Valentina and Natalia
66 families are subject to resettlement. People are worried: the demolition is scheduled for September-October of this year, but no new housing has been built for them.
“I’ve been working for four years, but I’m going to the suburb for the first time,” taxi driver Sergey checks the route with the dispatcher by phone. - Is it off the beaten path? Okay, I kinda figured it out.
The cement settlement is really on the outskirts - a couple of kilometers from the main residential area of Kerch. Two two-story houses of Stalinist construction and a dozen rickety barracks. Nearby, the “construction of the century” rumbles: KamAZ trucks loaded with sand scurry about, piles are driven in huge piles higher than houses, workers shout over each other.
There is no activity on the street itself. Behind the fence of a one-story house I hear shuffling steps. I'm knocking. The gate is opened by an elderly woman in a headscarf. Nadezhda Mikhailovna has been living here since 1960. Hearing that I am a journalist, he calls me into the house.
“I don’t know when they will be resettled. And where we will live - they do not say. They don't answer and that's it. Guess what they do? she mutters as we pass through the threshold.
House of Nadezhda Mikhailovna built in 1945. Since then, it has never been repaired.
“You can’t live here, of course,” she says. - There are no amenities, the walls are crumbling, the wiring has not been changed for 71 years.
In the only room with swollen walls sits the daughter of Nadezhda Mikhailovna, Valentina. Watching TV. Because of the noise from the construction site, we have to turn it on so loudly that at first the woman does not hear us entering. Then, noticing me, he gets up frightened from the sofa and asks: “Mom, what happened?”
“They came to see our apartment,” says Nadezhda Mikhailovna.
“Ahhh,” Valentina drawls. Are you from the builders? When will we be settled?
Having learned that it was not from the builders, Valentina does not hide her disappointment.
“We're just completely unaware,” she says. - What to prepare for? In January we had a meeting, Kirichenko came from the city executive committee ( deputy head of the city administration. — I. Zh.). He said that we would be resettled by this autumn in Nizhny Solnechny, a microdistrict in Kerch.
“They said, and they don’t do anything,” Nadezhda Mikhailovna intervenes.
- Well, yes. There were houses to be built. Whether they are built or not, we do not know.
- Then the rumor spread that it was no longer in new houses, but in the secondary housing.
Are there empty apartments? I'm interested.
“They don't tell us anything. Officials don’t come here anymore,” says Valentina.
- Here Putin will speak on the 14th ( meaning "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin". — I. Zh.). We will ask him where and when we will be settled, - Nadezhda Mikhailovna looks out the window.
Natalia Mezhiba has been living on Cementnaya Slobidka Street since the 80s. She is a housewife, but not in the classical sense of the word: her household consists of two cows, a bull, calves and ten hens. From them she receives income: she sells milk, cottage cheese and eggs. It comes out to 12,000-13,000 rubles a month.
“Of course, I want to get a new apartment,” she says. - There are frankly no houses in our suburb, and even this construction site - the walls are shaking. But then I think, where to put the cattle? You can't take him to an apartment. Most of all, Natalya is worried about the unknown.
- At first they said that they would be resettled by the autumn. Now there are rumors that we will live here this winter. Officially, no one communicates with us anymore. But I need to get ready, I need to know whether to store hay for livestock or not? Buy firewood - we have stove heating - or not?
Natalya's neighbor, Valentina, joins the conversation.
“At first I didn’t want to move. Only two years ago they started the repair, put in a new bathroom, and then ... But now I already want to, of course, if everything goes like they did ( officials. — I. Zh.) promise: new houses, 15 square meters per person according to social norms.
Valentina and her husband are counting on 40 square meters: 30 according to social norms and 10 more in the city administration promised to give out from above “for the family”.
“Here, however, completely different information has gone,” Natalya doubts. - What if by the time of the demolition they don’t build housing for us, then they will be moved to the hostels of the Kerch shipbuilding plant. Apparently temporarily. This is something we do not agree on. If they send us to hostels, there will be war.
— Where do the rumors about the hostel come from? I ask.
- From the two-story buildings, people went to the city hall, they seemed to be told so.
“You see, we don’t really trust officials here,” says Valentina. - When Yanukovych ran for president in 2003 and came to Kerch, we wanted to tell him about our problem: even then our houses were dilapidated, the floors were falling through. They were waiting for him. But what did the local government do? Blocked the way to us with concrete blocks. And Yanukovych was told that no one lives here anymore.
A blue ZAZ is parked in the courtyard of a two-story Stalinka. The driver introduces himself as Alexander.
“I don’t really want to leave here. I have here a two-room apartment with high ceilings, renovated. To the sea 100 meters. And so far, there are only promises with new housing: either these houses have been mortgaged, or not.
— Who are you talking to? A woman in a green jacket comes up to the car. Looks at Alexander with reproach.
- Yes, here is a journalist from Moscow.
“We won’t tell you anything,” the woman turns to me. - What's the point of raising a storm? Here, some wise men have already complained to Ukraine. A film crew came and asked questions. They also introduced themselves from Russia. And they were from Ukraine. Then on all Ukrainian channels they showed how badly we live here. And then collect the trouble ...
- What kind of trouble?
We won't say anything. Sasha, let's go home.
Two women are drinking tea at the neighboring “Stalinka”. One introduces herself as Tatyana, the other immediately dismisses the conversation.
“Our problem is that there are no activists, no one goes to the mayor's office, no one is interested in when there will be housing,” says Tatyana. “People live in anticipation. This is what worries me: Kirichenko said that they would demolish us in the fall. And the houses on Nizhny Solnechny have not yet been laid down. But after all, it cannot be that they will demolish us, but they won’t provide us with houses?
The issue of resettlement of Cement Sloboda in the administration of Kerch is supervised by Deputy Mayor Roman Kirichenko. The press service of the administration told Novaya Gazeta that he rarely visits the workplace - he is constantly on the road. They promised to contact him. However, they failed to do so within two weeks.
He made his last official statement about the problems of migrants at a meeting with residents in July last year. Kirichenko's speech was filmed.
“How your problem will be solved will be decided at the federal level. You may be eligible for a federal program as emergency housing resettlers. There may be some other options. Only one thing can be said unequivocally: there will be demolition, there will be a bridge, Crimea does not provide for itself. I really want those people who live in the immediate vicinity of the construction site to be resettled immediately. But understand: the housing that is in the city fund today is simply unsuitable for living. And to build a house, you need money. And it's not all up to us."
Later, in November 2015, in an interview with local media, Kirichenko said that the Kerch administration had received a “road map” from the Council of Ministers of Crimea to solve the problem of Cement Sloboda. “If people have privatized housing, then they will get another “meter by meter”, and if not privatized, then according to social norms: if a person lived alone in a three-room apartment, then he can only count on a one-room apartment,” the deputy mayor said. - Demolition of housing on Cement Sloboda will be in September-October 2016. By this time, new houses should already be built.
I went to the Nizhny Solnechny microdistrict, where housing for migrants is to be built. Grass still grows on the site of the promised houses...
On the Crimean Spring holiday, many citizens gathered in the center of Kerch to celebrate this event. The residents of Cementnaya Sloboda had a different “holiday” that day: they gathered on their street to once again try to solve the problem. Nikolai Zotov, deputy head of the city administration, and Nikolai Dolgachev, head of the public council for the city, came to Cement Sloboda on a working visit. First of all, people want to understand the position of the city leadership related to the resettlement of people from all residential facilities from Cementnaya Slobidka who did not fall into the resettlement zone. They want to know if the city leadership supports them or not in this matter. Also, the townspeople raised the issue of revising the sanitary zone and recognizing their housing as emergency. For many times already residents from Cement Sloboda. But the answer was always the same, like a carbon copy: “There is no money in the budget for the resettlement of people from this site, because this housing did not fall into the sanitary zone.” Read: Local residents have even reached the executive committee, where they spoke about this within the framework of the meeting. But the situation as stood still, and continues to stand. According to residents from Cementnaya Slobidka Street, the city authorities are trying in every possible way to hush up their problems. “The administration is limited by legal possibilities. We do not see any legal mechanism how this problem can be solved today. The law does not yet provide for any loopholes to resolve this issue, but perhaps something will be solved at the level of the republic's leadership,” Nikolai Zotov comments. It should be noted that all the houses that did not fall into the sanitary resettlement zone are former stables, the buildings are without foundations and were built before the revolution, today they are over 120 years old. Nikolai Dolgachev, who arrived on a visit, reassured the local residents a little and gave them a drop of hope. “The day before yesterday I met with the head of Crimea. He knows about your situation and deals with it. Sergei Valeryevich Aksenov has an understanding that this problem must be solved. The head of the republic wants to help you, but so far he cannot figure out how to do it from the point of view of the law,” said Nikolai Dolgachev. Today, the situation on Cementnaya Slobidka Street is still critical. The bridge is being built, heavy trucks are driving, and nearby houses are being destroyed. Local residents can only hope either for a revision of the sanitary zone for the construction of the Kerch bridge, or for the recognition of their housing as emergency. Now 23 families from this street have only one goal - to move away from the construction site and live a quiet life.
People, goats and cows will be resettled from under the Kerch bridge
40 goats and 16 cows were not left without attention
- for their resettlement from Cementnaya Slobidka
allocate land.
Residents of Cementnaya Sloboda in Kerch will receive
free coal and possibly electricity
In Kerch, due to the construction of the Kerch Bridge, the so-called Cement Sloboda, located on the northern flank of the Forward Fortification of the Kerch Fortress, is sent for demolition. I will leave out of this version of the post all the overdrinking of the demolition and the probable damage to the fortress. In the context of the community, I'm more interested in whether these buildings have any historical value, as examples of civil architecture of the 50s. And then in the press, and possibly in official documents, these houses are diligently called barracks ...
In July of this year, I visited this village several times, but, unfortunately, I took few photos, but even they show that not all houses are drawn to barracks. I think that experts will determine the project on which they are built.
When I asked in the Kerch bridge group on the social network VKontakte about what will happen to the houses after resettlement, they say that they are being demolished so that the view is not spoiled. And they are resettled because of sanitary standards and some kind of security zone (the fact that they are not fortresses). And just a year ago, it was stated that the houses simply interfere with the construction of the bridge. Of course, it is necessary to resettle people from dilapidated housing, but is it worth demolishing? Our result-oriented managers from the Kerch Bridge project will not think of a hundred pounds to save a couple of suburban houses, but in fact in these picturesque houses it would be possible to make a museum of the same notorious Kerch bridge or place some other tourist infrastructure.
Let's go back to the summer of 2016.
On the morning of June 30, 2016, we went to the Kerch fortress. A few photos of the Cement Sloboda from a quadcopter from Wikimapia to get your bearings. The first photo, taken from the north, clearly shows the old military concrete road leading to the Kerch fortress in a zigzag through the Cement settlement, and a cut under the road. In the background, the forward fortification of the Kerch Fortress is one of the unique monuments of fortification art. This fortification, built according to the project of Totleben, served as a prototype for the forts of the outer contours of Russian fortresses in the last third of the 19th century. This photo clearly shows how Cement Sloboda partially ate the glacis of the right flank of the Forward Fortification.
View from about the same angle, but enlarged. Two two-story houses at numbers 44 and 45a (from right to left) stand along the concrete road. Most of the space is occupied by sheds, garages and other typical "Shanghai".
View from the southwest of houses 45, 44 and 45a. In the background, a cement plant and a site for storing metal structures are infrastructure facilities for the construction of a bridge.
To the east, behind the recess with the road, was the same Cement settlement. 
As I said, almost all we know about the history of the settlement is that it was built in the 1950s, used by the military as a housing stock (dormitories), and then was settled by those who, for some reason, could not find the best housing. Administratively, scattered buildings scattered around the Fortified Fortification of the Kerch Fortress are combined into Cementnaya Slobidka Street.
We drive into Cement Sloboda. Some kind of animal crosses the road. We stop and take a couple of shots. Pictured is house number 45a. Probably the most beautiful building in the settlement with a pediment facing the fortress. I don't know what the layout is inside. 
We pass to the eastern outskirts of the settlement. It can be seen that the field road has not been traveled for a long time and, moreover, is blocked by a fresh fence. Behind it begins the territory of the construction of the Kerch bridge 
A month later, we returned to Cementnaya Sloboda to explore the Advanced Fortification. Here are some shots from July 28, 2016, taken from the Forward Fortification.
View of the Cement Sloboda from the rear of the right flank of the fortification 
View of Cementnaya Slobidka from the Gorge part of the rampart 
View of the moat on the right flank of the Forward Fortification. The "Michurin gardens" of the inhabitants of the settlement descending into the moat are clearly visible. In such a pure form, this is the outgoing nature of the Soviet past. Something similar can be found in the Volyn fortification of the Brest Fortress 
Let's go back to the press reports about the resettlement of people and animals from Cementnaya Slobidka
"People, goats and cows will be resettled from under the Kerch bridge. 40 goats and 16 cows were not left without attention - a land plot will be allocated for their resettlement from Cementnaya Slobidka. Residents of Cementnaya Slobidka in Kerch will receive coal and, possibly, electricity for free" . How do you like the turnover "from under the Kerch bridge" or "coal and, possibly, electricity." Are they being resettled again in shacks with stove heating and candle lighting?
But it looks like the same 40 goats and 16 cows (frogs, snakes, newts and hedgehogs were relocated last year). 
And to top it off, an eloquent frame: "What? Should I be resettled? Wouldn't you go to ...." 
PS: I really hope that the builders of the bridge will approach the issue of settling the settlement as diligent owners and will keep a couple of houses surrounded by mulberries. Moreover, during the "dismantling" of the settlement, the Forward Fortification of the fortress will not be damaged, and when the "Shanghai" is demolished, the building material will be carefully sorted. After all, it is no secret that in the recent past the limestone blocks of the casemated buildings of the Advanced Fortification were used, among other things, for the construction of the "Shanghai" settlement.
To admin: I couldn’t come up with a tag, because I don’t know the project, but there is no Crimea and Kerch
The old microdistrict of Kerch, Cement Slobidka, or rather several residential buildings on the street of the same name on the southern outskirts of the city, is destined to become the first victim of the “construction of the century”. Slobodka fell into the so-called sanitary protection zone (SPZ) of the Kerch bridge. Her houses are going to be demolished over time, and all the residents there will be relocated. The latter circumstance, I dare to assume, explains the adjustment in the timing of the start of construction of the Tavrida highway, which in 2018 should connect Kerch with Sevastopol.
On February 22, at the solemn opening of a memorial stone at the site of future auto-approaches to the bridge under Cement Sloboda, the “head of the republic” Sergei Aksenov did not talk about the reasons themselves. At least if you rely on local media reports; simply said without explanation, "Construction will start in March." However, some residents of the Cement Sloboda itself found their own explanation.
The authorities promised to move us back in October, then by the new year, now they say: wait for the housewarming by March 8
“The authorities promised to resettle us back in October (2016 - KR), then - by the new year, now they say: wait for the housewarming by March 8, ”one of the residents of the settlement shared the“ latest ”information Elena Igorevna. “Now we are looking forward to it. It will be a big celebration for me and others.”
One can only assume that if, nevertheless, engineering equipment for laying auto-approaches to the bridge comes out earlier than the planned housewarming, then 87 families of Cement Slobidka will experience tangible inconvenience. After all, the auto-approaches under construction for a length of 8.6 kilometers - from the transport crossing across the strait to the four-lane "Tavrida" bypassing the city center - will simply cut off their only road home. And also, most likely, engineering communications remaining on the outskirts. This is probably why these days two three-story buildings for migrants in the new Nizhny Solnechny microdistrict are in a real emergency.
As for the front of the upcoming work on the approaches to the bridge, it is already clearly marked on the ground by the alignment done by the graders.
And a roadside information board.
And also - markings and columns at the foot of a small hill, on which most of the residential and utility buildings of Cement Sloboda are directly “deployed”.
The use of military terminology in this context is quite appropriate. Indeed, in the post-war period until the end of the 60s of the last century, an army construction battalion was stationed in this area, in the immediate vicinity of the Small Fortress (hence, as they say, the "cement" name). And all the apartment buildings within the current GCC are the former, the headquarters, the soldiers' canteen, the barracks and two DOS (houses of officers - KR).
This was told to me by the indigenous "cement worker" Alexander. An apartment in the then military town was also received by his father, senior midshipman of the Black Sea Fleet. In the early 90s, a man and his family moved out of here, having received new housing in another microdistrict of Kerch. But all the same, he continues to visit the settlement every day - in the abandoned barn he has four goats and almost a dozen hens. The man is not particularly happy about the upcoming demolition of Cement Sloboda.
“Here, probably, is the best place in all of Crimea,” Alexander states, “there is such nature, but it is simply destroyed. It is good that they are building a bridge, but it would be better if they did it somewhere else. Here, two houses are being built for our displaced people - there is already a third or fourth contractor. This is not serious. Some do not want to go there, but they simply have no choice. And here the blackouts have already begun.
Alexander, recalling his childhood in Cementnaya Slobidka, said that he often climbed the Small Fortress in search of "melchior bullets" (bullets in cupronickel shell of the period of the First World War - KR). Interestingly, in the spring of 1996, when large-scale demining of the Small Fortress began, densely stuffed with Soviet and German ammunition of all types and calibers (in 1941-1943, both sides twice recaptured the Small Fortress and placed their arsenals there) by sappers of the 32 Army Corps Ukrainian army, then it was the bullets in cupronickel sheath that were considered the most valuable find. By the way, they were instantly taken apart for souvenirs, including journalists covering the event.
It seems that weapons-grade non-ferrous metal and other military rarities are still in demand. And the ruins of the old fortress in the neighborhood of Cement Sloboda again attract local "black archaeologists".
Fresh traces of their searches are proof of that.
One of these "archaeologists" accidentally found sleeping under the ramparts right with the tools of illegal fishing.
The rest of the residents of Kerch make their way on their own two feet or in their own vehicles to the outskirts of Cementnaya Sloboda on a different, decent, occasion. Behind the plantings of prickly acacia, cherry plum and elm, which encircle the settlement from the southern, seaside side, an impromptu observation deck was formed.
It offers the best view of the Kerch Strait and the bridge under construction.
The "cement" house No. 46 closest to the observation deck on the shore of the strait. In the courtyard of the house, no preparations are yet visible for the upcoming big "movement of peoples."
Rescue archaeological excavations of the ancient burial mound "Cement Slobidka-1"(mound No. 4) were completed in Kerch on the site of the future Tavrida highway. The excavations were carried out by employees of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the guidance of Ph.D. I.V. Rukavishnikova. Archaeologists discovered a vaulted crypt of the Bosporan nobility of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. and several burials of the 2nd century BC. - first centuries AD The crypt was moved to the territory of the Kerch fortress for use as a museum.
Photos are clickable, with geographic coordinates and binding to the Yandex map, 06.2017.
1. Video interview of the head of the excavations, Irina Rukavishnikova, for the Kerch-net channel. The sound is very bad due to the strong wind, so you need to listen
2. View of the mound "Cement Slobidka-1" from the south. A crypt between gazelles and a bulldozer. It can be seen that the Tavrida highway passes right through the mound, the photographer is standing on the future road
4. And here is the actual upper part of the crypt 
5. The vaulted crypt was repeatedly robbed and destroyed, besides it was reused 
6. The upper part of the crypt was destroyed by the fortifications of the Great Patriotic War, horse bones were also found here. Many mounds were used for military purposes, as observation points and firing points. 
7. The crypt of the late 4th - early 3rd century BC, belonged to the Bosporan nobility. But like many, it was reused. In the photo, the archaeologists have reached the level of the secondary burial, before the owner of the crypt still digs and digs. Pieces of a South Pontic pseudo-Kos amphora of the second half of the 1st century BC were found here. BC, fragments of red-glazed ceramics, single-horned lamp, red-clay urn, two faience pendants in the form of a scarab and a demon 
8. Human bones and fragments of ceramics 
9. Away from home microdistrict Nizhny Solnechny 
10. View from the mound towards the Crimean bridge 
11. Industrial zone of bridge construction 
14. View of the dromos (entrance corridor) and stones covering the entrance to the crypt 
15. Six more burials from different eras were found around the crypt, two of them were cremation burials 
16. On the stairs of the dromos, a children's burial of the Roman period of the 1st century AD was found. Next to the remains is a crushed vessel, a glass bottle, bronze bells and beads. There was also a pixida (a round jewelry box) and a funeral urn with ashes. 
19. View from the crypt along the future route "Tavrida" in the direction of the excavations of the Bronze Age settlement Hospital-2, the mound Hospital-1 and the settlement Hospital-1, about which there will be separate articles 
20. After the end of the excavations, it was decided to move the crypt to the territory of the Kerch fortress and museumify it. Further on the photo is the crypt in the process of transfer. Several rows of blocks have already been moved. The marking of the crypt is clearly visible for subsequent collection at a new location 
21. The crypt is completely cleaned and the floor slabs are clearly visible. You can compare with photo 18, the crypt is one block below 
22. View of the entrance to the crypt and dromos 
30. Marking for assembly. Later, when the crypt had already been transported to the fortress but had not yet been assembled, a funny incident happened with the markings. Heavy rains with hail passed in Kerch and the markings began to be smeared, archaeologists had to urgently take measures to protect and restore it 
