St. Petersburg Square, its avenues and streets, canals and bridges attract tens of thousands of tourists from all over our planet. At the same time, guests of the northern capital of Russia seek not only to visit world-famous monuments, but also to collect maximum information about all the interesting places of the city on the Neva. It is to such curious places that Svetlanov Avenue belongs.
Probably, if you ask a local resident, he will simply tell that this part of the city highway connects Suzdal Avenue and Svetlanovskaya Square, but not everyone will be able to talk about what was here before and where the modern name came from.
Svetlanov Avenue as such appeared in 1912. True, then it was called Ananyevskaya Street and connected Staropargolovsky Avenue and Benoit Avenue. This route got its name by the name of Anania Ratkova, the famous landowner who owned almost all the surrounding territories. These lands were bought by his father in order to create a new landscaped area on the site of cut down forests. Ananias himself, who enjoyed great authority among the local population, who elected him several times the leader of the nobility and the justice of the peace, was already finishing construction.
After the October Revolution, for a long time, the future Svetlanov Avenue continued to bear the name of Ananyevskaya Street until a large-scale reconstruction began in the mid-1960s. So, at the very beginning of this decade, a new highway was laid between Engels Avenue and Staropargolovsky Prospect, called Novoananyevskaya Street. However, perestroika did not stop there: in 1967 both Ananyevsky streets were combined into a wide and spacious Svetlanov Avenue, which was continued to Ozerkov. They did not think about the name for a long time: back in 1920, the Aivaz engineering plant located here was renamed Svetlana, as it began to specialize in the manufacture of lighting devices.
In the early 1970s, the Svetlana plant, as part of the experiment, became the first scientific and production association in the Soviet Union . This enterprise occupied a huge area, the borders of which were Svetlanovsky Avenue, which in 1970 was extended by administrative decision to Suzdal Avenue, Manchester Street, Torez and Engels Avenues. At the same time, the resulting area at the intersection of Bogatyrsky, Murinsky, Svetlanovsky Avenues also became known as Svetlanovsky.
Since then, a lot of water has flowed. Once located practically on the borders of the city, Svetlanovsky Prospekt is now one of the most important city highways. The former industrial giant has already lost its significance, along with the modern stretch of modern shops and shopping centers. Thousands of Petersburgers and city visitors drive through this area every day, not even imagining what a fascinating story lies behind the familiar name “Svetlanovsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg”.