The SKK stadium in St. Petersburg, known as Peterburgsky, collapsed during dismantling work on Friday, killing a worker who was swept away by rubble. A chilling video from a drone captures the moment. In the images two workers appear: one manages to escape by being inside the cradle or crane cage . The other falls into a vacuum. His name was Matvey Kucherov and he was 29 years old. He was one of the four employees who had to cut the metal wires to dismantle the cover. His lifeless body was found hours later in the rubble.

The St. Petersburg SKK sports and concert complex dates back to the Soviet era and was to be demolished for being in poor condition. Local architects protested the demolition plans, arguing that the building was an icon of Soviet neoconstructivist architecture. The stadium, with a capacity for 25,000 spectators, opened for the first time in 1980 for the Moscow Olympic Games.

It had been closed since August last year, while it was demolished and rebuilt for the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship. The roof dismantling began this fateful January 31. The first pair of operators to take action was Matvey Kucherov and his childhood friend, Alexander Bardynin, 26, who stayed at the boat suspended under the crane. Both were raised in the same village in the Karelia region. Only Kucherov was a professional welder. They were paid 112 euros a day for that dangerous job.

The Fontanka news website has been the one that has spread the dramatic images of the collapse, in which a worker is seen running and unable to hold on to the cage, suspended from a crane, when the structure falls apart. In fact, he gets to touch the wafer but it escapes from his hands.

According to case reports, which is under investigation, the man left the cage without a safety rope to work on the roof before it collapsed. During the first part of the job the deceased operator carries a GoPro camera installed in the helmet (which they returned before the accident), and by his conversations it is known that he moves away from the boat where his companion is waiting for him because he had to save time to not have Than move the crane.

They were very slow, improvising the plan on the fly and the one who handled the crane acted blindly depending on the orders he received on the radio. Without risking more, it would take about 33 hours to cut the 112 cables. Fontanka denounces that the methods to disconnect the roof of the main part of the building changed on the fly and that the rush was not a minor factor.

Receiving orders from below, Kucherov unbuttoned his partner and obtained total freedom of movement. Thus it was not necessary to move the crane site or just the boat. Work progressed faster. But at 2:55 p.m., when the fifteenth support of the roof was torn off, the structure could not bear the load and crumbled. Matvey Kucherov ran to the cage. But he did not reach it.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia was quoted by local press saying that 80% of the stadium walls had collapsed. Now there is no stadium and a life has been lost by a lot of rubble.

A Soviet jewel

The legendary stadium was projected in the early 1960s alongside what is today Yury Gagarin Avenue . Construction began in 1970 and was completed at the end of 1979. It was inaugurated for the Moscow Olympic Games in May 1980. It would function as a new sports and concert complex, and was named Vladimir Ilich Lenin, father of the USSR.

In 1995, the Lenin stadium was renamed SKK Petersburg or Peterburgsky. It hosted fewer and fewer parties and more concerts. Last year, Jennifer Lopez. Also Madonna, Shakira or Metallica. It was used for different sports: in particular tennis, and it was even the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Open. Other sporting events organized there include table tennis or fencing. The Peterburgsky was also used for some trade shows.

The demolition plans had encountered quite a social response, as it was a jewel of Soviet socialist architecture. He was even considering proposing it as a World Heritage Site. Finally, in October, the St. Petersburg government officially announced an open architectural competition for the "reconstruction" of the building and the neighborhood. Opponents of the demolition criticized the contract to be given freedom to demolish and also rejected the public contest format. "The hired workers simply walk through the facilities breaking everything to create the appearance of chaos," denounced the website of the defenders of Peterburgsky in a post late last year.

Protests

On December 1, 2019, activists and local people held a protest rally to call the Government's attention to the "illegal demolition" of Peterburgsky. But for the authorities it was necessary to do it again to have it ready for the 2023 Hockey World Cup. The Peterburgsky defenders demanded that something similar to that projected for the Luzhniki football stadium be done , where initially a similar demolition was proposed that finally he did not get ahead: the stands were completely rebuilt but the facade was maintained, according to the defending stadium defenders.

On the morning of this Sunday there was a demonstration in St. Petersburg in memory of the crumbling building and the deceased worker. People placed flowers at the intersection of Yuri Gagarin Avenue and Basseynaya Street , where the works started. But the facts have turned against Peterburgsky's own defenders. "Now there are dead thanks to the stupid activists," claims a wave of comments and tweets on the internet. "If it were not for the activists who defend the SKK, the building would have been demolished a long time ago and the worker would not have died. It was necessary to demolish it, and not just remove the roof," added another. The death of the stadium and the worker has revived the controversy over public heritage and speculation in St. Petersburg.

But the Peterburgsky and the life of Matvey Kucherov have gone out forever.

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