Preserving authenticity: Alexander Churin spoke about the progress of the restoration of the Charushin House.

      Former prime minister of the Kirov government Alexander Churin described how the restoration of the Charushin House is proceeding. According to Churin, restoring this heritage site requires a special working procedure. "Before beginning restoration work it is necessary to completely survey the building and develop a project. Right now the design organization is doing exactly that. We commissioned the project, an architectural bureau is working on it, measurements are being taken, archival documents are being studied," Alexander Anatolyevich said.

      As Churin noted, the plan is to restore the building as authentically as possible, to its original appearance from the time Ivan Charushin was alive.

      "I want to remind you: we have no commercial interest, we do not want to place a restaurant or anything else here. As was said earlier — this is a public cultural facility. We want to do it right, do it well, so that the building will serve for many decades, and perhaps even centuries," Churin said.

      The general director of the state enterprise Selmash said that the restoration of the Charushin House is personally important to him because he was born in Kirov and has lived here all his life. Alexander Churin noted that every street in Kirov is filled for him with memories and special meaning. "Here I went to school, to university, I walked around. By the way, the now-restored Church of John the Baptist used to house a planetarium and it is a special place; it takes you back to those carefree years. This small block is like one of the symbols of pleasant nostalgia, feelings, emotions," Alexander Churin shared.

      Recall that on January 31 of this year the results of the auction for the Charushin House were announced. The winner of the auction was the Kirov plant Selmash. After that restoration work began on the house: it was inspected, snow was removed from the roof and the adjacent area, and it was fenced off. At the end of October the building was laser-scanned and work began on developing its three-dimensional model. As Alexander Churin explained, scanning combined with additional measurements of building details — unique window casings, stucco, details of doors, the floor and walls — will make it possible to create a highly accurate virtual model for subsequent transfer to the drawings.

      Churin noted that they are working very closely with the city administration on the restoration of the building. "We feel particularly close attention from public organizations, the Union of Architects, so I can only thank all the concerned people — of whom there turned out to be a great many — for their help, for their support, for their intangible support," Alexander Churin said.

      As for the cost of restoring the unique Charushin House, the former prime minister said that costs have already amounted to more than several tens of millions of rubles. These costs included design work, building conservation work, etc. The restoration itself will amount to another rather large sum. "This must be done because the building is located in the city center; it is a good piece of real estate that will be both an image asset for Kirov and one of the preserved symbols of Old Vyatka. The Charushin House bears the historical imprint of an era. We want that old Vyatka to be preserved so that the city does not lose its identity, its uniqueness. After all, Charushin is not just a well-known architect; he is the person who created that unique atmosphere of Old Vyatka that we all admire and that we all want to preserve," Alexander Churin said.