Millionnaya Street

The Hermitage Museum and building of the New Hermitage by Leo von Klenze

Millionnaya Street (Russian: Миллионная улица), a street on the left bank of the Neva in the Central District of St. Petersburg in Russia, runs - parallel to the Palace Quay - from the Swan Canal to the Palace Square. Significant buildings on Millionnaya Street include the New Hermitage Museum, the Chief Pharmacy, the Marble Palace, and the New Michael Palace.

History

In the first half of the 18th century, the area of the current Millionnaya Street was the "German Settlement", the area in St. Petersburg where foreigners lived. Close to the Field of Mars and the current marketplace area was a Greek suburb. Several streets that ran near or on the route of the current Millionnaya Street existed under various names at various times: German Street, Great German Street, Greek Street, Great Street, Holy Trinity Street, Nobility Street, and Meadow Street, the last referring to the high meadow which later became the Field of Mars.

The last and most well-established name was Millionnaya Street, the name generally being ascribed to the wealth of the built-up streets in the area and the proximity of the royal residence, the Winter Palace.

In Soviet times the street was named Khalturina Street, in honor of the Narodnik revolutionary Stepan Khalturin, who detonated a bomb in the Winter Palace in 1880 that caused 67 casualties (but failed to kill the Czar).

References

• Alekseeva, Svetlana Vladimirovna (1997). Городские имена сегодня и вчера : справочник-путеводитель : полный свод названий за три века : петербургская топонимика (City names today and yesterday: Guidebook - a complete set of names for three centuries - the St. Petersburg toponymy). Lick. ISBN 5-86038-023-2. (in Russian)
• Gorbachevich, Kirill Sergeevich; Evgeniĭ Petrovich Khablo (1998). Почему так названы? (Why is it called that? On the origin of the names of streets, squares, islands, rivers and bridges of St. Petersburg). ISBN 5-7711-0019-6. (in Russian)
• Natalia Mordvinova, Memories of Admiral Nikolai Semenovich Mordvinova (in Russian)