This album as well as the next one will tell you more about the eastern suburb of St. Petersurg -the Rzhevka - Porokhoviye area.
Kommuna street.
The pylons indicate the border of the city in 1950-s.
They were erected in commemoration of the victory in the Great Patriotic war after the design of architect V. Dushechkina.
The bas-reliefs of Lenin and Stalin are on either side of the pylons. On the very top, I think, there used to be stars (until the 1990s.)
The bas-relief of Stalin survived a standard situation for Russia - it was covered by a metal sheet, as it is well seen on this picture.:)
Let's walk further on along the Kommuna street. Right after the Revolution shosse there is a short side street (it is not even marked on the map) from the side of which you can make a few interesting shots…
The spring is coming.
I do not remember if I told you about that already, but here in the Wandering Camera I tell the seasons not by their time of the year, but by the weather and by what is happening to the trees, the snow, etc. :)
The monument can be seen from afar.
It is difficult to say when this monument was built, but judging by the style and the materials used, that probably happened after the perestroika.
It looks a lot like the monuments of the Nienshantz fortress on Sverdlovskaya embankment, the monument to the architects and builders of St. Petersburg not far from the Sampsony cathedral, etc.
Okhta gunpowder factory was founded by Peter I in 1715 here; that is a few gunpowder mills were established in the beginning.
An extract from the order of Artillery Office to the factory constructor Mokei Gusev:
"The first gunpowder mill is to be built on the Okhta river (on the right side), opposite the former Swedish brick factories; the other gunpowder mill is to be established on the Luppa river, up from the Okhta in 50
sazhens."
Luppa was earlier (in 1939, for example) the name of today's Lubia.
The production of gunpowder was very dangerous - serious explosions occurred quite frequently. For example, an explosion of 1500 poods of gunpowder in destroyed the entire factory, killed 50 people and injured 35.
An old folk song that was written about the factory:
"If you are not sick and tired of your life
Don't fall in love with a gunpowder man
If you want to stay alive
Do not keep working at Porokhoviye factory"
A monument to the workers killed in explosions at the factory was established in 1890 at Porokhovskoye cemetery (we will visit it
later.)
Until now this area keeps the name Porokhoviye.
The energy of water was used to make the gunpowder mills function - the factory was built on the Okhta river, specially dammed up for that (it is right behind us.)
The factory had been kept in function for 175 year though it has not survived until now. It has changed its production range, to be exact.
They have started to produce plastics here since 1922, and the factory was named Okhta Chemical Factory in 1931.
It is now called Plaspolimer.
And that is the dam itself.
Of course, previously it was constructed of wood.
It was rebuilt in stone and cast iron in 1828-1830s under the project of engineers P.P. Basen and V.P. Lebedev.
The dam was reconstructed again in1850s - 1860s: reinforced concrete elements were added at the bottom. As they say, the majority of stone and cast iron elements of construction from 1820-1860s have been preserved until now.
It is possible that other parts of old construction have been preserved under the dam, though nothing but the canal (on the photo in the beginning of the album) can be seen under the snow.
Okhta reservoir was formed in front of the dam.
Chemical industry enterprises are located on the banks of the Okhta reservoir - the factory of the Scientific Research Institute Khimvolokno together with the Institute itself are on the left side; Plaspolimer is on the right.
We will wander around this area a little more in the next album.
