Leningradsky Prospekt
Encyclopedia
Leningradsky Prospekt
Prospekt (street)
A prospekt is a broad, multi-lane and usually straight street in urban areas. The term originated in Russian Empire, where in the first years of construction of St Petersburg the broadest avenues were called ""...

, or Leningrad Avenue, is a major arterial avenue in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It continues the path of Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street , known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street of Moscow, Russia. The street runs from the central Manege Square north-west in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminated at the Garden Ring, giving its name to Tverskoy District...

 and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street north-west from Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal is one of nine rail terminals in Moscow. It was opened in 1870 and rebuilt in its current form in 1910-12.-Long distance:-Other destinations:-Suburban destinations:...

, and changes the name once again to Leningrad Highway past the Sokol
Sokol (Metro)
Sokol is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. The station opened on 11 September 1938. Designed by K. Yakovlev, V. Polikarpova, and V. Andreev, it features a single row of pillars which flare upward into the arched ceiling, separated by circular coffers...

 metro station. The Highway continues its way to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 via Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

 (not unlike Moskovsky Prospekt
Moskovsky Prospekt
Moskovsky Prospekt is a 10 km-long prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It runs from Sennaya Square and Sadovaya Street, to the Victory Square, where it splits into Pulkovo Highway and Moscow Highway. It crosses Fontanka River, Zagorodny Prospekt, Obvodny Canal, and Ligovsky Prospekt...

 in Saint Petersburg, which is named after, and leads to, Moscow).

Until 1957, Leningradsky Prospekt was part of Leningrad Highway (Petersburg Highway prior to 1924). Both avenues retain their Lenin-related names after the reinstatement of the historical Saint Petersburg name .

History

The old road to Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

, changing its course over Middle Ages, settled in its present site in the 16th century. The name Peterburskoye Schosse (Highway) was established when the road was properly paved between 1786 and 1790.

The most important historical building on the road, Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 Petrovsky Palace, was built in 1776–1780 by Matvey Kazakov
Matvey Kazakov
Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov was a Russian Neoclassical architect. Kazakov was one of the most influential Muscovite architects during the reign of Catherine II, completing numerous private residences, two royal palaces, two hospitals, Moscow University, and the Kremlin Senate...

 as the last station of royal journeys from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. Coaches for lesser classes arrived and departed from Vsekhsvyatskoye village near present-day Sokol
Sokol (Metro)
Sokol is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. The station opened on 11 September 1938. Designed by K. Yakovlev, V. Polikarpova, and V. Andreev, it features a single row of pillars which flare upward into the arched ceiling, separated by circular coffers...

 metro station.

In 1830s, general Alexander Bashilov
Alexander Bashilov
Alexander Alexandrovich Bashilov was a Russian general officer of Napoleonic Wars period, later engaged in urban planning of Moscow and its suburbs.-Military career:...

, then employed by the Governor of Moscow, planned the first regular grid of city streets north from Petrovsky Palace; two streets in the area still retain Bashilov's name. Territories south of the highway - Khodynka
Khodynka
Khodynka Field is a large open space in the north-west of Moscow, at the beginning of the present day Leningradsky Prospect. It takes its name from the small Khodynka River which used to cross the neighbourhood...

 field - were used mostly for military training. Bashilov also laid down the boulevard
Boulevard
A Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...

s along the highway; some of them remain to date. Soon, the beginning of Petersburg Highway turned into an upper-class recreation area, with country restaurants and racetrack (completed in 1883). Smolensky Rail station (forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal
Belorussky Rail Terminal is one of nine rail terminals in Moscow. It was opened in 1870 and rebuilt in its current form in 1910-12.-Long distance:-Other destinations:-Suburban destinations:...

) was inaugurated in 1870. Between 1882 and 1896, Khodynka housed the national Exhibition of Industry and Arts, later transferred to the Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

 fairground.

In the 1890s-1900s, the highway was gradually urbanized, with factories and residential quarters, ranging from working-class barracks to luxury country homes of the Morozov family, Nikolay Eichenwald and Fyodor Schechtel
Fyodor Schechtel
Fyodor Osipovich Schechtel was a Russian architect, graphic artist and stage designer, the most influential and prolific master of Russian Art Nouveau and late Russian Revival....

.

Modern history

The Sokol Settlement of single-family homes, built in early 1920s near the junction of Petersburg and Volokolamsk highway, remains one of the last two single-family neighborhoods in Moscow (the other one is Serebryany Bor
Serebryany Bor
Serebryany Bor is an urban locality in Neryungrinsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located north of Neryungri on the Amur Yakutsk Mainline. Population: There is a hydropower plant in the settlement....

).

Since the 1910s, Khodynka has been used as Moscow's airfield, and housed Moscow's Central Airport until 1950s; irregular DOSAAF
DOSAAF
DOSAAF was a paramilitary society in the Soviet Union, Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet . The society was preserved in a number of post-Soviet Republics, e.g., in Russia and Belarus...

 flights continued until 1980s. Leningradsky Highway (beyond city limits) is now home to Sheremetyevo Airport, the former largest airport in Moscow, which makes the avenue connecting the city center with the highway an even more important street in Moscow. Local transportation developed from tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s (1901–2005) to trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...

es (1933) and subway (1938).

Leningradsky Prospekt itself is home to the Dynamo Stadium (1928) and CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow is a major Russian sports club based in Moscow. It is popularly referred to in the West as "Red Army" or "the Red Army team" because during the Soviet era, it was a part of the Armed Forces sports society, which in turn was associated with the Soviet Army...

 winter stadium. Educational institutions include:
  • Moscow Aviation Institute
    Moscow Aviation Institute
    Moscow Aviation Institute is one of several major engineering higher education establishments in Moscow .Although the school is currently offering a wide range of majors and research...

  • State Financial Academy
  • Moscow Automobile Road Institute
  • Moscow Food Institute


Notable buildings include th Triumph-Palace
Triumph-Palace
Triumph-Palace is the name of an apartment building in Moscow. It is sometimes called the Eighth Sister because it is similar in appearance to the Seven Sisters skyscrapers built in Moscow by Joseph Stalin through the 1950s...

 skyscraper and the 1730s baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 Church of All Saints (photographs) near the Sokol station. Its bell tower is one of Russia's leaning tower
Leaning tower
This is a list of leaning towers. A leaning tower is a tower which, either intentionally, due to errors in design, construction or to subsequent external influence, does not stand perpendicular to the ground...

s.

Highway construction, 2005–2008

Since 2005, the city of Moscow is engaged in a multi-billion project of converting Leningradsky arterial, from downtown Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street , known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street of Moscow, Russia. The street runs from the central Manege Square north-west in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminated at the Garden Ring, giving its name to Tverskoy District...

 to MKAD
MKAD
MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...

, into a 12-lane, non-stop freeway with frontage road
Frontage road
A frontage road is a non-limited access road running parallel to a higher-speed road, usually a freeway, and feeding it at appropriate points of access...

s. Authorities declare the goal is improving transportation to remote districts beyond MKAD and Sheremetyevo Airport, however, the worst bottleneck on the road, in the city of Khimki
Khimki
Khimki is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated just northwest of Moscow, at the west bank of the Moscow Canal. Population: 207,125 ; 141,000 ; 106,000 ; 23,000 .-History:...

, is not addressed at all. In addition, the project began with irreversible destruction of the public tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 route along the Prospekt. In March, 2006, the approved project stages were valued at 57 billion roubles (2.1 billion US Dollars) http://www.izvestia.ru/gorod/article3093141/; the city has placed an absolute cap on this project at 1 trillion roubles (38 billion US dollars).

The plan includes the following stages (from city center to MKAD):
  • Central segment (starting Q2, 2007 to be completed 2009) http://www.izvestia.ru/gorod/article3093141/
    • Redevelopment of Pushkin Square
      Pushkin Square
      Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square in Moscow, historically known as Strastnaya Square and renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937, is located at the junction of the Boulevard Ring and Tverskaya Street, 2 km northwest of the Kremlin...

       with underground tunnels and shopping space
    • Redevelopment of Triumphalnaya Square
    • Redevelopment of Belorussky Rail Terminal
      Belorussky Rail Terminal
      Belorussky Rail Terminal is one of nine rail terminals in Moscow. It was opened in 1870 and rebuilt in its current form in 1910-12.-Long distance:-Other destinations:-Suburban destinations:...

       Square
    • Tunnel between Pushkin Square
      Pushkin Square
      Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square in Moscow, historically known as Strastnaya Square and renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937, is located at the junction of the Boulevard Ring and Tverskaya Street, 2 km northwest of the Kremlin...

       and Belorussky Rail Terminal
      Belorussky Rail Terminal
      Belorussky Rail Terminal is one of nine rail terminals in Moscow. It was opened in 1870 and rebuilt in its current form in 1910-12.-Long distance:-Other destinations:-Suburban destinations:...

    • Rearranging traffic in parallel Brestky Streets, Bronnaya Streets etc.

  • Leningradsky Prospekt segment
    • Additional overpass
      Overpass
      An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...

       at the Third Ring crossing (completed 2006)
    • Tunnel near Dinamo (Metro)
      Dinamo (Metro)
      Dinamo is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. It is located under Leningradsky Avenue, and named after the nearby Dinamo Stadium. The station was opened in 1938 as part of the second stage of the system. The station is situated at the depth of 39.6 metres and follows a tri-vaulted...

       (completed December 2006)
    • Tunnel near Aeroport (Metro)
      Aeroport (Metro)
      Aeroport is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Its name, literally meaning airport, owes to the nearby Khodynka Aerodrome, Moscow's first airport which has by now ceased operation. Presently there is a bus terminal which has regular service to Moscow's principal airports...

       with ramps to Khodynka
      Khodynka
      Khodynka Field is a large open space in the north-west of Moscow, at the beginning of the present day Leningradsky Prospect. It takes its name from the small Khodynka River which used to cross the neighbourhood...

       residential district (completed February, 2007 http://www.rg.ru/2007/02/06/tonnel.html)
    • Raised overpass connecting the Prospekt with Leningradsky Highway (to be completed 2008)

  • Leningradsky Highway segment (to be completed 2008)
    • Redevelopment near Voykovskaya
    • Non-stop crossing with Festivalnaya Street
    • Construction of a second six-lane Leningradsky Bridge
    • Rebuilding MKAD
      MKAD
      MKAD is a ring road encircling the City of Moscow.The acronym is a transliteration of the Russian МКАД, for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога .The growth of traffic in and around Moscow in the 1950s made the city planners realise Russia's largest metropolis...

       crossing


So far, there are no definite plans of reconstructing the highway in Khimki
Khimki
Khimki is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated just northwest of Moscow, at the west bank of the Moscow Canal. Population: 207,125 ; 141,000 ; 106,000 ; 23,000 .-History:...

. There are plans to build a bypass private toll road
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

 to the airport currently in design stage.

Public transportation access

Daytime traffic is frequently paralyzed by construction detours, thus the only reliable transportation is through Zamoskvoretskaya Line
Zamoskvoretskaya Line
Zamoskvoretskaya Line , formerly Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya , is a line of the Moscow Metro. Opened in 1938, chronologically it became the third line. There are twenty stations on the Zamoskvoretskaya line, and it spans , roughly crossing Moscow in a north-south direction. A normal trip along the...

 of Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...

 (Belorusskaya
Belorusskaya-Radialnaya
Belorusskaya is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Designed by architects Ivan Taranov and Nadezhda Bykova, it was opened in 1938 as part of the second stage of the Moscow Metro...

 to Sokol
Sokol (Metro)
Sokol is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. The station opened on 11 September 1938. Designed by K. Yakovlev, V. Polikarpova, and V. Andreev, it features a single row of pillars which flare upward into the arched ceiling, separated by circular coffers...

).
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