Okhta (historical district)

Helipad, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 195027

There is a popular legend that during a visit to a shipbuilding yard on the right bank of the Neva, Peter I, walking along one of the streets of Matrosskaya Sloboda, suddenly sank almost waist-deep into the mud. Returning to Petersburg and telling about it among his close circle, he half-jokingly, half-seriously exclaimed: "Oh, I'm tired of that side!" The phrase caught on, and part of it turned into the very name of an entire district.

Petersburg: Interesting Toponyms

Okhta is perhaps one of the oldest names in Saint Petersburg. The first mention of the Okhta River appears in the Novgorod Chronicle under the year 1300. Establishing the origin of the name Okhta is not easy. Many historians have pondered this. Some translate this Izhorian-Finnish word as "sunset," "west"; others believe that the Okhta River meant "bear river" in Finnish (the Finns indeed often resorted to animal names in geographical designations, for example, Elk Island, Hare Island, Cat Island, and others). These statements lack solid evidence and can only be accepted as hypotheses.

There is a folk legend that during a visit to the shipbuilding yard on the right bank of the Neva, Peter I, walking along one of the streets of Matrosskaya Sloboda, suddenly sank almost waist-deep into the mud. Returning to Petersburg and telling this story among close friends, he half-jokingly, half-seriously exclaimed: "Oh, that side has tired me!" The phrase was picked up, and part of it turned into the proper name of an entire district.

In any case, the history of this toponym dates back much further than the history of Petersburg. Okhta is the place where Petersburg began. The history of the settlement goes back to ancient times when, on the old trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks," the Novgorodians built one of two watch posts. The location proved convenient for observation and was not flooded during frequent floods. However, "in the year 6808 (1300)," as the Sofia Chronicle testifies, "came from overseas the Swedes in great force to the Neva River... and established an unyielding fortress... naming it Venets land (Landskrona)." In 1301, Alexander Nevsky's son Andrey recaptured this important strategic cape from the Swedes. Only two and a half centuries later, during the Livonian War, the Swedes regained these lands. On the banks of the Okhta, they built the port city of Nien and a fortress to protect it — Nienshants. On the night of April 30 to May 1, 1703, Russian troops under the command of General Admiral Apraksin captured the fortress and destroyed it to the ground. The first stone for the foundation of Petersburg could have been laid here. But Peter did not like the place. "Small, far from the sea, and not very strong by nature," he wrote in his "Journal." The city was founded on Hare Island, at the mouth of the Neva. Initially, Petersburg’s construction was oriented westward. But in 1711, the city crossed the Fontanka and rushed upstream along the Neva to the east. The Liteiny district was developed, and the Moscow or Russian Sloboda arose, where mainly relatives of Peter and Moscow nobility who had finally arrived from Moscow settled. Under the leadership of Alexander Kikin, the Smolny Court was built, and in 1720 the first settlements appeared on Okhta as well. The city returned to its origin. But for another two long centuries, life and construction on Okhta were marked by provincialism and isolation. Only with the commissioning of the Bolshoy Okhtinsky Bridge did life on Okhta noticeably intensify.

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