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On November 1, 2016, a presentation of the book “Saint Michael Lutheran Church as a monument of culture and history of engineering. The events of 1918-1932 according to materials of primary sources” took place within the framework of the project “Synkletos at VIAM”. The employee of VIAM, Andrey R. Narskij is the author of the book.

Dmitry E. Kablov, Head of Department “Intellectual property” opened the meeting. “Andrey is obsessed by his work and this fact inspires with huge respect. And most important thing is that so excellent books are born as a result of his researches”, - Dmitry Kablov pointed out.

According to him, this edition is for people, who are interested in the history of Moscow and VIAM. Readers can find a lot of interesting and exclusive facts in this book.

Andrey Narskij found information about the ancient Saint Michael Evangelical Lutheran Church in one of the documents, while he was working on his first book, dedicated to development of domestic aviation materials science. The Lutheran Church was located in Voznesenskaya street (now – Radio Street) in the former German Quarter (Sloboda).

“I am very interested in this question, because the church was located in the territory of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, but now it is the territory of VIAM”, - Andrey Narskij told.

According to the author, the book is based on historical documents, which was found in archival, museum and library funds. Presented in edition documents are numerous photographs and copies of the most important archive materials. Most of them have been published for the first time.

  In the course of the study, a lot of interesting historical facts were found out. In particular, it confirms the fact of burial in the church of one of the associates of Peter the Great – Graf Yakov V. Bruce, Field-Marshal-General and his spouse Marfa Tseeva. According to Andrey Narskij, only caftan, camisole, culottes and high boot of Ya. V. Bruce have remained till our time. Now they are kept in the Department of fabrics and suit of the State Historical Museum.

According to the author, a laboratory of engine-propeller department of TsAGI dealing with aircraft engine tests was located in the church, which was closed for congregation in 1928. One of the creators of the soviet liquid-fuel rocket Friedrich A. Zander carried out numerous “cold” and “fire” engine experiences in 1930-1932. In particular, it was tests of created by him OR-1 – jet engine on compressed air with gasoline.

In response to numerous questions from audience, Andrey Narskij pointed out, that “desire to preserve memory of this significant monument of culture and history of engineering prompted him to write the book”.

It should be noted, that specialists of Museum Association “Museum of Moscow” are interested in the results of his study and now they use groundwork of Andrey Narskij in their scientific-research and educational work.