Oleg Oshchepkov Biography

A great interview with former vice-governor Oleg Oshchepkov Oleg Oshchepkov, an entrepreneur and former vice-governor of the Perm Territory-about the cultural driver, non-triviality of Chirkunov, attracting billionaires to the region and iconic zero restaurants. Author: Yana Kupramsevich Oleg Evgenievich, you are actively working in the Perm Territory for several decades, including experience in the civil service.

In one of the first interviews after appointing the vice-governor in the year, you said that the region should become the territory of success for residents. In your opinion, have it been possible to achieve this by today? The city has definitely become more comfortable, starting with the transport system and ending with the appearance of streets and houses. The quality of roads and services has improved, including informational ones.

All this positively affected the development of small business. For example, if we talk about the restaurant business that I represent today, I think the region in the first ten among the regions in quality and in the number of gastronomic projects. We have grown a lot in this direction over the past years. Was there any peak points of rapid development, or did the region change gradually?

And, absolutely, for the past five years, it has been observed. This is due, in particular, with the concentration of efforts and resources in preparation for the celebration of the Perm Flight. You, perhaps, became the first vice-governor in the Perm Territory, to which you set the task of creating and promoting the image of the region. How was work in this direction?

I remember his phrase: "The city should have a dream." This is really important both in terms of the development of the territory and communities of people. And his whole approach was non -trivial: he personally talked about projects, arousing interest among others. So the Russian billionaire Sergei Gordeev got into the region, who later became a senator from the Perm Territory in the Federation Council.

He read Chirkunov’s program article in Vedomosti and called on the same day and announced his readiness to help the region. So it worked.

Then we prepared a letter on behalf of the governor to the owners of the top companies. In it, Oleg Chirkunov explained that the region is ready to turn around to the business and why a particular company should be transferred to the headquarters to Perm. The action turned out to be informal and even personal, but aimed: we had specific arguments in favor of the region.

As a result, they received a tremendous number of responses, often just emotional - it seemed that for business such interaction in the novelty. In the future, it seems to me, the economic bloc was not so successful in promoting projects. I mean, the state managers do not always have enough marketing approach and dialogue with residents or business for which they work. Have you faced such situations as an entrepreneur?

In order for the project to take place, it took the interaction of several departments of the city and seven to eight months of hard work, according to city officials. For our happiness, the vice mayor of Nadezhda Kochurova had different plans. She insisted on a more concise dates of a month and a half and personally supervised the project to make it work out.

As a result, a month and a half later in the city appeared “lines”. And we received a regional prize in the field of culture for the successful implementation of a creative project. It turns out that a lot depends on the person who makes the final decision? At different times, I had to promote projects, and I always understood that the important task of finding a high level that would be interested in the idea.

In addition, he should understand the need to study the preferences of those for whom the project is implemented. If we are talking about the improvement of the square or the embankment, then officials cannot simultaneously be in the role of a mother with a stroller, an old woman and a sportsman. Therefore, there are always studies of those audiences for which we produce updates. And the city should develop not only economically, but also infrastructure - from the point of view of requests from citizens.

What projects for promoting the Perm Territory in the beginning of the zero, which you are involved, do you consider signed? Initially, they took place in Demidkovo. This was a large event with the participation of iconic persons, experts who set the trends, as a result, became the basis for making fateful decisions. We began another project in the field of culture as part of the action of the federal district "Cultural capital of the Volga region." They implemented more events - a real “boiler” from ideas and projects.

As a result, the initiative grew into the project “Perm Territory - Territory of Culture”. Settlements - from a small village to the district center - could receive a grant about 12 million rubles. For municipalities, these were significant amounts for the development of projects in culture. Municipalities, led by heads, presented projects on a competitive basis. We created not only the opportunity for the development of the territory, but also increased the effectiveness of municipal employees.

It's nice that the project lives and is still developing.What was the first year in the history of the Perm Territory? I will say this: the one who does nothing is not mistaken. I remember very well the first reaction to the ideas of the Perm Park Park Park of entertainment, which they wanted to unite in Megakomplex with the zoo, water park - approx.

When I was asked how much it would cost, I called the amount by analogy with examples in Europe. The next day I read in the newspapers: “The vice-governor Oshchepkov plans to build an entertainment park for 14 billion budget funds.” Of course, I did not mean budget money, but intended to attract a private investor. This story taught me to communicate with journalists using more accurate and unambiguous formulations on key issues.

Why did the Perm Park never appear, what do you think? We did not receive any specific initiative from potential investors. Perhaps today he could come true already in a completely new form-3D-installations or such as that. It is obvious to me that culture can become one of the development drivers for the region. I believe that our activity in the period, in a sense, prepared the ground for the successful start of the “cultural revolution”.

How do you evaluate this phenomenon and its projects? On the one hand, unconditional symbols of that period-new art objects have become places of "pilgrimage" of citizens and tourists. People are interested in non -banal objects, they are photographed with them, post pictures on social networks. I am convinced that such symbols as part of the modern cultural code of the city testify to the intellect of the city and urban elites.

Plus, we, as the city community, received a colossal charge of a huge number of creative people, primarily youth. They created an active living urban environment with a huge number of events - in the city it was not bored with a large number of people. This new life has become the subject of active discussion in Russia and the world and created the conditions for a fundamental increase in tourist flow.

And of course, the creation of a museum of contemporary art was an important result of the cultural revolution. What did not succeed in the project team? In my opinion, it was not possible to involve most of the townspeople into the projects of converting the city and failed to make this project with the elites. In order for mutual enrichment between the key participants in the process, and the cultural revolution turned into a cultural evolution, there was simply not enough time and, possibly, the desire for those who came up with it.

Almost like in the song: “We will destroy the whole world to the foundation, and then we are ours, we will build a new world as a result, the change of leadership of the region led to an almost complete liquidation of the project. According to the White Nights festival, Permyaks miss, as the study of the sociological agency “Own” showed. Despite this, many projects of the cultural revolution caused criticism.

All my experience with projects shows: you need to gain patience and communicate as consistently as possible with those with whom you want to make friends this project, explain ideas, find a response. You went to the restaurant business relatively recently. But, probably, they were an active visitor to the institutions in the beginning of x. Which of them were iconic?

Then the restaurant specialized in Alsace's cuisine, the first time a chef was a chef with a star of Michelin from France. Another place of my pilgrimage was the Zhivago restaurant and the Pasternak cafe, on the site of which a variety of concerts took place. What is the uniqueness of the region? Despite the difficulties and sanctions and the loss of part of the products. Just look at how many new and high -quality projects are launched.

The competition is multiplying higher, which forces owners to open institutions better in interiors, it is better in the kitchen, better in the atmosphere. Well, the most difficult times, of course, fell on the pandemic of Coronavirus, when we were all forced to close. Were there restaurant projects in Perm, about the closure of which you regret? Every concept has its own time and its own audience.

I understand the inevitability of closing the "live" and why Les Marches is no longer the same as 20 years ago. Teams, ambitions are changing, it is very difficult for decades to remain the same, because time and people are changing. At the beginning of the interview, you quoted Oleg Chirkunov’s words: “The city should have a dream.” Do you think Perm has it now? It should be set by very different people.

If we talk about me, I love Perm - for me, Perm is a compact city with good dynamics, without that significant stress that is permeated by life, for example, Moscow. I feel in demand, here my friends and close, comfortable conditions that I create for myself. Probably, I dream that as many people in the city can think and want about the same. In my youth in the final of one of the philosophical stories of Voltaire, I read the sacramental: "I need to cultivate my garden." No matter how pathos it sounds now, we all need to “cultivate our garden” try to create a comfortable space around us, around our family, our company, your city, your ambitions, and then the unheated territories will simply not remain, because your neighbor has exactly the same mission.