Moscow Compiles Digital Catalogue of Russian Heritage Monuments at Risk of Collapse in Hopes Private Sector will Rescue Them

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 3 – The Moscow State Institute for the Study of Art has prepared, on the basis of a presidential grant, digital catalogue of more than 150 heritage monuments including churches and historic sites that are decaying and at risk of collapse in the hopes that people from the private sector will contribute to their salvation.

            Most of the buildings in question are from villages in the Central, North-West and Volga federal districts who lack the resources needed to prevent these sites from being lost for all time. (The catalogue, available at https://archconservation.ru/objects, is discussed at nazaccent.ru/content/45206-v-rossii-zapustili-katalog-obektov-naslediya/.)

            As the catalogue grows and becomes widely known, it may trigger restorationist efforts in various parts of the country, ethnic Russian and now, that, along with ecological protests, have led in the past to the rise of concern about what is being lost and thus to activism that serves as the basis for the emergence or growth of nationalist and regionalist groups.

            That is all the more likely because in announcing the compilation of this list, the specialists have made it clear that the government isn’t prepared to contribute much money to rescue these decaying sites and that it is counting on people and groups in the private sector to shoulder this burden alone.