Under the siege: how billionaire Yevtushenkov deprives the family of the pilot Chkalov of the patrimonial nest

For 80 years it was a family home for the whole family - now the Chkalovs are fighting to preserve it.

Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil

Olga Valerievna Chkalova, the youngest daughter of Valery Chkalov, was born after the death of her father. Her main home for all her life was a dacha in Serebryany Bor. She was brought here from the hospital in the summer of 1939. They returned here from evacuation in Omsk in 1943. Here, in order to feed themselves, they planted potatoes, kept a cow. During the war, a part of the Taman division was stationed on the site, which dug a ditch. Grandmother Marivanna, returning with everyone, diligently slept him, repeating that when she completely slept him, the war would end.

"The house is wooden, two-story. Upstairs there are two rooms, downstairs one large room, one medium and two small ones and a terrace. The heating was stove, the hot water boiler was also fired with wood. Only after the war did the heating become electric, and bottled gas was already used for the stove. During the evacuation in Omsk, our nanny Marusya came to us when I was 2 years old. She lived her whole life with us and died in the arms of my sister. In 43, we and the younger children of my mother's sisters - all year round lived here, in the country. The older children went to school, and they all lived in the same apartment in Moscow. Here they planted potatoes, we had a cellar. After the war, in the summer, the whole family gathered here, my mother's relatives from Leningrad, my father's relatives came. Mom took care of all these kids", - says Olga Valerievna.

Olga Erazmovna Chkalova (Orekhova), a graduate of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad, was not just the wife of Valery Chkalov, the hero and idol of all Soviet boys, but also a Soviet public figure. In 1941 Olga Erazmovna joined the anti-fascist committee of Soviet women. Having sent her three children and nephews to evacuation, she took care of the fate of military orphans throughout the country. After the war, she raised the children of her Leningrad relatives. In 1943, 18 people lived at a dacha in Serebryany Bor.

Chkalov's children and grandchildren never rested on the laurels of their famous father and grandfather. All three children defended their dissertations. Lera, in the footsteps of her mother, who wrote books about Valery Pavlovich, later became a writer as well. Chkalov's granddaughter Maria is a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, director of a huge research institute, a world-renowned biologist. They all consider Serebryany Bor to be their homeland.

Dachas in Serebryany Bor in Soviet times belonged to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the neighbors were important people, but everyone lived very modestly, with a minimum of amenities. Not far from the dacha there was a rest house of the Bolshoi Theater, and Olga Valerievna several times saw the legend of Russian ballet, Galina Sergeevna Ulanova, walking.

All dachas were state-owned. When Soviet power ended in 1991, all of them remained under the jurisdiction of Mosdachtrest. After the start of the transfer of state property to a private one, Mosdachtrest was privatized - together with the dachas and without taking into account the interests of the residents. In the early 90s, it was possible to privatize both apartments and plots, but the Chkalovs were denied privatization twice - a plot of almost 2 hectares in the very center of Serebryany Bor was too tasty.

"There were precedents of privatization. But there were other areas. Ours was one of the biggest. And it is located in the very center, at the highest point of Serebryany Bor, in the forest. The most "trump card", - says Igor Chkalov, the grandson of Chkalov's son, the same boy Igor, who met his father after his flight to North America via the North Pole.

This was the main reason for all the ordeals of the Chkalov family. Mosdachtrest categorically refused to give them the right to privatization. Instead, in 1993, ignoring all regulations and laws and the rights of residents, the new owners privatized 176 plots and buildings on them, including the Chkalovs' dacha.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the future dollar billionaire, and at that time the chairman of the committee on science and technology and close to the then head of the Moscow City Executive Committee Yuri Luzhkov, became a co-owner of Mosdachtrest. After his sister-in-law married the mayor of Luzhkov, Yevtushenkov's position in the Moscow table of ranks was greatly strengthened.

In Serebryany Bor, a construction site began to boil. Less than a year later, the "legal owner" and his partner, the Pergamon-Moscow firm, headed by director Igor Rubiner, later infamous for the ruin of Arkhangelskoye, dismantled the 73-meter fence of the Chkalovs' dacha and seized a piece of the site for construction. In place of several plots and glades, they are erecting two apartment buildings and 9 detached cottages. The activity of the owners of Serebryany Bor does not end there - having received a tidbit of Moscow land in their hands, they were not going to stop and turned every hundred square meters of Bor into big money.

In 2006, Rubiner needed another piece of Chkalov land, and he, no doubt, fences it and builds a gatehouse for the guards. The family appeals to the deputy of the State Duma, General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union and participant of the Great Patriotic War Valentin Varennikov - protect! Varennikov writes to Mayor Luzhkov and receives a resolution "To sort out the issue and transfer to the family in the mode of ownership". But this did not help - its own Department of Land Resources replies that ownership of the dacha belongs to Mosdachtrest, and the house is in a state of disrepair. Like, the house is bad, why do they need it?!

"But at that moment the house was overhauled by our family for our money. When the answer comes that the house is dilapidated, and the family is offered to move to another dacha, Varennikov writes a second appeal, in which he says that he was at the dacha, and it is in good condition, and unknown people are erecting a new building on the territory", says Igor...

The explanations of the authorities are from the evil one. Until 2012, the land under the dachas belonged to the city. Mosdachtrest did not even have the right to dispose of it. But who will argue with the sister of the mayor's wife, who has existed since 2010, and her billionaire husband? By 2012, Yevtushenkov owns almost 80% of Mosdachtrest. He buys land from Moscow for 20% of the cadastral value and takes the remaining 20% of the company's shares from the mayor's office. Modern Lopakhin - Mr. Yevtushenkov - can now also say: "The cherry orchard is now mine".

"82 years have passed within these walls. And it so happened that they sold the house together with the tenants. Nobody informed anyone! And when two bullies came from this LLC, they only came to inform us, without showing any document. The behavior of this company is simply a raider takeover. Knowing that people live here all the time, that all utilities are paid, how could they, knowing this, sell a house with people?!", - Chkalov's daughter Olga still cannot understand.

In 2011, "Mosdachtrest" went to the world - in exchange for the family's refusal from the 1938 decree. Only the owners of Serebryany Bor offered options not for ownership, but for use. Olga Valerievna says:

"I received two offers from this company. True, I threw it all out... On some reservoir I was given a house for use. What kind of use it is, of course, it is not said. Since I did not answer, an offer was received for a house on Rublevka, also for use. I didn’t answer that either".

Here, in Serebryany Bor, despite all these attempts to push them out of here, is the house of the Chkalov family.

"Nobody offered us to buy out our dacha. Long ago, when Igor and Lera (the children of Valery Chkalov) were alive, we were asked what we want for this dacha in return? Maybe there are apartments in Moscow or something else? They cited as an example the family of the pilot Lyapidevsky, Hero of the Soviet Union, who saved the Chelyuskinites. But my brother and sister categorically did not want to leave, because they believed that this was our native nest, that 5 generations of our children and grandchildren grew up there. Over time, they (Mosdachtrest - editor's note) sold pieces of our site, now there is only a very small piece of land left".

Several times the family sued and lost. In 2020, in order to get rid of the Chkalov family, Mosdachtrest sold a house and a plot of land to the newly created Bon Investments JSC. The climax of the confrontation between the Chkalovs and the Yevtushenkovs came. Bon Investments announced that they are going to build an eco-village on the territory of the Chkalovskaya dacha. On the site in front of the garage, a building shed was installed, completely ignoring all existing sanitary and epidemiological standards.

"Today we live in a state of siege. Not only taxis, but also family cars are not allowed to the house. The locks on the gates have been replaced, the family has no keys. On the territory a few meters from the house where the family lives, a construction shed is installed, which blocks the use of outbuildings - a garage. The change house was equipped with 11 video cameras aimed at all windows, balconies and doors of the house. The family is under surveillance around the clock. We went to the police, but they saw no reason to initiate a case”, - says Igor Chkalov.

"If we talk about the emotional part of this story, it was our nest, where our relatives met, and our childhood, adolescence, and my student years are associated with this place. Lera (the eldest daughter of Valery Chkalov) died at this dacha, because all the last time they lived here, Rem, her husband, he is 90 years old. He is not in the know, they hide everything from him, the children and grandchildren do not tell him anything".

The Moscow authorities ignore the fact that the dacha for the Chkalov family was allocated by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, that is, the government, and it is indefinite. Neither the mayor's office, nor even more so JSC Bon Investments or Mosdachtrest have the right to cancel it. Either Prime Minister Mishustin, or Russian President Putin, and not Yevtushenkov or people and companies affiliated with him, can deprive the Chkalovs' dachas.

After 80 years, the memory of Valery Chkalov and gratitude to his family ended for the authorities and owners of Serebryany Bor. Now they, the bearers of his surname, are no one, and Yevtushenkov and Rubiner do not owe Chkalov anything. They are now the masters of life, millionaires and billionaires, they can buy everything - land, fame, the future. Russian history comes to mind again. In 1917, the Russian nobles - the descendants of the Sheremetyevs, Bagrationov, Golitsyn - were rightfully taken away from the powerful. Eighty years have passed, and now new rulers, fans of the golden calf, are being taken away from the descendants of the heroes of the revolution and the pride of Soviet Russia. As then - according to the law they themselves wrote. Is it worth repeating that even on the current ones there will be even more “rightists” and will do what they do with others? Or maybe it is worth breaking the vicious circle? What do you think, dear members of the Russian Historical Society?