"Krasny Prosvetshenets" is a residential neighborhood in the center of Nizhny Novgorod that took shape in the 1920s as the housing development of one of the city's first housing construction cooperatives. It lies within the boundaries of Belinsky, Ashkhabadskaya, Genkina, and Tverskaya streets. The neighborhood includes 14 wooden and two brick houses, each two stories tall, with four three-room apartments apiece, verandas, and yard plots of about five sotkas (roughly 500 square meters). It is considered one of the few realized examples of the "garden city" concept in Soviet Russia and a rare example of housing cooperation from the early years of Soviet power.[1][3]
History of the neighborhood's creation
The first plans to develop this site, then a wasteland, date back to the 1880s and 1890s, but the work was repeatedly postponed. According to Ksenia Zobnina, head of the project to study and popularize the neighborhood, one reason was the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, which required substantial municipal spending. The idea of building here was revived only in the 1920s, with the appearance of housing construction cooperatives.[1]
The neighborhood was built by the Obyedineniye cooperative, one of the first housing cooperatives in Nizhny Novgorod. Its members included employees of the State Bank, production unions, and other representatives of the city's intelligentsia. Among the cooperative's participants was Leonid Agafonov, the father of the well-known restorer Svyatoslav Agafonov. Svyatoslav Agafonov directed the restoration of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin from 1949 to 1969.[7][1] The design of the neighborhood was determined by an all-Union architects' competition: the terms of reference called for a workers' settlement of log houses with 4 to 6 apartments of about 50 square meters each. The winner of the competition was the young architect Boris Grinev. The first houses, Nos. 12 and 14 on Tverskaya Street, were built as early as 1925–1926, and the neighborhood subsequently grew to 16 houses.[1]
In the central part of the neighborhood, the first residents set up a communal area: a club with a library and hobby groups opened in a building originally designed as a carpentry workshop, and a children's pool was built nearby. The Solnyshko kindergarten later appeared on the site of this area.[1]
In the 1930s, with the end of the NEP era, the cooperative lost its independence: the city authorities bought the houses from their first owners and began settling new residents in them, turning the apartments into communal ones. According to Ksenia Zobnina's conjecture, it was then that the cooperative settlement received its new name, "Krasny Prosvetshenets" ("Red Educator"), reflecting the makeup of its residents: among them were many education workers, doctors, engineers, and artists.[1][3]
Notable residents
At various times, three Honorary Citizens of Nizhny Novgorod lived in the quarter: the architects Svyatoslav Agafonov and Dmitry Silvanov, as well as Professor Mikhail Kolokoltsev. Besides them, the residents of "Krasny Prosveshchenets" included distinguished doctors, cultural workers, and engineers. Among the well-known residents of "Krasny Prosveshchenets" were Gorky's chief surgeon David Zavelgelsky, the actor Leonid Kulagin, the chief designer of the Lenin Plant Boris Uvyatkin, and the director of the Kashirin House Museum Alexander Sigorsky.[7] Mikhail Chizhov, a member of the Writers' Union, put forward a theory linking the quarter to lines about a "garden city" in one of Vladimir Mayakovsky's works, although there is no direct documentary evidence for this.[2]
The Quarter's Fate in the 21st Century
In 2023, the area bounded by Belinsky, Ashkhabadskaya, Genkina, and Tverskaya streets was included among seven pilot sites for comprehensive area development (KRT) in Nizhny Novgorod. More than half of the quarter's buildings were slated for demolition, but by majority vote the residents of 12 low-rise buildings refused to take part in the project, and the master plan was revised. In the course of discussing the comprehensive development plans, the area earmarked for construction was reduced by almost half; at the same time, preparation of a separate master plan was begun for the southern part of the quarter. In October 2026 it became known that a master plan for a new KRT project in the southern part of "Krasny Prosveshchenets" might be developed; according to the estimate of Irina Sokolova, director of the company KS Engineering, preparing the document could take up to a year and a half.[7][6] Fifty-six families live in the "Krasny Prosveshchenets" quarter; according to a preliminary survey, slightly more than half of them want to preserve the existing buildings.[6] Nevertheless, a year later it became known that the authorities had not abandoned their redevelopment plans: Ivan Kargin, then serving as deputy chairman of the regional cabinet of ministers, spoke of the prospect of a residential complex appearing on the site of the quarter.[1][2]
At the same time, a campaign was under way to have the quarter recognized as a cultural heritage site. As of early 2026, three historical and cultural assessments had been carried out: two of them denied the value of the buildings, describing them as "a typical example of the housing policy of Soviet Russia in the early 1920s," while the third confirmed the quarter's significance. Thus, of the three assessments, the first and the third delivered negative conclusions, while the second recognized the quarter's uniqueness.[4] The regional Office for the State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites refused to grant the quarter protected status, relying on the negative conclusion. Residents filed a lawsuit challenging this order in court.
Activists also launched a petition demanding that the demolition of the buildings be halted and that the Office's decision be reviewed. In 2026, residents of the quarter posted an appeal on the "Svoi" platform demanding a review of the regional heritage protection office's decision to refuse to include the buildings in the register of places of historical interest; by the time of publication, more than 100 people had signed the appeal.[6] Once voting ended, the appeal was to be sent to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Investigative Committee, and the Prosecutor General's Office.[4] The lawsuit was lost.[4] Marianna Lyubimova, coordinator of the Tom Sawyer Fest movement, who represents the interests of concerned residents, pointed out that the absence of heritage site status opens the way to demolishing the buildings, and proposed developing the quarter while preserving its low-rise buildings — in particular, creating an open space for young people's technical creativity on the site of the demolished house of Mikhail Kolokoltsev.[2]
References
- Official website (kommersant.ru)
Lyubimova described the neighborhood as "Nizhny Novgorod's Crimea," emphasizing that Soviet-era buildings unjustly remain in the shadow of the city's pre-revolutionary architecture.[4]
The City Research Institute organized a roundtable on the future of "Krasny Prosveshchenets," attended by local residents, representatives of the architectural community, government authorities, and the developer.[4]
The original 2023 comprehensive urban redevelopment (KRT) project provided for the demolition of more than 20 buildings in the neighborhood; after protests by residents of the neighborhood and adjacent streets, the boundaries of the area included in the project were reduced by almost half.[7]
Sources
- Open Nizhny — Among the well-known residents of "Krasny Prosveshchenets" were Gorky's chief surgeon Davyd Zavelgelsky, the actor Leonid Kulagin, and the chief designer of the Lenin Plant Bor
- Newsroom24 — In 2026, residents of the neighborhood posted an appeal on the Svoi platform demanding a review of the decision by the regional cultural heritage protection department to refuse to include the buildings
- Living in Nizhny — A public campaign unfolded around the threat of demolition of the neighborhood: citizens created an appeal on the Svoi platform demanding that the demolition of the buildings be stopped and that a review be conducted
- GIPERNN — The residents' lawsuit against the refusal of the State Heritage Protection Department was lost.