True SOVIET 1960's District. KUPCHINO in St Petersburg, Russia

Walking in Kupchino, a truly Soviet district of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was built on the site of old villages, their fields, and collective farms that once lay to the south of historic pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg. One of these villages was called Kupchino, and this new Soviet-era district simply inherited its name.

The construction was carried out in accordance with the Detailed Planning Project developed by Workshop No. 5 of the Lenproekt Institute (Leningrad Project Institute), headed by architect David Goldgor.

The street names predominantly feature Balkan themes from Eastern Bloc countries: Belgradskaya (Belgrade) Street, Budapeshtskaya (Budapest) Street, Bukharestskaya (Bucharest) Street, Malaya Balkanskaya (Little Balkan) Street, Sofiyskaya (Sofia) Street, Oleko Dundich Street, Yaroslav Hasek Street, Zagreb Boulevard, and Shipka Lane. The main thoroughfares became Prospekt Slavy (Glory Avenue) and Bukharestskaya (Bucharest) Street.

The planning followed the microdistrict principle, which assumed that all essential shops, public and commercial centers, social infrastructure facilities (post offices, savings banks, laundries, etc.), as well as schools and kindergartens, would be located within walking distance for residents within their neighborhood. Microdistricts were designed for approximately 8,000 inhabitants each.

The district was initially built with five-story Khrushchyovka apartments (1964–1972), later replaced by 9-story panel and brick buildings, with occasional 12- and 14-story brick high-rises (1966–1979).

The population of this new bedroom district grew rapidly: 1968 – about 70,000 people, 1972 – 170,000, 1975 – 250,000, 1985 – over 300,000 and in 1991 – around 370,000.

In the late 1970s, Kupchino's youth was influenced by the punk culture movement.

In one of Kupchino's typical Khrushchyovka buildings - the iconic five-story panel apartment blocks of the 1960s - lives Grigory Perelman, the brilliant Russian mathematician who made history by proving both the Poincaré conjecture and Thurston's geometrization conjecture in 2002-2003. The Poincaré conjecture had stood as one of mathematics' most challenging unsolved problems for a century. In a move that shocked the academic world, on 1 July 2010, Perelman refused the prestigious Clay Millennium Prize and its $1 million award, cementing his reputation as an enigmatic figure.

This unassuming district is also the hometown of Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia's President (2008-2012) and Prime Minister (2012-2020). Since 2020, Medvedev has been serving as the Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council, a position he continues to hold today.

St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, founded in 1703 by Emperor Peter The Great (aka Peter I). It was a capital city of Russian Empire in the period from 1712 to 1918.

In the Soviet days, St Petersburg was renamed to Leningrad.

St Petersburg is located 680 km northwest of Moscow.

Here on the "All of Russia" channel, I explore places not just inside but also travel all over Russia outside Moscow.

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