Stop 2: Winzavod
Welcome to Winzavod!
In case you couldn’t already tell, this is an old winery. In 1805, this estate was purchased a merchant by the name of Monin who then sold it to a man by the name of Medo, who opened a brewery on the site. Over the next few decades, it was sold and expanded to also include a two-story wing with a brewery and malt house.
By the 1840s, Winzavod was the second largest enterprise in Moscow after only Trekhgornaya!
The owner of the brewery in 1855 was Vasily Alexandrovich Kokorev, who had made his fortune from wine repurchases and banking (pioneering the Russian oil industry). He was one of the richest men in Russia and enjoyed collecting paintings and served as a patron of the arts. During the mid 19th century, the Moscow-Kursk railway line was created, separating the estate’s western part. It was later bought by Moscow Bavaria, a Russian beer and honey company. At this time, there were three steam engines with a total of 45 horsepower in the factory, with a 70 person workforce.
Winzavod was founded officially in 1889 by Travnikovi merchants and by 1909, the estate was updated to include a city four-year college according to the will of one of the past owners. The Khludov family, which was now running Winzavod, also began to dabble in the manufacturing business, opening up a cotton factory.
During the Soviet era, the neighbourhood that we’re currently in – Syromyatniki – was a large industrial slum. It was also during this era that production of Winzavod reached it peak with over 170 different varieties. There were wines from various fruits and berries as well as bottled wine from the Crimea and the Caucusus.
Today, the facilities have not been altered too much. Many of the building’s decorative details were preserved and the appearance of the house is fairly unchanged. Walk around and see if you can imagine yourself in a different era. Two areas of note are:
- To the right of the entrance, there is a terrace. This was destroyed a century ago but then later restored to original state.
- In the centre there is an exquisite portico, which is one its kind. It has been preserved.
In many of the halls that we’ll tour, there is exposed brick, which is just as it was when the halls were used for brewing. They have been left this way as homage to the original purpose of the spaces. Since 2007, Winzavod has been host to many galleries, shops, showrooms, cafes, and restaurants, and on weekends there are even creative workshops for children.
Every year, Winzavod hosts the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, which is an opportunity for those under 35 to come and share their art. As Andy Potts describes it, Winzavod is intended to “[promote] creativity and [bring] an artistic voice to a wider audience.” However, in recent years, there was a controversy over Winzavod’s eviction of Marat Guelman, an artist tenant who had been in the complex since 2008. Although Guelman was evicted on the premise of not using his space for art-related activities, many critics claimed that there was a political undertone to this decision. A lot of discussion ensued with Potts expressing that:
Previously the city’s cultural life seemed to be, if not exactly bottom-up, at least emerging directly from the artistic and creative community. For better or worse, the guiding lights behind Winzavod and others were first and foremost involved in promoting creativity and bringing an artistic voice to a wider audience. It was a chance to broaden public experience.
The new wave, though, is entirely top-down. It’s a string of City Hall initiatives that are reshaping the city, from cycle lanes to street art.
Ultimately, despite Winzavod’s commitment to supporting art, there are many questions that arise around the type of art that Winzavod drives. Whether it is truly as devoted to public expression as it was originally intended to is up for debate.