An architecture monument was started to be demolished in front of the regional Minister of Culture in Chelyabinsk.

      The 110 year-old stone mansion at the address of 97, Truda Street was substantially damaged. Preliminary cause for that was probably the owner’s interest to sell the site for some commercial construction project.

      According to eyewitnesses, including the Chelyabinsk Region Minister of Culture Alexei Betekhtin, an excavator started demolishing the history and culture monument of the early 20th century in the morning of Tuesday, April 15.

      Fortunately, intervention of the Culture Ministry and police saved the mansion from demolition. The excavator operator fled at the sight of police.

      It turned out that it was the building owner - the Ural Research Institute of Abrasives and Grinding - that attempted to do away with this part of Chelyabinsk cultural heritage.

      The unique stone building was constructed in 1903-1904 on the land owned by the merchant Vasiliy Kuznetsov.