Press Release, 9.08.2019

Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, urged Alexander Beglov, interim Governor of St. Petersburg, to immediately intervene in the situation with the resettlement of the residents of the House of Radio and preserve the historical intended purpose of the building.

In his address to the interim Governor, Boris Vishnevsky noted that, according to information received from Svetlana Agapitova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in St. Petersburg, they are trying to resettle the residents of the historic building of the Radio House (at the address Italianskaya Street 27) so that to transfer the building to Theodor Currentzis’s orchestra. At the same time, there is information that only one floor will be transferred to the orchestra, while the rest will be occupied by restaurants and a hotel.

“I think that an attempt to resettle the residents of the House of Radio, and the house is associated with the defense of Leningrad during the siege, represents a blatant disrespect for historical memory. One can find another place for the orchestra in our city, and there is no shortage of restaurants and hotels in the centre of St. Petersburg,” head of the Yabloko faction noted.

The House of Radio was built in 1912-1914. Since the early 1930s, it housed the Leningrad Radio, and then the St. Petersburg Radio. Poets Olga Berggolts, Vsevolod Vishnevsky and Nikolai Tikhonov, and composer Dmitry Shostakovich were on the air of the Leningrad Radio. Famous journalists Moisei Blumberg, Lazar Magrachev, Matvey Frolov and others worked in this building.