Svetlanovsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg: the history of the street in the history of the city

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The squares of St. Petersburg, its avenues and streets, canals and bridges attract tens of thousands of tourists from all over our planet. At the same time, guests of the northern capital of Russia strive not only to visit the world-famous monuments, but also to collect as much information as possible about all the interesting places in the city on the Neva. Svetlanovsky Prospekt belongs to such curious places.

Probably, if you ask a local resident, he will simply tell you that this part of the city highway connects Suzdalsky Prospekt and Svetlanovskaya Square, but not everyone will be able to tell what used to be here and where the modern name came from.

Svetlanovsky Prospekt as such appeared in 1912. True, at that time it was called Ananievskaya Street and connected Staropargolovsky Prospekt and Benois Prospekt. This route was named after Anania Ratkov, a famous landowner who owned almost all the surrounding territories. Thesethe lands were bought by his father in order to create a new landscaped area on the site of the cut down forests. The construction was already completed by Ananiy himself, who enjoyed great prestige among the local population, who elected him several times as the leader of the nobility and the justice of the peace.

After the October Revolution, the future Svetlanovsky Prospekt continued to bear the name of Ananievskaya Street for a long time, until a large-scale reconstruction began in the mid-1960s. So, at the very beginning of this decade, a new highway was laid between Engels Avenue and Staropargolovsky Avenue, called Novoananievskaya Street. However, the restructuring did not stop there: in 1967, both Ananyevsky streets were merged into a wide and spacious Svetlanovsky Prospekt, which was extended to Ozerki. They didn’t think about the name for a long time: back in 1920, the Aivaz machine-building plant located here was renamed Svetlana, as it began to specialize in the production of lighting fixtures.

In the early 1970s, the Svetlana plant, as part of an ongoing experiment, became the first scientific and production association in the Soviet Union. This enterprise occupied a huge area, the boundaries of which were Svetlanovsky Prospekt, which, back in 1970, was extended by an administrative decision to Suzdalsky Prospekt, Manchesterskaya Street, Torez and Engels Avenues. At the same time, the resulting area at the intersection of Bogatyrsky, Murinsky, Svetlanovsky prospectsalso became known as Svetlanovskaya.

Since then, a lot of water has flown under the bridge. Once located almost on the borders of the city, Svetlanovsky Prospekt is now one of the most important city highways. The former industrial giant has already lost its significance, modern shops and shopping centers are spread along the highway itself. Thousands of St. Petersburg residents and guests of the city pass through this area every day, without even realizing what a fascinating story is hidden behind the familiar name "Svetlanovsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg".