CULTURE

rebuilding pavlovsk on the quiet

by Larisa Doctorow

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

For The St. Petersburg Times The mansion that once belonged to Pavlovsk's first govenor, P.A. Rottasta, is one of Gutzait's projetcs.

Sergey Gutzait is a high-profile personality in Pavlovsk, the small, picturesque St. Petersburg suburb famous for its palace and park. Best known as an entrepreneur and owner of the celebrated Podvorye restaurant - which numbers President Vladimir Putin among its many VIP guests - Gutzait's community work goes largely unnoticed. Few realise that Podvorye runs a soup kitchen that feeds several hundred locals every week; or that Gutzait is the driving force, financially and administratively, behind an extensive program aimed at restoring Pavlovsk's former glory.

Pavlovsk is named for Catherine the Great's son, Paul I, who made it his home. For most of the 19th century, Pavlovsk was a popular summer residence for noble families and also attracted a number of cultural figures: Johann Strauss, Jr., the "King of the Waltz," conducted the local orchestra for 10 years in the mid-19th century; later, musicians, including Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Fyodor Shalyapin, gave concerts; and artists including the Bryullov brothers, Alexander and Karl, and the sculptor Pyotr Klodt frequently worked here. Among the architectural highlights of Pavlovsk's park is a classical yellow pavilion with white columns. Designed in 1800 by Scottish architect Charles Cameron, the pavilion, known as the Music Hall, was a venue for high-profile musical and dance evenings. Restoring the pavilion was one of Gutzait's first local projects.

"During the war, [the pavilion] was destroyed," he says. "Later, it was restored, but fell victim to neglect and, ultimately, deteriorated."

"The park administration asked me to help. I restored it, maintain it and, on weekends since 1998, we organize charity concerts, in which [Rimsky-Korsakov] Conservatory students participate."

Gutzait's latest restoration project is the Marienthal Palace, or "Tsar Paul's Bastion," in the middle of what was the town's cluster of 15 major residences. The palace is recognized by UNESCO as part of Russia's cultural heritage. When the local administration lacked the means to restore the building, Gutzait stepped in.

"I want to rebuild this area and turn it into a cultural and educational reserve," Gutzait says. "We've started clearing away the rubbish, restoring the original layout of the park, and finding the former mansions' foundations."

"When it was built, the fortress commanded the valley, the river was navigable, and the tsar arrived by boat. It was his favorite place in Pavlovsk, and he treated it as a real fortress, with guards, cannons and moats. After Paul was murdered, it housed charitable institutions."

Today, the building is a colossal ruin, and Gutzait faces an immense task. The bastion suffered several fires and, subsequently, decades of neglect; the main doors are missing; there are no windows; piles of garbage abut the formerly stuccoed cracked brick walls and the once-proud towers are mere skeletons.

"I understand your shock," Gutzait says. "When I was asked to rebuild it a few years ago, I refused; I am not crazy. But I know that, if nothing is done, in two or three years, the building will deteriorate beyond repair, and I cannot accept that. The project will take 20 or 30 years to complete and, although I don't have money to spare, I decided to take it on nonetheless."

"Previously, I didn't care about helping but, now, I want to. The restoration project won a national competition for rebuilding Russia's small towns, which means I can get $50,000 in federal money. For that, I have to prepare a lot of documents, which is a long, difficult and expensive task. I have two professionals working fulltime on financial estimates, planning permission and so on."

Although the team missed the Dec. 1 deadline for federal funding for this year, the outlook for assistance is good. However, Gutzait has reservations.

"I'm ambivalent, to be honest," he says. "If I get official help, I will have to hire a contractor, who will want $10,000, when I can get the same work done for $1,000. I'm not interested in deals like that; I want to prove that it is possible to be as honest with federal financing as with my own money."

Even without federal help, the project is dependent on the generosity of local authorities, an area in which Gutzait sees positive developments.

"The attitude to philanthropy has changed in the last five years; it's much better now," he says. "I must say that the administration's attitude toward my project is good now. In the historic area designated for restoration, building a new villa or apartment building is not allowed, which is a big help."

Architectural restoration is only a part of Gutzait's larger plan to breathe new life into Pavlovsk. The greatest beneficiary of his work so far has been the school that he created five years ago on the model of the pre-Revolutionary Tsarskoye Selo lycee founded by Alexander I in 1811 as a school for the nobility.

"Our school is named after Prince Alexander Gorchakov, who was chancellor of Russia and foreign minister for two decades, and who, along with Pushkin, was among the first to graduate [from Alexander I's school]," he says. "Creating this school is the backbone of the area's rehabilitation."

"It's a boarding school that provides eight years of free education for boys from the age of ten. At present, we have 19 students and, from September, we will have 40," he says. "To be admitted, [boys] have to have high IQs, be in good health and come from intelligentsia families. The parents should support our ideas. We are looking for romantic families, for whom the idea of serving the people, the country means something. The original lycee's motto was 'For the Common Good,' and we follow it."

"I was approached by several well-off people who wanted to create a school for the political elite. But, in their case, the school would serve as advertising for their business, and I couldn't agree. I think you have to be involved in either philanthropy or business."

In the 19th century, the main school building was one of three summer houses owned in the area by Alexander Bryullov. Today, after restoration, which Gutzait financed and oversaw, it is a cosy, two-story building in the middle of a copse of trees, with a tower on one side. The lower floor houses a dining room, kitchen and reading rooms, with the two-person bedrooms on the second floor.

"We provide a very good education," Gutzait says. "As well as the standard subjects, the children study music, languages and dance. They all play musical instruments; they learn to debate; they write pieces that we publish; they study philosophy, history and even cooking."

"Once a year, they go abroad and, twice a year, they travel around Russia. The trips are all educational, and I pay for them. I see them becoming people of the world, cosmopolites, comfortable with other people and cultures."

Meanwhile, the reconstruction continues. Two neighboring buildings are being renovated to accomodate the new intake in September. A few hundred meters away is a wooden house in which the teachers live, which Gutzait's investment has converted from a crumbling wreck into modern apartments. Two other buildings belonging to the school - including the former residence of Pavlovsk's first commandant, P.A. Rottasta - are also under repair.

Gutzait's philanthropy is taking place in a uniquely Russian context, in which everything depends on good faith and property rights are suspended.

"Nothing is privatized," Gutzait says. "The buildings are completed, teachers and students live here, classes are going on - and we don't yet have the documents letting us do the restoration."

Does he not fear someone trying to wrest the school from his control and profit from his charitable investments?

"It's in my nature to take these risks; many people don't understand it," he says. "But, after all, what am I risking? It's not my children's life."

"I admit that, in theory, I will never own these buildings but, practically, I don't think anyone will say, 'He has no right to be here.'"

"We've already had one revolution," Gutzait says. "Expropriation and its consequences were devastating. But, even if the worst should happen, the buildings will stay, which is the most important thing. So we will continue renovating, rebuilding and recreating the park, cleaning away the garbage and improving our school."

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