Russian Gangster Cabin

Gangster who built world's tallest log cabin

By Adrian Blomfield in Arkhangelsk
Last Updated: 10:42am GMT 07/03/2007

# In pictures: The house a gangster built

For the one-time gangster who built it, it is nothing less than "the eighth wonder of the world". The less charitably disposed dismiss it as a glorified barn, fire hazard and eyesore.

But on one thing everyone agrees: Nikolai Sutyagin's home is certainly different.

Nikolai Sutyagin's home
A jumble of planking rising 144ft forms Sutyagin’s record-breaking ‘eighth wonder of the world’

Dominating the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia's far north-west, it is believed to be the world's tallest wooden house, soaring 13 floors to reach 144ft - about half the size of the tower of Big Ben.

The house that Sutyagin built is also crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict's eccentric 15-year project.