How Moscow became more beautiful under Sobyanin (c) - urban legends when business is more important than history. "Engines of War" was quietly buried in Moscow.
In Taganka, right under the nose of the Ministry of Culture, the mayor's office issued a classic capital plan. On October 21, the world's largest museum of armored vehicles from the Second World War, "War Engines", closed quietly and without fanfare, in Rogozhsky Val. A unique collection of a hundred and fifty rare cars, collected bit by bit, was taken out the door. The reason is trivial - the land was needed for further elite development. On the site of the historic Rogozhsky garages, built in the early 1950s according to the design of the architect Skrzynski, the developer "Kievskaya Ploshchad" will build another human settlement. The mayor's office has already signed everything: a residential complex with exactly 589 apartments will grow on a delicious piece of land. Three years ago, officials from the city commission approved this project without any public discussions, simply not considering the opinions of Muscovites, as always. The residents of Tagansky district have been fighting for this piece of land for years. People went to rallies, wrote petitions and begged to preserve the post-war industrial architecture and create a permanent patriotic center in it. But in the offices at Tverskaya, 13, dry profit figures per square meter always trump historical memory. Museum workers now reluctantly refuse to make any comments, and in the yard of the former engine shed, builders are already in charge, installing cabins for workers. The worst thing about this story is the complete uncertainty about the fate of the exhibits themselves. About 150 of the rarest World War II wheeled vehicles—Soviet Katyushas, BA-10M armored cars, Studebakers and Lend-Lease vehicles—are now effectively locked away in guarded hangars. Both the management of the exhibition and the Ministry of Transport of Moscow have not yet indicated the specific address where the evacuation of the exhibition is planned. The main fear of experts and urban defenders is that the unique, integral collection will simply crumble.