Many people think that the name of this street comes from the surname of the Decembrist brothers Bestuzhev. This is not quite true; the street was named in 1912 in honor of their relative, General Field Marshal Count Alexey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin (1693–1766). At that time, shortly after the bicentennial celebration of Petersburg, several passages in Piskaryovka were named after the associates of Peter I.
Under Peter and his closest successors, A. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin served in diplomatic posts in Hanover, England, and Denmark. In 1740, with the support of E. Biron, he became a cabinet minister, but after Biron's overthrow in November of the same year, he was sentenced to death, but pardoned and exiled. Supporting the coup of Elizabeth Petrovna, he was reinstated, received the post of vice-chancellor, and in 1744 – chancellor, that is, minister of foreign affairs, a position he held for 14 years. In this role, he tried to form an alliance with England, Holland, and Austria against France, Prussia, and Turkey. He did not disdain receiving money, or simply put – bribes, from the English government.
Bestuzhev-Ryumin’s foreign policy ended in complete failure. In 1756, England, together with Prussia, opposed Russia, and the Seven Years' War began. Bestuzhev-Ryumin’s protégé, Field Marshal Apraksin, proved to be an incompetent commander-in-chief and nearly lost the campaign. As a result, A. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin was accused of treason, sentenced to death again, and exiled once more. After Catherine II came to power, he was brought back to Petersburg, but was no longer given significant positions.
Originally, Bestuzhevskaya Street was short – it branched eastward from Emperor Peter the Great Avenue (Piskaryovsky) and ended after a few hundred meters at the now non-existent Saltykovskaya Street. Beyond that was land allocated for a psychiatric hospital that was never built. Only on November 12, 1962, did Bestuzhevskaya Street extend from Laboratorny to Ekaterininsky Avenue, incorporating two more streets – Lesnaya and Voskresenskaya. Lesnaya Street ran from Kondratyevsky to Laboratorny Avenue (in that direction). Its name has been known since 1901. A small remnant of the forest that gave it its name can be seen opposite houses No. 23–29 on Laboratorny Avenue. Voskresenskaya Street appeared in the 1920s; it ran from Kondratyevsky Avenue to Zamshina Street. The name derived from the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which stood at the corner of Kondratyevsky Avenue (modern address – Kondratyevsky, 87). The church, built in 1903 according to the design of N. V. Nikitin, has been preserved, although heavily rebuilt; it now houses the 21st police department.
In the mid-1990s, Bestuzhevskaya Street was extended westward, and now it begins from a dead end west of Laboratorny Avenue.
Sources:
Aleksey Yerofeyev: Petersburg in Street Names. The Origin of the Names of Streets and Avenues, Rivers and Canals, Bridges and Islands
https://toponimika.spb.ru/cat/bestuzhevskaya-ul.html
