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Geographical location www.lenobl.ru,
- official
site of Leningrad region;
Leningrad region was set up on the Petersburg/Petrograd province territory (in the past - Ingermanlandskaya and Izhorskaya land) in 1927. It has been developing as a territorial, ethic, cultural and political unit in the course of the centuries. Occupying the huge territory of 85.9 thousand sq. km between the Gulf of Finland and Onega Lake, Leningrad region combines diverse and impressive natural scenery with the wealth of culture and historic tradition, as well as developed economic infrastructure. Leningrad region is located in the northwest of Russia and borders Finland and Estonia. Vologda region is its neighbour in the east and Pskov and Novgorod regions - in the south. The European largest Ladoga and Onega Lakes are situated here, not to mention appr. 1,800 smaller lakes. The water system is about 50 ths km long. The climate is temperately continental. Average temperatures during the year range between -9oC in January and + 17oC in July. The most important industrial centers of the region are Volkhov, Kirishi, Boksitogorsk, Sosnovy Bor and Luga. Settling of the region started in the Mesolite - the middle Stone Age. Single sites of fishermen and hunters were arranged here as early as in 5,000-6,000 B.C. They were the tribes (later named ProtoLapps) who occupied the lands of modern Finland and Karelia, along the Gulf of Finland coast and banks of the Volkhov, Neva and Svir Rivers. In the late Stone Age (about 3,000 B.C.) the tribes came here who later on have made the Volgo-Finnish people. Milleniums later, ancient Baltic Finnish tribes from the southern Baltic lands reached the region. In the 8th century A.D. the Slavs fully settled down here. The first Russian settlement in the northwest -Ladoga (renamed Staray Ladoga in the 18th century)- was founded in the 750-ies. In the 9th-10th centuries it became the key political and economic center. It played a major role in creating the State system of ancient Russia and was an important trading site on the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks" but in the late 10th century Novgorod has taken Ladoga's place. In the 12th century coastal lands of the Gulf of Finland and Ladoga and banks of the Luga, Neva and Volkhov Rivers became a part of the Novgorodian republic. In the 13th-14th centuries they turned into the field of battles with the Livonic knights and Swedish feudal lords. To protect the northwestern borders of Russia, the Novgorodians erected the Yam, Koporie, Oreshek, Korela and Tiversky Gorodok(Town) fortresses in the 13th-14th centuries. Beginning from the 14th century, the policy of Moscow Princes was aimed at the consolidating of isolated Russian principalities. In 1478 Novgorod lost its independence and was incorporated to the Moscow State. In the early 17th century, during Distemper times, the northwest of Russia was captured by the Swedes and Russia was cut off the Baltic Sea. An attempt of Russia to regain the lands was not a success. The territory of modern Leningrad region became a battle-ground again when Peter I initiated the fight for outlet to the Baltics. After winning the Northern War (1700-1721) Russia regained ancient Izhorskaya land and obtained the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg and territories of Estlandia and Liflandia. Peter I founded a new fortress - St.Petersburg (1703) -in the mouth of the Neva River. In 1712 the town of Kronshtadt - the sea-shield of St.Petersburg - was laid in the Gulf of Finland. Building of the first boats for the Russian fleet started in Lodeinoe Pol'e on the Svir River. Development of metropolitan Petersburg as an industrial center influenced the social and economic situation in the Russian Northwest. Brickworks, saw-mills and quarries were arranged to meet the needs of the capital. Waterways were of primary importance in carrying loads to St.Petersburg. The Vyshnevolotskaya, Tikhvinskaya, Mariinskaya water systems, Staro-Ladozhsky, Syas'sky and Svirsky canals were built in the 18th-19th centuries. Railroad construction played its role as well. The first railway connecting St.Petersburg with Tsarskoye Selo (Tsarist Village) was arranged as early as in 1837. In 1851 the double-track Nikolaevskaya railway between Moscow and Petersburg was built. In the second half of the 19th century the Finlyanskaya, Baltiyskaya, Varshavskaya, Severnaya and other railroads were built. In 1924 the province was renamed Leningrad, and since 1927 it has been titled Leningradskaya oblast (Leningrad region) in accordance with the new administrative division of Russian territories. The developed fuel and energy complex (the Volkhovskaya and Nizhne-Svirskaya hydropower stations, large-scale peat-cutting and shale mining) was created here in the 1920-30-ies to serve needs of Leningrad industry. In 1932 the Volkhovsky aluminium plant, the firstling of Soviet aluminium industry, was erected, and the Tikhvinsky aluminous plant was built in 1938. Produce of local paper-mills amounted up to 23% of all paper made in the USSR. The German troops reached the borders of Leningrad region in the very first weeks of Great Patriotic War. Leningrad was blockaded on September 8, 1941 and the siege was fully lifted on January 27, 1944. Residents of Leningrad region produced military equipment, built defensive installations and front roads. Partisans actively operated on the occupied territory. The main goal of postwar years was to restore the region economy as well as destroyed towns and villages. It was in 1949 that the level of industrial output already exceeded the pre-war index. In the 1960-80-ies Leningrad and the region were united in the one economic territory. Since December 1993, Leningrad region and St.Petersburg are considered independent subjects of Russian Federation. 1.67 mln people reside currently in Leningrad region, with 66% of them living in towns. Ethnically, 90% of population are the Russians, 3% - the Ukranians, 2% - the Byelorussians. The rest 5% falls on 10 nationalities, each consisting of more than 1 thousand people, they are: the Finns, Tatars, Vepsians, Gipsy, Jews, Karelians, Estonians and others. The Finno-Ugric group comprises 1.2% of the region population (2.3% - in rural areas). 11.8 ths of the Ingermanland Finns compactly live in Volosovsky, Vsevolozhsky, Gatchinsky, Kingiseppsky, Kirishsky and Lomonosovsky districts; about 300 representatives of the Izhora nationality live in Kingiseppsky district. The places of the Vepsians traditional settling (they count 4.5 ths people) are Podporozhsky, Lodeinopol'sky, Tikhvinsky and Boksitogorsky districts. Historic and cultural landmarks, scenery landscapes and views of the Baltics, Ladoga and Onega make Leningrad region one of the most attractive tourist objects of Northern Europe. About 4,000 historic and cultural monuments of the 9th-19th centuries are located here. The Staroladozhsky, Aleksanro-Svirsky and Tikhvinsky Uspensky Monasteries have been the spiritual centers of the Russian North for centuries. More than 30 museum complexes operate in Leningrad region. Fortification is represented by architectural ensembles in Vyborg, Ladoga, Shlisselburg, Priozersk (Korela), Kopor'e and Ivangorod. Monuments of wooden architecture are preserved in eastern areas of the region. Many sites of Leningrad region are connected with the names of outstanding people like Aleksandr Pushkin, Abram Gannibal, Aleksandr Suvorov, Ilia Repin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Roerich, Vladimir Nabokov et al.
The Leningrad region state cultural institution "Museum Agency" was established by authorization of the Committee on Culture of Leningrad Region Government on November 2, 1998. It is a non-commercial cultural organization aimed at storage, research and public presentation of museum objects and collections. The Museum Agency based on the material resources of the former Regional Museum Centre and financed from the budget of Leningrad region incorporates 27 branches (museums) located in the towns and townships of the region as well as the exhibition hall "Smolny, 3" in St.Petersburg. One of the main objectives of the Agency is to publicize and expand public access to museum items and collection, to store, discover, collect, research and publish them. The Agency is also supposed to conduct educational and instructive activities providing for new approaches in museum practice. Consulting in the field of museum science and new museum technologies are also among the Museum Agency goals. The Agency is raising off-budget funds for the museums of Leningrad region and conducts entrepreneurial activities in accordance with its by-laws. Museum funds of the Agency and its branches are being organized following the conception of a specific museum. Acquisition of the collections is conducted depending on the history of a collection development and considering the modern standards of museum and profile sciences. Any museum fund provides an object, the contents and framework for communication. Arising from that, the communicative function currently appears to be a key one for the Museum Agency. The following issues of the museum activities are of major priority for the Agency: dialoging, feedback, reflexion in museum research; consecutive discovery, collection and processing of materials; introduction of an object into a collection; web-publicizing of regional museums and their collections. Addresses and phone numbers: The Leningrad Region Museum Agency : the 3-d entrance,
Smolny, St.Petersburg;
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© Mart
studio, development and realization, 2000 |
