The name of this new development district traces its roots back to the Petrine era, when by order of Peter I the right to use this piece of land was granted to the commandants of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and it began to be called the Commandant’s Dacha, and later – the Commandant’s Field. For a long time, the Commandant’s Field was on the “outskirts” of the closest dacha areas to the capital. In the 19th century, it was a remote and sparsely built-up territory: on the 1831 map, it is marked with gardens and fields interspersed with shrubs and groves. The only building was the Commandant’s Dacha, whose owner rented out the surrounding lands.

The vicinity of the Commandant’s Dacha was not chosen by chance as the site of the tragic duel between Pushkin and Dantes in 1837: the participants knew the area well. Pushkin rented a house nearby for two seasons – on the Chyornaya Rechka between what are now Lansky Highway and Torzhkovskaya Street, while Dantes, together with his Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, spent August quartering in Novaya Derevnya. While in summer the Chyornaya Rechka was bustling with social life, in winter it was ruled by silence and tranquility. Therefore, there could be no unnecessary, prying eyes here…

In the history of St. Petersburg, the Commandant’s Field became known as the birthplace of Russian aviation. Since 1908, when the Imperial All-Russian Aero Club was established in the capital, the nearby Kolomyazhsky (Udelny) Hippodrome was used for testing flying machines, and in May 1910 the first Aviation Week in Russia took place here. It attracted enormous public interest, but the hippodrome’s racetrack was not very convenient for flights, and the Aero Club received various proposals regarding a site for an airfield. The most suitable location, “extremely convenient in size and proximity to Petersburg,” was chosen to be the Commandant’s Field, which had so far been used as gardens. At that time, it was leased by the “Wings” partnership from the commandant of the St. Petersburg (i.e., Peter and Paul) Fortress, so the airfield was initially also called “Wings.” According to the agreement, all sporting and technical aspects were assigned to the Aero Club, while the commercial side was handled by the partnership. Incidentally, according to a contract approved later in 1912, the airfield territory was leased from the fortress commandant by the All-Russian Aero Club for twelve years starting January 1, 1914, with a payment of 13,000 rubles per year.

In a short period, the Commandant’s Field became an airfield: it was fenced, grandstands and hangars were built, access roads were made, etc. A team of sappers and telephone operators from one of the sapper battalions stationed in the capital was sent to carry out the work. To reassure the organizers worried that the work might not be completed within the short allotted time, the contractor Tugan-Baranovsky referred to his extensive experience with emergency projects: he had completed the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, the Moscow Khodynka for Nicholas II’s coronation, and Poltava for the 200th anniversary of the victory over the Swedes exactly on time.

The opening of the airfield was timed to coincide with the first All-Russian Aeronautics Festival in 1910. Posters and announcements referred to the site as: “The airfield of the ‘Wings’ partnership, Kolomyagi, Commandant’s Field.” The interest of Petersburgers in the First All-Russian Aeronautics Festival was enormous. Tickets for the airfield grandstands sold out quickly, so prices were set high: 25 rubles for a box seat, and from 5 rubles to 20 kopecks for regular seats. The aviation craze was also exploited by city merchants. It seemed the capital lived exclusively by aviation, and the word “aviator” (the term “pilot” appeared later) caused a storm of enthusiasm. Journalists ironically noted that even ladies talked about “motors,” “horsepower,” and “propellers.”

On the opening day of the festival, all of Petersburg seemed to rush to the airfield. Along Kamennoostrovsky Prospect stretched an endless line of carriages, automobiles, taxis, cabmen, and overcrowded tram cars. Thousands of Petersburgers became spectators of competitions involving airplanes, aerostats, and kites, and the presence of high-ranking officials – Prime Minister Stolypin, State Duma Chairman Guchkov, War Minister Sukhomlinov, as well as members of the imperial family – showed universal sympathy for aviation. Stolypin and Guchkov even dared to become volunteer passengers.

During the festival, a group of forty students from the Institute of Railway Engineers conducted various measurements related to flights. The group was led by the institute’s instructor, engineer Ryinin, who was involved in aeronautics not only theoretically but also practically: in the summer and autumn of 1910, he made a series of long flights on the Aero Club’s aerostats, for which he received the title of “pilot-aeronaut,” as well as a series of flights on the Aero Club’s airplanes necessary for the title of “pilot-aviator.”

…The All-Russian Aeronautics Festival was overshadowed by the death of the famous Russian aviator, a public favorite, Captain of the Navy Lev Makarovich Matsiyevich. This happened on September 24, 1910. During a “height prize” flight, the airplane suddenly “nosedived,” resulting in a crash – the pilot, who was not secured in his seat, fell out of the cockpit.

It can be said without exaggeration that the entire capital solemnly mourned Lev Matsiyevich. The Petersburg press called him “The First Victim of Russian Aviation,” and Nicholas II granted pensions – 1,800 rubles per year to the aviator’s widow and 600 rubles per year to his daughter. The tragic death of the aviator resonated throughout society.

Unfortunately, the death of Lev Matsiyevich in September 1910 was not the only tragedy to occur in those years at the Commandant’s airfield. On May 10, 1911, just days before the start of the Second St. Petersburg International Aviation Week, French aviator F. Flezhier crashed at the Commandant’s airfield while flying a Riga airplane.

Fortunately, this crash did not result in the pilot’s death. However, the beginning of the Second Aviation Week was marked by a terrible disaster. On its very first day, May 14, 1911, young aviator Vladimir Fedorovich Smith tragically died before thousands of spectators.

By a fatal coincidence, the place of Smith’s death on May 14 was near the site where Lev Matsiyevich fell. Equally symbolic was that on May 16 a memorial was planned to be installed at Matsiyevich’s crash site. A massive granite slab, erected by a “special committee for strengthening the fleet” approved by the Emperor and funded by voluntary donations, was unveiled on schedule. Nearby, a modest cross made from fragments of Smith’s airplane was placed at the site of his death. “The airfield is turning into a cemetery for flying people,” sadly noted a reviewer of the “Petersburg Gazette.”

However, here is a paradox. The memorial to Matsiyevich has survived to this day among the new buildings of the former Commandant’s airfield, in the square between houses No. 11 and No. 13 on Aerodromnaya Street. But nothing reminds us of Smith’s tragic death. Moreover, neither the Lutheran Church of Christ the Savior on Zagorodny Prospect, where Smith’s funeral service was held, nor the Tentelyovo Lutheran Cemetery beyond the Narva Gate, where he was buried, have been preserved…

However, the tragic incidents did not stop the enthusiasm of Russian aviators. The Commandant’s airfield witnessed not only tragic but also glorious chapters of aviation. On October 9, 1910, a record-setting non-stop flight to Gatchina was made from the Commandant’s airfield, and in 1911 – the first air flight from Petersburg to Moscow. Although of the nine aviators who started from Petersburg, only one managed to reach the capital…

The Commandant’s airfield served not only as a place for demonstration flights but also as a serious training center. On May 3, 1912, the aviation school of the All-Russian Aero Club opened here. “From the hangars peeked clean, fully serviced airplanes,” described the atmosphere of that day a reporter for the “Petersburg Leaf.” “Here stand solid ‘Farmans,’ fully aware of their dignity. Let them say they are bulky and clumsy. Still, they remain the most stable, most reliable of all flying machines. And here are the graceful dragonflies ‘Bleriots.’ It seems they are about to fly out of their hangars and soar into the heights. In other hangars stand new machines of other designs.”

Another aspect of the Commandant’s airfield was as a testing ground for domestic aircraft manufacturing. The authorities allocated the airfield for testing airplanes produced at private factories. From that time, rent was charged not only to the All-Russian Aero Club but also to those companies whose hangars were located near the airfield. Most of them, of course, belonged to Russobalt and the 1st Aeronautics Partnership.

Interestingly, sometimes the territory of the Commandant’s airfield, under the jurisdiction of the All-Russian Aero Club, served not only aviation purposes. For example, in May 1913, open trials of agricultural tractors and automotive “giant plows” were held here. These trials were preceded by the IV International Automobile Exhibition in the Mikhailovsky Manege in May of the same year, held under the “Highest Patronage of His Imperial Majesty.” The exhibition included an agricultural section where, among other modern tools, tractors were displayed. Recognizing the state importance of land issues, the Main Directorate of Agriculture and Land Management decided after the exhibition to conduct tests of the presented tractors. But let us return to the aviation theme. It is interesting that the first official airmail flight in our country, delivering mail from Petrograd to Moscow, was made from the Commandant’s airfield.

The first airmail flight was a major event. On March 29, 1918, the Commandant’s airfield was unusually crowded. Pilots accepted bags of letters and packages, answered questions from the gathered crowd. The planes took off and headed for Moscow. On March 31, news of this event appeared in the newspaper “Pravda.”

In Soviet times, the Commandant’s airfield was where the first Russian aircraft designers Gakkel, Sikorsky, and others tested their machines. Nearby, the first aviation station in Russia was equipped, assembling and testing foreign aircraft. Aircraft were tested by pilot K.K. Artseulov, grandson of the artist Aivazovsky, whose students included V.P. Chkalov and M.V. Vodopyanov. Domestic aircraft built at the Russo-Baltic plant in Novaya Derevnya – “Russian Knight” and “Ilya Muromets” – were also tested here. The future aircraft designer Ilyushin worked here first in the airfield team and then as a pilot.

In 1921, planes took off from here to suppress the Kronstadt rebellion. In the 1920s–1930s, cadet-pilots (pilot trainees) of the Military-Theoretical School of the Air Force of the Red Army studied flying here.

The Commandant’s airfield played a huge role during the Leningrad blockade. IL-2s and “Douglases” landed here, bringing food and evacuating Leningrad residents to the mainland. Additionally, fighter aviation regiments were based at the Commandant’s airfield.

After the war, until 1959, the airfield housed transport aviation of the Leningrad Military District, as well as several services and units of the Mozhaysky Military Engineering Academy and the Military Communications Academy. Flights from the Commandant’s airfield ceased in 1963. According to recollections of longtime Kolomyagi residents, by the late 1960s the former Commandant’s airfield territory was a vast area occupied by fenced warehouses and utility buildings, many of which were abandoned. The empty spaces were mainly swampy areas overgrown with shrubs and reeds.

In the early 1970s, construction began on the territory of the former Commandant’s airfield. The first residential buildings of the new district were completed in 1973. Unfortunately, in practice, a rather monotonous and dull typical new development was built, lacking any distinctiveness. As architect Sergey Shmakov, who participated in planning the 7th and 9th blocks of the Commandant’s airfield district (between Ispytateley Prospect and Parashyutnaya Street), notes, only twenty percent of the construction was allocated for individual projects. A significant part of the new buildings consisted of so-called “ship houses,” which looked decent only for the first few years after construction. Then their smooth concrete facades, painted with paints not resistant to the damp Petersburg weather, began to peel and flake, so the districts started to resemble poor slums from Soviet propaganda films about the horrors of the “Western way of life.”

Moreover, in the 1970s, the “ship houses” solved urgent problems – resettling communal apartments and quickly providing Soviet people with separate apartments. Quality and durability of housing were sacrificed. The “ships,” like the Khrushchyovkas of the 1960s, were perceived as temporary housing: their lifespan was estimated at twenty to thirty years. Thus, today a significant part of these buildings has already exhausted its resource.

The names of the main roads in the new developments of the former Commandant’s airfield reflect the history of domestic aeronautics. Here exist Aerodromnaya and Parashyutnaya Streets, Bogatyrsky Prospect and Ispytateley Prospect, Kotelnikov and Polikarpov alleys, Lev Matsiyevich Square, and so on. On Aerodromnaya Street, as a memory of the former airfield, a memorial stone still stands at the site of Lev Matsiyevich’s death. “…Fallen victim to duty…” reads the inscription on the granite pedestal.

The construction fever that gripped Petersburg at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries did not bypass this district either, which in just a few years became built up with new residential blocks and numerous shopping and entertainment centers. The former Commandant’s airfield quickly turned into one of the most comfortable and quite prestigious new development districts, filled with many universal stores, hypermarkets, as well as shopping and entertainment complexes.

The district’s new look was given by numerous high-rise buildings. Architects planned “skyscrapers” in the Commandant’s area back in Soviet times; one of them was even built – the 70-meter “Lengidroproekt” tower at the corner of Baikonurskaya Street and Ispytateley Prospect. It became the first high-rise building in the Primorsky District. However, real skyscrapers appeared here only in the post-Soviet era.

By the way, an important clarification is necessary: the new developments of the Commandant’s airfield are generally considered to be the territory bounded by Kolomyazhsky Prospect, the Chyornaya Rechka, Sizov Prospect, and Parashyutnaya Street. At least, these are the district boundaries indicated in the authoritative “Toponymic Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg.” The extensive district located to the west is called “Lake Dolgy,” with its borders defined by Bogatyrsky Prospect, Kamyshovaya Street, Planernaya Street, Shuvalovsky Prospect, Parashyutnaya Street, and Sizov Prospect.

Thus, it turns out that Commandant Square and Commandant Prospect lie outside the Commandant’s airfield district and belong to the new developments of “Lake Dolgy.” Meanwhile, Commandant Square today is the center of a huge new district where a real construction boom has unfolded in recent years.

Glezerov Sergey Evgenievich “Historical Districts of Petersburg from A to Z”

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Комендантский_аэродром