Academician Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (born in 1857 – died in 1927) was an outstanding Russian scientist and organizer of science, a neuropathologist and psychiatrist. He is the author of more than 1000 published works and the founder of over 40 various institutions, among which are such institutes as the Psychoneurological Institute (now bearing his name), the Sanitary-Hygienic Institute, the Neurosurgical Institute, the Pediatric Institute, the Veterinary Institute, the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute, and other well-known establishments, as well as the first private university in Russia, which surpassed the State University in the number of students and where such famous scientists as Vvedensky, de-Roberti, Kovalevsky, Lazursky, Lesgaft, Pavlovsky, Tarle, Ukhtomsky taught. V. M. Bekhterev was also the founder of more than 10 periodicals. As a doctor, V. M. Bekhterev restored more than 100,000 seriously ill patients to normal life.

The circumstances of Vladimir Mikhailovich’s sudden death on December 25, 1927, remain unclear to this day and have given rise to various legends. According to one, Bekhterev was deliberately poisoned by NKVD organs after he spoke unfavorably about Stalin’s mental health. According to another version, Bekhterev’s death was connected with his involvement in work on creating an "ideological weapon". 

It is pleasant to realize that for many years Bekhterev lived and worked on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. It is also gratifying that his estate "Quiet Shore" is currently, thanks to the efforts of his descendants, becoming a memorial museum of the great scientist. Besides this, the "Quiet Shore" estate is also of interest as a well-preserved typical example of a well-equipped Finnish dacha-estate of a St. Petersburg resident.

In one of her letters, Vladimir Mikhailovich’s daughter, Maria Vladimirovna Smirnova, writes: "The 'Quiet Shore' estate was my father’s favorite place for rest and work. Approaching the estate by carriage or car, he would even stand up to see the familiar outlines as early as possible." At his Finnish estate, V. M. Bekhterev invariably spent the Christmas holidays and summer vacations. It was there, far from clinics, auditoriums, and endless patient appointments, that from 1899 to 1927 Vladimir Mikhailovich created the vast majority of his works. Three times a week, in the morning, Vladimir Mikhailovich went to the city to see patients. He returned to the estate at night.

The village of Ino was the largest village of the Uusikirkko volost (Uusikirkko – now Polyany) of the Vyborg Governorate of the Grand Duchy. To the east, near the village of Tyurisevya (now Ushkovo), the Uusikirkko volost bordered the Terijoki volost. It was a typical Finnish village consisting of dozens of farms scattered over a large area. At the end of the 19th century, the village of Ino, like many villages of the Karelian Isthmus, was swept by a "dacha boom." Before the revolution, there were 68 dachas and villas of St. Petersburg residents. The most famous dacha owners here were Academician Bekhterev and the artist Serov. But the greatest fame for the village of Ino was brought by the namesake coastal defense batteries ("Fort Ino"), whose construction lasted from 1909 until the revolution.

The first mentions of Bekhterev’s Finnish estate date back to 1899—in preserved correspondence with the architect Lindahl from Vyborg and the contractor Stenbok, who were carrying out the design and construction of the estate. However, according to materials from Finnish archives, the deed for the land plot, on which construction was already underway, was only formalized in 1902 and came into legal force in 1903. According to this deed, Bekhterev bought from the daughter of Colonel Helena Maria Zelestina Iosifovna Bortkevich one-eighth of the hereditary estate in the village of Ino (now Smolyachkovo), Uusikirkko volost (now Polyany), excluding a previously sold plot to Mr. Nikolai Fedorovich Markov called "Sampo" by the country road (now Primorskoye Highway).

Subsequently, this plot and several others were bought by Bekhterev. The main part of Bekhterev’s landholding, covering 31.8 hectares, was located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the village of Ino. Bekhterev also owned a small land plot in the village of Marttila, used as hayfield, where a shed for storing hay was built.

The village of Ino, where the main plot purchased by Bekhterev was located, was sparsely populated. Individual houses were scattered directly along the country road; only fishermen’s houses, located on the coastal sandy strip and on the plot adjacent to the forest, faced the Gulf of Finland. A raised road, later called the "common road," led from the country road to the fishermen’s houses, as it marked the eastern boundary of Bekhterev’s land plot and was used for economic needs by the estate manager Herman Peri.

The main Bekhterev plot, where the "Quiet Shore" estate was built, consisted in the southern part of a sandy strip along the coast of the Gulf of Finland, overgrown here and there with shrubs and solitary pines, and in the northern part—a swampy area along the country road, transitioning westward into swampy forest.

Development of the land plot began with the creation of an irrigation system and the construction of a raised road leading from the country road to the construction site. Then a simple fence was made around the estate territory. On a small plot adjacent to the entrance gates, the fence was made of pickets. A mailbox was installed to the right of the gates. Later, in 1912, fir trees were planted on both sides of the raised road. On the left side, along the pedestrian path leading from the gate wicket to the central buildings of the estate, birches were also planted. Fir trees were also planted on the roadside of the "common" road and on the northern boundary of a large fruit garden, which by 1914 had more than a hundred trees.

To the north, behind the mentioned row of fir trees planted to protect the fruit garden from northern winds, were vegetable gardens, and to the west, beyond the road into the forest, berry bushes. In 1913, along the country road, instead of the mentioned fence made of poles, rosehip bushes were planted, forming a "living hedge." All these cultivated plantings were made possible thanks to the arrangement of a large, branched irrigation system that turned the swamp into fertile land and significantly improved the character of the forest on Bekhterev’s estate and the surrounding area. The irrigation system collected water from numerous springs and from a stream flowing along the eastern boundary of the estate into the so-called "Small Pond," which served as a kind of collector feeding the "Large Pond." The old streambed leading to the gulf was filled in so that a drainage ditch was formed to stabilize the water level in the ponds. In fact, the size of the "Small Pond" did not quite correspond to its name. The pond was narrow but more than a hundred meters long. The "Large Pond" was located near the sports ground, and in winter an ice rink was set up on it. In summer, this pond was suitable for swimming. In addition, fish were bred in it. South of this area, almost on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, a sphinx statue appeared in 1909. The planting of fir trees along the raised road and the sculpting of the sphinx were carried out with the direct participation of Bekhterev. The idea to sculpt the sphinx came from Bekhterev’s younger son, Petr Vladimirovich, who in the winter of 1908 sculpted a snow model of this sphinx.

The buildings and structures of the estate were connected by paths covered with small concrete slabs laid on a gravel cushion. To prevent animals from leaving the estate territory, it was fenced, as mentioned above, with a simple fence. In places, this fence was made of poles, in others—of barbed wire. In addition to the picket fence near the gates, similar fences were at the houses and some sheds. In summer, bathing piers were installed on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, which also served as docks for yachts and boats. In summer, practically in any weather, Vladimir Mikhailovich went swimming every morning and before lunch. Constant observers of these swims were the yard dogs, which lined up on the piers and did not leave until Vladimir Mikhailovich disappeared with a towel into the changing booth. Sometimes these swims took place in the "Large Pond," but the dogs were always present and arranged themselves on the shore in strict order for observation.

There were five wells dug on the estate. All wells stood on springs. One was located by the country road and was intended for travelers. Two wells had log cabins and above-ground parts made of hewn granite blocks. The covers of two wells were made of wooden shingles, and the other three had plank covers. At all wells on the estate, buckets were raised by a winch. The "crane" (a type of well mechanism) was only at the hayfield of Bekhterev’s estate, in the village of Marttila.

Construction, planning, and replanning of the estate continued until the beginning of World War I, when silhouettes of German battleships began to appear on the horizon of the Gulf of Finland and most workers left the coast. The arrangement of the estate buildings ultimately resulted in the protected forest on the western part of the estate remaining untouched, and two courtyards formed on the built-up area, one of which was the economic yard. To the north of it, behind the "Small Pond," a cattle pasture with fodder crops was arranged.

The first buildings were two houses for builders, later dismantled. One, relatively large, was multi-roomed; the other, smaller, was built as a bathhouse with one living room. Construction of the "Big Dacha," the main building of the estate, and the "Small Dacha," an additional residential building, as well as some auxiliary buildings located nearby, began almost simultaneously but without a master plan for the entire estate territory. Accordingly, over the following years, new buildings were erected, the "Big" and "Small" dachas were replanned and expanded, the purpose of auxiliary buildings changed, and some buildings were simply dismantled. For example, the mentioned large multi-room house where the builders lived was dismantled in 1913 after new houses for builders were built on an additionally acquired plot near the estate. Also dismantled was one of the first buildings with a bathhouse, initially called the "water pump" because it had a pump, and later the "old bathhouse." The firewood shed next to the "Small Dacha" was also dismantled. In place of the "Old Bathhouse," a "New Bathhouse," also called the "Water Pump," was built. Construction work stopped in 1914 with the start of World War I. In the eastern part of the plot, the estate manager’s house was built, and an economic yard with a stable, cowshed, and chicken coop was formed. Previously, the firewood shed and other sheds dismantled after the allocation of the economic yard served this purpose. The estate manager’s house also had small, unmarked buildings, traces of which were discovered during the estate territory research in the early 1990s, as well as traces of dismantled builders’ houses.

The estate had autonomous power and water supply, provided by a thermal power station and a water pump. The estate’s power station also supplied electricity to fishermen’s houses and a shop located at the western boundary of the estate. The estate did not have a unified sewage system: each building, depending on the load, had its own cesspit of varying capacity.

"Big Dacha." This was a three-story wooden house in the "Art Nouveau" style with a complex log structure, sheathed with clapboard. The house stood on a strip foundation made of hewn granite blocks. Three enclosed verandas on the first floor on the southern, western, and northern parts of the house rested on single hewn granite supports from the outside. The house also had open balconies. The exterior walls and the walls of the interior rooms were sheathed with clapboard. The "Big Dacha" had exits on all four sides. In the attic of the "Big Dacha" stood the main tank of the estate’s water supply system, which covered all residential buildings, as well as the bathhouse and power station. The stoves were tiled, except for two round iron ones.

On the first floor, next to the living room and dining room, there was an office used for receiving patients or as a guest room. Guests here included Leonid Andreyev, whose estate was only 3 versts to the east, Valentin Serov—neighbor on the western border, Ilya Repin, and many other famous personalities. The "sea-glassed balcony" was often used as a dining room. On the second floor was the "bedroom," where, presumably, Vladimir Mikhailovich worked before his morning swim, recording his thoughts and conclusions.

On the second and third floors, there were spare rooms. Prince Obolensky—the Minister of Foreign Affairs and a great friend of the Bekhterev family—often stayed in the room on the third floor. His son Anatoly, a contemporary of Petr Vladimirovich, occupied one of the spare rooms on the second floor. Spare rooms were sometimes used for patients who needed more or less long rest. The "sea balcony" on the third floor was Academician Bekhterev’s favorite workplace. Here, at a small writing desk by a large open window, not only scientific works but also poems under the pseudonym "Tikhoberezhsky" were born. They were published in literary collections "Shield," "Link," and others.

On the third floor was the manuscript storage—the so-called "Folding Room." As late as 1940, a huge number of manuscripts were stored here. But none of them have survived to this day. However, a fragment of one page was found in 1990 during cleaning of the "Small Dacha" from garbage—in a semi-attic pocket, in a thick layer of debris and wood chips. Obviously, the priceless manuscript sheets were used as kindling for the stoves and ovens of the estate’s new residents.

"Small Dacha"—Originally, this was a small log house consisting of two rooms, a kitchen, and a veranda, above which was an open balcony accessible through the attic. The house had a single entrance on the south side. The porch with a four-step staircase was covered by a small canopy. Around 1910, the northern half was added to the house, consisting of three rooms and a tower, with entrances arranged both through the attic and through a hatch in the middle of the added rooms, above which the tower was located. The tower was an octagonal log structure with a tent-shaped roof, having two attic windows facing northeast and northwest, as well as a small open balcony facing the Gulf of Finland. This balcony was called the "Captain’s Bridge." Access to the "Captain’s Bridge" was through the attic of the tower. The tower contained a relatively large octagonal room with three windows—one large facing north and two smaller side windows facing east and west.

Simultaneously with the addition of the northern half, the open balcony and veranda were expanded. After the veranda expansion, the house gained a second "summer" entrance through this veranda. The mansard was built in the summer of 1912. At the same time, the "Captain’s Bridge" was eliminated, and the two side windows of the tower became internal. In this form, the "Small Dacha" survived at least until 1946. By that time, only the canopy over the porch was destroyed. On the first floor, the house had two round stoves—one tiled in the rooms and a small Russian stove in the kitchen. The mansard had three tiled stoves, two of which were white and smooth, and the third was brown with a relief pattern. Water supply was connected only to the kitchen sink; in the mansard there was a marble washbasin with an oval mirror. The water tank for the washbasin was located in a semi-attic side "pocket." The exterior and interior walls of the "Small Dacha" were sheathed with clapboard. The log structure stood on a strip foundation of hewn granite blocks, and the veranda rested on single hewn granite supports.

Before the completion of the "Big Dacha" (1904), Bekhterev occupied a room in the "Small Dacha" adjacent to the veranda. In calm weather, Vladimir Mikhailovich climbed the steep stairs to the balcony and worked there all daylight hours. Short breaks for lunch or walks were also used for work. Here is what Maria Vladimirovna writes about these walks: "In the evening, father went for a walk and, reaching the shore, walked back and forth along the long alley by the sea, correcting proofs sent from the press on the go. We always had many yard dogs. Mother loved them, but father paid no attention and never fed them. However, as soon as he headed for the sea alley, all the dogs rushed to accompany him. Busy with proofreading, father walked very slowly along the alley and sometimes even stopped, apparently to make corrections. Behind him, a dog procession followed one after another, stopping with him and turning back at the end of the alley. They all walked with lowered heads and tails, as if performing a serious duty, no matter how long the walk lasted. They only became lively when father hid the proofs in his pocket and turned toward the house. Then, having fulfilled their duty, they ran away, barking and whining. The next day, everything repeated exactly the same." The "alley by the sea" has survived to this day. With the start of World War I, in winter, when heating difficulties arose in the "Big Dacha" and the estate manager was left without assistants, Vladimir Mikhailovich moved to the "Small Dacha" to the relatively large octagonal mansard room.

The surviving one-story power station building originally had a log structure and contained only one room—the machine room. However, in this form, the power station building existed only two or three years and was rebuilt from hollow concrete blocks. During the reconstruction, the building was placed on a strip foundation of hewn granite blocks, a heated living room and a summer enclosed veranda were added to the machine room. The veranda was placed on a foundation of separate concrete blocks. The floor of the machine room was covered with two-colored Metlakh tiles. The power station roof was covered with roofing iron. About eight meters from the power station was a fuel shed housing a 5-ton diesel fuel tank.

The construction of the power station and the manufacture of original hollow concrete blocks for its reconstruction were proposed by Bekhterev’s son, Petr Vladimirovich. Under his leadership, all other concrete-related works on the estate were carried out, including the construction of the "Ice House" near the "Big Dacha" and auxiliary structures near the estate manager’s house, traces of which have survived to this day.

The water pump building had a log structure standing on a strip foundation of hewn granite blocks. The pump itself with electric drive and an auxiliary water tank were located in an insulated attic room. Below were a living room and a bathhouse. Later, a woodshed—a covered shelter for firewood—was added to the water pump building. This building was also called the "New Bathhouse."

The photo laboratory was a small building with a complex log structure standing on a strip foundation of hewn granite blocks. The exterior and interior walls were sheathed with clapboard. The building had only two heated rooms and a hallway. One of the rooms, with two windows facing north and having solid shutters, served as the photo laboratory. There was a pigeon loft in the attic of this house. The steps of the staircase at the photo laboratory entrance were cast from concrete. Photographic plates were developed and photos taken on the estate were printed in this photo laboratory.

Detailed information about the architecture of the estate manager’s house has not been found. No photographs have been found either. According to Smirnova’s testimony, a spacious one-story house with a heated veranda and an iron roof was indeed built for the manager. From the surviving ruins of this house, its exterior appearance and layout can be reasonably well imagined. The same applies to auxiliary buildings.

The large shed in the economic yard, housing the stable, cowshed, and chicken coop, had a log structure. The log structure was placed on separate supports made of unhewn boulders. Under the roof of this shed was a hayloft. Other farm buildings were frame constructions insulated with sawdust poured between the outer and inner cladding. These buildings stood on separate supports made of unhewn boulders. The floors were wooden, except for the carriage house, whose floor was cement. Externally, the sheds did not differ from similar buildings. The ice house, which for several years served as a "potato pit," located near the ski shed, was made of hewn granite blocks, and the ice house near the "Big Dacha" had concrete floors and walls.

What happened to the estate in the post-war decades is also a very typical example of the fate of coastal estates. By the late 1980s – early 1990s, the estate territory was a neglected and cluttered plot of land. Part of the fir trees of the Fir Alley, which once led to the main house of the estate, the "Big Dacha," was cut down because some firs obstructed the lighting of vegetable gardens located on spontaneously seized plots of the former estate land. The Fir Alley itself became overgrown with weeds to the extent that the pedestrian path running parallel to the roadway completely disappeared and was lost. The entire irrigation system became clogged and overgrown with willow and alder. Approximately in the middle of the "Large Pond," a crude sewer from the "Burevestnik" pioneer camp, built on the estate territory in the place of the protected forest in its western part, cut it off. The remains of the "Large Pond" turned into a half-overgrown swamp. The "Small Pond" also dried up and overgrew. Groundwater rose so much that most of the sowing area became unusable. Only on small plots of self-seized land could some harvest be gathered. Only a few half-dried wild apple trees remained from the large fruit garden. Estate residents transplanted or simply cut down apple trees, freeing places for their vegetable gardens. Strangely, some surviving and transplanted apple trees still bear fruit. Throughout the territory, piles of household rubbish were scattered chaotically, and above a wooden box for food waste, a two-meter-high pile of garbage stood, over which flies buzzed. Estate residents, all registered for housing improvement, felt their temporary situation and subordinated everything to survival. Everything possible and impossible was rented out to summer residents. Small temporary huts were built from the materials of dismantled estate buildings. The only surviving farm building, the firewood shed, was adapted for summer housing, with beams cut out, causing it to warp and begin to collapse.

In the poorly preserved "Small Dacha," all second doors and frames were removed, parts of the stained glass of the veranda and mansard were stolen. The house layout was disrupted. On the west side, an extension with a corridor, ugly porch, and an additional small room for summer residents with a separate entrance was built. In addition, a roughly built low pigsty was attached to this extension, occupying part of the veranda length. The entrance to the extension from the house was arranged through a door cut in place of two windows. On the south side, the old porch of the house was destroyed, and a new entrance to the mansard was cut through the wall. This additional entrance to the house with an external staircase was covered from the rain by a canopy with a roofing felt roof. The interior rooms of the house also suffered significantly. In the mansard, the railings of the closed balustrade were destroyed, various new partitions appeared, a door was cut in the tower log structure, tiled stoves were dismantled, and kitchen stoves were installed. The interior clapboard sheathing in all rooms was removed and replaced with wallpaper, and in the kitchen it was heavily painted over. The exterior cladding of the house blackened from mold and in some places simply rotted. The roof, covered with pieces of roofing felt and slate and damaged by the installation of TV antennas, leaked almost everywhere. As a result of constant leaks, the ceilings and floors of the mansard completely rotted; the ceilings of one of the rooms and the kitchen on the first floor also rotted, where even part of the floor was rotten from leaks. Doors and windows of the house warped due to emergency subsidence of the rotted log crowns and foundation subsidence caused by a cellar dug under one of the rooms on the north side of the house and the construction of the mentioned extension. The log crowns suffered more not from time but from backfilling the granite foundation with earth above its level, from using a washbasin nailed to the outer wall of the house, and from an old kitchen cabinet infested with woodworm installed by summer residents next to the washbasin.

The surviving power station building was used by residents only for summer rental and boarded up for the winter. The stained glass on the veranda was stolen. In 1982, even the entire house—the former photo laboratory—was stolen from the estate territory. Only the foundation, concrete steps, and pipes of the former water supply and sewage outlet remained from this building.

Until 1945, the "Big Dacha" remained practically intact. During the war, only part of the roof of the eastern wing was damaged by an artillery shell. However, in the post-war turmoil, the "Big Dacha" was looted and began to be dismantled. Soon it turned from a beautiful building into a dump of materials for sheds and temporary huts, of which there were many on the estate territory for rent, and ultimately only the foundation of the "Big Dacha" remained. But even it suffered from barbaric plundering—many hewn granite blocks were stolen. On the corner of this foundation, one of the temporary huts intended for rent was built. During the construction of this hut, the foundation of the "Big Dacha" was finally destroyed, and not only the foundation—the basement also suffered, part of which was adapted as a potato storage. The granite foundation of the remaining water pump building also suffered—most of the hewn granite blocks were stolen to be installed at a new location (near the settlement of Roshchino) of the aforementioned stolen photo laboratory building.

The former estate manager’s house and the adjacent territory were also in a deplorable state. By autumn 1993, only one foundation remained.

Of the five estate wells, only one remained operational—the others were in ruined, semi-ruined, or simply cluttered condition. The sphinx that stood on the shore of the Gulf of Finland disappeared.

In 1989, during the perestroika wave, the former estate of Academician Bekhterev was registered with the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments (UGIOP) at the insistence of the scientist’s relatives. In 1991, the Sestroretsk District People’s Court recognized the ownership right of the estate to Bekhterev Andrey Petrovich (Bekhterev’s grandson). In the same year, the Executive Committee of the Leningrad Council decided to resettle its residents to arrange a memorial museum at the estate. In 1996, based on materials from Finnish archives and the Leningrad Regional Archive in Vyborg, the KGIOP established the boundaries of the future memorial estate.

Since then, through the efforts of the Bekhterev family and with the support of the Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute, restoration work has been underway at the estate. To date, the estate territory is apparently already cleared of unauthorized residents. For the 135th anniversary of Academician Bekhterev’s birth, a monument by the famous sculptor Anikushin was installed near the "Small Dacha." The external appearance of the "Small Dacha" has been recreated, and interiors partially reconstructed. The "Power Station," "Ski and Firewood Shed," "Carriage Shed," and "Water Pump" have been restored or recreated. The "Large Fruit Garden" has been partially revived. The "Fir Alley" has been restored, young fir trees planted to replace lost ones. The main gates of the estate with the inscription "Quiet Shore" have been recreated. Restoration of the "Big Dacha" and the sphinx statue on the shore is planned.

Thus, at present, the fate of the estate seems not to cause concern. There is no museum yet, but the fact that caring people live there allows hope for its preservation. However, the example of the "Quiet Shore" estate shows that even the most hopeless ruin, at first glance, can be revived—if there is a will.

Sources:

https://terijoki.spb.ru/history/templ.php?page=behtereff&lang=ru

https://topdialog.ru/2023/07/31/mesto-gde-mozhno-uznat-sebya-kak-hranyat-pamyat-o-vladimire-behtereve-v-ego-usadbe-pod-peterburgom/