In the city of Borovichi, Novgorod region, the festival for the protection of the urban environment “Tom Sawyer Fest” has ended. During the festival, volunteers, connoisseurs of ancient architecture and history, as well as business representatives restored the old house at number 10 on Komunarnaya St.
The Tom Sawyer Festival has existed since 2015 and is held annually in several dozen Russian cities. As part of the project, volunteers search for ancient buildings in Russian cities and, with the support of partners, repair historical sites with their own hands and give them their original appearance. Novgorod Oblast joined the project for the first time this year.
Komunarnaya Street (before the revolution Yekaterininskaya) in Borovichi is the central street where the main commercial and social life of the city has historically been concentrated. The one-story house 10 with a mezzanine on Komunarnaya Street was not chosen for participation in the Tom Sawyer Fest festival for the restoration of the historical environment. This is a former trading house of pre-revolutionary construction, which belonged to a famous family from the Pskov province. The State Councilor’s wife, Baroness Alexandra Ladizhenskaya, lived in the building. The festival volunteers did a great job cleaning the surface of the building, repairing the balcony and restoring the gate, plastering the house and restoring its historic color. MTS, as a permanent partner of the festival, assisted in the purchase of construction equipment, and the director and employees of MTS in Veliky Novgorod participated in the plastering and painting of the building.
“We were very inspired by the success of the festival in other cities, so we wanted to organize it in our native Borovici. This year we have almost completed the restoration of the historical appearance of the Komunarnaya building. Next year we hope to restore more historic sites, we are already looking at houses we want to keep. By the way, we will be glad if more Novgorod companies and volunteers join the preservation of historically significant buildings in the Novgorod region,” commented Natalia Altengoff, administrator of the Tom Sawyer Festival in Borovichi.
“It is a great honor for me personally and for our MTS team in Veliky Novgorod to participate in such an important and interesting project. Preservation of historical places, respect and appreciation of the pearls of the Novgorod land is the task of every resident of the region. That is why the employees of our branch expressed a desire to personally participate in the restoration of the building on Komunarnaya St. in Borovichi,” commented Alexander Samuilov, director of MTS in the Novgorod region.
