In the "Sacred Sites of St. Petersburg" and in the electronic version of the "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg," it is stated that in the autumn of 1903, hieromonk Ioakim submitted a request to the diocesan authorities for the construction of a wooden parish church on the site in question. The authorities deemed the site too small for a church and rejected the request. Instead of a church, a wooden chapel for 300 people was consecrated on November 28, 1904. Its design was developed by architect Nikolai Nikolaevich Yeremeev. The electronic version of the "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg" specifically notes that it was not allowed to convert this chapel into a church. The chapel was first consecrated on July 27, 1907, and then again, after an expansion that made it resemble a small church, on July 20, 1909. In the "Sacred Sites of St. Petersburg," the electronic version of the "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg," and in Natalia Pavlovna Stolbova's "Atlas of the Krasnogvardeysky District," the chapel is dedicated to St. Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Healer. (In the guidebook "Churches of Petersburg," Panteleimon "shares" the chapel, whose dedication is not clearly defined, with St. Alexander Oshchevensky, the founder of the Assumption Monastery.)

A completely different—and, in light of the above description, less convincing—version of events is presented in Sergey Sergeyevich Shulz's "Churches of St. Petersburg." According to him, the Alexander-Oshchevensky Assumption Male Monastery of the Olonets and Petrozavodsk Diocese "acquired land near Emperor Peter the Great Avenue <renamed Piskarevsky Avenue in January 1944>, on the border of the Polyustrovsky and Piskarevsky districts of the city" in 1913. On this land, a parish was established, and a church (or chapel) was built in 1913–1914 according to a design by architect Nikolai Nikolaevich Yeremeev. It was consecrated in 1914 in the name of St. Alexander Oshchevensky.

The information we have about the final years of the "Piskarevsky" parish of the Alexander-Oshchevensky Monastery is mostly consistent. Before the October Revolution, hieromonk Ioakim, already familiar to us, served at the chapel of the parish, as noted in the "Sacred Sites of St. Petersburg" and the electronic version of the "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg." The local residents greatly loved this chapel, although no one lived at the parish itself from 1919. The chapel continued to serve as a parish church for another ten years. Shulz writes that from December 1927 until its closure on January 21, 1931, the "church belonged to the Josephites," and in the subsequent 1930s it "was used as a storage room for the workers' dormitory of the sugar warehouse and dairy farm." Later, the former parish buildings were demolished.

Additionally, it should be noted that in the late 1920s, the rector of this parish church was Priest Nikolai Fyodorovich Prozorov, a Josephite who was executed on August 21, 1930, and canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981.

Through Bolshaya Okhta, the evacuation of Leningraders was carried out. There was another route—through the Finland Station, from where trains to Rzhevka ran along a railway line. When tram service ceased, reaching evacuation points and continuing to Rzhevka became much more difficult. Since 1925, the central part of Leningrad had been connected to the distant outskirts by a tram line, part of which still exists today. This line ran along Bolshaya Porokhovskaya Street. Upon arriving at Bolshaya Okhta, evacuees had to wait for a vehicle or other means of transport. At that time, other transport consisted of horses. Weak, injured horses and those who had already been to the front, were wounded, and returned to the besieged city from the front lines, were put into service in the city.

At the intersection of Bolshoi Okhtinsky Avenue, a nearly straight stretch of road began from the checkpoint, lined with wooden houses. Imagine a straight cobblestone pavement extending into the distance. In winter, it turned into a snowy highway, along which in 1941, people with small children's sleds trudged. On these sleds, they carried belongings, canisters of water, and the weak from hunger—both adults and children who could not yet walk. Along the route, trucks, kicking up snowstorms, sped towards Rzhevka carrying supplies for those maintaining the Road of Life. In summer, Revolution Highway became busier as people went to Rzhevka for vegetables. On the return trip, men and women with bags on their backs could often be seen, looking like large black ants.

Through checkpoint No. 1 at Bolshaya Okhta, not only women with children heading to the mainland but also defenders of the city, being transferred to Ladoga, passed.

Today, in the building on the corner, constructed in the 1950s, is the Raid 2.0 Search Movement Museum, which houses unique exhibits—personal items of the found heroes, letters, weapons, and communication devices.

From Middle Okhtinsky Avenue, there was no direct access here; it ended before reaching the Revolution Highway, as evidenced by the 1940 aerial photographs taken by German pilots. Those who did not wait for the vehicle and went on foot had to take a detour through a checkpoint. Desperate Leningraders, who had lost their belongings due to bombings and could not obtain work permits, traveled on foot through the Rzhevsky Corridor. Some of them then continued on foot along the Road of Life, stopping in villages, trying to find some sustenance for themselves and their children. Not everyone reached Lake Ladoga, but even those who did faced the problem of inadequate transportation. In the early years of the Great Patriotic War, almost all Soviet industry was redirected to military production, with factories being moved beyond the Ural Mountains to Siberia, but it took a lot of time to reestablish the production of machinery and vehicles, and time was in short supply.

Here, on this section of the Rzhevsky Corridor, one could still hear the “terrifying music” of war—the sound of city sirens warning of the next air raid, the all-clear signal, followed by silence. Sirens turned into a distant, muffled background noise, while the approaching aircraft were signaled by a different, low, guttural sound. This was the signal to hide anywhere possible and wait, listening to the barking of anti-aircraft guns and the staccato bursts of machine guns.

Waiting in winter, literally buried in snow since there were almost no other shelters on this remote road, was cold and frightening. Not everyone could then get up to continue forward. Along the entire route from Bolshaya Okhta to Rzhevka, from Rzhevka to Ladoga, and even on the ice of Lake Ladoga, frozen people were found who had sought salvation but never reached the mainland.

Yet others got up and continued, walking in silence, occasionally speaking only when necessary to conserve strength. Each crunching step echoed across the white expanse of collective farm fields. Not even the barking of dogs could be heard—by the winter of 1941–1942, there were almost none left. Only occasionally did a bird sing somewhere in the distance, reminding them that life persisted, that it was invincible.

Directly across from the modern cinema stood a small two-story wooden building—the house of the Vvedensky Convent's courtyard. The courtyard itself was closed in the 1930s, and the chapel was demolished. This building housed a dormitory, most of whose residents worked at local factories. The dormitory was adjacent to undeveloped land, but it was unsuitable for agriculture because it was heavily flooded in the spring. This area is now occupied by Polyustrovsky Park. There was also a small mineral water factory with an open tap for collecting water. Locals came to this tap to collect the healing water. Leningraders heading to Rzhevka filled small flasks and bottles with the water. They stood silently in line, as talking was a waste of precious energy.

The taste of the cold, slightly briny water with a hint of bitterness was invigorating and seemed to give strength. Exhausted by bombings and the constant anticipation of attacks, people fell into apathy, losing sensitivity and almost failing to react to their surroundings. After just a sip of Polyustrovsky water, it was as if they came alive from the sharp, unique sensation in their mouths.

Another taste that accompanied those heading to the mainland was that of snow. Eating snow was dangerous, but in desperation and hunger, people were ready to turn anything into food. They carried blockade bread made from wallpaper paste, cake crumbs, and various "fillers," such as cellulose and ground grass, known as durand cakes. Some were fortunate enough to find whole sugar loaves—an incredible luxury! For a child, it was a joy and a dream to lick such a loaf, feeling its rough, even prickly surface and sweetness with their tongue.

Leaving behind Bolshaya Okhta, Leningraders ventured beyond the city, into the fields, where ahead, rare cottages loomed darkly, turning into dim lights in the midst of the black ocean of darkness at night.

To the left of the highway, where the monumental building of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation banking complex and the long facade of the Central Research Institute of Materials building are located today, there were several wooden one-story houses. These houses survived the war and were preserved until the late 1970s. During the blockade, people continued to live in these houses, with semi-trucks passing by their windows, wagons with firewood and food. And also through the fogged windows they watched groups of people, doomed to endure and hoping for distant Kobona, slowly walking along the roadside to Rzhevka.

The beginning of the Rzhevka blockade corridor symbolically repeated the beginning of the hardest period in the history of Leningrad. Frost, cold, silence, snowstorm, scattered pockets of life, and suddenly, in this silence, a cheerful marching song is heard - a group of soldiers is coming. And in this song you can hear the faith in victory.

Anyone who found themselves at the wheel on the Road of Life had to not only deliver the invaluable cargo to the city and bring people to the mainland, but also fend off the enemy while on the move. On some of the trucks, light machine guns were mounted in the cargo area to fire at German planes over Lake Ladoga. In the spring, fearless drivers would drive across the thawing ice with the door open, literally standing on the running board, ready to jump out at any moment if the truck began to sink. Even then, the driver could not abandon the cargo or, even more so, the people. He would pull sacks of flour and other provisions from the icy water and rescue exhausted women, children, and the elderly from the ice holes.

The author of the Rzhevsky Corridor of the Blockade monument, architect, sculptor, and artist Vladimir Sergeyevich Lukyanov, was born in Leningrad in 1945. His mother worked as a teacher at a school on Rubinstein Street at the start of the blockade, then went into evacuation, returning immediately after the lifting of the siege. The architect's father developed weapons for the front, working at the State Institute of Applied Chemistry (GIPKh). One can imagine the responsibility and joy with which Vladimir Sergeyevich approached the creation of these stelae. They were installed in 1985 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory. That same year, an obelisk was erected in the center of Vosstaniya Square, becoming the centerpiece and axis of the Green Belt of Glory, designed by Lukyanov—a symbol of the city risen from the ruins.

The complex of stelae known as the Rzhevsky Corridor of the Blockade was named "Daily Bread" because bread was the most precious cargo of the trucks, symbolizing both the tragedy and the salvation of Blockade Leningrad. Daily bread gives strength for labor, faith, and heroism, and the strength to endure any trial.

In the plot of the movie, two guys missed the train, and then decided to settle down for the night by deceit. Nikolai Karachentsov's character introduced himself as the lost eldest son of Sarafanov, played by Yevgeny Leonov.

This touching comedy tells about a completely different time, but then, in the blockade years such sudden relatives appeared often. Children left without parents found their aunts, great-aunts and other relatives, appearing on the doorstep without warning. Not all such stories ended well, many were not happy about the new mouths and refused to accept an orphan who was assigned to an orphanage. But there were also cases when a complete stranger's child was taken into the family.

It was a war. A time when all the deepest qualities of man, both good and bad came to the surface, vividly unfolding against the background of destroyed houses and barricades. And many discovered in themselves incredible strength, fortitude and fortitude to go all the way to the end.

Today in this place nothing reminds of the small town, of the hardships of the blockade life, of the path that Leningraders passed in this struggle with the enemy and with themselves.

The project for the wooden plastered church designed to accommodate 2,000 people was developed by Nikolai Nikitich Nikonov, who was the St. Petersburg diocesan architect at the time (1893–1906), and technician-architect Ivan Nikolaevich Iors. The latter also designed the wooden chapel of the estate, which was built in 1900. The construction of the wooden church began in the same year and was carried out very rapidly using collected donations.

Stolbova notes that the five-domed church was located along Koltushskoye Highway (now Kommuny Street since March 1922). From the side of the current Irinovsky Prospect, where apparently the main entrance was, there rose a bell tower.

Unfortunately, it remains unclear in what order and in honor of whom the side altars of this church were consecrated. According to "The Shrines of St. Petersburg" by Viktor Vasilyevich Antonov and Alexander Valeryevich Kobak, in the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," and in the books "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg" and "Okhtinsky Lessons: Lessons of Petersburg Traditions" by Natalia Pavlovna Stolbova, it is mentioned that on November 19, 1900, Archimandrite Veniamin of the Skovorodsky Mikhailovsky Monastery consecrated the three-altar church with a bell tower. The main altar of the church was consecrated in honor of St. Moses of Novgorod and St. John the Hermit, while the side altars were dedicated to Archangel Michael and Prince Alexander Nevsky. According to these three sources, the "princely" altar was consecrated on January 28, 1901.

According to Natalia Stolbova, in 1901 the main altar was consecrated, and as for the side altars, one was dedicated to St. Prince Alexander Nevsky and St. Mary Magdalene, while the other was dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Martyr Queen Alexandra.

"The Shrines of St. Petersburg," the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," and the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia" note that the main relics of the estate were the vestments of St. Moses of Novgorod, who founded the Skovorodsky Mikhailovsky Monastery in the mid-14th century, and an ancient icon painted on his tombstone. On the feast day, January 25, this icon was taken out for public veneration. (St. Moses of Novgorod passed away in the Skovorodsky Monastery on January 25, 1362.) It is believed that this icon miraculously protected the estate from fire in May 1908.

The wooden church with its chapel was considered temporary; however, the planned stone church with a bell tower, as you already know, was never realized. The main reason for this was likely a simple lack of funds.

After the October Revolution, the church of St. Moses of Novgorod became a parish church.

From December 1927, this church belonged to the Josephites—representatives of the opposition faction within the Russian Orthodox Church who refused to compromise with the Soviet authorities. The spiritual leader of this faction was Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) of Leningrad. (Incidentally, he himself, as noted in the "Orthodox Encyclopedia," "objected to the title 'Leningrad,' calling himself 'Petrogradsky.'") It is noteworthy that after the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral (the Church on the Blood) was closed in November 1930, the wooden church at Porokhovy became the center of Josephitism in our city and, in essence, the main Josephite church in the country.

Despite the resistance of parishioners (who, as noted in his book "The Petersburg Diocese during the Years of Persecution and Losses. 1917–1945" by Mikhail Vitalievich Shkarovsky, even filed a complaint with the All-Russian Central Executive Committee), the church of St. Moses of Novgorod was closed in 1933. By some ill fortune or coincidence, this occurred on January 25, the feast day. Shortly thereafter, the former church was repurposed as a police station.

Thanks to N. N. Konovalova’s article "By the Lake Near Porokhovy Summer Garden," published in issue No. 14 (3603) of the journal "St. Petersburg University" on June 17, 2002, we can travel back in time and glimpse into the repurposed church. Konovalova, who spent her childhood in Porokhovy, visited it in 1933 and described her impressions many years later:

“We go to the police station, which was located in the Church of St. Moses, right near our Suvorov Street (this Suvorov Street, which later bore the name of Soviet pilot Polina Denisovna Osipenko, has already disappeared from the map of our city; it ran parallel to Otechestvennaya Street, to the north of it – Editor's note). Apparently, documents for our move to another street were being processed here.

To my six-year-old self, the white church with a high porch, with two semicircular staircases on either side with high steps and white railings, seemed enormous. Climbing the stairs, my grandmother pulls me slightly by the hand on the high steps. A light breeze flutters the bell of my white dress, and I, like a dandelion, float above the stairs in the blue expanse.

Here is the last step. We are at the gates of the Holy of Holies. Grandmother crosses herself, bows her head very low, straightens up, and crosses herself again. Her large dark eyes are fixed somewhere upward. I also look up and freeze, only the flaps of my dress flutter from the breeze. My gaze rises to the dome, glowing in the halo of sunbeams.

We enter. No icons, no iconostasis, no chandeliers—nothing! The vastness of the empty space overwhelms me. I have never seen such a large and high space before. The desk with the policeman sitting at it somehow gets lost in the white emptiness. He sits in the sanctuary, and we stand under the dome…

All the way home, my grandmother keeps repeating: – Spit, spit, the policeman is sitting in the sanctuary! Spit, spit, the policeman is sitting in the sanctuary!”

During the Great Patriotic War, this building shared the fate of many other wooden structures on the outskirts of Leningrad: it was dismantled for firewood. The chapel did not survive to the present day either, but we do not know when it was demolished.

In the early 21st century, there was an idea to either reconstruct the Moses Church or at least build a new one on its site, but as they say, that is quite another story.

In "The Shrines of St. Petersburg" by Viktor Vasilyevich Antonov and Alexander Valeryevich Kobak, in the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," and in the books "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg" and "Okhtinsky Lessons: Lessons of Petersburg Traditions" by Natalia Pavlovna Stolbova, it is specifically noted that Alexander Dmitrievich died in the monastery itself.

Popov's spiritual will was approved by the district court in 1875. Since the monastery lacked the funds to carry out the testator's last wishes, the abbot Juvenal appealed to the residents of St. Petersburg and Okhta, asking them to donate money for this pious cause. The abbot's appeal was not in vain, and the required sum was soon raised. According to the aforementioned issue of "Historical and Statistical Information about the St. Petersburg Diocese," a "large, properly decorated wooden chapel" was "erected and properly adorned" in 1877. A two-story wooden building was constructed next to it, which was rented out for housing.

In regional literature, the construction of this chapel is usually dated to 1879. In her book "Okhta: Traditions and Modernity," Natalia Stolbova writes that it was laid on July 6, 1879. The chapel was designed by architect Fyodor Karlovich (Fyodorovich) von Pervits. On December 2, 1879, the abbot of the monastery Juvenal consecrated it in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. Later, between 1895 and 1897, this chapel was expanded and converted into a church, which was consecrated on February 22, 1897.

On July 20, 1903, a three-altar stone church for 1,500 people was laid next to the wooden church. The initiative for its construction came from Hieromonk Zosima, who managed the Krasnogorsk estate on Bolshaya Okhta in 1895. The church was built according to the design of architect Nikolai Nikitich Nikonov exclusively through donations, mainly from local merchants. The building was constructed in the "Russian style," with Nikonov being the master of this style. According to "The Shrines of St. Petersburg," the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," and Alexander Krasnolutsky's "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," the church featured a "tall two-tiered bell tower above the entrance, a tent-like top, and a porch." Below was a chapel consecrated on December 12, 1904, and above was the main church. The construction was overseen by Hieromonk Nikifor, who had been the abbot of the estate for many years.

On February 6, 1905, Bishop Antonin (Granovsky) of Narva consecrated the main altar of the new church in honor of the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God. The side altars were consecrated in the same year: one on March 26/27 in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and Saint Seraphim, and the other on September 17 in honor of Saint Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow (Kiev). However, it remains unclear which of these altars was the left one and which was the right one.

"The Shrines of St. Petersburg" and the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia" mention that the construction of the stone church at the Krasnogorsk estate cost 150,000 rubles. A year after the consecration, the church was gifted expensive liturgical vessels – a gilded chalice and a diskos of magnificent workmanship. Its main relics were copies of the monastery's miraculous Georgian and Vladimir Icons of the Mother of God, as well as an icon of Nil of Sora with a relic of the saint.

In the fall of 1919, the estate was transferred to the Shenkursk Holy Trinity Women's Monastery of the Archangel and Kholmogory Diocese. On November 20, 1920, a church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated on the second floor. Between 1928 and 1929, this church was apparently a parish church and belonged to the Josephites.

The estate was closed on February 20, 1934, but historians do not have a consensus on the exact date of its demolition.

Interestingly, the Krasnogorsk estate on Bolshaya Okhta had its own stables. This is indicated by documents kept in the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg (see Fund 513, Inventory 102, Case 6571 and Fund 513, Inventory 31, Case 518). The stables were located on Kontorskaya Street, which was much longer at that time.

In the reference work "Temples of St. Petersburg" by Sergey Sergeyevich Shulz-Junior and in Natalia Pavlovna Stolbova's book "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg," it is noted that at the end of the 19th century, the Konev Monastery "acquired" the aforementioned plot of land. However, no details are provided about the circumstances of this "acquisition."

Nevertheless, the Konev Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery of the Finland and Vyborg Diocese acquired land on Bolshaya Okhta. Subsequent events are described in "The Shrines of St. Petersburg," the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," and in "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg" as follows. Initially, a small tent-like chapel was erected here and consecrated "as a church" on February 10, 1902. In the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," the architect Yefim Sevastyanovich Bikaryukov (Shenchenko) is listed as the designer of this chapel, while other sources mention Vasily Ivanovich Barankeev, who was the official architect of the Finland and Vyborg Diocese from 1895. Subsequently, the monastery's estate was constructed nearby. In 1903, as noted in the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia" and the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," the chapel was expanded: an annex was added and consecrated in honor of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Adrian the Martyr, and Saint Arsenius of Konev. (According to Natalia Stolbova's "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg," these were different chapels.)

Shulz-Junior offers a different version of events. According to him, a monastery estate was initially established here, and in 1896, a chapel was built and consecrated. In 1902, this chapel was converted into a church according to the project of architect Nikolai Nikitich Nikonov (with the participation of Nikonov-Junior – Nikolai Nikolaevich, a civil engineer), and was consecrated on February 11 of the same year. In the reference work "Temples of St. Petersburg," these chapel and church are listed as dedicated to the Konev Icon of the Mother of God. In the late 14th century, this miraculous icon was brought from Athos to Russia by the monk Arsenius, who later founded the Konev Monastery.

Returning to the events as described in "The Shrines of St. Petersburg," the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia," the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," and "Okhta: The Oldest Outskirts of St. Petersburg," on August 15, 1906, the foundation stone was laid for a separate three-altar stone church on the grounds of the Konev estate on Bolshaya Okhta, designed by Nikonov-Senior (with the participation of Nikonov-Junior). On October 7, 1908, Archbishop Sergius (Stragorodsky), who would later become the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, consecrated the altar dedicated to the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, and on November 30 of the same year – the main altar dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God and Saint Basil the Great. The iconostasis here was white with gold. According to the electronic version of the "St. Petersburg Encyclopedia" and Alexander Krasnolutsky's "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," the church was classified as a house church. It was connected to the converted chapel, which stood at the corner of what is now Sredneokhtinsky Avenue and Panfilov Street.

The Konev estate on Bolshaya Okhta was closed on August 12, 1929. It was demolished in 1932–1933.

It is worth noting that long before the "Bolshaya Okhta" estate, the Konev Monastery established a representation in the capital itself. Petersburg merchants donated land on Zagorodny Prospect to the monastery in the early 1820s. This estate, restored in the 1990s, is still active today. As before, it occupies Building No. 7. In 1997, this building (or rather, a complex of several structures) was recognized as a regional landmark. In the early 2010s, its former appearance was restored, including the reconstruction of a turret with a tent-like dome that had been demolished during the Soviet era.

The land on the right bank of the Neva River for the Great Luky Trinity-Sergius Monastery of the Pskov and Porkhov Dioceses was apparently acquired by the monastery itself. At least, in the reference work "Temples of St. Petersburg" by Sergey Sergeyevich Shulz-Junior, the site where the church of the monastery in question was built is listed as purchased.

Regarding the structure of the Great Luky Monastery on Bolshaya Okhta, we can only speculate. In the "Ohtinskaya Encyclopedia," it is listed as a separate building, including its church. This does not contradict information from other local historical literature available to us, but it is also not fully confirmed by it. Since it is not definitively known what the monastery included, we can only guess what exactly architect and civil engineer Andrei Petrovich Aplaksin, whose name is closely associated with it, designed. Shulz-Junior and Krasnolutsky mention that Aplaksin designed the church building, while the "Temples of Petersburg" guidebook and the "Atlas of the Krasnogvardeisky District" by Natalia Pavlovna Stolbova list him as the author of the monastery without further specification. It is worth noting that from the 1900s, Aplaksin worked at the St. Petersburg Spiritual Consistory, and from 1906 to 1914, he was the St. Petersburg diocesan architect, succeeding Nikolai Nikitich Nikonov in this role. However, local historical literature is remarkably unanimous about the time of the monastery's buildings (or building): they are all dated to the 1910s. (Notably, the demolished building No. 58 on Swerdlovskaya Embankment is dated to the 19th century on the city architectural website Citywalls.ru.)

The monastery church was consecrated in honor of the Holy Trinity. According to Sergey Sergeyevich Shulz-Junior and Alexander Yurievich Krasnolutsky, after the October Revolution, the church was closed and later its building was demolished.

The monastery building, as noted by Krasnolutsky, was designed in 1909. Judging by the photographs available online, by the time of its demolition, it consisted of several multi-storied (and possibly multi-aged) volumes. It is likely that the building was constructed as a rental property, with apartments leased out and the proceeds going to the monastery’s treasury. In this case, the monastery could have occupied part of it.

According to Natalia Stolbova’s "Atlas of the Krasnogvardeisky District," the Great Luky Monastery on Bolshaya Okhta was closed in the 1920s. The building belonging to it became simply a residential house (perhaps undergoing some changes). As far as is known, this house was vacated at the end of the 2000s and demolished in November 2010 to make way for the construction of the residential complex "Platinum." The residential complex inherited the same address as its predecessor – Swerdlovskaya Embankment, Building 58.

First factory buildings were constructed under the guidance of Artillery Chief Jacob Bruce. The living houses were built at the distance of “fiery salvation”. There were settled 60 artisans’ families. Thereby the great history of the biggest Russian powder mill has started.

About a hundred years later, an outstanding engineer Pierre-Dominique Bazin supervised over construction of new stone dam instead of old wood-earthen one. The edge stones mills were also reconstructed, the new twisting and water acting factories appeared.

In 1806, the front gate was built at the right riverbank of Okhta. The building of the gate was timed to the end of reconstruction and visit of the Emperor. Alexander I sincerely took part in the fate of the powder mill and its workers, so, the gate has got the name "Aleksandrovskye" (Alexander’s gate). At the top of the gate there was the belfry tower, previously there was a bell in it, announcing the beginning and end of work at the mill.

The artificial hill rises near just behind the gate along the river. This is the earth embankment over the powder cellars. The most of powder produced at the plant was stored here. Such storage method should protect the plant and workers from damage caused by explosions and fires occurring here frequently.

More about Alexander’s gate

The stone church of St. Elyjah the Holy Prophet was built here in 1780s. The name of the architect is unknown, and historians can’t find the documents that could define it. The temple represents early Russian classicism with its conciseness and simplicity.

In early 1800s, the new church of Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky with a chapel was built near the St. Elyjah’s temple during a reconstruction of the Powder mill after terrible explosion that had happened previously. The project was developed by famous Russian architect Feodor Demertzov. The churches have been united in common complex in the end of the century.

About the Church of St. Elyjah the Holy Prophet

When the Powder mill was founded, the workers has been resettled from other provinces with their families by royal order. They had had houses and small plots of land for kale yards. Most of them had got soon the household including vegetable gardens, poultry, and cattle. The factory was in fast progress, so, it became shorthanded soon; and then the labor of solders that are on loan from army began to be used. These solders had had a permission to bring their wives and children here. In 1810s, all the citizens of sloboda were transferred to the position of military settlers by the military reform of the Count Arakcheev. The uniform and the charter were introduced. The factory transformed to the real military organization, and all of workers were assigned to one of the companies. Administrative staff and masters were recruited only from army.

The main street of the sloboda became the 3rd company of settled military workers. “Settled” means having their own house and a plot of land for kale yard and household. “Settled” staff worked 4 days a week at the mill and 2 days a week at their vegetable gardens and yards. “Master Ploughman” received a plot of arable land and grasslands near the Powder mill. The government provided them also a cow, a horse and two workers from “non-settled” companies (didn’t have any houses) ones for help. Each “settled company” had 40 ploughmen, 80 artisans, six non-commissioned officers and two officers.

Military settlements didn’t succeed; the efficiency of labor didn’t rise at Okhtinsky powder mill too. In early 1860s, Okhtinsky military settlement was abolished, the factory gradually switched to civilian labor.

About Ilyinskaya sloboda

Church of St. Elijah the Prophet

The Kushelev-Bezborodko Estate