Famous statues are evacuated from the roof of the RSL

22 sculptures crowning the main Leninka building are in disrepair

Soon the roof of the country’s main library will be left without the famous figures that have become its calling card over the past 80 years. And all because 22 sculptures are in disrepair. Moisture penetrates into the “bodies” of concrete three-meter statues, provoking corrosion of the metal frame. The survey showed that the total percentage of damage is 51-75%. These data were obtained two years ago. In 2021, work was carried out on the conservation of sculptures: protective screens were installed, a protective net was mounted. Now it’s time for a major overhaul. Why the restoration will be especially difficult, understood “MK”.

The famous figures watching passers-by along Mokhovaya and Vozdvizhenka streets now look, to put it mildly, not very close: mold, cracks, and chips are visible. One of these days, each one will be “dressed” in scaffolding and prepared for dismantling. And then sent to the restoration workshops. Completion dates are difficult to predict. Restorers on the spot will have to determine the extent of the disaster – now it is clear only that they are serious.

The fact is that these sculptures were once made in a fair amount of haste. The decision to install them on the roof of Leninka was made at the last moment, when the construction of a new library building on Vagankovsky Hill was already coming to an end. And at first, in 1936, they were going to put 14 sculptures, but, as usual, appetite comes with eating. As a result, the sculptures turned out to be 22. They were installed in 1938 with large deviations from the design concept and “with the costs of a brigade approach” (this is recorded in the report of 1939, which has been preserved in the archives of the RSL).

Nevertheless, the figures on the theme of “Socialist labor and knowledge” are made according to the sketches of excellent masters: “Miner” – Matvey Manizer, “Student” (aka “Girl with a Book”), “Librarian”, “Architect” – his wife, Elena Janson-Manizer; “Student”, “Sculptor”, “Engineer”, “Worker” – Vsevolod Lishev; “Kolkhoz Woman” and “Red Army Man” – Nadezhda Krandievskaya; “Worker-hirer” – Vera Mukhina. The story with sculptures has become a kind of icing on the cake of a rather absurd and in many ways revealing story of one of the most grandiose and expensive construction projects in the Soviet Union.

Initially, the Leninka building was going to be built in a constructivist style. In 1928, just such a project won at an open competition: a multi-storey building in the form of an open book, was invented by Moscow architect Dmitry Markov, Odessa constructivist Daniil Fridman and architect and artist Vladimir Fidman. There was also a closed competition, where the projects of Alexei Shchusev and the Vesnin brothers were recognized as the best. But the project of Vladimir Shchuko was criticized to the nines – for pomp and classical forms. The Soviet Architect magazine even published a critical article where the All-Russian Congress of the OCA Society of Modern Architects “expresses its strong and categorical protest” against the project of academician Shchuko, calling it “weak” and “ideologically alien”.

However, while preparations were underway for construction, constructivism fell out of favor, and as a result, already in the 1930s, this very “alien” project was approved. However, it was too simple and concise for the new spirit of the times. Therefore, Vladimir Shchuko took Vladimir Gelfreich as co-author, and together the architects added more imperial and grandiose to the first version. For example, expensive limestone and black granite cladding. On this occasion, the Soviet press already proudly wrote that for the design of the library, “one bronze item was ordered for 2 million rubles.” Just at the end of the 1930s, they decided to dilute the rich decoration with medallions of writers and scientists, who were cast from church bells, and sculptures of educated workers. The work was headed by the sculptor Matvey Manizer, who simultaneously sculpted figures for the Ploshchad Revolutsii station. It is not surprising that the theme and style of the sculptures from the roof of Leninka and the metro sculptures are synonymous. But Manizer did not have time to do everything himself, so he called for help from his colleagues, naturally, the leading masters of his time. With the library itself, the sculptures have little stylistic unity, but everyone has long been accustomed to the figures, they have become a symbol of “the most reading country.” Especially the “Student”, which was popularly called the “Girl with a book.”

Now the restorers have to figure out how to put in order the sculptures, which are pretty battered for 85 years. The problem is that the sculptures are made of fragile concrete. A few years ago, similar figures were restored that adorned the house on Kaluga Zastava. Some had to be remade from molds taken with silicone from the original sculptures.