Barvikha

Barvikha ( _ru. Барви́ха) is a village west of Moscow and site of the Barvikha Sanatorium, the health resort of the President of Russia. During the Soviet era, Barvikha was known as the site of the most desirable state dachas for government officials and leading intellectuals, and many of Russia's wealthiest individuals have built private luxury dachas here since the late 1990s.

Geography

Barvikha is located at coord|55.7416667|N|37.2786111|Ecite web
title=Barvikha, Moskva, Russia
url=http://www.rumbletum.org/Europe/Russia/Moskva/_578953_Barvikha.html#themap
accessdate=2007-12-25] ,in Odintsovo Raion, Moscow Oblast. The village lies on the Rublevo-Uspenskoye road leading to the west from Moscow, just outside the Moscow Ring Road and the boundaries of the City of Moscow. There is a Barvikha station on a spur of the Belarus direction of the Moscow Railway, first opened at the current site in 1927.cite web
title=Barvikha
language=Russian
url=http://www.terra.ru/history/barvikha.htm
last=Blyumin
first=Georgiy
publisher=Terra Real Estate
accessdate=2007-12-25]

Barvikha is surrounded by a zone of pine forest nature preserve on the south bank of the Moscow River.

anatorium

Barvikha contains the Barvikha Sanatorium (Russian: "Барвиха" медицинский центр УДП РФ), a well-equipped medical center which has treated several Russian leaders. The sanatorium was designed by architect Boris Iofan,cite news
title=The Soviet architecture purge
last=Blake
first=Peter
work=Architectural Record
date=September 1949
url=http://archrecord.construction.com/inTheCause/onTheState/0310soviet.asp
accessdate=2007-12-25] cite journal
title="Ever Higher": The evolution of the project for the Palace of Soviets
last=Hoisington
first=Sona Stephan
journal=Slavic Review
date=Spring 2003
volume=62
issue=1
pages=41–68
url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090466
accessdate=2008-06-26
doi=10.2307/3090466] and completed in 1935. It was designated as a clinic for leading government officials suffering from illnesses of digestion and metabolism; it was there that Bulgarian leader Georgi Dimitrov died in 1949.cite web
title=История санатория Барвиха
url=http://www.barvihamed.ru/about/
publisher=Administration of Affairs of the President of the Russian Federation
language=Russian
accessdate=2008-01-03] Today it is owned by the Administration of Affairs of the President of the Russian Federation.cite web
title=Клиничексий санаторий "Барвиха"
language=Russian
publisher=Administration of Affairs of the President of the Russian Federation
url=http://www.barvihamed.ru/
accessdate=2007-12-25] The sanatorium provides deluxe accommodations and high-quality medical services. Its grounds include a lake that offers fishing and swimming in the summer.cite web
title=Санаторий "Барвиха"
url=http://www.kurortmag.ru/region/36068/
publisher=Курортный магазин
language=Russian
accessdate=2007-12-25]

The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, made frequent stays at the Sanatorium during his second presidential term and retirement.cite news
title=Yeltsin on the mend, say doctors
author=ITAR-TASS news agency
date=1997-12-12
work=BBC News
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/39040.stm
accessdate=2007-12-25] From 1996 until his death in April 2007, his primary residence was the "Gorki-9" ( _ru. Горки-9) presidential dacha on the Rublevo-Uspenskoye Road, not far from Barvikha.cite news
title=Адрес главы государства: Девятые Горки для первого Президента
work=Новые рубежи
last=Mitronov
first=Nikolay
language=Russian
date=2007-10-10
page=5
url=http://www.mosoblonline.ru/upload/att/20071009151849.pdf
accessdate=2008-01-03
format=PDF] This allowed quick access to the Sanatorium's medical facilities.

In 1944 and 1945, writer and Communist Party official Aleksandr Shcherbakov was treated at Barvikha for cardiac illness. He died of heart failure in 1945. In 1952, Shcherbakov's death became one of the issues in Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic Doctors' Plot investigation. The deputy director of the medical department of the sanitarium, Roman Ryzhikov, was arrested and interrogated, but later released.cite book
title=Stalin's last crime: The plot against the Jewish doctors, 1948-1953
last=Brent
first=Jonathan
coauthors=Vladimir Pavlovich Naumov
publisher=HarperCollins
year=2003
isbn=0060933100
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pdBgA4n_2gEC
accessdate=2008-01-05]

Dachas

The Rublevo-Uspenskoye Road, colloquially known as the Rublyovka, has long been a site for dachas. During the Soviet period, prominent officials and intellectuals often used state-owned dachas in the vicinity of Barvikha. The writer Aleksey Tolstoy and his family occupied a state-owned dacha in Barvikha from 1938 through his death in 1945.cite book
title=Summerfolk: A History of the Dacha, 1710-2000
last=Lovell
first=Stephen
publisher=Cornell University Press
year=2003
isbn=0801440718
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wr75LM7kD3AC
accessdate=2008-01-05]

Development

Beginning in the late 1990s, Barvikha has become a popular site for the dachas of wealthy residents of Moscow. In contrast to the traditional wood-built dachas, these new, privately-owned cottages are often much larger and include mansion-like residences with full amenities and private security.cite news
title=Russia: Consumers Clamor To Buy Luxury Goods
last=Arnold
first=Chloe
work=Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
date=2007-06-01
url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/afc96606-b3aa-4844-9401-9d0b7815b23d.html
accessdate=2007-12-25] The rapid development has substantially increased property values and has generated some friction with long-term local residents.cite news
title=Fear and resentment as Moscow's rich grab land for luxury homes
last=Parfitt
first=Tom
work=The Guardian Unlimited
date=2007-02-22
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2018342,00.html
accessdate=2007-12-25]

The Barvikha Luxury Village, a high-end shopping center including Ferrari and Harley-Davidson dealerships, opened in 2005.cite news
title=A revolution in retail beyond Red Square
last=Kishkovsky
first=Sophia
work=The International Herald Tribune
date=2007-11-23
url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/22/style/rgild.php?page=1
accessdate=2008-01-05]

ee also

*Zavidovo
*Novo-Ogaryovo

References

External links

*cite news
title=Murder, Inc.
last=Quinn-Judge
first=Paul
work=Time Magazine
date=2003-06-29
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901030707-461802,00.html
accessdate=2007-12-25
*cite web
title="Барвиха" медицинский центр УДП РФ
language=Russian
url=http://www.ruscountry.ru/sanators/barviha.htm
accessdate=2008-01-05 Includes photographs of the Sanatorium