Did those who started the demolition program know what a hurricane of emotions their project would cause, and not only among Muscovites? Why, we deal with experts.
Some took the offer to move from old houses to new buildings as a big win in the lottery. Others – even those who had never gone to rallies and pickets before (Soviet demonstrations do not count), declared a “holy war” and almost died, defending their homes. What are these people really protecting and why do they not need the good that has fallen from heaven for nothing?
“Today, by a miracle, my world is saved, tomorrow is a new day — I will save others who are not so lucky.” Cary Guggenberger, who wrote this phrase on her Facebook page, has become almost more popular than other showbiz stars over the past few months. She is one of the two administrators of the largest group “Muscovites against demolition (against the law on renovation)”.
The news feed resembles reports from the front. People living in different parts of the capital are now studying Russian legislation, Article 35 of the Constitution under a microscope, exchanging experience in holding general meetings of owners, rejoicing after each recaptured house, developing plans for the next battles in courtyards and stairwells.
Following the capital, other large cities began to seethe: Russians feel with their skin that Moscow is a testing ground for testing technology throughout the country. It seems that the purely metropolitan project touched everyone: among our experts, two were at the epicenter of events.
Blow to the motherland
“We specifically chose this area. The apartment is beautiful: a large kitchen and rooms, a high ceiling,” says psychologist Svetlana Belokrylova. She herself almost “fell under demolition”, her house in the Aeroport metro area, thanks to active young residents, managed to defend. We are green, the birds are singing. Walk 200 meters – Timiryazevsky Park. All our children know each other. Now the grandchildren are friends. I absolutely do not want to go somewhere in the area of the Moscow Ring Road.
The fate of the house where the psychologist Alexander Wenger lives is not so clear. There is still no final decision on its five-story building in the Vodny Stadion metro area. “I lived in rented accommodation for many years. I was looking for “my” apartment for a long time: in particular, I looked to see that the house was not from the series that was to be demolished. I work in four places, and it is important for me to live close to the subway. It’s green here.
I have a good repair – such as I dreamed of. He did a lot with his own hands. And now, excuse me, at my age I can no longer drag a bag of cement weighing 30 kg. Yes, and I don’t have money for a new repair, I saved up for ten years for what I have now. The children have parted in all directions, and two rooms are enough for my wife and I. I love this apartment too much to part with it so easily at someone else’s desire.
Svetlana Belokrylova, like most of her neighbors, has a fear that “our Moscow will soon be gone.” “There will be no feeling of home, of one’s place. And it must be. We are talking about the boundaries, the personal space of a person, which is much greater than the distance of an outstretched arm.
Humans are creatures that have much more requests for stability than requests for variability.
It is very important that a person living in the endless stress of a metropolis has green grass, leaves and earth in his field of vision – a fulcrum. So that, looking out the window, he heard the birds singing. What can you hear on the 25th floor? There is little light in such skyscrapers stuck to each other, and in our strip, where 10 months of the year are gray and slushy off-season, there is a high risk of getting neurosis or depression.
People are creatures that have much more requests for stability than requests for variability, conflictologist Andrey Koenig is convinced. “And therefore, it is not surprising that residents massively take to the streets to protest. They are trying to defend their right – not to comfort and housing, but to stability and security. The right to know that my tomorrow will be like today.
We still live in the domostroy. For a Russian, an apartment is a house. And the house is the place where the parents lived, where the feeling of roots and ancestors is. This is a conditional small homeland. I cross the threshold and understand that I have returned to where I grew up, where everything is dear, where I love everything. In fact, the demolition of houses is a blow to the homeland. And then anger, anger, a desire to defend themselves and not give up an inch of land wakes up.
Man is not only body and mind. This is his life, habits, preferences, worldview, feelings. “The smells of Aunt Ali’s neighbor’s pies, the aromas of the first bouquet given to loved ones, the sounds of the discotheques of youth remain with us forever,” says Marina Lobanova, a Gestalt therapist and fairy tale therapist. We keep all this in our hearts. It is precisely these smallest details that a person is afraid of losing during relocation. It is part of his “I”.
Wonderland
“What happens when we find ourselves in a new place? The old patterns of behavior and routine are no good. In a world that is foreign to us, we have to learn new rules. At first, we seem to shrink, we become numb, and then we begin to adapt,” Marina Lobanova explains. “We experience similar sensations when entering the sea: at first it’s cold and we want to return, and then we swim, we get used to the temperature and we don’t want to get out on the shore.
Getting used to a new place of residence sometimes takes months and even years. The older we are, the less likely we are to get used to it. Imagine a person at an age who does not have this time. If an elderly person is torn out of his usual environment, he will begin to fade away – longing is almost inevitable and, as a result, serious illnesses and even quick death.
On the other hand, moving is the best option for development. But it’s more for the young
Children react no less painfully to a change of place of residence. Especially schoolchildren who already have relationships with friends, teachers, which cost them a lot of effort. And now the child is being pulled out of the usual society and sent to go through the adaptation period again, Svetlana Belokrylova notes.
On the other hand, moving is the best option for development, Marina Lobanova is convinced. New opportunities, new circumstances. But this is more about the young, living outside of time and space.
“The brilliant Lewis Carroll, with his tales about Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, anticipated the present,” explains Marina Lobanova. “You have to run as fast as you can to stay where you are, and to get somewhere else you have to run twice as fast. These words of the Queen fully illustrate the pace of modern residents of megacities. The precariousness of the modern world with the loss of reliance on time and place. The world is changing every minute.”
This is probably why there are many among Muscovites those who want to change their “khrushchev” to a spacious apartment in a new building, albeit far from the center of the capital, or even in the Moscow region. For young people and those approaching their 35s and 40s, moving is no longer stressful.
“Recently, the so-called index of satisfaction with life has fallen, people have ceased to like their current situation,” says Alexander Wenger. – And if a person is dissatisfied with life, then he certainly wants to change something. And then, according to such people, it will definitely get better.”
Learned helplessness
The sad side of the renovation, according to our experts, was manifested in the fact that people were pushed head-on, local wars were unleashed. And when they encroach on yours, then all those around, including good neighbors and close relatives, become aggressors, Andrei Koenig believes.
“We just got used to the fact that we have private property and everything will be all right with it, as it turns out: my house, my apartment – security islands – can be taken away at any moment,” he says. – I trust the state myself, my property and I want to find it safe and sound. In fact, it turns out that I am in constant combat readiness: someone will certainly encroach on my property.
People do not resist, which the state takes advantage of, determining at its discretion where my personal boundaries go.
There are those who are active and fight for the right to decide for themselves. But there are also many who exhibit so-called learned helplessness. “A person who has experienced failure many times loses the desire to do anything at all: “They will take it away anyway, so it’s better that I vote for renovation and give the apartment voluntarily,” notes Alexander Wenger. People do not resist, which the state takes advantage of, determining at its discretion where my personal boundaries go.”
Such an attitude towards people is violence against a person, says Svetlana Belokrylova. “This is similar to what has already happened in the history of our country – dispossession, repressions, when people, for some unknown reason, were sent beyond the 101st kilometer. A person experiences lack of freedom, infringement of the right to choose and his own dignity. He is compelled to submit simply because they are those in power.”
In the film “Pokrovsky Gates” Savva Ignatievich delivers a verdict on the meaning of life: “They live not for joy, but for conscience.” This principle has been followed by several generations.
“People do not want to be done well without their desire,” Andrey Koenig is convinced. “In our country, they talk about anything except happiness, about well-being, benefit, success … But happiness is not a rational category, it is not measured in numbers. We need to be asked what we really want.”