The role of regional branches of VOOPIK in identifying industrial heritage sites in the Sverdlovsk region (1960-1980s).

Lakhtionova Elizaveta Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0002-8414-4540 PhD in History Associate Professor; Postgraduate student; Department of Russian History; Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin 620034, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, Opalikhinskaya str., 16, sq. 109 elza1982@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction.

The security activities of the Soviet state regarding the industrial heritage originated back in the 1960s. It should be noted that the terms "industrial heritage" or "monument of industrial heritage" were not formulated at that time. However, as the results of the research conducted by E. S. Lakhtionova show, based on the analysis of legislative and other normative legal acts, the study of archival sources and scientific literature, objects that can now be attributed to the category of industrial heritage we are studying, existed in the USSR in large numbers, but were called completely differently: historical monument, monument science and technology, monument of labor glory of the Soviet people, monument of industrial architecture ^[17].

From the point of view of E. V. Alekseeva, Doctor of Historical Sciences, the industrial heritage of the Urals is "multicomponent factory and mining complexes (which include industrial buildings, infrastructure, equipment and technologies); hundreds of settlements with typical architecture, which originally arose for mining purposes; enormously transformed natural landscapes with altered water and soil composition; extensive transport networks; characteristic social and administrative structures; a well-developed system for the development and transfer of special (engineering) knowledge; a peculiar mentality of the Urals; a reflection of their identity in everyday life and artistic creativity" ^{[2, p. 23]}.

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. V. Alekseev proposed the following classification of industrial heritage monuments, taking into account the peculiarities of the industrial development of the Urals, where cities, as a rule, arose on the basis of metallurgical production. These are mining monuments, monuments of the raw-raw method of iron production, hydraulic structures, monuments of the two-stage method of iron production, monuments of copper smelting, monuments of architecture and factory life ^{[1, p. 9]}.

A fairly large number of industrial heritage sites were concentrated in the industrial regions of our country, which have a rich industrial history. Of course, the Sverdlovsk region should be mentioned among them, where the activities of public and political actors to preserve the industrial heritage were quite active and effective.

The leading positions of the Sverdlovsk region in this area can be explained by the following reasons. Firstly, the Sverdlovsk Region is considered to be the oldest industrial region in the country, with a rich historical, cultural and industrial heritage. Secondly, there were many objects of the industrial past in the territory of the Sverdlovsk region, which were identified and studied quite early. Since the early 1960s, this was facilitated by the presence in Sverdlovsk of a solid scientific base in the form of institutions such as the Institute of History and Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Ural State University, Ural Polytechnic Institute, Ural a branch of the Moscow Architectural Institute (later the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute).

The purpose of the article is to determine the role played by the regional branches of the All–Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments in identifying industrial heritage sites. The chronological framework of the 1960s and 1980s was not chosen by chance: it was during this period that the movement for the preservation of industrial heritage in our country was born, which is recorded by a number of researchers. ^{[3; 5; 6; 12]}.

The voluntary organization "All–Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments" (hereinafter - VOOPIK) was established in our country in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 882 dated July 23, 1965 ^{[22, p. 154]}. This meant that the general public was involved in monument protection issues. The Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR was responsible for overseeing the activities of this public organization.

The Sverdlovsk regional branch of the VOOPIK was established by order of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee No. 978-r dated August 31, 1965 ^{[26, l. 1]} The structure of the regional branch included city and district branches. As part of the Regional Council of the Sverdlovsk branch of the VOOPIK, by decision of the Presidium of this council, the following sections were created in 1966: 1) propaganda, 2) organizational, 3) monuments of art, literature, folk art, 4) monuments of the history of science and technology, industrial, civil and religious architecture, 5) historical-revolutionary and memorial monuments, 6) mass graves and monuments of military glory, 7) monuments of archeology ^{[29, l. 4]}.

The relevance of the study is determined by the increasing need to strengthen the protection activities not only of government agencies, but also of public organizations in relation to industrial heritage monuments in the country as a whole, and its regions in particular. The process of identifying objects that can later be placed under state protection as monuments and, therefore, are more likely to be preserved for future generations is the first and most important stage of the above-mentioned type of activity.

The importance of the VOOPIK's activities for the identification, study and preservation of historical and cultural monuments has repeatedly become an object of study for researchers. These are the works of Yu. A. Kuznetsova, V. A. Livtsov, S. V. Sokolov ^{[11; 18; 24]}. The contribution of this public organization to the preservation of industrial heritage sites, including in the Sverdlovsk region, has also been the focus of attention of some researchers, for example, E. S. Lakhtionova ^{[14; 16]}. However, as part of the review of the history and activities of the VOOPIK, the authors of the articles very briefly touched upon the degree of participation of this public organization in such an important stage of the preservation of historical and cultural, including industrial, heritage, as the process of identifying objects with a view to their further placement on state protection.

The novelty of the presented scientific problem lies in the fact that so far no one has studied in detail the activities of the regional offices of the VOOPIK in the Sverdlovsk region aimed at identifying industrial heritage sites. And this needs to be done for a holistic assessment of the contribution that this organization has made to the preservation of the category of monuments we are studying. After all, it was the search activity that was the first and important stage, without which security activities in general could not do.

The practical value of this research lies in the fact that its results will help draw public attention to the problem of participation of all actors, including public organizations, in the preservation of industrial heritage sites. Until recently, the regional office of the VOOPIK in Yekaterinburg showed insufficient initiative in this direction, which led to the loss of a number of historical and cultural monuments. We hope that the situation will change, given the active role of this organization in the preservation of monuments during the Soviet period.

Materials.

For this study, archival materials were used, stored in the Documentation Center of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk region and the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk region. The following categories of sources should be distinguished among them.

1. Office documentation: decisions and orders of executive committees, city and regional committees of the CPSU, Councils of regional branches of the VOOPIK, business correspondence, planning, reporting, reference and protocol documentation. These materials contain information about the specific tasks that were to be performed by the VOOPIC units, as well as the results of their activities.

2. A group of reference and statistical materials: lists of historical monuments, monuments of industrial architecture, monuments of science and technology that were identified in a particular city, district, village or settlement of the Sverdlovsk region with the participation of the VOOPIK. These sources contain important information about the history of the identified object and the degree of its preservation.

In addition, published sources were also examined for this study.

1. Policy decisions of the CPSU, legislative and other normative legal acts concerning the protection of historical and cultural monuments. These documents make it possible to identify the directions of state policy in the cultural sphere, which determined the activities not only of state authorities, but also of public organizations and individual citizens.

2. The document "Comprehensive program for the identification, certification, registration, restoration, museification, promotion and use of historical and cultural monuments of the Sverdlovsk region for the period up to 2000", based on the materials from which an analysis was made of exactly how many identified industrial heritage sites were placed under state protection before 1990.

3. The regional periodical press, which contains additional information on the ways in which industrial heritage sites were identified locally.

These sources allowed the author to fully study the problem and achieve his goal.

Regulatory and legal support for the identification of industrial heritage sites.

It should be noted that during the Soviet period, activities to identify objects, structures, works of art, etc. were part of the primary accounting, after which the object was to be placed under state protection as a monument. This was spelled out in the "Instructions on the procedure for accounting, registration, maintenance and restoration of architectural monuments under state protection" (1949) ^{[21, pp. 95-96]}. According to the "Instructions on the procedure for accounting, preservation, maintenance, use and restoration of immovable historical and cultural monuments" (1986). Identification was the first stage of the state registration of historical and cultural monuments ^{[8, pp. 6-7]}. Thus, the work on identifying historical and cultural objects, including industrial heritage, was part of the state policy. This is confirmed by numerous policy decisions of the CPSU and government agencies.

Of great importance for the search work in relation to industrial heritage sites was the development of the local history movement, initiated by the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU dated May 12, 1964 "On increasing the role of museums in the communist education of workers," which proposed "to develop the movement of local historians, to involve workers in the collection of historical relics of our people, materials on the history of factories, factories, collective farms." and state farms" ^{[9, p. 416]}. This installation contributed to the rapid development of the local history movement throughout the country, which was of considerable importance for the identification, study and preservation of industrial heritage sites.

Among other normative legal acts, it is necessary to mention the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 1327 of August 30, 1960 "On further improvement of the protection of cultural monuments in the RSFSR" ^{[22, pp. 147-149]}. In it, a number of state bodies (the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, Councils of Ministers of Autonomous Republics, regional executive committees, and regional executive committees) were appointed responsible for identifying and recording new cultural monuments to be protected ^{[22, p. 149]}. The recommendation to continue work on identifying new monuments was contained in Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 473 of May 24, 1966 "On the condition and measures to improve historical and cultural monuments in the RSFSR" ^{[22, pp. 150-152]}. In order to provide methodological assistance in this work, the State Inspectorate has developed special instructions and practical recommendations for the selection of monuments.

The Law of the RSFSR "On the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments" of December 15, 1978 stipulated that various kinds of public organizations and citizens, among other things, should assist in the implementation of measures to identify historical and cultural monuments (art. 12) ^{[7, p. 376]}.

In the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 54 dated December 25, 1980 "On measures to improve the protection, restoration and use of historical and Cultural monuments in the light of the USSR Law and the RSFSR Law on the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments" ^{[23, pp. 333-340]}, the Councils of Ministers of the Autonomous Republics, regional executive committees, regional executive committees, together with the VOOPIK, were instructed constantly identify monuments in order to register them and then preserve them. Great importance in this case was attached to the VOOPIK and other public organizations, because it was through them that effective influence was exerted on the general public in order to involve them.

The results of the activities of the regional offices of the VOOPIK on the identification of industrial heritage sites

According to the "Instructions on the procedure for accounting, registration, maintenance and restoration of architectural monuments under state protection" (1949), the process of identifying objects of historical and cultural heritage could consist of several areas of activity: the study of archival materials, literary sources, photographs, drawings, drawings that contain a description of the territory; a survey of scientists, staff of local history museums, teachers, individual citizens involved in history, architecture, art; organization of "exploration detours" in the area ^{[21, p. 95]}.

Prior to 1965, search activities to identify historical and cultural objects, including industrial heritage, were practically not carried out by representatives of the state authorities of the Sverdlovsk region, as they did not have sufficient human and financial resources for this. Work in this direction intensified only after the creation of the public voluntary organization VOOPIK in the RSFSR ^{[21, pp. 144-149]}, when the general public is involved in the preservation of historical and cultural heritage. In the Charter of the VOOPIK, among the main tasks was the mandatory participation of members of the society in the identification of historical and cultural monuments ^{[22, p. 155]}.

Since that time, the work on identifying industrial heritage sites has intensified, especially after the establishment of branches of the VOOPIC throughout the regions.: In the Sverdlovsk region, the regional branch was established by order of the regional Executive Committee No. 978-r dated August 31, 1965 ^{[26, l. 1]}.

Of great importance in the preservation of industrial heritage monuments was the formation of sections of monuments of science and technology at the regional offices of the VOOPIK, which begins in most regions since the second half of the 1970s ^{[4, p. 37]}. The regulations on these sections were approved by the Presidium of the Central Council of the VOOPIK on July 3, 1979 ^{[20, l. 1-2]} At the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the VOOPIK, such a section called the "Section of Monuments of the History of Science and Technology, industrial, Civil and religious Architecture" was established back in 1966 ^{[29, l. 4]}.

In the Sverdlovsk region, there were enough examples when, in the 1960s and 1980s, the identification of industrial heritage sites took place with the active participation of members of the local branches of the VOOPIK (see Table).

Table

List of industrial heritage sites identified by regional offices of the VOOPIC of the Sverdlovsk region*

*The table was compiled by the author according to: ^{[27, l. 1-3, 47; 28, l. 22; 31, l. 20, 30; 32, l. 17, 51-52; 33, l. 60-61; 34, l. 4-5; 35, l. 23-24; 36, l. 17; 37, l. 25-27; 38, L. 61; 39, L. 26; 40, L. 8-9; 41, L. 1; 43, L. 7-9; 44, L. 1-2; 45, L. 15-21, 39-42; 46, L. 61; 47, L. 25ob, 27 vol.]}.

** Here and further, the names of the plants are given according to: ^[19].

Judging by the table, among the listed objects you can see the oldest factories in the Middle Urals: Verkhnesaldinsky Metallurgical, Verkhnesinyachikhinsky metallurgical, Kamensky iron-smelting and iron-making, etc. There are also facilities that were created during the Soviet era: Verkhneivinsky Secondary Non-ferrous Metals Plant, Nizhneturinsky Electrical Equipment Plant, etc.

As we can see, massive and purposeful work on the identification of industrial heritage sites began in the second half of the 1960s and continued in the 1970s and 1980s. However, it should be noted that in some cases, the identification of industrial heritage sites in the Sverdlovsk region occurred even before the formation of the VOOPIC. This was the case with the blast furnace of the Seversky Pipe Plant (Polevskoy) ^{[28, l. 37]}, buildings and structures of the former Monetka ironworks (Sverdlovsk) ^{[30, l. 1-3]}, the retaining wall of the dam on the Olkhovka River, the Inclined Tower and the blast furnace and foundry workshops of the Nevyansky Mechanical Plant, the buildings of the main administration, laboratories and technical library at the Demidovsky plants (Nizhny Tagil), the administration building of the Kamensky Iron Foundry ^{[25, l. 10-11]}.

There were also facts of the discovery of objects that were committed by members of the local branches of the VOOPIK accidentally. So, the executive secretary of the Sysert branch, F. F. Vasiliev, a local historian, studying the literature on the history of the Sysert factories, found a photograph of a longitudinal planing machine that could still be preserved on the territory of one of the factories. After conducting a full-scale survey of the production, the local historian discovered this particular machine, which was 130 years old. After that, a commemorative plaque was placed on this registered piece of equipment ^{[12, p. 3]}.

Activities to identify monuments of the industrial past, as a rule, were accompanied by their study in order to determine the degree of their value and preservation. This happened at the request of the regional committees of the CPSU, executive committees and branches of the VOOPIK. Specialists of various profiles (historians, physicists, architects, engineers) were involved in the research. For example, Sverdlovsk architect Yu. A. Vladimirsky, on instructions from the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee and the regional council of the VOOPIK conducted a series of field surveys of the oldest factories in the Middle Urals.: Artinsky Mechanical Plant (1971) ^{[41, l. 1-10]}, blast furnace No. 1 of the Nizhnesaldinsky Metallurgical Plant (1984) ^{[38, l. 63-67]} and other facilities. Also, since 1969, student expeditions have been regularly conducted by Ural State University and the Ural Branch of the Moscow Architectural Institute in order to "identify, scientifically describe, measure, photograph, sketch, and make plans for monuments" ^{[42, p. 10]}.

The collection of information in local archives and libraries was also carried out with the participation of members of the VOOPIK, who sometimes witnessed the destructive processes taking place at industrial heritage sites. They prepared certificates at the request of state authorities or VOOPIC, on the basis of which, among other things, the preparation of documents for the establishment of the facility on the state register took place. For example, this is the "Historical information about the Anna Ioannovna Sysert Iron Foundry and Ironworks", prepared for the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the VOOPIK by a local historian, a member of the council of the Sysert National Museum, a member of the Council of the Sverdlovsk Museum of Local Lore V. M. Kolegov ^{[44, L. 1-2]}.

As a result of activities aimed at identifying objects of industrial heritage, more than 40 units were discovered, of which 37 objects were registered by 1989 ^{[10, pp. 39-125]}. Of these, as many as 18 industrial heritage sites were registered as monuments of national significance.

Conclusion.

The activity of identifying potential monuments was the very first and quite important stage in the procedure of their registration with the state. This is evidenced by a number of policy decisions of the CPSU and government authorities, regulatory documents, as well as instructions. The intensification of this type of security activity occurred in the second half of the 1960s, in connection with the creation in the RSFSR of the public organization "All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments" and its regional branches. This meant that the general public was involved in the process of identifying future monuments, which somewhat simplified and significantly accelerated this stage of conservation activities.

In the 1960s and 1980s, intensive activities were carried out in the Sverdlovsk region to identify objects that can now be attributed to the industrial heritage. Regional and local branches of the VOOPIC made a great contribution to this plan, as their representatives were residents of cities, districts, villages and towns, sometimes very well informed about the industrial past facilities in their territory. All this helped speed up the process of discovering and studying future monuments.

Within the framework of the currently almost completed dissertation research "Activities of decision-making bodies and public organizations for the preservation of industrial heritage in the country and in the Urals in the 1960s and 1990s." the author of the article can confidently note that the activities of the regional offices of the VOOPIK of the Sverdlovsk region were very effective, compared with the regional offices of the VOOPIK in neighboring regions of the Urals. This is evidenced by the results of this study.

Thus, over the period from the second half of the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, local offices of the VOOPIK identified more than 40 industrial heritage sites in the Sverdlovsk Region. These are factory workshops, individual production facilities, dams, water towers, elements of transport infrastructure, plant management. By 1989, 37 of them were placed under state protection as monuments, and 18 as monuments of national significance ^{[15, p. 28]}.

Looking ahead, it should be noted that 3 industrial heritage sites in the Sverdlovsk Region had been renovated and fully museumized by 1991: the buildings and structures of the Yekaterinburg Monetka Ironworks (Sverdlovsk), the Seversk Blast Furnace (Polevskoy), the Nevyanskaya Inclined Tower and the structures of the old Nevyansky Plant (Nevyansk). Another 8 objects of the Sverdlovsk region were at the stage of partial museification.