Kushelevka, area

Categories / City Topography/Historical Geography/Historical Districts, Localities, Tracts, Municipal Establishments
KUSHELEVKA, an area in Vyborgskaya Side, between Karbysheva Street, Nepokorennykh Avenue, Bogoslovskoe Cemetery and Polyustrovsky Avenue. In 1781, Empress Catherine II granted 746 desyatin of land "in Vyborgskaya Side between Pargolova Dacha, Murina Dacha, Teplova Dacha and Golovina Dacha" to the director of Imperial Academy of Arts A.O. Zakrevsky (1742-1804). Bolshaya Spasskya and Malaya Spasskya villages, populated with land bound serfs, appeared in the estate, named Spasskaya Farmstead. After the death of Zakrevsky, the farmstead was bought by senator I.I. Kushelev (1744-1817; hence the name); under him, a landscape park with lakes, channels, islands and pavilions was laid out in the south-west of Bolshaya Spasskya village in 1804-08. By the middle of the 19th century, a part of the estate was sold for summer residential construction, the park became a paid entertainment garden (the so called Bekleshov Garden) and in 1860s-70s it enjoyed popularity with residents of Petersburg. After the peasant reform of 1861, Bolshaya Spasskya and Malaya Spasskya villages were renamed Bolshaya Kushelevka and Malaya Kushelevka. In 1912, the land of Kushelevs (200 desyatin) were purchased by St. Petersburg joint-stock house-building company, ponds of the park were buried, new roads were laid, the land was allotted for summer residences, agriculture and storehouses. In the 1910s, a line of Circular railway went through Malaya Kushelevka (Kushelevka Railway Station). In 1922, this territory was included in the city boundaries. By 1941, an industrial zone was formed in the north-western and southern parts of Kushelevka. In the 1960s, the Municipal Children Botanical Garden was opened close to the railway station. The north part of Kushelevka was gradually built up with residential constructions.

References: Описание и общий план дачных местностей по Финляндской железной дороге. СПб., 1887. С. 8-11; Ленинград: Путеводитель. М.; Л., 1931. С. 278-279, 294-295; Приамурский Г. Г. "В Полюстрово на воды и развлечения...". СПб., 1996.

S. V. Boglachev. Catherine II, Empress
Kushelev I.I.
Zakrevsky Andrey O .
Karbysheva St./Saint Petersburg, city
Nepokorennykh Ave/Saint Petersburg, city Кушелевка
Polyustrovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Кушелевка
Выборгская сторона