Alexander Porokhovshchikov has only been inside the wooden house at 36 Starokonyushenny Pereulok a few times, but he already entertains guests there like the lord of the manor -- which he is, after a fashion.
His great-grandfather, also named Alexander Porokhovshchikov, an aristocrat, factory owner and well-known architect, built the house in 1871, rented it out to fellow nobles like the Trubetskoys and lost it when all his property was nationalized after the 1917 revolution.
Now Porokhovshchikov, 55, a respected stage and film actor, has got the house back. After months of lobbying he won a decree last week from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, giving him a lifelong lease he can hand down to his heirs.
"This is a precedent," said Porokhovshchikov, pouring out champagne for his wife and a guest in the basement of the intricately carved wooden house just off the Arbat, where he plans to open a museum dedicated to his ancestors. "It is the first time they have given back property that was taken by the communists."
Television and newspapers were quick to agree, reporting -- perhaps tongue in cheek -- that restitution of nationalized property had begun.
The day after the reports, a mayoral spokesman put it more cautiously.
"The media got it all wrong," said Igor Zverev. "Porokhovshchikov got to rent the house. That's it. It's an individual case -- there's not going to be any restitution."
"It's not even a big house, for God's sake," he added.
Zverev confirmed that Porokhovshchikov had received the right to rent the house until his death and pass the lease onto his descendants. He said he did not know of any plans to give long-term leases to other descendants of former property owners.
But the advocates of restitution are rejoicing nonetheless. "Of course it is restitution to some extent, even if it is just symbolic," said Sergei Makeyev, one of the leaders of the monarchist Party of the Majority.
Several noble families now living abroad, such as a branch of the Golitsyn family living in California, have attempted to get back estates in Russia, but none have succeeded, Makeyev said.
He believes the state "should take all possible measures to return what can be returned without conflict," as "a kind of repentance."
Others see restitution as a can of worms best left unopened.
"Restitution is not only unpopular, it's impossible," said Serge Schmemmann, a longtime Russia correspondent for the New York Times who has spent time researching Koltsovo, the village which once belonged to the estate of his Russian forebears.
Virtually all nationalized property -- from log cabins that were stripped from peasants considered too rich during collectivization, to factories taken from foreign owners and estates confiscated from the nobility -- now belongs to someone who took control during the Soviet era, whether a humble resident, the local bureaucracy or the local mafia.
"There will surely be claims now from the heirs to the Yeliseyevsky store and the Filipovsky bakery," said city planning historian Leonid Raputov, referring to famous family-owned stores on Tverskaya Ulitsa.
"But there is no legal basis and no precedent for this action," he said. "So far it is simply the good will of Luzhkov."
Even for Porokhovshchikov, Luzhkov's good will may not be enough. There are other "pretenders" to the property, whom he refused to discuss.
For now he and his wife have allied themselves with a furniture restorer whom they hope to hire for the million-dollar restoration of the upper stories.
Serving cold cuts in the basement, which is filled with gilded 18th-century sideboards and brocade chairs, the grizzled, expansive Porokhovshchikov reminisced about the aristocratic past.
He said his grandfather, the son of the builder, invented the first military tank in 1915, predating the first British model by one year.
After the revolution, he said, the inventor "went to work at his own father's factory as a simple engineer," and in 1941, he was shot by the Stalin regime on trumped-up spying charges.
The planned Porokhovshchikov museum will be dedicated to his great-grandfather, grandfather and any future distinguished Russian inventors.
"That's where all this extremism comes from today," he said. "People do not take pride in their past."
His great-grandfather, also named Alexander Porokhovshchikov, an aristocrat, factory owner and well-known architect, built the house in 1871, rented it out to fellow nobles like the Trubetskoys and lost it when all his property was nationalized after the 1917 revolution.
Now Porokhovshchikov, 55, a respected stage and film actor, has got the house back. After months of lobbying he won a decree last week from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, giving him a lifelong lease he can hand down to his heirs.
"This is a precedent," said Porokhovshchikov, pouring out champagne for his wife and a guest in the basement of the intricately carved wooden house just off the Arbat, where he plans to open a museum dedicated to his ancestors. "It is the first time they have given back property that was taken by the communists."
Television and newspapers were quick to agree, reporting -- perhaps tongue in cheek -- that restitution of nationalized property had begun.
The day after the reports, a mayoral spokesman put it more cautiously.
"The media got it all wrong," said Igor Zverev. "Porokhovshchikov got to rent the house. That's it. It's an individual case -- there's not going to be any restitution."
"It's not even a big house, for God's sake," he added.
Zverev confirmed that Porokhovshchikov had received the right to rent the house until his death and pass the lease onto his descendants. He said he did not know of any plans to give long-term leases to other descendants of former property owners.
But the advocates of restitution are rejoicing nonetheless. "Of course it is restitution to some extent, even if it is just symbolic," said Sergei Makeyev, one of the leaders of the monarchist Party of the Majority.
Several noble families now living abroad, such as a branch of the Golitsyn family living in California, have attempted to get back estates in Russia, but none have succeeded, Makeyev said.
He believes the state "should take all possible measures to return what can be returned without conflict," as "a kind of repentance."
Others see restitution as a can of worms best left unopened.
"Restitution is not only unpopular, it's impossible," said Serge Schmemmann, a longtime Russia correspondent for the New York Times who has spent time researching Koltsovo, the village which once belonged to the estate of his Russian forebears.
Virtually all nationalized property -- from log cabins that were stripped from peasants considered too rich during collectivization, to factories taken from foreign owners and estates confiscated from the nobility -- now belongs to someone who took control during the Soviet era, whether a humble resident, the local bureaucracy or the local mafia.
"There will surely be claims now from the heirs to the Yeliseyevsky store and the Filipovsky bakery," said city planning historian Leonid Raputov, referring to famous family-owned stores on Tverskaya Ulitsa.
"But there is no legal basis and no precedent for this action," he said. "So far it is simply the good will of Luzhkov."
Even for Porokhovshchikov, Luzhkov's good will may not be enough. There are other "pretenders" to the property, whom he refused to discuss.
For now he and his wife have allied themselves with a furniture restorer whom they hope to hire for the million-dollar restoration of the upper stories.
Serving cold cuts in the basement, which is filled with gilded 18th-century sideboards and brocade chairs, the grizzled, expansive Porokhovshchikov reminisced about the aristocratic past.
He said his grandfather, the son of the builder, invented the first military tank in 1915, predating the first British model by one year.
After the revolution, he said, the inventor "went to work at his own father's factory as a simple engineer," and in 1941, he was shot by the Stalin regime on trumped-up spying charges.
The planned Porokhovshchikov museum will be dedicated to his great-grandfather, grandfather and any future distinguished Russian inventors.
"That's where all this extremism comes from today," he said. "People do not take pride in their past."
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