Leningradsky Prospekt

Leningradsky Prospekt (Russian: Ленингра́дский проспе́кт), or Leningrad Avenue, is a major arterial avenue in Moscow, Russia. It continues the path of Tverskaya Street and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street north-west from Belorussky Rail Terminal, and changes the name once again to Leningrad Highway past the Sokol metro station. The Highway continues its way to Saint Petersburg via Tver (not unlike Moskovsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, which is named after, and leads to, Moscow).

Until 1957, Leningradsky Prospekt was part of Leningrad Highway (Petersburg Highway prior to 1924). Both avenues retain their Lenin-related names after the reinstatement of the historical Saint Petersburg name.

The old road to Tver, changing its course over Middle Ages, settled in its present site in the 16th century. The name Peterburskoye Schosse (Highway) was established when the road was properly paved between 1786 and 1790.

The most important historical building on the road, Gothic Revival Petrovsky Palace, was built in 1776–1780 by Matvey Kazakov as the last station of royal journeys from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. Coaches for lesser classes arrived and departed from Vsekhsvyatskoye village near present-day Sokol metro station.

In the 1830s, general Alexander Bashilov, then employed by the Governor of Moscow, planned the first regular grid of city streets north from Petrovsky Palace; two streets in the area still retain Bashilov's name. Territories south of the highway - Khodynka Field - were used mostly for military training. Bashilov also laid down the boulevards along the highway; some of them remain to date. Soon, the beginning of Petersburg Highway turned into an upper-class recreation area, with country restaurants and racetrack (completed in 1883). Smolensky Rail station (forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal) was inaugurated in 1870. Between 1882 and 1896, Khodynka housed the national Exhibition of Industry and Arts, later transferred to the Nizhny Novgorod fairground.

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