A typewritten letter with autographs of cultural figures to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Ustinov D.F.

A typewritten letter with autographs of cultural figures to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Ustinov D.F. on the preservation of the Moscow house in which Sergei Rachmaninov lived.

Among the signatories: A.G. Novikov, L.V. Afanasyev, T.A. Mavrina, N.V. Kuzmin, S.S. Tulikov, Yu.V. Yakovlev, D.A. Shmarinov, N.M. Romadin, I.K. Skobtseva, S.F. Bondarchuk, S.A. Gerasimov.

The letter of cultural figures to Ustinov was the last attempt to preserve the historical buildings of the so-called Fast house or Rachmaninov House (11 Vozdvizhenka Street). The composer lived in the house with furnished rooms "America" in 1893-1894 and 1902-1905. It is curious that the plot of land on which the Fast house was located belonged in the early XIX century to Prince N.S. Volkonsky, the grandfather of L.N. Tolstoy.

The house was demolished in 1984 for the construction of a large-scale building of the Ministry of Defense, despite numerous appeals from writers, composers and artists of the USSR. The writer Y.M. Nagibin called the demolition of Rachmaninov's house a crime.

The text of the document:
"TO THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE OF THE USSR, A MEMBER OF THE POLITBURO OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CCPSS
TO Comrade USTINOV D.F.

Dear Dmitry Fedorovich,
The creative community of Moscow appeals to you with a convincing request to support our petition for the preservation of a cultural monument of national importance - house No. 11 on Ave. Kalinin, where Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov lived for several years. This building is scheduled for dismantling in early June 1983.
After living in 1892-93. In the courtyard of the building, Rachmaninoff returned to this house in 1902, but already in the front part facing the avenue. Kalinin, and lived in it until 1905.
Here he visited S.I. Taneev, F.I. Chaliapin, A.B.Goldenweiser and other famous figures of Russian culture. In the preserved part of the house, the life writer of Moscow, P.D. Bobrykin, also lived.
Today, the murals on the walls and ceilings of the grand staircase have been preserved, as well as the decoration of the apartment, made just before the entrance of the great composer and pianist.
And since in the practice of restoration there are no cases of recreating the lost memorial decoration of cultural monuments, it seems advisable not to rebuild this house, but to keep it intact with subsequent transfer to the Union of Composers of the USSR."