Before Alla Yuryevna had time to return from the capital to the place of director of the Russian Museum, as from a place in career rushed into battle, into litigation. What is now waiting for the museum and the cultural monuments under its jurisdiction.
Palace Arbitration
Today, the State Russian Museum entrusted to Alla Manilova has two big problems. They are called judgments. Not so long ago, KGIOP went to the Arbitration Court with a lawsuit against the Russian Museum. As it turned out, the museum was supposed to repair and restore the Stroganov Palace.
According to the extract from the USRN dated March 1, 2022 No. 99/2022/452390434, the palace, owned by the Russian Federation, was transferred to the museum on the right of operational management. The manager is generally obliged to engage in repairs, restorations and perform all other actions on the basis of an approved security obligation. The city administration went to court because “the work to preserve the object was not completed within the time limits established by the security obligation.” To put it simply, the restoration was supposed to take place before April 2022. But it didn’t pass.
The situation has become unpleasant. Smolny poked his finger at the palace inspection reports. The court nodded in understanding. It turned out this: from the act No. 01-33-127 / 22-0-0 dated 06.07.2022 submitted by KGIOP, it followed that as of the indicated date “the object is kept in an improper condition”.
In addition, the museum did not provide any evidence that could refute the deplorable situation. As a result, the court satisfied the claim of Smolny and now all work must be completed in the next 90 months. If this does not happen, a monthly fine will be imposed on the museum, which will increase if the institution does not fulfill its obligations. I must say that the court decision was a compromise, because Smolny demanded that the work be completed in 24 months (2 years).
The new general director immediately got involved in the situation and resolutely stated that the security obligation was drawn up with incorrect wording. Alla Yurievna energetically refers to the following circumstances:
- the museum received the Stroganov Palace in an unsatisfactory condition;
- since 1990, the museum has been overhauling, reconstructing and restoring the object, but the palace continues to work;
- money was not allocated entirely for the restoration, only the restoration of individual parts is financed;
- in 2020, an estimate was approved for the restoration of the front facades of the palace, but the money was not allocated due to the covid pandemic.
The second part of the Merleson ballet
In general, you will not envy Alla Yuryevna, because other judicial sanctions hang over the Russian Museum, like the ghosts of the Engineering Castle. The same Arbitration Court, in April, made a similar decision, it concerned the Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle. The cultural heritage site has been gradually restored since the 1990s. An important stage was completed two years ago, when the chambers, ceremonial and throne rooms in the southeastern part of the castle were restored.
In 2021, the director of the Russian Museum, Vladimir Gusev, stated that the restoration of the castle was 80% completed. In February of this year, Vladimir Gusev resigned, and in April KGIOP announced that he was dissatisfied and filed claims in court.
In theory, the restoration of the main interiors of the castle should be completed in 2024, but now the city wants all facades to be repaired as well.
In museum circles, the situation is skeptical. Not because Alla Manilova does not have the opportunity to extort the necessary funds from the state. Just with this all the way. After all, today Manilova is, in fact, the most powerful person in the Ministry of Culture. The fact is that the famous deputy Valentina Matvienko for culture, press and ideology is strongly disliked in her native city.
The fact is that Alla Yuryevna raised the development of budgets to a new level. Not to say that Manilova did not know her business. St. Petersburg still remembers the bright colors that sparkled the city holidays, which they rolled up together with their colleague Marina Fokina. Fokina headed a structure called the International Center for Festivals and Celebrations, and Manilova was responsible for distributing appropriate subsidies from the city budget. Witnesses of those chic celebrations joke gloomily: “The city could spend half a million rubles on one rug.” But for the repair of the ever-breaking heating networks, there was a painful lack of money.
Velvet maids of honor of Valentina Ivanovna
In 2003, when Valentina Matvienko took over as governor of St. Petersburg, many experts predicted an increase in the role of women in city politics. But they didn’t even realize how much. The corridors of Smolny were emancipated so much that the “velvet maids of honor,” as they were also called, Fokina and Manilova, over time, began to actively pull the blanket over themselves, using the full confidence of their leader. In the complex administrative air, such expressions as “pull” and “strings” even appeared. Alla Yuryevna’s career took off rapidly in front of the astonished political elite of the Northern capital.
In 2009, a real massacre for budgets took place in Smolny, the struggle for power and access to the treasury intensified. At that time, the conflict took on curious forms. By an unfortunate coincidence, then Manilov was ganged up … exclusively by men. 2009 is a crisis year. All budgets were cut, except for the festival center mentioned above. Everyone remembered Manilova. That during the crisis, 2 million euros were spent on City Day, a grandiose redistribution of the advertising market, from which a mile away smelled of nepotism, and of course Scarlet Sails. For those who are not in the know, it was Alla Yuryevna who came up with this holiday, with Marina Fokina devoted to her. Petersburgers, from the very beginning, uterine disliked this celebration. Crowds of drunken graduates, pissed front doors in the city center, mountains of bottles, garbage and broken glass, wallowing in the bushes in a low social position, drunk yesterday’s schoolgirls … in a word, sodom and pogrom. Petersburg in the morning after Scarlet Sails, this is the annual day of sarcasm and embarrassing pictures for local residents.
But back to museums. Today it is already known that Mrs. Manilova came to her native city in order to raise the cultural institutions of the city to a new level. In museum circles, from this, they are already trembling nervously. Because no one knows where will go museum budgets. There is no doubt that they will be singled out. After all, everything around needs restoration. But the further fate of the budgets may be different. It is no coincidence that in 2016, the Business News Agency conducted its own investigation and stated that the ex-vice-governor of St. them to firms.
What bizarre zigzags will the museum life of St. Petersburg go on? We will know about this soon.
