A profitable place in Salaryevo: why a temple is being built on the site of the forest

Another scandal erupted in New Moscow in the residential complex "Salaryevo". They decided to build a temple on the site of the forest. Local residents turned to the Metropolitan of All Rus' Kirill and to Novye Izvestia.

Irina Mishina

The history of the Ulyanovsk forest near the residential complex "Salaryevo" is simple and tragic. For the construction of the temple complex, the city commission for urban planning, land use and development under the Moscow government allocated a land plot from the Ulyanovsk forest park. To legalize tree felling, the site was deprived of the status of a specially protected green area. Healthy trees, which are about 30 years old, are planned to be cut down. More than 80% of the site is filled with dense birch forest. Local residents rose to protect the forest by recording a video message.

Why does the mayor secretly take the subway to church services?

The campaign to build up churches in Moscow within walking distance began under Luzhkov. At first, the program was called "100 Temples". The baton was picked up by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyani. He went one step further than his predecessor by renaming the program 200 Temples. The Moscow mayor’s motivation was reinforced concrete: “ Due to historical reasons, the operating churches are located in the city center ,” Sergei Sobyanin said. “ Go down the subway on Sunday morning, and you will definitely see people with Orthodox prayer books in their hands who are forced to get up at dawn to get to the temple .

When exactly Sergei Sobyanin last descended into the Moscow subway on Sunday morning remained a mystery. You can, of course, assume that the mayor goes to the temple in the morning by public transport. But in this case, his guards should block at least the entire metro line to the delight of believers. However, his press service is mysteriously silent about this.

And according to Sobyanin, the mayor’s office only “helps with paperwork” (for land plots that the prefectures select together with the Moscow Architecture Committee) and holding public hearings “on the feasibility of building churches” when choosing sites for construction. In fact, there is a casuistic scheme behind this, the cunning of which can be fully seen on the example of the Ulyanovsk forest site.

Temple founded on conflict

The houses of the residential complex "Salaryevo" (the developer - PIK, as you guessed correctly) closed in a "fatal triangle": on the one hand, a cemetery, on the other, a waste landfill and a roadway. And only in the middle - a saving green island of the Ulyanovsk forest, for the sake of which, in fact, many people bought apartments in this strange place. But the apartments have been bought, the money has been paid, and now the developers have a free hand. Now they want to liquidate this green island. The site was allocated from the Ulyanovsk forest at the request of the Russian Orthodox Church. Formally, it belongs to the Moskovskoye settlement and is surrounded by residential buildings. This is the only green area in the area. The district administration gave a negative answer to all requests, appeals and proposals to build a temple in another place.

“This forest belt is important for the residents of the region, for our children. Near the residential complex there is a solid waste warehouse, on the other side there is a cemetery, wide and filled roads. Every day we walk through this forest, our children walk in it,” says local resident Darya Balabanova.

“This area is covered with birch forest. In spring, the groundwater level rises, and the risk of turning the site into a swamp increases. We proposed to consider an alternative site for the construction of the temple in order to preserve this green area and not disturb the ecological balance. Temple is needed. But let's look at an alternative. There are options, for example, areas with dead wood in the Ulyanovsk Forest Park,” said local resident Alexander Alekseev.

But for some unknown reason, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Committee for Architecture came up against this particular forest area, which until some time was a section of a Specially Protected Natural Territory. However, by order of the town-planning and land commission dated September 28, 2021, this forest area was hastily removed by the Moscow City Property Department from the protected green areas of Moscow. And the public hearings, also hastily convened, by a strange accident brought together residents from another microdistrict, who had absolutely nothing to do with this forest and who are indifferent to its fate. “During the public hearings on the choice of a site, residents of houses directly adjacent to the building plot of the Russian Orthodox Church were not allowed, their vote was not taken into account,” said Dmitry Morozov, an environmentalist and representative of the Green Civilization resource center.

The Council of Municipal Deputies immediately and unanimously supported the fact of building up a forest site with a temple complex, and the Moscow Architecture Committee, together with the Russian Orthodox Church, launched the project development process.

A shop called "temple"

In connection with this story, it is very interesting to turn to the Position of the Russian Orthodox Church on topical environmental problems. Among other lofty principles, they declare: “ Guided by the commandment of God to preserve the created world and taking care of the spiritual and physical health of man, the Russian Orthodox Church considers it its duty to continue to participate in the discussion of environmental issues, and also to work in this field in cooperation with all who are concerned about the state of the environment, thinking about maintaining the health and normal life of people .” At the same time, taking away the last green island from the residents of the Salaryevo residential complex, the Russian Orthodox Church does not want to give up what is so necessary to maintain the health and normal life of quite specific people.

Or here's another: “The real alternative to consumerism is the Christian way of life. Orthodoxy teaches to educate people in moderation and abstinence in meeting the needs of life, responsibility for one's actions…respect for the needs of other people .” But apparently, when it comes to a tidbit of Moscow land, some other principles begin to work for the Orthodox Church.

We foresee that now the voice of believers will rise that their feelings have been offended and, in general, we must say thank you that they are building not a shopping center or residential complex, but a temple, and other denominations are actively building mosques and synagogues in Moscow ... But let's see if they are so clean the thoughts of those who, under the guise of defending Orthodoxy, cheer for building up Moscow with churches. First of all, each temple is a brisk outlet where they sell not only notes “On health”, “On repose” and other prayers, but also candles, the cheapest of which costs 30 rubles. Each temple is also an obligatory trade in jewelry, church souvenirs, and recently it has become fashionable to open cafes and other establishments selling food in temples in order to "strengthen the spirit of believers." And all this is profit.

It is not superfluous to recall also that initially for the program "200 Temples" the Fund for Supporting the Construction of Moscow Temples was formed, which concludes agreements with philanthropists and transfers money. There are well-known people in this fund. For example, among the members of the board of the fund were German Gref (Sberbank), Vladimir Potanin (Interros), Alexey Miller (Gazprom). Directly a business club of some kind of oligarchs, and not the Orthodox community. It begs the idea that the story of 200 temples has some kind of far from indirect relation to business, and to a large one.

Again, if we look at the list of partners in the program for the construction of Orthodox churches, we will see VTB Bank, Sberbank, Gazprom, as well as developers - PIK and the Mosproekt-3 group of companies. And this cannot but suggest the desire for the financial development of plots of tasty and expensive Moscow land under the pretext of zeal for Orthodoxy. “There are suspicions that the Orthodox church complex being designed on the site of the forest will be used as a legal battering ram. Its construction is used to further build up this vending site, for example, with houses. The developer rarely stops at one temple, meaning the complete and complete development of the land, ”said Dmitry Morozov, an ecologist and representative of the Green Civilization resource center, to NI.

What awaits the Ulyanovsk forest?

“Obviously, you can find another place. Moreover, people want to save this forest. In this regard, the construction of a shopping center or a church does not matter much. In Yekaterinburg, not so long ago, they wanted to build a temple on the site of the square. The people said no, let it be somewhere else. The square is historical, we want it to stay. Why can’t a temple be built here, not on the site of a forest, but somewhere else?”, Vladimir Morozov, chairman of the public council under the Federal Forestry Agency, a member of the advisory council of the OPRF on environmental well-being, believes.

As for the goals of Orthodoxy - to reconcile people, the construction of the temple has already violated this postulate. Instead of reconciliation, it created a conflict in Salaryevo, which is growing every day.