Fallen Fighters Square Parade Ground Deadline Missed

In Volgograd, the deadlines for the reconstruction of the Square of Fallen Fighters have been missed; all major works were to be completed by July 15. Meanwhile, a few days before the contract deadline, an additional agreement appeared in the contract registry, but it was not published as a document on the public procurement portal.

Recall that on March 14, Volgograd Oblast Governor Andrey Bocharov announced that the Square of Fallen Fighters would become pedestrian-only, leaving only a passage for armored vehicles during parades.

«It’s time to bring these facilities into proper condition and move forward with development,» Andrey Bocharov insisted.

The statement was shocking. The planned reconstruction of the Square of Fallen Fighters had been known for five years, when Privolzhtransstroy completed the design documentation in 2021.

«In daily use, the square is primarily a space for vehicle movement and parking, a transit space for pedestrians, and is not a full-fledged urban pedestrian space that matches the status of the main public space in the city center,» the decision was justified in the explanatory note to the documentation, where residents were promised fountains, flower beds, lights, stands with seats, and even steel rail curbs.

But the documentation did not promise to turn Volgograd’s main square into a fully pedestrian parade ground surrounded by fountains and catalpa trees. However, late in the evening on May 14, 2026, a message appeared on the social media of the Volgograd administration that the Square of Fallen Fighters would still be closed. And by midnight, gray metal movable barriers appeared on the square, followed by heavy equipment.

The customer for the improvement works on the Square of Fallen Fighters was MBU Volgogradzelenkhoz (Municipal Budgetary Institution ‘Volgogradzelenkhoz’), with an initial cost of over 327 million rubles (about $3,633,300 at current rates). The general contractor became another budgetary institution, MBU Severnoye, which reduced the price by 36 million rubles (about $400,000) and undertook to complete the work for 291 million rubles (about $3,233,300).

But MBU Severnoye did not handle the budget millions on its own. The organization found two subcontractors, splitting the procurement into two lots. Moreover, all procurements were conducted from a single supplier and were to be completed by August 1, 2026, while the main works, including the relocation of the monument to Alexander Nevsky, installation of granite tile pavement capable of supporting heavy special equipment, and installation of small architectural forms, were to be completed by July 15.

The director of MBU Severnoye, Pavel Tselkovsky, simply explained the non-competitive contracts with a single supplier: the customer set tight deadlines, and the selected companies had proven themselves well on other sites. And according to Pavel Tselkovsky, he doesn’t care at all who is at the helm of the contractor firms; as a result, the bulk of the work worth nearly 300 million rubles (about $3,333,300) went to a company whose founder and director is a social studies tutor, Yekaterina Zudova. More details on who is carrying out the reconstruction of the Square of Fallen Fighters can be read in a separate article.

The work schedule for the reconstruction of the Square of Fallen Fighters is as follows: relocation of the monument to Alexander Nevsky was to be completed by June 20, demolition work, construction of retaining walls and staircases by July 1, installation of granite tile pavement capable of supporting heavy special equipment and installation of small architectural forms by July 15, installation of video surveillance, sound alert systems and outdoor lighting by July 20, and landscaping by August 1. Meanwhile, only on July 9 did the Volgograd administration post on its Telegram channel that the foundation slab had just begun to be poured with concrete on the square, on top of which the granite tiles will be laid. The equipment is supposed to move over it during parades.

At the same time, on July 2, information appeared on the public procurement portal in the “Contracts” section about the emergence of an additional agreement to the contract. The document itself was not attached. Attempts to find out what exactly the supplementary agreement concerned failed: the director of MBU Severnoye, Pavel Tselkovsky, promised to clarify the nature of the additional agreement to the contract, assured that there was still plenty of time before the deadline, and then stopped answering calls from the V1.RU editorial office. An editorial inquiry has been sent to the Volgograd administration asking whether there is an additional agreement regarding the deadlines for the work, and whether penalties will be applied to MBU Severnoye if the fact of missing the deadline for the Square of Fallen Fighters is confirmed.

Recall that earlier, the Simbirtsev Square opposite the Gorky Library was opened with a huge delay. The deadline for the work, according to the contract, was to be completed by April 1, although back in July 2025, Governor Andrey Bocharov said: there is no need to rush the reconstruction, the main thing was to complete all major work by Victory Day. In fact, the square opened in June 2026, with the now-traditional for Volgograd failure to meet the contract deadlines.