Dekabristov Island (russian: остров Декабристов, lit=Decembrists Island), known prior to 1926 as Goloday Island (остров Голодай – possibly a corruption of a British merchant name Halliday) is an island in

Vasileostrovsky District Vasileostrovsky District (russian: Василеостро́вский райо́н) is a district of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 214,625; down from 236,856 recorded in the 20 ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, to the north of

Vasilyevsky Island Vasilyevsky Island (russian: Васи́льевский о́стров, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, V.O.) is an island in St. Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva Rivers (in the delta of the Neva River) in the south a ...

, separated from it by

Smolenka River The Smolenka (russian: Смоленка) is a minor river in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the armlets of the Neva forming its delta. It branches off the Malaya Neva armlet at , and flows through the Smolensky Cemetery into ...

. The island, originally low-lying and frequently flooded, all the same was traditionally used as the

Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery The Smolenskoye Cemetery (in German ''Smolensker Friedhof'') is a Lutheran cemetery on Dekabristov Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the largest and oldest non-orthodox cemeteries in the city. Until the early 20th century it was one ...

. In the early Soviet period, the name was changed to Decembrists' Island to commemorate five executed leaders of

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...

, who were buried in an unmarked grave on Goloday. In 1911, a British investment company launched a development project on a 1 square-kilometer lot in western Goloday Island, hiring

Ivan Fomin Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin (3 February 1872 – 12 June 1936) was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in 1899 in Moscow, working in the Art Nouveau style. After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1905, he became an established mast ...

and

Fyodor Lidval Fyodor Ivanovich Lidval (russian: Фёдор Иванович Лидваль, Swedish:Johan Fredrik Lidvall) (June 1 (June 13) 1870, St. Petersburg – 1945, Stockholm) was a Russian-Swedish architect. Life Lidvall was born in St. Petersburg into ...

to design a Neoclassical middle-classical neighborhood. A small part of this project was completed before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

. Eastern and northern sides of the island were heavily industrialized; the western half of the island was built up with a

Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1 ...

-era high-rise. Dekabristov Island is connected to Vasilievsky Island to the south with five automobile bridges, and to the tiny

Serny Island Enquin-les-Mines (; vls, Enken; pcd, Inquin-les-Mines) is a town and former commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Since January 2017, it is a delegated commune of Enquin-lez-Guinegatte. The inhabita ...

north from it. It is connected to the center of the city through Primorskaya station of

Saint Petersburg Metro The Saint Petersburg Metro (russian: links=no, Петербургский метрополитен, Peterburgskiy metropoliten) is a rapid transit system in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Construction began in early 1941, but was put on hold due to Wor ...

References

{{SaintPetersburg-geo-stub Islands of Saint Petersburg River islands of Russia Neva River