Komarovo, Saint Petersburg
Encyclopedia
Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg
The federal city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, is divided into eighteen city districts , which are in turn subdivided into municipal okrugs, municipal towns, and municipal settlements.-Admiralteysky District:...
in Kurortny District
Kurortny District
Kurortny District is a district of Saint Petersburg, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Population:...
of the federal city
Federal cities of Russia
The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects, two of which are federal cities....
of 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...
, 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...
, located on the Karelian Isthmus
Karelian Isthmus
The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...
on the shore of the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
, and a station of the Saint Petersburg-Vyborg railroad. It is located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northwest of central Saint Petersburg. Population:
During the summer months, the population increases five to six times.
Finnish history
The Russian Orthodox church of the Holy Spirit was built in 1908, and burnt down in 1917. After that, a house chapel in one of the dachas served as church until the Soviet takeover. In 1916, about 800 dachas were counted in the settlement.
Among the well-known residents of Kellomäki before the Russian revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
were:
- Leonid AndreyevLeonid AndreyevLeonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history...
- writer - George Borman - owner of a famous Saint Petersburg chocolate factory
- Peter Carl FabergéPeter Carl FabergéPeter Karl Fabergé also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé in Russia was a Russian jeweller of Baltic German-Danish and French origin, best known for the famous Fabergé eggs, made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and gemstones rather than more mundane materials.-Early...
- jeweller - Mathilde KschessinskaMathilde KschessinskaMathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
- ballerina - Augustin Reiche - speech therapist, had a facility for children at his dacha.
- Anna VyrubovaAnna VyrubovaAnna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, née Taneyeva , was a lady-in-waiting, best friend and confidante to Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna.-Early life:...
- lady-in-waiting to the RomanovRomanovThe House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917...
family
The development of summer-resort towns on the Karelian Isthmus was slowed down after Finland's declaration of independence
Finland's declaration of independence
The Finnish declaration of independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland an independent and sovereign nation state rather than an autonomous Russian Grand duchy.-Revolution in Russia:...
in 1917. Many of the dachas were abandoned, and some 200 buildings were auctioned off, dismantled and rebuilt in other Finnish towns. An Émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
community formed in Kellomäki after the revolution as the White Russians
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
fled to Finland. By the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War, 167 families remained in the settlement - most of them were evacuated to Järvenpää
Järvenpää
Järvenpää is a town and municipality of Finland.-History:Järvenpää was separated from its parent community Tuusula in 1951. Järvenpää was granted the status of a market town after the separation. Neighbouring districts Kellokoski and Nummenkylä were not added to the municipality of Järvenpää and...
during the Soviet-Finnish border negotiations in the fall of 1939. On November 30, 1939, after artillery bombardment, Kellomäki surrendered to Soviet troops without battle. Several buildings were destroyed, but overall the damage to the settlement was not serious.
Soviet and Russian history
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in the Moscow Peace Treaty (1940)
Moscow Peace Treaty (1940)
The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on 21 March. It marked the end of the 105-day Winter War. The treaty ceded parts of Finland to the Soviet Union. However, it preserved Finland's independence, ending the Soviet...
. Immediately after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Council of Peoples Commissars issued decree № 2638 "on building dachas for members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and setting aside land plots from 1.25 to 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²) as gratis
Gratis
Gratis is the process of providing goods or services without compensation. It is often referred to in English as "free of charge" or "complimentary"...
personal property". Standard houses manufactured in Finland on account of war reparations
Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union
War reparations of Finland to the Soviet Union were originally the worth 300 000 000 US dollars, at 1938 prices. Finland agreed to pay the reparations in the Moscow Armistice signed on 19 September 1944. Armistice had started already 5 September 1944...
, were transported and assembled on the spot. Kellomäki was renamed to Komarovo in honor of botanist Vladimir Komarov
Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov
Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov was a Russian botanist.Until his death in 1945, he was senior editor of the Flora SSSR , in full comprising 30 volumes published between 1934–1960...
, President of the Academy in 1948. Special resorts and dachas were also established for Writers, Composers, Theater and Cinema Workers. Land was set aside for Atomic Scientists
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
as well.
Komarovo was built on this principle : people serve the state, the state pays back with rewards. And the principle was subverted by an aging lady: Anna Akhmatova
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...
. It turned out that there are more attractive values than those offered by the state. - Lev Lurye, historian.
Easily reachable from the city by elektrichka
Elektrichka
Elektrichka is an informal word for elektropoyezd , a Soviet or post-Soviet regional electrical multiple unit passenger train. Elektrichkas are widespread in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union....
train, the settlement became home to many prominent figures in science and culture, members of the Saint Petersburg (then named Leningrad) intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
.
Komarovo <...> was a place of both family relaxation and work. The settlement had developed its own daily routine. Usually, from the morning until six in the evening, people were busy with
Since the 1990s, the academic and cultural traditions of Komarovo have been weakened, and currently, the New Russians and the well-to-dos of Saint Petersburg construct new villas here or redesign existing dachas purchased from the older residents.
In 2005 a nonprofit fund "Kellomaki-Komarovo" was founded. Some of the projects include building a new church, opening a museum, and preserving the yet unprotected forests.
Komarovo has served as a residence for government officials of Saint Petersburg, and still does today. Mayor Valentina Matviyenko
Valentina Matviyenko
Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko , born 7 April 1949 in the Ukrainian SSR), is currently the highest-ranking female politician in Russia, the former governor of Saint Petersburg and the current Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation...
lives here in the summer and commutes to the city.
Literature
- Fyodor AbramovFyodor AbramovFyodor Aleksandrovich Abramov was a Russian novelist and literary critic. His work focused on the difficult lives of the Russian peasant class. He was frequently reprimanded for deviations from Soviet policy on writing....
- writer - Anna AkhmatovaAnna AkhmatovaAnna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...
- poet - Joseph BrodskyJoseph BrodskyIosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky , was a Russian poet and essayist.In 1964, 23-year-old Brodsky was arrested and charged with the crime of "social parasitism" He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and settled in America with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters...
- poet - Daniil GraninDaniil GraninDaniil Alexandrovich Granin is an author born in the former Soviet Union. He started writing in the 1930s when he was still an engineering student at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute...
- writer - Lydia ChukovskayaLydia ChukovskayaLydia Korneievna Chukovskaya was a Soviet writer and poet. Her deeply personal writings reflect the human cost of Soviet totalitarianism, and she devoted much of her career to defending dissidents such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov...
- writer - Lydia GinzburgLydia GinzburgLidiya Yakovlevna Ginzburg was a major Soviet literary critic and historian and a survivor of the siege of Leningrad.She was born in Odessa in 1902 and moved to Leningrad in 1922...
- literary critic - Dmitry LikhachevDmitry LikhachevDmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov was an outstanding Soviet Russian scholar who was considered the world's foremost expert in Old Russian language and literature. He has been revered as "the last of old St Petersburgers", "a guardian of national culture", and "Russia's conscience".-Biography:Likhachov...
- linguist - Vera PanovaVera Panova-Early life:Vera was born into the family of an impoverished merchant in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Her father, Fyodor Ivanovich Panov, built canoes and yachts as a hobby, and founded two yachting clubs in Rostov. When she was five her father drowned in the Don River. After her father's death, her...
- writer - Evgeny ShvartsEvgeny ShvartsEvgeny Lvovich Shvarts was a Soviet writer and playwright whose works include twenty-five plays and screenplays for three films .- Life :...
- playwright - Mikhail SlonimskyMikhail SlonimskyMikhail Leonidovich Slonimsky was a Soviet writer, member of the Serapion Brothers group.Mikhail was born in Saint Petersburg to the family of Intelligentsia. His grandfather, father and aunt were professional writers. His uncle Semyon Vengerov was a famous philologist and literary critic...
- writer - Arkady and Boris StrugatskyArkady and Boris StrugatskyThe brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are Soviet Jewish-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction.-Life and work:...
- science fiction writers
Visual arts
- Nathan AltmanNathan AltmanNathan Isaevich Altman was a Jewish, Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator who was born, grew up and began his art studies in Ukraine, Russian Empire.-Early life:He was born in Vinnytsia, Russian Empire to a family of Russian...
- painter - Boris PiotrovskyBoris PiotrovskyBoris Borisovich Piotrovsky was a Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient civilizations of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia. He is best known as a key figure in the study of the Urartian civilization of the southern Caucasus...
- director of the Hermitage MuseumHermitage MuseumThe State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,... - Sergey Speransky - architect
- Ivan Vladimirov - painter, graphic artist
Classical and popular music
- Boris GrebenshchikovBoris GrebenshchikovBoris Borisovich Grebenshchikov also known as Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov, is one of the most prominent members of the generation which is widely considered the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music...
- rock musician - Oleg Karavaychuk - composer
- Sergey KuryokhinSergey KuryokhinSergey Kuryokhin was a Russian film actor, film composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia.-Biography:Kuryokhin began his acting career as a piano and keyboard player with a school band in Leningrad...
- rock musician - Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
- classical composer - Vasili Solovyov-Sedoy - songwriter
- Viktor ReznikovViktor ReznikovViktor Reznikov was a Soviet composer, lyricist and singer. He is mostly known for his songs written for many famous Soviet artists like Alla Pugacheva, Larisa Dolina, Anne Veski etc.- See also :The Cover Girls...
- musician
Science and Exploration
- Zhores Alferov - physicist, Nobel laureate
- Vladimir FockVladimir FockVladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was a Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics....
- mathematician - Abram IoffeAbram IoffeAbram Fedorovich Ioffe was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist. He received the Stalin Prize , the Lenin Prize , and the Hero of Socialist Labor . Ioffe was an expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity...
- physicist - Yuri LinnikYuri LinnikYuri Vladimirovich Linnik was a Soviet mathematician active in number theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics.Linnik was born in Bila Tserkva, in present-day Ukraine. He went to St Petersburg University where his supervisor was Vladimir Tartakovski, and later worked at that...
- mathematician - Vladimir KomarovVladimir Leontyevich KomarovVladimir Leontyevich Komarov was a Russian botanist.Until his death in 1945, he was senior editor of the Flora SSSR , in full comprising 30 volumes published between 1934–1960...
- botanist - Mikhail SomovMikhail SomovMikhail Mikhailovich Somov was a Soviet oceanologist, polar explorer, Doctor of Geographical Sciences ....
- oceanologist - Vladimir SmirnovVladimir Ivanovich Smirnov (mathematician)Vladimir Ivanovich Smirnov was a Russian mathematician who made significant contributions in both pure and applied mathematics, and also in the history of mathematics....
- mathematician - Aleksei TreshnikovAleksei TreshnikovAlexey Fyodorovich Tryoshnikov was a Soviet polar explorer and leader of the 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition and the 13th Soviet Antarctic Expedition.He was involved in defending the Northern Sea Route during World War II and participated in the...
- polar explorer - Ivan Yefremov - paleontologist
Theater and cinema
- Aleksey BatalovAleksey BatalovAleksey Vladimirovich Batalov is a Soviet and Russian actor who has been acclaimed for his portrayal of noble and positive characters. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1989.-Biography:...
- actor - Nikolai CherkasovNikolai CherkasovNikolay Konstantinovich Cherkasov , was a Soviet actor and a People's Artist of the Soviet Union.-Career:He was born in Saint Petersburg . From 1919 he was a mime artist in Petrograd's Maryinsky Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre, and elsewhere...
- actor - Alisa FreindlichAlisa FreindlichAlisa Brunovna Freindlich is a Soviet and Russian actress, People's Artist of the USSR.-Biography:Alisa Freindlich was born into the family of Bruno Freindlich, a prominent actor and People's Artist of the USSR. She is of German and Russian ancestry. Her father and paternal relatives were ethnic...
- actress - Grigori KozintsevGrigori KozintsevGrigori Mikhaylovich Kozintsev was a Jewish Ukrainian, Soviet Russian theatre and film director. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1964.He studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts...
- film director - Nadezhda Kosheverova - film director
- Andrey KraskoAndrey KraskoAndrei Ivanovich Krasko was a Russian theatre and cinema actor.Son of Russian actor Ivan I. Krasko.-External links:...
- actor - Innokenty SmoktunovskyInnokenty SmoktunovskyInnokentiy Mikhailovich Smoktunovsky was a Soviet actor acclaimed as the "king of Soviet actors". He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1974 and the Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990....
- actor - Georgy TovstonogovGeorgy TovstonogovGeorgy Alexandrovich Tovstonogov was a Russian theatre director, the leader of Saint Petersburg Bolshoi Academic Theatre of Drama , which now bears his name.-Biography:...
- theater director - Galina UlanovaGalina UlanovaGalina Sergeyevna Ulánova is frequently cited as being one of the greatest 20th Century ballerinas. Her flat in Moscow is designated a national museum, and there are monuments to her in Saint Petersburg and Stockholm....
- ballerina
Scenic features
Scots Pine
Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...
, and spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
forests, and glacial lakes. Its residents and visitors enjoy cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
in the winter, and hiking, bicycling, fishing, wild mushroom, blueberry and raspberry picking in the summer. Its coastal stretch has been designated a protected zone: "Komarovo Shore Natural Reserve".
Remnants of the Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
, such as trenches and dug-outs, can be seen in the surrounding forests.
Komarovo in popular culture
Komarovo became well-known throughout the entire former USSR in the 1980s because of the popular song by Igor SklyarIgor Sklyar
Igor Sklyar is a Russian actor and singer. He has appeared in over 30 films since 1974. He starred in the 1994 film The Year of the Dog, which won the Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* We Are from Jazz * The...
: "На недельку, до второго, Я уеду в Комарово" ("For a week until the second [of the month], I will leave for Komarovo")
Complete lyrics in Russian.
Komarovo Beach is supposedly the setting of the 16th episode of Nu, pogodi!
Nu, pogodi!
Nu, pogodi! is a Soviet/Russian animated series produced by Soyuzmultfilm. The series was created in 1969 and became a popular cartoon of the Soviet Union. Additional episodes have been produced in Russia since 2006...
(a popular Russian animated cartoon), that also features the song.
Quotations
In general, if you speak of Komarovo as a phenomenon - maybe this is a grandiose and pathos-arousing comparison - I would compare it to a certain Soviet AtlantisAtlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
, which has gone and disappeared into the abyss of time, together with the epoch that gave birth to it. And I am convinced that the fate and appearance of Komarovo is altogether inseparable from the Soviet era. And with that era, Komarovo has vanished as well. - Dmitri Svetozarov, film director.
Nowadays, many are lobbying for Komarovo to be preserved as a monument. The only question is - a monument to what? And the only answer can be this: a monument to Leningrad civillization. A monument to Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
culture of the 1940s-70's. When actually, here, in Komarovo, the most important indvidiuals for Leningrad culture, official and unofficial, lived, worked, rejoiced and fell in love. And then, that time has ended. The urgency of Komarovo has passed. And Komarovo, this remarkable place, has become the same kind of reserve as Yasnaya Polyana
Yasnaya Polyana
Yasnaya Polyana was the home of the writer Leo Tolstoy, where he was born, wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and is buried. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold". It is located southwest of Tula, Russia and from Moscow.In 1921, the estate formally became his...
, Mikhailovskoye and other pilgrimage destinations for cultured Russian people. - Lev Lurye, historian.
Sources
Kellomäki - Komarovo. Komarovo Municipal Council, Balashov et al. / Saint Petersburg: Izdatestvo "MKS", 2003. - 48pp. ISBN 5-901810-03-1Komarovo Shore - Complex Natural Reserve. edited by Volkova, Isachenko, Khramtsov. / Saint Petersburg, 2002. - 92pp. ISBN 5-93938-030-1
External links
komarovo.spb.ru Official website of Komarovo Kellomäki-Komarovo - nonprofit fundraising organization dedicated to cultural and ecological preservation / development of Komarovo Komarovo History - includes numerous photographs Kellomäki - article on the Finnish period of the settlement's history by E.A. Balashov TV Program on Komarovo part 1 part 2 - complete transcript of a 2 part TV episode that includes interviews with many Soviet-era residents and their children. Part of the "Kультурный Cлой/Cultural Layer" program, led by historian Lev Lurye.- "My Komarovo" New web-project about Komarovo
- Komarovo Shore Description of the Natural Reserve
- Anna Akhmatova's grave at findagrave.com
- Kellomaki Peschannye Holmy poems by Joseph Brodsky dedicated to Komarovo.
- Eccentrics of Bell Hill Recollections about Komarovo's famous Soviet-era residents.
- Villa Renault Russian text (multi-part) of a novel by Natalia Galkina set in Kellomäki/Komarovo. One of Kellomäki's pre-revolutionary villas is the setting.