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The end is near for the Soviets

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Sophia Vasiliyevna Sokolova is 87 years old. That her house, located in the Sovetskaya Street, may have to come down soon is not a problem. The problem is that the apartment she owns occupies an area of just seven square meters. The officials who were responsible for determining the amounts of compensation payable to her and other residents of the doomed street only registered that the house was in a state of utter dilapidation, omitting to take into consideration the fact it was located in the very heart of the city, where housing costs are about the highest in the Caucasus.
This means the compensation money Sophia Vasiliyevna can expect to receive when the time comes for her to move out won’t be enough even to buy a small patch of land, let alone purchase a new apartment.
And so she lives on among the ruins, befazzled and having only the local young to rely on when she needs something or other to be fetched from a grocery store.
The Soviet Street outliving the Soviet rule
The tear-down process in the Nariman Narimanov Avenue [the post-Soviet name of the Sovetskaya Street] began on February 10, 2014. Around 10,000 houses in varying states of disrepair, most of them effectively tumbledown, have been slated for demolition. The standard compensation offered to the owners is 1,500 manats (1,360 USD) per square meter. (Interestingly, an apartment of 50 square meters in this area of Baku costs 90-100 thousand manats.) The problem, however, is not the compensation amount, but the fact most of the properties have a small floor area, making it impossible for the owners to buy decent replacement homes.

The plans to take the Soviet Street down go back as far as the early soviet rule, but many decades on they are still to materialize. If the official Baku development concept is to be believed, the “soviet remains will have finally stopped existing by 2030.

Waiting in limbo

Many of the buildings have a red cross painted on their walls. This is to indicate they are to be removed soon. But no one knows how actually soon. 2030 is a long way off. Street residents say they’ve been bearing witness to history, watching as their soviet past effectively turns into ruins.

 

Teimur Tushiev who’s lived in the Soviet Street for 35 years
Economic feasibility of the project

“A green area will be created where the Sovetskaya Street currently is. Social facilities may also be built there, the state committee for town planning and architecture of Azerbaijan says on its website.

Head of the centre for economic and social development Vugar Bairamov made five points regarding the Sovetskaya Street issue. These are:

– In 2015, the state will spend 180 million manats (about 170 million USD) to carry out the demolition works;

– The demolition effort and redevelopment of the territory are expected to cost about 500 million manats in all (around 480 million USD);

– Falling oil prices and, as a consequence, declining budget incomes mean social expenses will have to be adjusted downwards;

– A new requirement (stemming, again, from the decreased oil-generated incomes) is that any facility to be built there shall have to be profitable for the state, at least yielding tax revenue;

– Private investments will be encouraged to furnish the green area with cafes and amusement facilities.

What is going to happen to the historic monuments?

 

“Of all the 138 historic buildings on the territory only 15-16 will be preserved, said minister of culture and tourism Abulfas Garayev. “The others will be either demolished or moved elsewhere.
An ad hoc commission – a body of specialists from Azerbaijan’s national academy of sciences and independent experts – was set up by his ministry to decide which of the buildings were to live on or to pass out of existence. The buildings to be preserved include, among others, Jalil Mamedkulizade and Abdulla Shaiga house museums that have no architectural value but are significant historically.
Surveying different generations’ views on the Sovetskaya problem
A Facebook survey involving both users who were born and grew up in the Soviet Union and those who were born after its collapse has shown that personal attitudes towards the Union hardly ever come into play when the quality of life is at stake. 80 percent of the respondents qualified the decision to take the dilapidated street down as positive, and all of them said the question they wanted answered was not what would be built in the place of the Soviet Street, but what would befall its residents.
Knowledgeable people talking
Member of the Azerbaijani parliament, head of the Democratic Reforms Party Asim Mollazade said he was pleased with how the process was going on. “The parks and green zones that are to take the place of the old shacks will make Baku one of the most beautiful cities in the world, he said.
While approving of the government’s moves to demolish the Sovetskaya Street, head of Azerbaijan’s human rights centre Eldar Zeinalov and head of the oil research centre Ilham Shaban say the question of what might be built in its place should only be discussed after the street’s residents have been taken proper care of.

Human rights activist Eldar Zeinalov said: “[In the Soviet Street], there are many small apartments with an area of less than 25 square meters [like Sophia Vasilievna’s – editor’s note].

To date, some residents have been given flats, each a standard 45 square meters newly repaired, rather than the monetary compensations. It’s true the flats are not located in the centre of the city, but for these families the demolition has come as a welcome development, for they would have never been able to afford such apartments on their own.

As for the others, however, the compensation being as it is, most won’t be able to buy a decent place to live.

 

Head of the oil research centre Ilham Shaban said: “The demolition plan for the Sovetskaya Street was conceived as far back as 1928, however it didn’t start being put into practice until after the oil prices had started to decline. And only after the demolition work had got off the ground did the scale of it was fully brought home to [the officials], along with the realization that the removal of these things Soviet was going to take years. If they don’t want the process to drag on for decades, they should start attracting private investments immediately

Ilham Shaban has proposed to create a Sovetskaya Street museum accumulating photos from the street residents’ personal archives and stories from their families’ lives spanning the last 80 years or more. JAMnews finds this a great idea and would love you to share what you think about it.

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