Ivan and Evgeniya Pavlov, the creators of the Real Yoshkar-Ola Project, have started selling postcards with views of the city. They want to raise money for the restoration of a historic fence on 196 Volkov street. The Pavlovs’ postcards are handmade, you can buy them on the project's Instagram account. One postcard costs 100 rubles.
They need money for a technical passport of the fence. It will enable the activists to apply to the Vnimanie (‘Attention’) Foundation, created by blogger Ilya Varlamov, which funds the restoration of old valuable buildings. The size of the fence, layout, materials from which it is made, and depreciation rate have to be specified in the technical passport. These data are not available in the archives of Yoshkar-Ola.
Ivan and Evgeniya Pavlov have been trying to draw attention to the architecture and legacy of Mari El for a long time. In particular, they organize walking tours of Yoshkar-Ola. The Pavlovs believe that if they cannot save ancient buildings, they should at least take photos of them and pass memories about them to the next generations. But they decided to save the fence, because help of residents makes is possible.
The house on 196 Volkov street and the fence were both built in 1954. This is the only fence of this kind in Yoshkar-Ola - with brick piers, decorated with stone pommels, and cast plant elements. Now it is rundown, the piers may collapse. The homeowners' association of the house told the historic preservation activists that it had no money for the restoration. And the state will fund the restoration, only if the fence is on the list of the cultural heritage sites. It is not on this list.
The Pavlovs have already raised about half of the 4 thousand rubles they need for technical passport. Restoration work will not start until May 2021.