Igor Raikov: top management for victory. The power to control your life

Our hero Ihor Raikov is the founder and CEO of the development company "Spilnota", in the past - the production director of SAGA Development, founder of the Urbanland.pm School of Professional Development, businessman, mentor, public figure. He is currently serving in the "Charter" volunteer unit as part of the 127th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv direction. Our conversation with him is about the war, life, the country and the place of high-class management in the difficult present.

 

Spring. Building a defense

The past and current years were to become for businessman Igor Raykov the time of realization of big plans, which crystallized like a precious stone. Recalling the autumn of 2021, when, in fact, crystallization took place, he described the emotions of that time with the phrase: "Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come."

A new name appeared on the Ukrainian development market - "Community". Work began on the project — the first swallow: the SVITOGLYAD multifunctional complex in Obolon, in Igor's native district. Both "Community" and the Urbanland.PM school recently found a new "home" - an office in Podil. The developer was soon to announce two more development projects in the "comfort" and "premium" categories.

The year with three deuces really brought big changes, but not all of them were as planned: military competence was added to the competencies of a top manager and an entrepreneur. Now Igor Raikov, or Eney (he took this very name as his nickname), is almost all the time in Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region, with the exception of training days, which are devoted to military exercises.

Ihor Raikov did not believe that a full-scale war would start after all, and even more, he encouraged his colleagues and business partners with his optimism and endurance. He didn't believe it, not because he hadn't seen the news, which was then saturated with information, but because he simply couldn't imagine such an event in a modern, developed society.

The market was growing, a lot of work and meetings were planned, two plots of land were purchased just a few weeks and days before the beginning of the Russian invasion. The businessman recalls: "I am very structured and logical, I think: there is no logic in all this. Well, that's impossible! Some kind of new world war… impossible. But on the 24th, everything became clear instantly."

On this day, he and his family were in Kyiv. Having provided a reliable shelter for the family (although Russian missiles were observed during the journey to the evacuation site), the entrepreneur spent the rest of the week and the long curfew, solving organizational issues for preparing the defense of the capital.

Ihor Raikov: "People who care about the fate of the country, city, and district united to create fortifications. They did it on a voluntary basis, they worked every day, without weekends and curfews."

"Fortification of Oboloni has been engaged in since Friday (February 25. — Editor's Note), - says Ihor Raykov, - it quickly became clear that the direction to this area, if moving from Gostomel, Buchi, Irpen, is the northern gate of Kyiv. Annabella Morin (founder of the public movement "Pochayna", local expert, eco-activist, public figure. — Editor's Note), deputy of the Kyiv City Council Kostyantyn Bogatov, other concerned people began to make appeals, collect what anyone has. Our general contractor had equipment on the construction site: a drill, an excavator, etc. — we were performing test work on the site at the time. Monday morning I joined and the work began.

We were formed into a block under the district administration, served mostly our headquarters of territorial defense, national guardsmen who were in the territory of Obolon district, and fortification engineers from the military administration. We had such a volunteer staff together with the head of the administration and some district deputies. Administrative-volunteer-military, if you can call it that."

"These were people who care about the fate of the country, city, and district. They united and did it on a voluntary basis, says Raikov. — I spent an insane amount of money that March, I remember. Many colleagues in the construction market helped. Someone gave this, someone another. A lot of everything: machinery, concrete blocks, fuel. People made Oboloni an impregnable fortress, and this played its part. It is clear that the military did their work, and we did ours for them, but I think the enemy understood that even if he could break through, it would not be easy for him at every line we created.

They worked every day from eight in the morning, without weekends or curfews. In about a month, the team fixed dangerous breakthrough directions — to Gostomel, Gorenka, Puscha-Vodytsia.

"We completely fortified Obolon," Ihor Raikov recalls. - Also Shevchenko Square and Okruzhna Square. They made roadblocks, DOTs, "snakes" and barricades, buried dugouts. In the direction of Vyshhorod, on Vodogin (a village in the Obolonskyi district of Kyiv. — Editor's Note), Petrivka, "triangle" from Irpen to Vyshhorod and to Rybalsky Island. The work is like this: in the morning you participate as an organizer, then you are on the phone all day, and at the same time you are slinging yourself, carrying blocks on a manipulator, one of your acquaintances works as a crane operator, then you - and so on until the evening."

"As a person who is used to achieving results, I understood - I need to participate in achieving victory rather"

Igor Raikov recalls an interesting episode: during the fortification of one of the checkpoints, they accidentally met Andrii Vavrysh (founder and head of the SAGA Development company. — Editor's note) and together assembled the blocks for the defensive structure. After that, in mid-March, he called Raykov and offered to join efforts to fortify other parts of Kyiv region.

The entrepreneur recalls: the enemy was approaching from Brovary and Boryspil, the onslaught began. The Russians were already behind the road connecting Boryspil and Brovary with several small settlements nearby: "Andrii Vavrysh and I started to strengthen this eastern direction. They heard not only mortar fire or MLRS, but also shooting battles, small arms, very close. The fortification of these areas was logical, after Kyiv was already fortified. We felt that there was a conditional rear, and we could push forward a little and still help our military, - continues the story of Raikov, - then we did not know that they (Russians. — Editor's Note) will run away

We had to gradually push them away from the city. Already in the second half of March, Obolon accounted for about 50% of our work, and the other half was occupied by the district road from Brovary, from Troeshchyna to Boryspil. And a little bit of Obukhs and Vasylks, helped the military to gain a foothold there."

This is how the first months of the war passed.

"Charter", Kharkiv, Enei

Even in the first days of the war, Ihor Raikov appealed to the Obolon Military Committee and the local Teroborona, with which they later cooperated. He was added to the lists, but they were in no hurry to call him into service. Despite the fact that he regularly reminded himself and once received a summons with an open date, insisting on his point. Most likely, this happened due to the huge workload of departmental institutions in the first months of the war and the fact that Raikov was registered in another city and had no military experience.

He himself recalls it as follows: "I understand them perfectly, they did not want to waste time, because I did not have the necessary documents. During the war, it was necessary to make inquiries about the place of residence, etc. But this is also a good sign - it means that in Ukraine, both then and later, there were enough defenders with greater military qualifications than I had at that time, and it was not difficult to find those willing."

At the same time, Ihor Raykov is taking training courses for civilians in the Solomyansk military training center in tactical medicine, fire and tactical training.

In April, the entrepreneur becomes more and more interested in the topic of recovery and reconstruction, he visits the settlements liberated from the occupiers to see with his own eyes the extent of the damage, to understand what accounting and compensation algorithms are necessary. The Military Commissariat continued to remain silent, and perhaps later Raikov would have delved even deeper into the topic of reconstruction, but things turned out differently.

For months, Raikov communicated with Vsevolod Kozhemyak, a well-known Ukrainian businessman, philanthropist and volunteer, currently the commander of the Charter Military Training Group. He repeatedly invited Raikov to join their volunteer unit and come to Kharkiv Oblast. In the end, when it was understood that Kyiv region was relatively safe, that's what happened.

There is another argument, which Ihor Raikov told us: "At the very beginning of the war, I calculated the GDP on my own. I conducted a survey among businessmen I know and acquaintances. And I realized that the drop is about 50-55%, and the construction industry and investments in apartments are especially related to GDP. Sales increase only when GDP increases. I realized that as long as the war is going on, it will fall. As a person who is used to achieving results, I understood: I should rather take part in achieving victory, in ending the war. In the stabilization of GDP and the beginning of its growth. This is such a simple primitive economic task for me as an entrepreneur."

Now Ihor Raikov is responsible for logistics in his unit. This is complex, complex military management, which includes the logistics of the organization of fortifications and defense lines, personnel, evacuation of wounded and prisoners, broken and captured equipment, and others. Also, as a second specialty, he receives the qualification of UAV operator.

Ihor Raikov told visitors about the trophy equipment: "Somehow we won a tank, two "Nonas" (a type of self-propelled artillery gun. — Editor's note) and three MT-LB. We call them "metalebs", unlike the Russians, who call them "motoligs". The task was to evacuate this equipment from the "gray" zone. Two units burned during our shelling, and one of them had a broken gooseneck. It was raining, and she remained in the beam.

We evacuated "Metaleba" literally 500 meters from the Russian positions. They temporarily rolled back and waited for the right opportunity to take her. We had a kind of competition - us or them, and so it happened that we succeeded. Then we repaired it and presented it to one of the units that liberated Kharkiv Oblast. This technique was used during the counterattack. Such very precious memories."

As for the call sign "Aeneas" - a story was also found about him. Ihor Raikov says that for quite a long time he could not choose a call sign for himself, and as a person until recently, a civilian, a businessman, he did not see a special need for it. However, rules are rules, every soldier needs a nom-de-guerre, it is both a military tradition and security. The commander already wanted to control his fate himself, and Ihor Raikov risked becoming a "Builder" or "Builder", of which there are many in the Ukrainian army.

The idea for the pseudo came from an acquaintance, one of the good friends of the developer, who also serves, chose Gamaliya as a nickname from Shevchenko's work. Ihor Raikov liked it, and he also found a call sign associated with native literature. "I remembered Kotlyarevsky and his Aeneid, a work about Aeneas, an interpretation of Virgil's poem, reinterpreted in the Ukrainian manner. In it, the main character saves the Cossacks. Well, I think it's 10 out of 10, you have to take it," Raikov explains.

For more than half a year, Ihor Raykov has been serving in the Kharkiv region as part of "Charter". During this time, he realized that the lack of a military specialty or experience is not a limitation for service, but a much more important motivation. Having just joined the DFTG, he went through a training course for young fighters, sharpens his skills and constantly sees his comrades and fighters of the brigade, who also joined the army from a peaceful life and now demonstrate a high level of professionalism. At "Charter", great importance is attached to preparation, practice of movements, firing from various types of weapons.

"We have experience. This training goes a long way in saving lives. And not to get into trouble"

The "Charter" volunteer unit took a direct part in the liberation of the north of Kharkiv region from the enemy. "We were standing on a plot near Ruska Lozova, behind it is a forest, and behind the forest are the settlements of Veliki and Mali Prohody, and there were Russians there. We controlled the forest until about the middle, they were in the other part of the forest," Raikov recalls.

Ihor became one of the 2000 defenders who were awarded the commemorative medal "For the defense of the city of Kharkiv". We couldn't help but ask how he sees Kharkiv and the Kharkiv Oblast now, whether life and comfort for residents are returning there in the pre-war form we were used to, and what impression the cities made on him. Ironically, in the spring, Raikov did not really want to serve in the Kharkiv region, he considered it illogical. He says: "I saw it in such a way that I would liberate Kherson Oblast or Zaporozhye, because I am from there. Or, if called up, I will go to the place where they will distribute. Therefore, he replied to the invitation to "Charter" that "I am here in Kyiv, fortifying, attached to the Military Committee, waiting for an answer from him and thinking about reconstruction."

His ideas about Kharkiv later changed.

Ihor Raikov: "I saw Kharkiv in a different way. It was a great discovery for me, I partially fell in love with him."

"Kharkiv is now a wonderful city. "I didn't expect him to be like that at all," says Raikov. — Before the war, I was in the city several times, I gave lectures at the invitation of the architect Oleg Drozdov. But once in 2015, Kernes was still alive. It was a completely different atmosphere, I remember, when Gorky Park was just built. We got there, the kids ran across the lawns, and there were security guards chasing them off those lawns. Because grass was planted there for some reason, but you couldn't run on it. This is total nonsense. Unfortunately, this is how I remembered Kharkiv - somehow Soviet, with remnants, it was not a very pleasant feeling.

I came to the city again during the war. And I saw Kharkiv as a city with a great history, very powerful, real, strong. I felt its spirit and remembered the times when it was larger in size and population than Kyiv. Walking through Kharkiv, today you see buildings and architecture that remind you of London - there are no such buildings in Kyiv! A lot was destroyed during the Second World War, but the Soviet army damaged Kharkiv less, and today you can study this architecture."

Raikov enthusiastically tells how this new vision of Kharkiv was a great discovery for him. "I fell in love with Kharkiv, I promised my wife: when the war ends, I will definitely take my family through Kharkiv and show how wonderful it is."

Aeneas tells: when he arrived there in the spring, Kharkiv was almost a ghost town, empty, neither cars nor pedestrians. Only elsewhere could you see green military cars driving through the city and driving through areas of the front. Today, Kharkiv remains a front-line city, but civilians have returned here, a lot of people. Some cafes are open, traffic jams have even started to appear on the streets. In the city you can again see hipsters and expensive cars - it is alive.

But Russian missiles remain a huge problem, in clear weather you can see them rising into the air from the Belgorod region from high floors. The distance is very short, you can see the rockets taking off. They arrive in one to three minutes. the Russians continue to bomb Ukrainian Kharkiv, knowing how many peaceful, civilian people are there.

We asked Ihor Raikov whether he would continue to stay in Kharkiv Oblast. Now "Charter" is involved in securing new positions on the changed front line.

"Another big thing that I am passionate about and that we are developing is aerial reconnaissance. We have good experience, we worked it out for all units in which we were under combat command. They showed themselves admirably in the Kharkiv region, they know us well and provide various flying drones. We are improving our profession, increasing the team. We understand that this is a very fine line of expertise, so I, in particular, decided to upgrade my skills to do this in addition to my existing responsibilities. Until now, we had mostly defensive battles, now - offensive ones. Defensive battles require fortification, evacuation, and other skills, while offensive battles require high-quality intelligence and strike forces. So I see the point in this, and it will take a lot of time. However, it does not remove those organizational tasks that have already been set by the commander," Raykov notes.

In the war, you can meet very different people, united by love for their country

In addition to the already mentioned commander Vsevolod Kozhemyak, writer Serhiy Zhadan, famous Kharkiv street art artist Hamlet Zinkivskyi, tennis player Serhiy Stakhovskyi, entrepreneur Yaroslav Markevich, politician Roman Semenukha serve in "Charter".

We asked Igor Raikov whether this certain recognition and media presence helps him in any way, or, on the contrary, hinders him. According to him, each of the comrades brings something to the unit, many people help with their own funds, it becomes possible, in particular, due to the media, it allows to have normal support, to carry out training.

"Although something is missing all the time - such are the realities," jokes Ihor Raikov.

"In this case, not only media coverage, but also reputation helps. If you have a so-so reputation, who will help you? In my case, everyone knows that I will control everything and everything will be fine. I have managerial experience, I know how to rationally use resources, I do everything to the last drop so that there is still a reserve left. Some help with money, some with something else: they buy us clothes, some also give us fuel, etc. Because we are a volunteer unit and are completely self-sufficient. They trust us, because they know: everything will be spent as intended and not a penny will go by."

"Community" and "Svitoglyad"

I want to get my fill of peaceful energy once again and remember what events Ihor Raikov's year before the war was filled with. The most striking stage can be considered the creation of its own development company, which was named "Community". The name is quite uncharacteristic for the real estate market, which is dominated by weighty, fundamental naming such as constructions with "trust", "building" and "construction". We will tell you more about how exactly she was chosen.

Ihor Raykov had a productive career at SAGA Development, where he held the position of Production Director. Ending cooperation of this level is not the easiest choice. The entrepreneur recalls: "At the very beginning, in communication with the head of SAGA Development, Andrii Valentinovych Vavrysh, I was frank and shared my opinion: I am a businessman and I am going to create my own company, one day it will happen. To say such things to one's own manager at the beginning of cooperation is quite a bold thing, even, I would say, risky. He offered me the front line of work at the company, and it was like taking a high-speed elevator to the penthouse terrace, instead of climbing the stairs to the 25th floor. Based on the level of challenges, I understood that this is exactly the ticket that I should buy, there are no other options."

In 2021, I realized that it was time to create my own company. "I felt that I was ready for it both in terms of experience and other indicators. That I think too much about my idea, it burns — and either it will burn out if I don't implement it now, or I will burn out, and it's a bad idea, because a manager must be efficient," Raikov recalls his state at that time.

In autumn, by prior agreement, Ihor Raikov completed the stage of his career related to SAGA, maintaining good connections and relations with colleagues and partners. The era of "Community" - the entrepreneur's own business "child" - has begun.

"Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come"

Raikov pondered for a long time what the name of the company should be, he did not want to get lost in classic and standardized names. According to him, conservative naming, which conveyed a sense of solidity and weight, was widespread in the 16th and 17th years, when many companies were created on the Ukrainian real estate market. The entrepreneur felt that something different was needed this time.

"I had been looking for a title for quite some time when the CANactions book came out (a non-commercial educational platform founded by Ukrainian architect Viktor Zotov and Swiss urbanist Urs Thomann. — Editor's Note) "Everyone needs housing. Fair, social, affordable" about the exhibition of social housing in Germany, says Raikov. — I started reading it, on one of the pages there was a story about social housing and its connection with the community. How housing affected community formation. When I saw the word "community", I realized that this is what I was looking for.

Ihor continues the story: "Even earlier, I created a small presentation with five slides in Keynote. What should the company be, what should it do, in what locations and what scale should the projects be. I wrote the name in it — Spilnota Development, and realized that the direction I had chosen was social urban development. What SAGA is doing today, or, for example, you can mention projects like "Fine Town" or Unit.City, is cool, but quite expensive. This is a product for a separate category of people who have a certain resource. I had several acquaintances who would very much like to buy a new home, for example, in "Rybalsky", but could not afford it. They got stressed by buying "walls" in another apartment complex, because they didn't feel that feeling of home and saw almost a ghetto around them.

I understood what things could be discarded and how to separate the essentials from the things that did not affect the quality of life of people in the house, leaving the important benefits. How to provide decent housing to people who do not want to live in anthills and cannot afford high-quality but expensive projects. Not competing in this with SAGA Development or such a category as, for example, Stolitsa Group. The first person I showed this presentation to was my employer Andriy Vavrysh, he blessed me, relatively speaking. It may seem strange from the outside, but such conversations can be perceived badly only if the interlocutors are two immature people. We are quite socially and morally mature individuals, so we communicated normally."

Later, after further work on naming and branding for the company, which was carried out by the agency "BelkaStrelka", the final concise name "Community" and the slogan: "Developer of the new generation" were fixed. Andriy Fedoriv (Fedoriv Marketing Agency), who liked the name very much, also provided mentoring support to Igor Raykov. It was he who advised to abandon the Latin alphabet and write it in his native language.

"People who grew up in modern Ukraine are a generation of independents"

"All this happened on the 30th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine, I was 34 at the time. I feel how different we are from those who left the Soviet Union, from their understanding of the product and the market. There are many cool people and specialists among them, but we are different.

These people, who grew up in modern Ukraine, I call them the generation of independents. They are conscious, they are Ukrainized, and this happened even before the invasion, because now it is already such a "viral" trend. The word "generation" has a great meaning for us," says Raykov.

Spoiler: most likely, this is the name that will be given to one of the following "Community" projects.

BFC "Svitoglyad" in Obolon is the flagship project in the "business" class of Igor Raykov's development company, its author was architect Roman Slyadnev. The name was also not chosen by chance: the complex is located almost in the harbor, the location promises wonderful views. The project also uses an architectural technique that involves changing the rhythm of the facades and the width and height of shutters every four floors — from standard to enlarged and panoramic glazing.

Ihor Raikov shares the details: "Each apartment will have its own terrace or balcony with a depth of at least 1,8 m. This eighty meter is taken from Christopher Alexander's book "How to build for the ages. Timeless Architecture", which changed my personal outlook and understanding of the market. This is an institutional book. It breaks all established stereotypes in the head, gives you knowledge about the environment and space. How to make it useful for a person, and it's not about the color of the wallpaper, conventionally, but about planning and creating conditions. It is in this book that there is an opinion that a person cannot use all spaces with a depth of less than 1,8 m rationally and does not perceive them as sufficient.

"Worldview is a multifaceted concept. This is the perspective you can see. This is also a personal worldview, the worldview of that collective, community that was formed in the house. Young, independent people are our target audience, self-made people of various professions, middle managers, programmers, venture capitalists or tiktokers - it doesn't matter. People who created themselves, with a Ukrainian independent, nationalist, in a good plan, core. I myself became such a nationalist, because I understood: this is the only panacea that saves us from the Soviet scoop and from the imperialist past. All that unites everyone in this building, space, is the worldview and community. This is the story about us and our name," concludes the developer.

Despite the fact that the war continues, and the processes on the Ukrainian real estate market have slowed down a lot, Ihor Raykov calls for the resumption of active work on SVITOGLYAD no later than the spring of 2023, and he is certain that by then the situation will definitely improve . The Ukrainian army will defeat the enemy, and developers and businesses will begin to restore the economic front and participate in creating a comfortable environment for Ukrainians.

 

Reconstruction, funds, prospects

Ihor Raikov became interested in identifying algorithms that could be used to rebuild the country back in April. In order to see everything with his own eyes, and not in a photo, he drove through the streets of Buchi, Borodyanka, Irpen, liberated from occupation, visited Kharkiv, bringing humanitarian aid there, visited Trostyanka and Okhtyrka.

"I didn't get to Chernihiv," Raykov says, "from everything I saw, I made two conclusions: firstly, that together with Mariupol and other cities where everything is very bad, fortunately there are also those where there is no damage so many. Secondly, the scale and volume of destruction within the country is great, and the war continues. Then the ninth of May was approaching, all these events. We understood that the battle for the East would soon begin."

Ihor Raikov: "People who have damaged housing or have lost it should be given a compensatory mechanism, a clear tool and options. The state should perform a service role in this"

“I have participated in several national marathons, the last one was in June I think. There I expressed my thoughts on what and how it should be done. But here I am disturbed by overqualification, there is such a term among eicharians - requalification. In this case, extensive experience makes me overqualified. When I hear expressions, for example, that someone will build new houses in six months and settle people there... But only the design lasts six months! Obtaining technical conditions, connecting engineering networks, geology, survey, etc. I teach this at the School in our courses - what this algorithm should be.

At SAGA, which is a company with a very complex and diverse portfolio of projects, which is growing dynamically, I managed the production of projects. Not bricks or anything. My task was to systematize everything so that everything worked at the same time, according to plan: when there were covid-XNUMX problems or a drop in sales - these are big challenges. Therefore, when I hear something about six months or that many modular towns will be built for everyone, I understand: either these people are just using the topic for hype, or they are unaware, incompetent," states the developer.

It seems that in the search for optimal solutions, there are still many questions not asked by the state

According to Igor Raykov, no one seriously asked the question of migration, providing jobs. The number of apartments that have already been built during the eight years of market growth since 2014, as well as the number of rental housing that is empty today because people left.

"Five million left Ukraine for Europe, another two million people were forcibly taken to Russia from the occupied territories. A large amount of housing is currently empty, so a simple mechanism is needed to temporarily provide people with housing. The total reconstruction, the creation of these "garden cities", about which many people are talking - we will do it after the victory, - Raikov continues, - I felt all this in April, when I talked with some representatives of foreign investment funds. They offered their participation, but it mostly concerned the western part of the country. For example, several logistics centers can be built in Transcarpathia or, say, Lviv Oblast, if it is a very profitable project, and everything else — let's do it after the victory."

"I realized that at the moment we, the state, definitely don't have the funds, because there is a main overriding task - this is victory. If the funds are spent elsewhere, it will be very strange. They need to be invested in defense and the army, everything else will only delay time and increase the number of losses for us. The main thing is victory. It, this overarching task, will surely be understood by everyone - and those Ukrainians who have lost their homes, too. If you give them a compensatory mechanism, an understandable tool, they will accept the option that you need to wait a year or two, and then there will be victory and the reconstruction of homes. In this case, the state should perform a service role, say: "Look, we as a service will compensate for this now, and later it will be this."

If we talk about an apartment, the state can choose options, make calculations, etc., - explains Ihor Raikov, - while preparing for the conversation with you, I reviewed my proposals at that time and saw that they are just as relevant today. I proposed to attract internal reserves of the market, internal funds that people currently have, proposed certain mechanisms and even started to work them out with some financiers. In our intentions, we united with Andrii Mima, co-founder of LUN, prepared and presented proposals, but they did not receive a response from the lawmakers. I don't see any permanent steps.

A military mortgage program is now being launched, which should revive the market, but the situation with the recovery market is more unclear. The law, according to which compensations should be made, has not yet been adopted, even when it is adopted, the question is open - what will be compensated from."

Ihor Raikov: "The end of the war is like vaccination; once, and everyone will say: let's build modern cool design"

According to the entrepreneur, populist solutions are absolutely not needed today, instead technocratic solutions are needed. An honest recognition of what can be provided by the state quickly, and what can be provided later. What compensatory instruments are possible at a time when all public funds are directed to victory. Until the state said so. Currently, she declares: "we will compensate for it now", but there is neither compensation nor a tool.

Also, the developer shared with the Pragmatika editors an interesting case of restoration of a house on Bogatyrska Street in Kyiv, which was damaged by Russian artillery in March 2022.

"While I was still in Kyiv, I wanted to help in the restoration and took upon myself, in a certain way, this personal mission. During the time when our headquarters was carrying out the fortification, we met the head of the Obolon administration, Kyryll Fesyk, he is a cool young professional who breaks all conservative stereotypes about bosses and powerful people. I offered help in restoring the damaged nine-story building in Obolon. He assured that we will carry out the necessary inspections, help design so that everything necessary is ready by the time of reconstruction. Perhaps we will even gather contractors who will be ready to join on a volunteer basis and carry out repairs in the house.

Later, the KMDA joined the process, and they began to do everything only through their utility companies. Therefore, we did only what we could in such a situation — we advanced the survey of the destruction of the entire building, paid for it with our own funds, and recommended several general designers. By the way, one of them later worked with this house, completing the design almost at cost. He is also a volunteer - both he and his colleagues, architect-engineers, felt the need to help with the restoration," says Ihor Raikov.

"So," Ihor continues, "we went from a global mission to a specific social mission. Today, this house is the first with the greatest progress in restoration. And I am sure that it is this quick survey and design, for which we paid our money as donors and volunteers, and became the brick, the key to success. Because at that time the city and the state could not find funds for these preparatory works, and everything starts with them. We found funds and experts, and we started repairing that house."

 

A few more insights from Igor Raykov in the "question-answer" format

PRAGMATICS.MIT IS DAY: How does the School of Professional Development work now, is it possible to maintain the schedule of classes, the involvement of students in learning?

Igor Raikov: The curriculum is ongoing, we are also recruiting for the next stream. There are changes - we have moved from offline to online. Before the war, I was against online programs because they don't provide the networking, the opportunity to share expertise to the extent that is possible offline.

Even during the quarantine, we tried not to go online so as not to lose this craft thing. Our listeners are entrepreneurs, when they work on cases, they create a structure in groups. Often during their studies, they made business connections and created companies, joint projects, and joint investments. Developers from Georgia, Kazakhstan, and other countries came to study with us, because they did not have such a product. There are quite a few trainees who received an MBA degree from KMBS (Kyiv-Mohyla business school. — Editor's Note), and gave an assessment that our diploma and MBA are two comparable diplomas, but with different specifics.

We analyzed the implemented cases, I gave them personally as part of the program. For example, when I was looking for a plot for myself in order to enter three projects, I literally went through 56 different offers on the market with my hands, and for each one I did an audit, calculations, a business model, put a conditional volume on this plot, with functions and apartment planning, etc. . Legalization of construction rights, registration, change of purpose... Such cases are always integrated into our training. Entrepreneurs who study with us, with the support of architects and tutors, went to the site, analyzed documents, the market, the cost of marketing, and created an architectural concept within the framework of the program.

But now there is a war, so we have organized training in the form of shorter modules in an online format. Also, together with one of our students, we launched a program on conducting surveys of destroyed buildings for restoration, so that architects could familiarize themselves with this specificity and survey. Because they realized that there is a lack of qualified surveyors of destroyed objects.

My team is currently working intensively on the school. They do it very cool without me, of course, agreeing on all the key issues. This makes me very happy, and I can do my military affairs in peace.

PM: We have repeatedly mentioned the importance of resources, funds for the reconstruction of the country and the implementation of mechanisms after victory. Will there be enough of them after the end of the war, in your opinion?

I.R.: They will. After the victory, we will simply have a Klondike of resources, I believe that we will be a major construction and reconstruction project in Europe. Secondly, the profitability that our country provided in development before the war was unreal, compared to European countries. We helped implement development projects abroad, we have such experience. The profitability that can be obtained in Ukraine has long been absent in Europe, and European investors understand this. For cooperation, they need a rule of law, safe from the neighbor, if these conditions are met - we will have normal cooperation. After the victory, a lot of money will come, I don't just believe it, I am sure of it.

PM: With the reconstruction of large cities, everything is more or less clear - they are popular, they have a lot that can attract investors. How can the situation develop in small towns and villages? For example, in industrial towns, which have now lost the possibility of this vector of development and have undergone destruction. How to find new scenarios for them? Are they not at risk of becoming like the scenery from the STALKER game?

I.R.: Industrial post-Soviet cities, most likely, will not recover in the former format. And not only their industrial part. I mean the parameters of the number of the population, businesses that were active, tied to city-forming enterprises. Yes, in recent decades they were developed at the expense of this Soviet era. But this era has passed. This war takes many lives, unfortunately, but it erases the era that was imposed on us in the last century. These cities will return to their pre-industrial state, becoming functional themselves. It is clear that not now - this requires time and economy. First of all, there is a state program to support such settlements. That is, the state must understand how to use money to support municipalities, how to use money to create jobs, and then the cities will start to live.

I saw it on the example of Kharkiv, how quickly small businesses, cafes, shops, services, etc. begin to recover. Rockets are flying, there is no work - what to do in that city? And Kharkiv residents are returning. Most Kharkiv enterprises - 90-95%, despite the fact that it is a big city, do not work at all, 15-20 percent of them are broken. Medium-sized enterprises, catering establishments, services are such a base, a skeleton, on which everything else will be strung together little by little. It draws citizens to the city, forms this business environment.

Very small cities, villages - for example, there are also very small settlements that were affected - may cease to exist. A program of support and development of such cities is needed, then the economic cycle will start. Maybe it should be launched under the auspices of the UN, these 17 sustainable development goals that will bring about change in these cities. The UN understands how to do this, in a large number of cities after disasters and wars, they have solved this problem many times, and they definitely have recipes.

P.M.: Touching on the topic of healthy scenarios for cities, can war reset our attitude towards urban planning? Will we be able, figuratively speaking, to "make lemonade out of lemons" after reviewing certain things in the organization and functions of the city?

I.R.: I have thought a lot about this question, there is no ready answer. Now I don't see the prerequisites for the war to force people to rethink the quality of life and their existence in the city, but... The starting question is what is the city for anyway? And this question is not related to the war. The city is a service, it is for a person, pedestrian, understandable, like a 15-minute city in Paris, a person is of primary importance in it. In our current model, a person is for the city: he must come, do something, become an element of it. Changes must first of all occur at the level of state and municipal programs, state support.

That is, first the municipalities change, and they change the neighborhoods, then the citizens see these changes, they begin to learn to consume the city more qualitatively. Because today they are used to consuming, for example, these crusts. Everything is parked in Kyiv. Or these strange decisions, like the evacuation of cars, which did not give anything in return. A private enterprise that has entered the market simply makes money from this. Nothing happens with the logic of parking and the priority of the pedestrian over the car.

«I hope that along with investments, mentors will come who will help both our state and municipal authorities to rethink cities, and they will have no choice."

The second is only the development of municipalities and townspeople, only education. I hope that of the five million Ukrainians currently in Europe, 3,5-4 million will definitely return. These are the wives and families of those men who stayed here and those who are fighting. I really hope that they will be able to bring that experience here. And we will no longer look like individual aksakals who propose: let's do without fences, or let's give something else, and run into a wave of misunderstanding.

But, as they say, it is not the saints who sculpt the pots. For example, take as an example the city of Oslo, which I love very much. This is a completely different level of attitude of the citizens to the city and the city to the citizens, at a level higher than everything that exists. There, the pedestrian is the king of beasts, it doesn't matter whether you go on red or green, you will still be let through. Most people walk to work or on business. Consuming the city while walking, they become happier, communicate, see and feel the city as their own. This is a completely different logic. When you see these rebuilt quarters and districts, you understand that the trigger for these changes was the municipal government. It is clear that petrodollars are behind those changes. Funds appeared in Norway, they were used wisely and completely rebuilt the entire state, they understood how to do it efficiently. The investments that will come will be such an opportunity for us. I hope that mentors will come along with them, who will help both our state and municipal authorities to rethink cities, and they will have no choice.

It is possible that this movement towards change will occur both from above and from below at the same time. On the one hand, people who will return, on the other - investments and mentors who will come. I believe this because I saw pictures in Oslo of what happened there in the 60s and 70s. The city was industrialized and automobilized — that's what we have now, actually. Then changes began, factories were closed and demolished, entire branches of railways were taken out and a comfortable modern environment was built instead, it took about 30 years. It will take time for us too, but I think it will be easier to do after the war. We will be easier to relate to these transformations.

"Changes depend on you and me, and we can influence at our level. It's like a pebble in the water - you throw it, and the circles diverge, diverge. When there are many such "pebbles", it will be necessary to implement these changes"

PM: Humanity, society, creators react to crises and wars comprehensively, in particular, new trends appear. As an example, we can mention the post-war design. In your opinion, will we encounter something similar in the Ukrainian development market? Perhaps there will be a demand for different approaches to building design, with greater security requirements, bomb shelters or the use of impact-resistant materials in construction. Less clear glass, more something solid that gives a sense of security, etc.

I.R.: When I visited several Ukrainian cities after the liberation - I already mentioned this in our conversation - I saw that, fortunately, we do not have the kind of global destruction that people faced before. For example, during the Second World War, when we look in the chronicles at the destroyed Warsaw, at Dresden. On Antwerp, which was also destroyed. This was the post-war reconstruction - when they built anew, practically from scratch and the fire. We mostly don't have that. Therefore, our reconstruction will definitely not be the same as it was then.

About gravitating to other concepts or materials — it seems to me that this is very impulsive. Now, perhaps, the industry and customer expectations are experiencing such impacts, right now. But when the Russian army is defeated, Putin dies, and Russia collapses, believe me, these three factors will be decisive. It's like vaccination - once, and everyone will say: let's build a modern cool design, without bunkers and bomb shelters. People are psychologically traumatized now, and of course you want something like you mentioned, something that gives you a sense of protection and security.

But then it is precisely such elements that will indicate that these are the consequences of this trauma. That is, housing and buildings designed and built in this way will remind people of that trauma. I don't think we want to see that. It's about the same when I say to you, "I don't want to be in the military, I want to be an entrepreneur." And so here: a person does not want to live in the consequences. A person wants to live in a normal, comfortable environment. This is the norm, and we should focus on this.

 

 

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