New Petersburg

St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century was a rapidly growing city, so for its expansion it was necessary to explore new places. One of these places was chosen as the island of Golodai (now the Decembrists), or rather, its marshy western part.

In 1898, the New Petersburg society acquired this land and two years later built two apartment buildings on this land. However, due to technical difficulties of that time, further development stopped for 10 years.

In 1910, the territory was bought by the Italian millionaire Riccardo Gualino together with A. A. Brodsky. Around the same time, I. A. Fomin developed a draft plan for the new district. Fomin proposed to implement a large ensemble composition in the Palladian style. The center of the district was to become a semicircular square, from which three radial highways were laid to the west, and from the east to the square there was a market square. In 1912, two houses were built under the Fomin project (No. 2 and 10 on the current Kakhovsky lane ). Fomin's student, architect Ernest Shtalberg, took part in the work on the house number 2. ^[1] When working on the house number 10 (built in 1899-1900 by architect V. F. Rozinsky ), taking into account the ideas of arch. I.A. Fomina was completely changed the appearance of the building with the interruption of windows and doors. The facade received an architectural treatment in the neoclassical style. Half-columns and pilots of the Ionic order , medallions appeared. At the same time, part of the attic was rebuilt on the fifth floor, which was later extended in the 1930s over the entire building. ^[2]

In 1912–1914, two more houses were erected instead of the market square on the site (current addresses are Zheleznovodskaya Street , d. 19 and d. 34). F. I. Lidval built these houses on the principle of propyl , creating a “reasonable composition”, simple and modern. He realized the possibilities of the site, free of development: designed by him compact in terms of the building are free and visible from all sides. The decorative design of these houses is much simpler and simpler than that of Fomin: the cannulated pilasters of a large order and a planar graphic ornament hardly stand out on the plain planes of the facade. The architects A. M. Litvinenko and E. K. Koch participated in the design of these buildings. These two buildings on Zheleznovodskaya Street provided the basis for the creation of a complete city ensemble in the future. ^[3]

In 1914, after renaming the capital, the project began to be called "New Petrograd." From time to time, adjustments were made to it, however, in fact, its implementation was hindered by the First World War , which called into question the raising of funds for the continuation of work. Nevertheless, at the end of 1916 a tram line was put into operation, laid along the right bank of Smolenka from the Armenian cemetery with a turn about a kilometer to the right, to the center of the proposed building. The back ring of the 24th route under the name “New Petrograd” was arranged on a semicircular square at the intersection of Barkovaya Street and Morskoy Avenue ^[4] (in the area of ​​the modern KIM Avenue ).

At the end of the revolution and the civil war , from the mid-1920s, architects participating in the development of the New Petrograd development again returned to the project, making the necessary adjustments to it. Despite the fact that back in January 1924 the city received a new name in honor of the leader of the October Revolution and the founder of the Soviet state , the toponym “New Petrograd” remains on the maps of Leningrad until at least 1925 ^[5] . In the version of “ New Leningrad ” ( English Nowyi Leningrad ) this microdistrict of the island of Decembrists appears on the map of the 1926 edition ^[6] . As a curiosity, one can note here the return from oblivion of the name “New Petersburg” on the 1929 map, explained by the negligence of people who used morally obsolete pre-revolutionary matrices to re-publish the Leningrad plan ^[7] After including this region in the list of objects of the first General Plan for the Development of Leningrad, the toponym “New Petrograd "gives way to the descriptive" Housing estate of the island of the Decembrists " ^{[8] [9]} .

One way or another, from the mid-1920s until 1941, work on this site continued without interruption. During these years, modern KIM avenue , Kakhovsky lane (“right beam”) were laid on the island, and the Baltic Jung Square was created; residential buildings are being built and tram lines are being laid. The Great Patriotic War again stopped this creative process. The formation of the Novy Petrograd area was completed only in the 1960s, with new amendments: the continuation of Zheleznovodskaya Street became the "central beam", and they refused to lay the "left beam".

Thus, the planned Novo Petrograd street-road network is basically close to the plans of I. A. Fomin, but the architectural component has undergone significant changes.