From Ohtinsky Cape on a Round-the-World Voyage
Among the ships built at the Ohtinsky Shipyard (Ohtinsky Admiralty) are many distinguished and renowned vessels. For example, the beautiful frigate Pallada, launched in the early 1830s, visited Japan on a diplomatic mission under the command of Ivan Semenovich Unkovsky twenty years later. The mission was led by Yefimiy Vasilyevich Putyatin, with Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov as his secretary, who immortalized the voyage in his book The Frigate “Pallada”. The frigate Archimedes, launched in 1848, became Russia’s first screw-driven steamship. However, it was the ships that circumnavigated the globe under the Russian flag that brought worldwide fame to the enterprise at Ohtinsky Cape. It seemed as though fate itself wished for the construction of circumnavigation vessels to become a specialty of the Ohtinsky shipbuilders.
It all began with the sloop Kamchatka, which completed a round-the-world voyage under the command of Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin from 1817 to 1819. The sloop Vostok was the flagship of the first Russian Antarctic circumnavigation expedition of 1819–1821, led by Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (the latter commanded the sloop Mirny). It is believed that they were the first to discover the sixth continent—Antarctica. On the sloop Senyavin (accompanied by the sloop Moller, also built at the Ohtinsky Shipyard and commanded by Mikhail Nikolaevich Stanyukovich), the expedition led by Fyodor Petrovich Litke completed its circumnavigation from 1826 to 1829. This is considered one of the most successful Russian circumnavigations.
These and other circumnavigating vessels from Ohtinsky Cape rightfully entered the history of not only the national fleet but also world navigation.
Petrozavodsk Defending Leningrad
During the Great Patriotic War, the employees of Petrozavodsk, which was not evacuated to the rear, made significant contributions to the defense of Leningrad. Despite the city's blockade, the plant established production of ammunition casings, converted civilian vessels (mainly tugboats) for military use, and repaired and built ships for the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. (The Baltic Fleet received the Red Banner twice, the first time in 1945 and again in 1965.) This was accomplished despite enemy air raids and artillery shelling. In 1942, the plant began constructing floating craft for the Road of Life. The self-propelled tenders and barges from Petrozavodsk, operating between the western and eastern shores of Lake Ladoga, provided invaluable assistance in supplying Leningrad with food and evacuating its population.
History of the Location
1802
The Marine Department leased land from the Smolny Institute, which included the Kanetsky Garden.
1806
In August, the Marine Department became the owner of land in the northern part of Ohtinsky Cape. Construction of the Panoptic Institute began in November, with the project officially approved on June 28 of the same year.
1808
The Ohtinsky Training Shipyard was constructed near the Panoptic Institute.
Okhtinsky cape
For the Krasnogvardeysky District, and for our city as a whole, Okhtinsky Cape is the beginning of all beginnings. The first settlements appeared here long before St. Petersburg was founded. And what is there to say about St. Petersburg! This territory began to be developed by man back in the times when the Neva (in its present form) did not exist. In 2008, when conducting security studies, archaeologists unexpectedly discovered the remains of Neolithic - Early Metal Age sites on the Okhta promontory. People lived here in the V-IV millennia BC!
Later, when the Neva River began to show its violent temper on a regular basis, the high place at the confluence of the Okhta almost never suffered from catastrophic floods. Besides, it was located at the crossroads of the most important trade routes: the water route, which passed just along the Neva, and the land route, which connected Veliky Novgorod and the Izhora land with present-day Karelia and Finland. Finally, there was a convenient harbor. Is it any wonder that there was a lot of passion around the mouth of the Okhta?
For centuries, Russians and Swedes fought for the Prinevsky lands with varying success, and the Okhtinsky cape was a very hot spot of this confrontation. In the XIII century there was a fortified Novgorod or Izhora settlement here - the cape settlement, as researchers call it. In 1300 the Swedes laid the fortress Landskrona (“Crown of the Land”) on the cape, which was taken by storm and destroyed by Russian troops in 1301. In the XVI century in the area of the Okhta's confluence with the Neva River a Russian (most likely, Russian-Izhorian) trading settlement Nevskoe estuary (Nevsky Gorodok) was formed. For that time it was a real center of international trade! And in the spring of 1611, the Swedish fortress Nyenskans (“Nevskoye fortification”), better known by its German-language name “Nyenschanz” or Russian-language “Kantsy” (“Kanets”), was founded on the Okhta promontory. On the right bank of the Okhta, opposite the fortress, grew the multicultural city of Nyen (“Nevsky”; Nien), where several languages were spoken. The date of its foundation is considered to be 1632.
From here, from the Okhta Cape, having captured Nyenshanets and renamed it Schlotburg (“Castle-City”), the last Tsar of All Russia (in the future - the first emperor and autocrat of All Russia) Peter Alekseevich went in search of a place for a new fortress. It was laid on Hare Island on May 16 (27), 1703. This is how the history of the new city of St. Petersburg, which was soon to become the capital, began.
All these events, as well as the work of archaeologists near the mouth of the Okhta in the post-Soviet period, are described in detail in the article dedicated to the memorial sign “Nienshants Fortress”. You can find out how the military (by the way, they were under the patronage of Alexander III himself!) settled on the Okhta promontory in the article about the barracks of the Novocherkassk Regiment. And now let's remember about the other - industrial - side of the biography of this place. The speech, as you have probably already realized, will be about shipbuilding.
Believing that Zayachy (aka Vesely) Island, located in the delta of the Neva River, is strategically more suitable for the construction of the citadel, Peter I did not stay long in the mouth of the Okhta River. However, he considered this place suitable for shipbuilders. In the early 1720s, free carpenters were moved here from the northern provinces to work in the state shipyards. They were mostly natives of modern Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions. Especially for them huts were built on Okhta (this is how the traditions of standard housing construction were established) and even the land was plowed for vegetable gardens. Most of the transferees were settled on the right bank of the river, the smaller part - on the left. Hence the names of the Okhtenskiye (originally the word was written in this way, with an “e”) peredelenie slobods - Bolshaya and Malaya Okhta. (They were also called Lower and Upper according to their location relative to the flow of the Neva River).
In 1723, the resettled carpenters, among whom, incidentally, there were many Old Believers, were exempted from all taxes and duties, except for military duty, and assigned to the Particular Shipyard on the Fontanka River, where they were to build civilian ships. (Over time, the Okhta carpenters actually turned into admiralty serfs and worked at shipyards not only in St. Petersburg, but also in other cities). In addition, the Okhtyans were allowed to engage in private shipbuilding - to make “centerboards and other new-mannered vessels”. Local craftsmen did not fail to take advantage of this permission and began to produce small watercraft for sale. A shipbuilding cluster began to form on Okhta, in today's parlance. In particular, it included Matrosskaya Sloboda, which was located on the right bank of the river. Saw mills, a rope factory, a barn for ship rigging and houses for craftsmen and sailors were built there
In local history literature one can find references to the fact that in 1728-1742 with the participation of Russian architects Ivan Kuzmich Korobov and Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky, who served in the Admiralty Board, “boathouses of the Okhta shipyard” were built. (Chevakinsky was a pupil of Korobov and succeeded him as architect of the Admiralty Department.) However, the existence of a full-fledged shipyard on Okhta in the XVIII century raises certain questions and even doubts. It is known that on the ruins of Nyenshants, i.e. in the northern part of the Okhta promontory, in 1717 it was planned to create a nursery to provide St. Petersburg gardens and parks with seedlings. This nursery, which was called Kanetskii gorod, existed until the beginning of the XIX century. Since 1765 it was under the jurisdiction of the Council of the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens (Smolny Institute). But on the right bank of the Okhta River, between Bolshaya Okhta and Matrosskaya Sloboda, by 1742, four sheds and boathouses (at that time, this was the name of the sloping platforms for dragging and unloading trees) were built by order of the Admiralty Board. These buildings were used not for building and repairing ships, but for storing and drying ship timber. You must agree that they do not hold the proud title of shipyard at all.
The fate of Okhta Cape took an obvious turn towards shipbuilding in the early 19th century. In 1802 the Naval Department leased and in 1806 purchased from the Smolny Institute the land where the Kanetsky vegetable garden was located. In the same 1806 the construction of the Panoptic Institute began here, the project of which was approved by Alexander I himself. The place where Russians and Swedes once converged turned into a grandiose construction site. The foreman was British naval engineer Samuel (Se(a)muel) Bentham, who had been in the Russian service under Catherine II. It was supposed that the Panoptic Institute would be a kind of symbiosis of an educational institution for naval mechanics and an exemplary factory for the production of various tools, instruments, machines and other products (up to clothing and shoes) necessary in the maritime business.
In 1807 Bentham left Russia, but by the end of 1809 the main building of the Panoptic Institute had been completed. It was a wooden structure on a stone foundation, which in plan resembled a star: five three-story educational and production buildings radiated from the seven-story tower standing in the center. The fire that broke out in March 1818 destroyed this original structure. The Panoptic Institute was not rebuilt “due to the enormous cost of the institution”.
In 1808, the Okhta training shipyard was built at the Panoptic Institute under the project of the British shipbuilder Benjamin (Benjame(i)n) Fomich Stokke (aka Stokke or Stukkei). Here young people were to master the art of shipbuilding, as they call it, in practice. The same Stokke was entrusted to build ships, boathouses for them and nurture young shipbuilders on Okhta. The Admiralty Department issued a corresponding order in August 1809. This event is considered to be the starting point in the formation of the state shipbuilding complex on the Okhtinsky cape. In 1809-1814 five boathouses were built here. Fortunately, they were not damaged during the fire of 1818.
The firstborn of the Okhta shipyard was the 16-gun luger (lugger; in some sources - schooner) “Strela”. The sailing ship was launched in July 1811, and the Emperor honored the ceremony with his presence.
In February 1812, in connection with the decision to build in the capital a 74-gun battleship “Finland”, the Okhtians, who had been transferred to indentured servitude in 1803, were again engaged in state shipbuilding works. However, only in St. Petersburg and its environs - Okhta carpenters were mercifully spared from distant business trips.
In 1822 the former training shipyard was named Okhta shipbuilding yard, and on the stone foundations of the burnt down Panoptic Institute they started to build a barracks for 600 of its servants. In 1828, apparently after the April visit of Nicholas I, the shipyard received the status of an admiralty. By the way, the emperor personally familiarized himself with the work of the enterprise and was so pleased with what he saw that he ordered to award all those who worked there. Nikolai Pavlovich also expressed his desire to annex Okhta to the city, which was done in 1828.
The Okhta shipyard (later the Okhta Admiralty) gave a lot to the Russian Navy. Ships whose names became known to sailors in all corners of the globe set sail from here. Outstanding shipbuilders worked here: Alexander Andreyevich Popov, the already mentioned Stoke, Ivan Afanasyevich Amosov. For more than half a century this enterprise was one of the leading shipbuilding bases in Russia. However, in the early 1860s, as the industry shifted from wood to metal (iron), Okhta began to give up its position. The last burst of activity at the Okhta Admiralty occurred in the late 1870s. Then it fell into complete decay and was closed in 1882.
At the same time, in 1882, on the Okhta cape on the project of Ignatiy Stepanovich (Ogneslav Stefanovich) Kostovich (Serbian nationality) began to build an airship “Russia”. Due to lack of funds, this amazing idea was never realized, although a gasoline internal combustion engine (about 80 horsepower) for the airship was manufactured, successfully tested and even patented in several countries.
In 1896 the Okhta Admiralty was leased to the joint-stock company “V. Creighton and Co. Creighton & Co. was leased free of charge, but with an obligation to refurbish it. The contract was for 35 years, but the firm did not fulfill its terms. In 1912 or 1913 the company, which had managed to build four submarines and several surface ships on Okhta, was declared bankrupt, the contract was terminated and the Admiralty was returned to the Treasury.
After that, either on the eve of the First World War or already during the war, the enterprise was leased again, this time to the Admiralty Shipbuilding Plant (according to local history literature, “to organize the production of artillery shells”).
In 1914, as it is commonly believed, the enterprise became known as Petrozavod. And in August 1915 Okhtinsky cape lost its main ornament, depicted on many pre-revolutionary drawings, paintings and photographs. The old wooden boathouses, which had fallen into disrepair and faced the Neva River, were dismantled..
Representatives of the Admiralteysky shipyard managed this territory until November 1921. Over the next ten years Petrozavod changed several other tenants, which hardly contributed to its development. And who knows how the fate of this enterprise would have turned out if in August 1931 it had not been transferred to the All-Union Association of Shipbuilding Industry “Soyuzverf”. In the fall of 1931 ships began to be built again at Okhtinsky Cape. At first, however, small ones: tugs, passenger boats, shalands, barges. At the end of 1930s the construction of warships, mainly minesweepers, began.
During the Great Patriotic War Petrozavod was not evacuated to the rear. The enterprise produced hulls for ammunition, converted tugs into minesweepers, repaired and built ships for the Navy.
In the late 1940s the main specialization of Petrozavod was large-scale production of marine tugs. They were built by the advanced - line-by-line - method, in connection with which a block of workshops and a reinforced concrete boathouse facing the Neva River were erected. Apparently, the quality of Petrozavod's products was very high: its tugs of various types were sold throughout the USSR and even exported.
It is all the more surprising that in the mid-1970s the shipbuilding program at Cape Okhta was curtailed. Petrozavod, which became part of NPO Ritm, was reoriented to produce technological equipment for shipbuilding. Reconstruction of the enterprise began. In 1981 the shipbuilding boathouse was dismantled.
In the 1980s the appearance of the northern tip of Okhtinsky Cape changed radically. Firstly, the construction of new buildings of Petrozavod was completed. It is curious that this huge architectural complex (laboratory and production), built under the direction of Georgy Alexandrovich Vasiliev, was conceived by his father, Alexander Viktorovich Vasiliev. Secondly, by the mid-1980s, the right bank of the Neva near the Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge was completely transformed. Here was built a stone embankment with an overpass, which provided transportation with the possibility of traffic on two levels. In 1982-1984, the three-span Malookhtinsky Bridge was built at the mouth of the Okhta River, designed by engineers A. D. Gutzeit, R. R. Shipov and architect V. M. Ivanov. It became an important element of the transportation interchange, thanks to which unobstructed passage along the right bank of the Neva River was established. The highway that passed through Petrozavod cut it off from the Neva.
In 1985 (according to other sources, in 1989) Petrozavod became part of the Soviet-Swedish joint venture Söderval(l)l-Rhythm (“Söderval(l)l and Rythm”), which was very symbolic for Cape Okhta. This association produced seals for propeller shafts. And in 1993 the shipbuilding program was resumed at Petrozavod. Here again they started to build small tonnage vessels, and also started to produce submersibles. In 1995-1996, specially for the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy, a full-scale replica of the famous Peter the Great's boat was created on the Okhta Cape. This wooden vessel (replica of the “grandfather of the Russian Navy”), which took part in the festive parade in July 1996 and then installed in the Botnoy House, became Petrozavod's swan song. In 2001 the enterprise ceased to exist. Its buildings were demolished in the second half of the 2000s in connection with the planned construction of the Okhta Center. Only the rebuilt building, which housed the joint venture “Sederval(l)y-Rhythm”, has survived to this day. Its address - Sverdlovskaya Embankment, 74 - seems to be a reminder of the time (until August 14, 2007) when the embankment named after Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov included the section from the mouth of the Okhta to the Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge.
How to find Ohtinsky Cape?
