More than a club: the Dulevsky Cultural and Leisure Centre brings generations together and preserves history for 96 years

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The team of the National Centre RUSSIA, led by Director General Natalia Virtuozova, visited Likino-Dulyovo in the Moscow region. Among the key points of the visit were the Dulevsky Cultural and Leisure Centre and the Church of St John the Theologian.

The tour for the National Centre RUSSIA team was conducted by the Director of the Dulevsky Cultural and Leisure Centre, Victoria Bekker. She explained that Likino-Dulyovo was originally founded as a factory settlement around the Porcelain Factory. The founder is considered to be Terenty Kuznetsov, and the history of the settlement dates back to 1832.

For a long time, the settlement did not have its own church, and workers travelled to a neighbouring village for services. In 1887, a new brick Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was built in the village of Gora, while the old wooden church was dismantled and moved to the territory of Dulyovo. The church was located on the grounds of the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory. Construction of the brick building began in 1912, and by 1917 the foundations for the bell tower and the main structural elements had been completed. However, the construction was never finished.

According to Victoria Bekker, already during the Soviet period the management of the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory and proactive workers understood that the cultural development of the workforce contributed to cohesion and the formation of a distinct "Dulyovo" identity. As a result, in the 1930s a club for the workers of the Porcelain Factory named after the newspaper "Pravda" was built in the settlement — this was the name of the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory at that time. The club was designed by the outstanding Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov and is a monument of Soviet avant-garde architecture. The club in Likino-Dulyovo is the only building by Melnikov constructed outside Moscow.

"Konstantin Melnikov is known all over the world because he was among the five greatest architects of the 20th century. The House of Culture is 96 years old. It is a cultural heritage site. The club is extremely valuable to us, because it is the only cultural leisure institution in our city. More than a thousand people are engaged here, and activities are carried out across generations. Even during the Great Patriotic War, the club never closed its doors. In the coming months, we are expecting a long-awaited event — the restoration of the building. In 96 years, such a large-scale renovation has never been carried out. It will be a return to the appearance of 1930, the time when it was created by Melnikov, while preserving all historical elements and interiors, including our magnificent auditorium," said Victoria Bekker.

The building is designed in the shape of a five-pointed star. According to Melnikov’s concept, it reflects the ideal proportions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man: the stage represents the head, the auditorium the body, the single-storey "arms" house the sports and dance halls, and the two-storey "legs" contain spaces for club and group activities. The building was conceived not merely as a club, but as a true "third home" for people — a place for concerts, classes, meetings, and creativity. The auditorium features floor-to-ceiling windows, while the "rays" on the ceiling lead towards the heart of the club, allowing visitors to immediately understand where the centre of the space is located. Stucco and decorative elements added later only enhance the building.

"The club saved our church several times — and the church saved the club in return. The Church of St John the Theologian was laid before the Great October Revolution, but construction stopped in 1917, and the building remained unfinished. The church was consecrated only in the 1990s. It was planned to be demolished three times, the last attempt being in 1975. There is even a scheme showing the placement of explosive charges for destroying the church, but due to its close proximity to the club, there was a risk of damaging the House of Culture. This is how the House of Culture preserved the Orthodox church," said Victoria Bekker.

The House of Culture building contains choreography classrooms, rooms for clubs and hobby groups, and a sports hall. Various film screenings were also held there.

"In the projection booth of the Dulevsky Club, there were three film projectors — each reel was enough for only twenty minutes, and the skill of the projectionist lay in seamlessly splicing them together right during the screening. Cinema here has always been part of living history. On the day of the 95th anniversary of the Porcelain Workers’ Club — 24 January 2025 — we restored one of the projectors and screened a film directly on the foyer wall. We found rare footage about our Club, porcelain, and the factory — an authentic atmosphere of the time when the club was the living centre of factory life," explained the Director of the House of Culture.

The historical connection between the renowned Porcelain Workers’ Club designed by architect Konstantin Melnikov and the Church of St John the Theologian highlights the spiritual and cultural identity of the city. Their coexistence and mutual preservation of cultural and spiritual values is one of the settlement’s defining features.