Public buildings as a bulwark of charity in the ocean of suffering

A man is the unique creation, with a strong spirit, and ability to endure incredible suffering. But there are such sorrows, that sometimes come upon him, break completely and lead to a state of «the sick, and wandering beggars lying on the streets.»
For these people by pitiful compatriots were invented charitable institutions — hospices, where aged, infirmed, disabled and crippled could live fully supported.
In the Smolensk region one of the earliest hospice was the church, at the Arkadevsky female monastery in the town of Vyazma, arranged by aged nuns in 1779 after the Vyazemsky female Ilyin Monastery was closed down.
The greatest number of hospices in the Smolensk province emerged at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The building of one of such hospices is located in the Student street, building 4.
For its appearance in the middle of the XIX century it is obliged to Smolensk merchant of the 1st guild Lanin Fyodor Andrejevich. Lanin F.A. is a well known Smolensk merchant entrepreneur, a founder of the Lanin Trading House. He was born in 1800 in the Kaluga province. He was originated from the middle class. He was the owner of eight commercial establishments and one of the founders of the Free Fire Society in Smolensk. He donated significant sums for the improvement of the city, he created a fund to help brides-dowerless, F.A. Lanin was a member of the Sponsorial orphanages. In 1868, at the Lower Church of St. Nicholas Church was formed the church care and F.A. Lanin was elected its council chief. Lanin spent his money to build and equip a hospice. And for its inhabitants could be sure in future, he and the merchant Osip Pavlovich Pestrikov created the «City Bank» and wrote in its statute: «… It is the bank…its aims is charity. Percentage from the turnover, except living expenses are used to fix up and support the hospice. It is established for making charity to aged, infirmed and terminally ill inhabitants of both genders in Smolensk, without distinction of classes. »

Taking care of the wards from the hospice, and of the young people manners from vocational school, built next to the hospice by merchant O.P. Pestrikov, merchants got permission to build a church named by Tikhon Zadonskij in the place of the Pyatnitskie water gates bombed by the French people, and it fitted into the ensemble of the wall successfully. So there were sponsors of that time, branded at school textbooks as representatives of «the dark kingdom». But don’t fall into illusion: people like Lanin and Pestrikov who built the churches, opened shelters and schools, devoted huge funds for hospitals, city improvement, who created a fund to help the fortuneless young girls, etc. — and in those the time were not numerous. It’s no coincidence that the City Council awarded them with the title of honorary citizens of Smolensk in 1874.
Currently, the object of cultural heritage of regional significance «The public building» in the Student street, building 4 is used to place various public organizations and institutions.