname of the agronomist and livestock breeder A.I. Falcon, who raised purebred pigs in his yard. Finally, according to the third version, the village received its name from a construction tool - a plaster falcon.

And a little history (in addition to what has already been said).

The Sokol settlement was conceived as part of the urban development plans for Moscow in the 1920s. One of the plans, the author of which was Alexey Shchusev, was called “New Moscow”. On the periphery of the capital, along the Moscow Circular Railway, it was planned to create a number of so-called small centers, conceived as garden cities.
In those years, the idea of ​​garden cities around megacities was extremely popular in the West. According to the concept, garden cities combined the best properties of the city and the countryside. Built up with low houses, they included all the infrastructure necessary for life - libraries, clubs, shops, sports and playgrounds, kindergartens. In Soviet Russia, the Sokol village became the first and only example of bringing this idea to life.

In August 1921, Lenin signed a decree on cooperative housing construction, according to which cooperative associations and individual citizens were granted the rights to develop urban plots. At that time, there was a catastrophic shortage of housing in Moscow, and the authorities did not have money for its construction.
The housing and construction cooperative partnership "Sokol" was founded in March 1923. The partnership included employees of the People's Commissariats, economists, artists, teachers, agronomists, technical intelligentsia and workers. Construction of the village began in the fall of 1923, and was largely completed by the early 1930s. A total of 114 houses were built with all amenities.

Sergey Sergeevich Tserevitinov, war veteran, honorary head of the Sokol village self-government council: Among the residents of Sokol were not only representatives of the successful creative intelligentsia. For example, ordinary workers of the Izolyator plant and the Moskhleb organization—collective shareholders of the cooperative—lived here. The cost of installments for the construction of houses depended on the size of the buildings - even a poor person could afford to live in a small cottage.

Before becoming an architectural monument, “Falcon” was repeatedly wanted to be demolished. For what? Just to build up a tidbit of land with multi-storey buildings. The first conversations about the demolition of Sokol began in the 1950s: “... it’s high time to bulldoze the “chicken coops” of the village,” the district executive committee threatened, intending to demolish 54 of the 119 cottages. Through the efforts of local residents, the village was defended. The Ministry of Culture, the Society for the Protection of Monuments and the Union of Architects opposed its demolition as a single architectural complex. As a result, by a decision of the Moscow City Council on May 25, 1979, the Sokol village was placed under state protection as a monument to urban planning of the first years of Soviet power.

In the late 1980s, in order to earn money to maintain the village, its residents organized the Sokol agency, which brought profit through work performed on a contractual basis. To more effectively resolve territorial issues, territorial public self-government (TPS) was established in the village in 1989.
In 1998, Sokol celebrated its 75th anniversary. The opening of the village museum was timed to coincide with this date. The museum, which is located in the building of the territorial community (Shishkina Street, 1/8), contains many old photographs, stories about local residents, as well as a fragment of the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky aircraft that fell on the village in May 1935.

Sergey Sergeevich Tserevitinov: “Local residents deal with all issues related to the life of the village independently, without interference or assistance from the city authorities. They don’t give us money, but they don’t tell us what to do. We earn our living mainly by renting out non-residential premises.
The village “Sokol” is the only territorial entity in the Northern Administrative District (and possibly in all of Moscow) that is completely self-sufficient financially.”

I hope you enjoyed our trip. And this is not the end... Stay tuned!