Kolpino town

Рубрикатор / City Topography/Historical Geography/Towns within Greater St. Petersburg
KOLPINO, a town, the centre of Kolpinsky District of St. Petersburg (since 1936), a station of Oktyabrskaya railway, 26 km to the south-east of St. Petersburg. It occupies the total area of 66 square km. The population is 142,800 people (2000). It was founded in 1722 as a settlement of Izhora Plants workers. In the late 18th century, Kolpino consisted of several settlements: Nikolskaya sloboda, Chukhonskaya sloboda and Novaya sloboda. Until 1878, the settlement of Kolpino was under the jurisdiction of the head of Admiralty Izhora Plants, then it passed on to the civil department and was turned into a trading quarter of Tsarskoselsky uezd (district); Kolpino has had the status of a town since 1912. In 1910, the population of Kolpino numbered 16,000 people. By 1917, there were three orthodox churches in the town: Holy Trinity Church (naval department) (1758-73, not preserved), Holy Ascension Church (1897-1901, returned to believers in 1991), St. Nicholas Church (1813-15, not preserved) and Roman Catholic Church (1890-94, not preserved); a primary school of Izhora Plant, a petty bourgeoisie school, a real school, a plant"s hospital, Naval Assembly, charitable society, St. Nicholas orphanage, alms-house, volunteer fire fighting society, etc. In the 1920-30s, a bread-baking plant, schools, the so-called factory-canteen and new residential houses were constructed, the city Nevsky water-supply was laid (1931) and a mechanical machine-building college, factory-and-works school, vocational school, two cinemas, three clubs, three libraries and a stadium were opened. In 1936, the town was subjected to Leningrad Soviet. In 1941, its population was equal to 59,000 residents. In summer-autumn of 1941, fortified positions (pillboxes and log pillboxes) and tank ditches were arranged at the approaches to Kolpino, several air defence groups and machine-gun battalions (see also Izhorsky battalion), 212nd company of local air defence, 14 sanitary guards and 2 groups of nurses were raised of volunteers. The front line was 3 - 4 km to the south of Kolpino; from 29 August 1941 to 23 January 1944 the town was bombarded with enemy shells (only 327 buildings were left of 2,183). In the summer of 1942, the mass evacuation of survivors was undertaken. During the Siege of 1941-44, a children reception centre, a school, a bread-baking plant, a bath-house, a subsidiary husbandry, a polyclinic and a hospital of Kolpino continued functioning. In the post-war years, to the projects by architects M.Y. Klimentov, M.A. Shepilevsky, A.I. Gegello and others, the ensemble of the square in front of the railway station was created, Izhorsky House of Culture, Plamya Cinema Hall were constructed and the recreation and entertainment park was also laid out. The today Kolpino features a number of large enterprises of machine-building industry and building industry: Izhora Plants, Stroypolimer, Sanlit, Pobeda-Knauf, Cooperative Dacha Building Society-5, Kolpino industrial complex of construction materials, Izotek, Kolpino industrial complex producing foodstuffs, etc. There are 43 children infant schools, 18 schools, 2 gymnasiums, the Palace of Children and Youth Creativity and arts schools; Faculty of Nuclear Power-Plant Engineering of St. Petersburg Institute for Mechanical Engineering; Polytechnic College, Izhora Polytechnic Professional Lyceum, Children Multifield Hospital; Izhorets Health and Fitness Complex, rowing and skating sports schools for children and youth, Drozdetsky Ice-hockey Club and many more. Newspapers Izhora-Inform and Okno were being published, Kolpino Radio and St. Petersburg cable television functioned. The complex of Izhora Plants, the rare sample of the 19th - early 20th century industrial architecture, has been preserved partially. Kolpino features following monuments: the monument To the Heroes of Civil War (1937, sculptor E.G. Zakharov), the monument to V.I. Lenin (1957, sculptor M.G. Manizer), the monument To Soldiers of Izhorsky Battalion (1959, architect M.A. Shepilevsky), a memorial of Balkanskoe military cemetery (1966, sculptor V.I. Gordon., architect O.B. Golynkin), a memorial on the Great Patriotic War Bed of Honour (1983, sculptor A.V. Degtyarev, architect O.B. Golynkin), the Monument to A.D. Menshikov (1997, sculptor A.S. Charkin). In 1965, Kolpino became a sister town of Rauma (Finland).

References: Колпино: Селение Адмиралтейских Ижорских заводов. СПб., 1854; Село Колпино. СПб., 1863; Поздняков О. А. Колпино: Ист.-краевед. очерк. Л., 1962; Колпино: [Фотоальбом] / Сост. и авт. текста Г. А. Ефимова. Л., 1976; Двадцать пятая верста от Санкт-Петербурга: (Ист.-лит. портр. Колпина) / Ред.-сост. А. Нестеренко. Колпино; Пушкин, 1997; Бурим Л. Д. Колпино. СПб., 2003.

L. D. Burim. Avilov M.I.
Charkin Albert Serafimovich
Degtyarev A.V.
Drozdetsky Nikolay Vladimirovich
Gegello Alexander Ivanovich
Golynkin Oleg Borisovich
Klimentov Mikhail Yakovlevich
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Manizer Matvey Genrikhovich
Menshikov Alexander Danilovich, Gracious Prince
Shepilevsky Modest Anatolievich
Zakharov Evgeny Gordeevich
Kolpino, town
Поздняков О. А. Колпино: Ист.-краевед. очерк. Л., 1962
Село Колпино. СПб., 1863
Колпино: Селение Адмиралтейских Ижорских заводов. СПб., 1854
Колпино: [Фотоальбом] / Сост. и авт. текста Г. А. Ефимова. Л., 1976 Izhora Plants
Izhora Battalion
Siege of 1941-44