Youth House on Sparrow Hills. Palace of Pioneers on Lenin Hills

One thing can be said about the Palace of Pioneers on Vorobyovy Gory: it is the best place Moscow, and at the same time - the place is not Moscow at all. It is not clear how it exists in this city, it is not clear how it exists at this time. The asymmetrical green area is obliquely dissected by a regular grid of asphalt paths. On one side is a fifty-meter stainless steel flagpole. On the other, there is a light, elongated building with an observatory dome and a canopy on disappearing columns. In the center - like a piece of glass from a typical Soviet cinema. There are modernist panels on the facades, and everything is very literal: pioneers, bonfires, trumpets, Lenin - where without him. Ash and nut trees grow behind the buildings connected into one complex. It’s quiet, there are no cars, schoolchildren are walking along the paths - even in the late autumn of 2014, the hope-filled 1960s reign here.

The Palace of Pioneers began to be built immediately after the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, and opened on June 1, 1962 - six months remained before the publication of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, and an eternity before the tanks in Prague. At the parade of pioneers, Nikita Khrushchev himself cut the red ribbon of the new building. The Palace of Pioneers is the physical embodiment of the thaw and all the best that happened in the Soviet Union. The first post-war generation grew up in the country, which did not have to fight for its existence. And to satisfy their creativity needs, for the first time in Soviet history a place of eternal celebration was created for children.

Palace of Pioneers
on Vorobyovy Gory

A masterpiece of Soviet modernism, the team of authors was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR
in Architecture 1967

Architects: Igor Pokrovsky (supervisor), Felix Novikov, Victor Egerev, Vladimir Kubasov, Boris Paluy, Mikhail Khazhakyan, Yuri Ionov (engineer)

Years of creation: 1958–1962

Complex area: 48 hectares

Number of students: 15,500 schoolchildren

The construction of the complex became an event in the architectural life of the USSR: several concert and theater halls, swimming pools, a winter garden, an observatory and exhibition spaces were combined in one extended building. The competition was won by young and unknown architects under the leadership of Igor Aleksandrovich Pokrovsky (the future author of the development of Zelenograd) - everyone in the team of seven people was under 35 years old. The project became their path to life: when the State Prize of the RSFSR in the field of architecture was established in 1967, the creators of the Palace of Pioneers were the first to receive it.

The solution of Pokrovsky’s team was radically different from everything that had come before: these are very light, elegant buildings that fit well into the natural environment, united by a common laconic and clear style - the complete opposite of the excessive late Stalinist neoclassicism. Despite their half-century anniversary and the need for renovation, they still look fresh, modern and diverse. True, the architects were never able to complete everything they had planned: already in 1963, funding for the continuation of construction was curtailed.

The Palace of Pioneers on Vorobyovy Gory is not reduced to just a square or a modernist ensemble executed with undeniable taste. It is much larger than its components, and when you enter this space, you can feel a touch of the sacred. Architecture is not only bricks, glass and reinforced concrete. Architecture always expresses the ideology and mood of society: judging by the difference between the spacious New Arbat and the bulky Academician Sakharov Avenue, it is easy to imagine the difference between the beginning and end of the Brezhnev era. The Palace of Pioneers is a living utopia from a time when people believed that they would soon subjugate thermonuclear fusion, create a just society and fly to distant planets on a shiny rocket. And this is his paradox.

This complex lives in parallel reality- By the end of the 20th century, humanity experienced a crisis of faith in progress. No one is interested in a bright future anymore: why explore real space if you can in social networks discuss space adventures in Christopher Nolan's new film? And even more - the hope that things will be better in the future has been replaced by a fear of change and a desire to isolate oneself from the future, forget about its existence and return to the past, or at least leave everything as it is. But, being on Vorobyovy Gory, you don’t feel this hassle: progress is great, and the future cannot but be wonderful. Because if it is not beautiful, then why live at all?

On the square near the Palace of Pioneers, it’s easy to believe that everything will be fine. At least for this reason, in late autumn 2014 this is the best place in Moscow.

Photos: Polina Kirilenko

The currently fashionable activity “hand-made” is nothing more than the reincarnation of children’s circles of soft toys or cutting and sewing. From country pioneer camps, a Soviet schoolgirl brought a teddy Olympic bear she made with her own hands, and a Soviet schoolboy brought an almost flying glider. Young photographers used their official position to skip the obligatory afternoon nap under the pretext of urgently developing film in the photography circle. Returning to Moscow, some forgot about summer hobbies, while others continued to polish their skills in the regional Houses of Pioneers. And the most main Palace pioneers was located on the Lenin (Sparrow) Mountains. He is still there now. More than 15,000 people are systematically involved in research laboratories, studios, art and technical workshops, sports schools and sections, creative teams, development groups, clubs for children and parents. There are 1,314 study groups and groups at the Palace, most of which are free of charge.

On April 29, 1923, in the Khamovnichesky district of Moscow, the country’s first Pioneer House was opened on the basis of the Labor Commune children’s club. After the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted the resolution of December 26, 1932 “On measures to develop extracurricular activities among children in 1933,” a real boom began in the opening of new children's extracurricular institutions, including houses and palaces of pioneers and schoolchildren. In June 1936, the city House of Pioneers and Octobrists opened in Moscow in Stopani Lane (then the history of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers began).

Built in 1959-1963. the building on the Lenin (Sparrow) Hills is one of the first buildings of a new type, the design of which was entrusted to a group of Moscow artists and sculptures. The complex includes a wide variety of elements of monumental painting and sculpture - panels on the ends of large buildings, wall paintings in the theater foyer, reliefs on the facades, sculptural signs, reliefs on the grilles. All this is united by a single style - lapidary, conventional, gravitating towards symbolic expression, symbolism, emblems, overcoming descriptiveness. The project was selected as the best as a result of the competition.

Architects: Egerev Viktor Sergeevich, Kubasov Vladimir Stepanovich, Novikov Felix Aronovich, Pokrovsky Igor Alexandrovich, Khazhakyan Mikhail Nikolaevich.
Designer: Yuri Ivanovich Ionov.

In 1967, the architecture of the Palace was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR.

In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR and the ban of the CPSU, the Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin was dissolved. Its property was confiscated and transformed into institutions for additional education of children with the new name “Centers or Palaces of Children and Youth Creativity”, which are assigned to municipalities. In 1992, the Moscow Palace of Pioneers was reorganized into the Palace of Children and Youth.

In the spring of 2011, reconstruction was planned here, it was planned to evict clubs and sections and transfer part of the premises to Irina Viner for a rhythmic gymnastics school. These plans received a wide public response and the townspeople managed to preserve the palace, but there will certainly be new ones who want to develop 44 hectares of the “pioneer” land for their own purposes.

You can have different attitudes towards the Soviet system, but the fact is that the state did not skimp on the education, development and health of children. In the current commercial reality, one can only admire the teachers who, in difficult conditions, instill in children an interest in creativity, science and technology.

Address: st. Kosygina, 17. Nearest metro station: Vorobyovy Gory.

June 1, 1962. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev opens the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren on the Lenin Hills

1963 Admission to the Pioneers

1983 Panorama of Parade Square

Flagpole

They say that theater begins with a hanger. The Palace of Pioneers begins with her.

Almost all interior details have been preserved

Pets' corner

Young biologists

Ship modeling

Checkers-chess

Young photographer and models

Fashion show

Civil defense classes

Cadets

Karting club

Toy Story Museum

Rehearsal of the Loktev Song and Dance Ensemble

The children's song and dance ensemble appeared in Moscow in 1937, then it was the first group that united a choir, orchestra and dance groups, it was supervised by Professor Alexander Alexandrov. During the years of the Great Patriotic War The children's choir as part of front-line brigades performed in military units and hospitals. At that time, the artistic director of the ensemble was the wonderful teacher and accompanist Vladimir Loktev, who subsequently worked with this ensemble for a quarter of a century. IN Soviet years The ensemble performed in the main halls, toured extensively throughout the country and abroad, and famous composers trusted the Loktevites with the first performance of their works.

Today, the Loktev Song and Dance Ensemble is a single artistic group with its own school and traditions, consisting of four parts: choirs of different ages, orchestras, choreographic groups and a brass band. The Ensemble includes children from 5 to 18 years old. The Ensemble's repertoire consists of songs and dances of the peoples of the world, as well as musical works Russian and foreign composers. The most capable children continue their studies at the school-studio of the ensemble of I. Moiseev, the school-studio of the choir named after Pyatnitsky, as well as at the Moscow Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Gnessin Academy, Music College named after. A. Schnittke, Bolshoi Theater Choreographic School.

Concert hall

On December 7, 2016, the Moscow Palace of Pioneers on Vorobyovy Gory celebrates its 80th anniversary. Over half a million young Muscovites have found friends and like-minded people here, and many have decided on their future profession. the website and the Moscow Main Archive Department recall important events from the history of this unique institution.

The palace begins... with the house

In 1936, in house 6 on Stopani Lane (now Ogorodnaya Sloboda Lane, not far from the Chistye Prudy metro station), the Moscow City House of Pioneers and Octobrists (MGDPiO) opened. Everyone knew this non-school institution of a wide profile, and in common parlance it was simply called “Gord”, or “House on Stopani”. The magazine “Counselor” called it “the first of the laboratories that are being created in the Soviet country to educate a new person, a cultural citizen of the socialist homeland.”

The beautiful mansion where the House of Pioneers is located, before the revolution, belonged to the Vysotsky family, who owned one of the largest tea trading companies in Russia. As a high school student, Boris Pasternak often visited here: having fallen in love with the owner’s daughter, he quickly turned from a tutor to a family friend. Then the building was occupied by trade unions, the Central Club of Communications Workers and the Society of Old Bolsheviks.

For the children, the house was redecorated from the inside, reinterpreting the “merchant tastelessness and wealth” in the spirit of the era. This is how historian Vladimir Kabo describes it: “It was a beautiful white mansion in the Renaissance style, surrounded by an old garden... In the huge hall I was greeted by a panel depicting a good-naturedly smiling Stalin with a dark-haired girl in his arms. There is a fountain in the middle of the hall; Before the New Year there was always a tall tree covered in lights. From the hall, doors led to a large concert hall and to a buffet decorated in the form of a grotto. I went up the stairs first to the second floor, there was a lecture hall where we were given lectures on all sorts of topics and where we met famous writers, and there was a room decorated with frescoes on subjects folk tales. Above, on the third floor, our literary studio gathered.”

Already a year after the opening, 173 clubs and sections worked in the Moscow State Children's and Children's Academy, which were attended by about 3,500 children and adolescents. One building was not enough for them, and Gordom occupied the neighboring mansion (house 5) as a studio for technical creativity. This building housed an office for young inventors, an aircraft modeling and woodworking workshop, and six more laboratories - railway and water transport, communications, a darkroom, chemical and energy labs. The technical direction was a priority at that time, since the Soviet Union was experiencing rapid industrialization.

Children were seriously trained as qualified specialists: for example, in the railway laboratory there was a working model of a metro station with electric locomotives, escalators and a control unit. They also made a train here for a miniature railway, which they planned to build in the garden, but the war interfered...

Not only technology

Artistic creativity also actively developed: an orchestra, a choir, School of Music, dance school, theater studio, puppet theater, sculpture and architectural workshops, literary and art studio. The pioneer song and dance ensemble alone in 1937 numbered 500 participants, and in the production of “The Tale of dead princess and the Seven Bogatyrs" by the Pushkin Days, 750 people were employed!

Frequent guests of the literary studio were Samuil Marshak, Agnia Barto, Lev Kassil, Arkady Gaidar, Reuben Fraerman, Korney Chukovsky. No wonder they left here later famous writers: Yuri Trifonov, Sergey Baruzdin and Anatoly Aleksin. The theater studio is also proud of its graduates: among them are directors Stanislav Rostotsky and Alexander Mitta, artists Natalya Gundareva, Lyudmila Kasatkina, Igor Kvasha and Rolan Bykov. Actor Sergei Nikonenko recalls: “The spirit of kindness and commitment reigned in this House. We all loved our teachers to the point of oblivion... We had a common cause with them. We didn't feel forced like we did at school. Both they and we wanted the same thing - for us to do it as best as possible. They did not believe that childhood is a transitional period to the present, that is, adult life. They understood that childhood is the same real life. They respected the individuality in each of us.”

At the House of Pioneers they paid great attention to studying national history and geography, especially Moscow studies. The work was not only desk work: for example, to get acquainted with the culture of antiquity, young historians visited the Hermitage funds, and in the summer they went to excavations in the Crimea; geographers organized expeditions to the Moscow region and the Caucasus.

They didn’t forget about sports either, but mainly in applied disciplines. “At the behest of time,” the military-sports and patriotic direction was actively developing. Already in December 1936, a consolidated pioneer regiment operated, where they trained future snipers, tank crews, paratroopers, cavalrymen, orderlies, signalmen, dog breeders and pigeon breeders. And in 1938, a defense (later military) department was created, which included a rifle room, a naval laboratory, a school of chemical and air defense instructors, and machine gunner and grenade launcher circles.

In the pre-war years, the foundation was laid for the Gordoma chess club, which later became one of the strongest schools of this sport in the capital. Young chess players published a handwritten newspaper, participated in various tournaments and simultaneous games with famous grandmasters.

Creative space

On the small territory of the Pioneer House, everything that could attract and amaze children was collected. Do you want to roller skate? Here is the asphalt area in front of the gate. There are also children's pedal cars driving around here; later a garage was built for them. Do you want to read and do homework outdoors? There are cozy benches along the shady alleys. If you want to have some fun, go to the sports ground. You don’t even have to go to the zoo: in the courtyard there was a garden with fruit trees, and in it there was a swimming pool with waterfowl, next to it there was a living area with cages for young animals and a small stable with a foal. The Gordoma space was a real masterpiece of landscape design.

And most importantly, the entire House of Pioneers was a single whole, a huge creative laboratory, where passionate people worked who inspired and nourished each other. From the memoirs of historian Nikolai Merpert: “This whole House of Pioneers... seemed very valuable and, in in the best possible way this word, a deep institution. A variety of circles communicated with each other, there was a magnificent theater Hall, where we usually met, and then many halls, passages, very cozy corners - this old brick mansion in Stopani Lane was rebuilt extremely successfully. Therefore, we, or the youth theater created at the same time and led by excellent directors, the geographical circle, within the framework of the history office, the Moscow history circle - we all communicated very, very closely.”

Adult help during the war years

Despite all the difficulties, the House of Pioneers worked during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). Mostly there were circles that could help the front: sewing, carpentry, plumbing, electrical engineering. But creative studios also continued their studies, especially theater, dance and choir: young artists organized concerts for Red Army soldiers.

In January 1942, Gordom took patronage over one of the military hospitals. The carpentry circle made cigarette holders for the wounded, and the sewing circle made pouches, collars and handkerchiefs. For the holidays, the pioneers collected books and records for the soldiers, and gave them a gramophone and an alloscope (a type of filmoscope, a device for projecting filmstrips. - Website note).

The guys brought writing materials to their sponsors - envelopes, postcards, paper and pencils; they themselves wrote dictation of news to their relatives and read newspapers aloud to the soldiers. Young artists decorated not only the hospital premises with their drawings, but also the carriages of the ambulance train.

“Pioneer” Tuesdays and Fridays became a good tradition, when members of the circle spent creative evenings in the hospital - they sang, danced, acted out skits and read excerpts from works of art. The guys also took on the duties of postmen, delivering the latest press and correspondence.

All this was done so easily and cheerfully that the soldiers joyfully looked forward to new meetings with the pioneers. Even the hospital commissioners, who at first were very skeptical about the offer to help, after a few months recognized Gord as a full-fledged chief.

In addition, during the war years, the House of Pioneers continued to provide methodological and practical support to out-of-school institutions and children's organizations in all regions of Moscow: it developed lesson programs and trained counselors and instructors.

After the war: patriotism and expanding borders

In the post-war years, the country experienced an unprecedented patriotic upsurge. WITH new strength interest in native history flared up. This could not but affect the work of the House of Pioneers: historical circles became one of the main directions. They were especially active in preparation for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the capital (1947). Back in November 1945, the Society of Young Historians of Moscow was created, which combined the efforts of the House of Pioneers and historical circles in schools.

Members of the Society gave lectures, participated in excursions and trips, archaeological excavations and various competitions. In 1946, schoolchildren sent 25 thousand creative works, dedicated to the history of Moscow, in 1947 - 80 thousand. There were stories, poems, drawings, models, embroideries, photographs...

Thanks to its large-scale activities, the Society received many awards from the Ministry of Education, such as a library of historical literature and trips to excursions around the country. The active activity of historical circles continued in subsequent years: in 1948, the competition “Wonderful People of Moscow” was held, and in April 1956, a citywide school conference on the study of Moscow was held.

Other studios and laboratories opened earlier also developed. According to statistics, already in the first post-war year more than three thousand schoolchildren studied at the House of Pioneers, and the number of participants in concerts, competitions, sports holidays and others mass events reached 35 thousand per month.

At the end of the 1950s, it became clear that Gordom could not accommodate everyone. In the report for 1956, the director of the House of Pioneers V.V. Strunin wrote: “According to its conditions, our House of Pioneers cannot cover more than 3800-4000 people with circle work... If appropriate conditions existed, the composition of the ensemble choir alone could be increased to 2000-3000 people... Considering the aspirations of schoolchildren for creative amateur activities and the importance circle work in the education of students, it is necessary to achieve the creation of a wide network of circles in each school, to quickly resolve the issue of building a new City House of Pioneers in Moscow.”

Bold project

In 1958, the Central Council of the All-Union Pioneer Organization decided to build not only new house, and the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren. The memorial stone was laid in the fall of the same year - October 29, the day of the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol; it is now located to the left of the alley leading to the main entrance of the Palace.

They chose a beautiful place - on the high bank of the Moscow River, along Vorobyovskoye Highway (now Kosygina Street). Choosing a project turned out to be more difficult: there were several dozen proposals, each more interesting than the other. As a result, the application of a team of young architects led by Igor Pokrovsky won; This group also included Mikhail Khazhakyan, who at one time participated in the reconstruction of the MGDPiO building in Stopani Lane.

The project was so unusual and innovative that the authors did not hope to implement it, but, apparently, this courage was to the liking of the jury. Firstly, the architects wanted to contrast the new building with the palaces of the past - magnificent and grandiose, but hardly suitable for children's activities. Secondly, they decided to harmoniously fit the building into the existing green area - because of this, they abandoned the symmetrical composition, and then, during construction, they corrected the original plan more than once. Thirdly, for reasons of safety and aesthetics, the Palace was placed not near the road, but on a lawn deep in the grove. For complete unity with nature - “less massive stonework and more stained glass, transparent glass walls.”

The result was a free-form building, intricately scattered throughout the landscaped park. The walls were decorated with monumental multi-colored panels with pioneer emblems: a fire, a bugle, stars; paintings “Water”, “Earth” and “Sky” were placed on the end facades, which symbolize the conquest of the elements by man. Even the front square in front of the Palace was not filled with concrete or asphalt - they left the natural lawn, only dividing it with white stone paths. The center of the composition was a 60-meter flagpole, which turned the area around it into an allegory of a grand ship.

One of business cards The palace became a winter garden: “This is space, air, light, height. And of course, palm trees, araucarias, vines, papyrus. However, exotics require normal tropical conditions to grow. The tropics were created using special automated system heating soil, water, air. I also had to think about the sun’s glare spectacularly falling on the greenery, about glass domes through which the sky could be seen, about a pool with water plants, about a fountain, about a lattice separating the through gallery from the winter garden. The lattice was made openwork, decorative, with fish, birds, insects, to match everything else.”

Komsomolskaya construction

The construction, which began in 1958, turned out to be large-scale: 18 design organizations were involved, and more than 300 enterprises supplied building and finishing materials, engineering structures, equipment and furniture. In addition to hundreds of skilled workers in 40 specialties, more than 50 thousand volunteers - boys and girls from all over the country - took part in cleanup and Sunday work over four years. According to official estimates, schoolchildren and students worked here over three million man-hours! Upon completion of construction, more than two thousand trees and about 100 thousand flowers were planted on the territory of the Palace.

The opening of the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren took place on June 1, 1962, Children's Day. The First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev took part in the ceremony. According to eyewitnesses, he said: “I don’t know what others will say, but I like this Palace.”

In 1967, the architects and designers of the Palace of Pioneers were awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR. But they probably considered the best reward to be the words of the famous French architect Bernard Zehrfus: “I consider truly good architecture to be that which, being modern, does not lose the signs of modernity even after many years. I am confident that the building on the Lenin Hills will stand the test of time.”

Test of time

After the opening of the complex on the Lenin Hills, Gordom on Stopani also became a palace - the regional Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren named after N.K. Krupskaya (now the Palace of Creativity of Children and Youth of the Central Administrative District).

And the Palace of Pioneers (now on Vorobyovy Gory) has more than doubled in size over half a century: if in 1962 it included 400 rooms, now there are about 900 of them, with a total area of almost 40 thousand square meters. About 27.5 thousand children from three to 18 years old study in laboratories, studios, art and technical workshops, sports schools and sections of the Palace (including branches). In total, there are over 1,300 study groups in 10 areas: science and culture, technical, artistic and social creativity, information technology, ecology, ethnography, physical education and sports. In 93 percent of studios and clubs, classes are free.

The institution repeatedly changed its status and name: in 1992 it was renamed the Moscow City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity, in 2001 - the Moscow City Palace of Children's (Youth) Creativity. In 2014-2015, during the reorganization, the State Budgetary Professional educational institution(GBPOU) “Sparrow Hills”, which in addition to the Palace includes 16 more educational institutions - kindergartens, secondary schools, a college of professional technologies and centers of additional education.

The essence of the Palace remains unchanged: people who are passionate about their work still work here. They help children and adolescents develop abilities and talents, find a calling and a path in life.

And the Palace of Pioneers, which can simultaneously accommodate up to 20 thousand people, is an excellent platform for festive events. Children and parents willingly gather here for Christmas and New Year, on Family Day and Children's Day, City Day, on Children's Book Week and. Of course, the Palace will also celebrate its own 80th anniversary, which will take place on December 7.

Used sources

Lanes of old Moscow. Story. Architectural monuments. Routes / Romanyuk S.K. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2016. - P. 697-698.
Cabo V.R. Road to Australia: Memoirs. - New York: Effect Publishing, 1995. - pp. 63-65, 73.
Out-of-school student. - 2004. - No. 4. - pp. 24-25.
Our winter garden. Issue No. 1. - M.: Center for Environmental Education MGDD(Yu)T, 2010. - P. 3-12.
Under the sign of good: Memoirs of former students of the department of tourism and local history. - M.: MGDTDiYu, 1997. - P. 2-6.
Novogrudsky G.S. Happy Architect // Comrade Moscow: collection of essays. - M.: Soviet Russia, 1973. - P. 386-393.

Associations (circles and sections) of technical, scientific and technical creativity, environmental education, sports sections, associations of military-patriotic, tourism and local history, information technologies. Located on the right high bank of the Moscow River in the Vorobyovy Gora area. It is the central Palace of Children's Creativity in Russia.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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Built in 1959-1962. The building is one of the first buildings of a new type, the design of which was entrusted to a group of Moscow artists and sculptors. The complex includes a wide variety of elements of monumental painting and sculpture - panels on the ends of large buildings, wall paintings in the foyers of theaters, reliefs on facades, sculptural signs, reliefs on gratings. One drawback is the problem of ventilation. All this is united by a single style - lapidary, conventional, gravitating towards symbolic expression, symbolism, emblems, overcoming descriptiveness. The project was selected as the best as a result of the competition.
Designer: Yu. I. Ionov.

Organization

History of MGDD(Yu)T

The palace was founded in 1936 as the Moscow City House of Pioneers and Octobrists (Proud) on Stopan (now Ogorodnaya Sloboda, Chistye Prudy metro station).
The number of children seeking to study at Gordom increased continuously and by the end of the 1950s. it became clear that its walls could not accommodate everyone. In 1958, at the state level, a decision was made to build a new children's complex on the Lenin Hills. On October 29, 1958, a solemn meeting was held to mark the foundation of the Palace of Pioneers and a foundation stone was installed on which the inscription was carved: “The City Palace of Pioneers was founded by Komsomol members and the youth of Moscow in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol.” The palace was built with money left over from the VI World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in 1957. The construction of the Palace was a shock Komsomol construction project.
On June 1, 1962, the grand opening of the new complex took place on the Lenin Hills (hereinafter referred to as the Sparrow Hills). The First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU P. N. Demichev, Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee S. P. Pavlov, Chairman of the Central Council of the All-Union Pioneer Organization L. K. Balyasnaya came to congratulate the children , Minister of Education of the RSFSR E. I. Afanasenko, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet N. A. Dygai, 1st Secretary of the Komsomol Moscow City Committee B. N. Pastukhov and other honored guests.
On May 19, 1972, on the day of the 50th anniversary of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, a monument to Malchish-Kibalchish, the hero of a fairy tale from the story by A. P. Gaidar, was unveiled on the territory of the Palace of Pioneers. A military secret"(sculptor V.K. Frolov, architect V.S. Kubasov). On May 19, 1974, at the foot of the monument, a capsule with soil from the grave of Arkady Petrovich Gaidar, delivered by Moscow pioneers from the Ukrainian city of Kanev, was buried. So the monument literary hero became a memorial to its creator.
In 1971, for great success in the communist education of the younger generation, the Palace was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. And in 1981, it was awarded the honorary title “Exemplary Out-of-School Institution.”
On September 1, 1988, a branch of the Palace of Pioneers was opened: the House of Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth near the Shabolovskaya metro station. In 1992, it was reorganized from the Moscow City Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren into the Moscow City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity. In 2001-2014, it was called the Moscow City Palace of Children's (Youth) Creativity; and from September 1, 2014 it became (after merging with a number of other educational institutions) the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Moscow “Sparrow Hills”. Now the Palace consists of 1,314 educational groups and teams (in 93% of them education is free) in 11 educational areas, in which about 15,500 schoolchildren study, the total area of the Palace is 48.6 hectares, the total area of buildings is 39.3 thousand. m², their volume is 219 thousand m³, the total number of premises is 900 units.
On January 6, 2007, one of the minor planets in honor of the Moscow City Palace of Children's (Youth) Creativity (Palace of Pioneers) was given the name “Palace of Pioneers” (the international name of the minor planet is 22249 Dvorets Pionerov). The planet was discovered on September 11, 1972 by N. S. Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and is registered in the international catalog under number 22249, its diameter is about 3 km, the minimum distance from the Earth is 109 million km.
In 2014, the organization was reorganized into the State Budgetary Professional Educational Institution “Sparrow Hills”.

Departments of MGDD(Yu)T

Directors of MGDD(Yu)T

Conferences, seminars, competitions and festivals traditionally held at MGDD(Yu)T
- "Day of the city"
- “Week of Games and Toys” (held during the autumn holidays)
- New Year's performances (held during the winter holidays)
- "Christmas on Sparrow Hills"
- "Russian Maslenitsa"
- “Children’s and Youth Book Week” (held during spring break)
- "Sons of the Fatherland"
- Festival “Team Tolerance” (June 12)
- All-Russian Youth Readings named after. V. I. Vernadsky (annually, correspondence tour in December-February, full-time tour in April on the basis of DNTTM)
- City competition of research and design work schoolchildren of Moscow and Russia “We and the Biosphere”
- Festival "Young Talents of Muscovy"
- Assembly "Culture and Children"