Commandant's airfield: location, description, history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

In the autumn of 1910, representatives of the Wings club laid an airfield on the Commandant's field. It must be considered the first Russian civilian due to the fact that at the time of its creation it belonged only to civilians and organizations.

Commandant's airfield: location, description, history and interesting facts

This new residential area of St. Petersburg is deeply rooted in Russian history. It begins its history from the time of Peter the Great.

Name history

By order of Peter I, the commandants of the Peter and Paul Fortress began to receive the lands in these places. As a result, the area began to be called "Komendantskaya Dacha". Then it was transformed into the "Commandant's field".

For a long time this territory was reputed to be a backwater of summer cottages. So, in the 19th century it was a sparsely populated land. On maps dated 1831, the Commandant's field is marked with vegetable gardens and groves. The only building is the Komendantskaya dacha, which the owners, together with the adjacent land, rented out.

PlacePushkin's duels

The commandant's dacha entered the history of Russia also by the fact that the duel between Pushkin and Dantes took place here in 1837. Both participants in this tragic duel knew this area well. So, Pushkin, on the lands adjacent to the Commandant's Field, on the Black River, rented a dacha for two summers. Dantes, in the summer, lodged with his regiment in the New Village, also located nearby. Both duelists knew that in winter there would be no outsiders in these remote places, which was one of the reasons for choosing the place of the duel.

The birth of Russian aviation

The commandant's field in the history of St. Petersburg and Russia is the birthplace of Russian aviation. The Imperial All-Russian Club, founded in 1908, began to use the lands of the field since 1910, when the first Russian aviation week was held here. For a short period of time, the Commandant's Field was equipped with utilities, fenced off, hangars, stands, etc.

Near the Commandant's airfield, private aircraft factories were built. After the revolution and nationalization, they became the Krasny Pilot plant.

However, the first aviation holiday was overshadowed by the death of the famous pilot. 1910-24-09, Lev Matsievich fell out of the cockpit of an airplane, as he was not wearing a seat belt. He was buried with great honors. The metropolitan press called him the first victim of Russian aviation. A commemorative plate was erected on the Commandant's Field, installed with donations from the public. The commemorative obelisk at the site of Matsievich's death has survived to our day.time. It is located in the park on Aerodromnaya Street of the Komendantsky Aerodrome municipal district.

The first steps of Russian aviation

Despite failures and catastrophes, the Commandant airfield continued to actively participate in the development of Russian aviation. So on October 9, 1910, the first flight to Gatchina was made from it. In 1911, aviators made the first air flight to Moscow. Subsequently, regular postal air flights were carried out from here, by which mail was delivered to Moscow.

The commandant's airfield was also a pilot training center. In May 1912, an aviation school of the All-Russian flying club was opened on its territory. It was also a testing ground for domestically assembled airplanes, which were produced in private factories.

During the First World War, the Commandant airfield was used as a military airfield.

Its territory, oddly enough, was used not only in the interests of aviation. So, in the spring of 1913, agricultural machinery, tractors and giant plows were tested on it.

History of the Soviet period

After the revolution of 1917, the Commandant airfield continued to be used for its intended purpose. Here, Russian designers Ya. M. Gakkel, I. I. Sikorsky and others tested their products. Workshops were equipped nearby, where they assembled and tested aircraft of foreign modifications. On the territory of the airport were carried outtests and domestic aircraft, which were built at the Russian-B altic plant. Namely: legends - "Russian Knight" and "Ilya Muromets". The outstanding designer S. V. Ilyushin began his glorious journey from the Commandant Airfield. He first worked in support units, and then as an aircraft pilot.

In 1921, the airfield served as a platform from which planes took off to suppress the rebellion in Kronstadt. In the early 1920s, a regiment of fighters was based at the airfield. A military-theoretical school of the Red Army Air Force was immediately created. In the period from the 30s to the 50s, the airfield remained the point of training and testing of the USSR Air Force. So, in the 1930s, aircraft designer N. Polikarpov carried out tests of aircraft of the “I” series at the Commandant airfield.

On the territory of the airfield, employees of the gas-dynamic laboratory tested the first Soviet missiles. In 1931, the Zeppelin airship made an intermediate landing, flying to the North Pole.

War period and post-war times

The most important tasks were solved by the Commandant airfield during the days of the siege of Leningrad. It was here that Il-2 and Douglas transport aircraft landed, which delivered food to the besieged city. They also took Leningraders to the mainland. The airfield also served as a base for fighter aviation units.

After the end of the war, until 1959, the Commandant's airfield was the base of the Len VO transport aviation. Services and academies to them were also located here. A. F. Mozhaisky andMilitary Academy of Communications. Since 1963, flights have not been made from the Commandant airfield.

Modern history

In the 60s of the last century, the Commandant's airfield was a huge territory, which was occupied by warehouses and various buildings for household purposes. Many of them were abandoned and were dilapidated, crumbling structures. The empty area became swampy, overgrown with reeds and shrubs.

In the 1970s, the territory began to be actively built up. The first residential buildings were commissioned in 1973. At the same time, individual projects accounted for only 20% of the total number of mortgaged houses. The main network of new buildings is the so-called house-ships. They looked respectable only for some time after commissioning. Then their facades, usually covered with paint that was not resistant to the Leningrad weather, fell into a deplorable state, peeled off and peeled off. Because of this, the areas of new buildings began to resemble slum areas.

However, the active development of the expanses of the Commandant airfield made it possible to solve to a certain extent in the 70s the urgent problem of resettling communal housing and providing Soviet families with separate apartments. At the same time, the quality and durability of structures faded into the background.

The area of the Commandant airfield was given a new look by the multi-storey high-rise buildings that began to be built later. These skyscrapers were supposed to be built back in the Soviet period. Then only one skyscraper was built, 70 meters from Lengydroproekt. She iswas the first high-rise building in the Primorsky district.

The construction boom that swept St. Petersburg in the late 20th - early 21st century also came to the Komendantsky airfield. In a short time it was built up with modern residential quarters. There was also a place for numerous shopping and entertainment centers.

The commandant airfield has become one of the most comfortable and prestigious areas of St. Petersburg.

Municipal District

Currently, the Commandant's airfield is a municipal entity. Included in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. The population, according to data for 2018, is 90,658 people. In the west, the Komendantsky airfield adjoins the Dolgoye Lake. In the southern direction it borders on Black River. To the north is located MO Kolomyagi. The eastern side of the municipality Komendantsky airfield is adjacent to the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg.

In 1982, the Pionerskaya metro station was put into operation in this area. So far, the "Leningrad North-Western Plant" has been operating on the territory of the Moscow Region.

Memory of past merits

However, the memory of the historical past of these places is reflected in the names. District Komendantsky airfield - the historical district of St. Petersburg. The city has Aerodromnaya and Parashutnaya streets, Aviaconstructors and Testers avenues, Matsievich and Sikorsky squares, Polikarpov and Kotelnikov alleys. At school number 66 in the Komendantsky municipal districtthe airfield was created and the Icarus Museum is operating, in which an exposition is deployed that tells about the glorious history of these places.

In memory of the origins of Russian and Soviet aviation in August 2018 in the park named after. General Seleznev solemnly opened the monument "To the first pilots of Russia, the heroic aviators of the Commandant airfield." The monument looks like two U-2 "maize" planes taking off. Against the background of these historical symbols of Russian aviation, beautiful photos are obtained in memory of the Commandant airfield.