Paul Goble
Staunton, April 29 – In some of Russia’s federal subjects, local sections of the All-Russian Organization for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments are the only rights group still function, and the challenges facing them have grown as Moscow is now set to hand over the defense of such monuments to regional and republic governments.
VOOPIiK, as the Russian acronym for these groups has long been known, often are the first line of defense of such efforts at defending historical and cultural buildings and both in the last decades of Soviet power and now once again are again breeding grounds for ethnic and regionalist movements.
In Soviet times and in Russian ones until now, Moscow has been the exclusive arbiter of such decisions and so historical and cultural preservation efforts have pitted defenders against the central government. But now that is changing, with the Russian government set to transfer authority on such questions to regional and republic governments.
On the one hand, this move may reduce tensions between the capital and people in the federal subjects beyond the ring road; but on the other, it is already increasing clashes between pervationists and the governments of republics and regions, clashes in which powerful business interests are finding it easier to win because local protests don’t attract as much attention.
In April, the Duma passed on first reading a draft law that hands over control of the fate of most historical and cultural buildings and other sites to the governments of the federal subjects (sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/827867-8). The consequences of this, which the preservationists oppose, are discussed at veter.info/posts/MHo0cC2GQIbY, an article that has been reposted at novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/04/29/istoricheskii-tsentr-perestanet-sushchestvovat.
In the 1970s and 1980s, VOOPIiK was strong precisely because it linked groups across the country against a common bureaucracy in Moscow; but by transferring powers to make decisions on historical and cultural preservation to the regions and republics, Moscow is significantly weakening its chances.
While many in the federal subjects want to see more powers handed back to their governments, this is a rare case when activists supporting a cause are taking the opposite tact, convinced with some justification that regional activists will get less attention and support and Moscow’s business allies will be able to get what they want as a result.
If that analysis is correct, the Russian Federation is likely to face a new wave of destruction of historical and cultural monuments and Moscow is likely to succeed in placing the blame on the federal subject authorities, even though the decisions of the latter almost certainly are made inevitable by the arrangements the center has put in place.
(For an earlier example of how such struggles are likely to play out, see among others windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/07/struggle-over-voopiik-in-northern.html and for how such struggles can make preservationist groups breeding grounds of nationalism and regionalism, see https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/02/krayevedeniye-again-becoming-breeding.html.)
