Tsarist Title Could Go To Luzhkov
"In the past, the City Duma awarded the title and the tsar approved it," Kovalevsky said this week. "In today's Russia, maybe it will be approved by the president -- or maybe by the mayor himself."
Under the tsars, the title was awarded to prominent citizens such as Pavel Tretyakov, the merchant who donated his collection of Russian art to the city to form the Tretyakov Gallery. He was named Esteemed Citizen in 1896 and received a calligraphed letter stamped with a picture of St. George thanking him for his "great service" to the city, Kovalevsky said.
Though Luzhkov rose to power as a Soviet bureaucrat, Kovalevsky believes he fits right into the tradition of "city fathers," merchants and industrialists whose capital helped build many of Moscow's churches and museums.
Kovalevsky praised Luzhkov's efforts that resulted in the rebuilding of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square and his drive to launch the grandiose project of rebuilding the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, dynamited under Stalin.
Kovalevsky said that as in tsarist times, the title would carry no special privileges or material rewards.
|
|
Tweet |
|
This article has no comments. Be the first to leave a comment |
Comments
To post comments you must be registered
Comments via Facebook
The founder of the social networking site Vkontakte celebrated St. Petersburg’s 309th anniversary over the weekend by tossing paper airplanes carrying 5,000-ruble notes out a building window.
Four Russian bikers jailed for five days after entering Iraq with fake visas were to arrive in Moscow late Monday — without their motorcycles but grateful for freedom despite, as one of them said, their “stupidity.”
Search and rescue helicopters and volunteers struggling through thick forest and mountainous terrain spotted bodies but no survivors on the Indonesian mountainside where a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed by the time darkness forced an end to the search Thursday night.
A dark cloud was cast Wednesday on the revival of Russia’s aviation industry when a Sukhoi-built Superjet 100 with 50 people on board disappeared from the radar screens of Indonesian flight controllers.


