Kizhi Museum
Federal State Budget Institution “Kizhi State Open Air Museum of History, Architecture and Ethnography”

Dear colleagues,

The following broadened report on preparation of a complex restoration of the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Kizhi Island concerns state of affairs by the end of 2007. During the period of 1999–2007 a draft design has been developed and agreed; a detail design of the earliest three steps of complex restoration of the structure has been developed; schedule of specific measures to implement during the preliminary restoration period has been planned and then fulfilled. This period includes a number of major events such as preparatory work, without which the proper restoration of such a significant monument seems practically unreal and unfeasible.

The most important steps during the preliminary restoration period from our point of view are the following:

1. Supplementing museum staff list with the ‘Office of Restoration of Kizhi monuments’, staffing ‘Carpenter’s center’ with skilled specialists and improving their professional skills;
2. Building a Restoration Complex on Kizhi Island, supplying with necessary equipment, technological provision, small-scale mechanization, load lifting mechanisms and special transport;
3. Step-by-step planning I — III stages of the complex restoration of the Church of the Transfiguration;
4. Building a restoration site within Kizhi Pogost, with a ramp and a short-term storage for logs;
5. Logging special restoration timber, storing it in specially built and equipped facilities untill it obtains condition necessary for the restoration purpose;
6. Disassembling and proper storing the porch materials and original floor boards (18–19 th centuries);
7. Manufacturing and assembling special equipment for lifting and fixing each of the tiers of the log walls of the Church of the Transfiguration, test-lifting of the uppermost tier of the Church;
8. Mounting electric lighting system, fire control system, TV monitoring system, fire fighting equipment inside the Church of the Transfiguration;
9. Mounting exterior lighting system, TV monitoring system, alarm system on the site perimeter, fire control system on the basis of modern sensors;
10. Providing the Kizhi restorers and guest experts with first-class accommodations and living conditions, that is bringing the house of Vitchurin in Yamka village to accomodate restorers’ families, as well as building and running the guest-house for experts on Gogolev Island;
11. Running the restoration complex and performing test-restoration of one of the granaries from Kizhi collections in order to try methods for the restoration of some of the members of the Church of the Transfiguration.

The described above notes indicate that during the elapsed time all the preparatory work has been completed, but also certain work has been made with the monument itself, and we realize what, when and how will be restored in nearest future. All of the preparatory work has been implemented by the Kizhi Museum. Today we are sure that the restoration of the Church of the Transfiguration can be started. The commission of experts of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), World Heritage Center that visited the island in April 2007, appreciated the work done by the museum and recommended to start the restoration.

It is very urgent for the Ministry of Culture and Mass Media of the Russian Federation to appoint the Customer and Main contractor of the complex restoration, and financing matters as well as implementation of the restoration Decree of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (№ 1137 from 04.10.2007) approved the initiative by the Ministry of Culture and Mass Media of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Karelia, to take protection measures of the Kizhi Pogost in 2008–2014 and to set up an organizing committee. We are hoping these measures and particularly the question of appointment the Customer and Main contractor for the complex restoration of the Church of the Transfiguration will be settled soon.

Presenting this report we are hoping for unprejudiced and concerned attention of experts and public. We will be very thankful if you find it possible to express your suggestions and recommendations on the presented report. This will help us to continue our work for the preservation of the genuine gem of the Russian wooden architecture — the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Kizhi Island.