ooh Great Soviet

Bolshaya Sovetskaya Street is located in the city center, an important part of the transport system, according to the congestion - one of the most tense streets.

If you go up the street from the Dnieper, then we will pass the beginning of Sobolev and Student Streets, Red Creek, in the middle - Kozlov Street and Upper Nesnaya Street, then cross Lenin Street, turn to Tukhachevsky Street, cross Communist Street even further. At the end of the street Bolshaya Sovietskaya contacts with the streets of Glinka and Barclay de Tolly. The street is characterized by a steep climb of 70 m from the bridge to Lenin Street. The street was laid in 1851, when the Orel-Vitebsk highway was being built and it was then called the Trinity Highway. A breach was made in the fortress wall near the new bridge across the Dnieper. In 1895, the gap was expanded, and in 1897, traffic on the “iron bridge” was opened. Now it is the central bridge across the Dnieper. The Trinity highway was laid west of the Cathedral Mountain street, demolishing part of the hill. Thus, this section of the street became not as steep as the Cathedral Hill Street, which for several centuries connected the Dnieper and Molokhov Gates. From the old bridge across the Dnieper now preserved only brick supports. Until the beginning of the XVIII century there was no straight street crossing the city inside the fortress from north to south. Peter I, who from 1698 to 1708 repeatedly visited Smolensk, in one of his visits ordered to lead the main street from the Dnieper to the upper part of the city. The order was carried out. Cathedral Hill street was connected by a bridge across a dry moat with Molokhovskaya Street. The dry moat was filled only in 1836. From it remained a trace - Trinity Lane (now the western part of the street Red stream). We can assume that Molokhovskaya Street appeared in the first half of the XVI century, when the second earthen fortress was built. In the first half of the XIX century it was renamed the Great Annunciation. The renaming is due to the fact that on the site of the Molokhov Tower, blown up by Napoleon during the retreat from Smolensk, the Annunciation Church was built to commemorate the expulsion of the invader from the city. The Trinity Highway was connected to the Great Blagoveshchenskaya Street. In 1918, they were given a single name - Big Soviet Street. The left side of B. Sovetskaya Street was decorated after the construction of the Trinity Highway. Development was carried out quickly, two-three-storey, mainly private, houses. They stood close to each other and stretched up to the street of the Annunciation. The owners expected to receive large incomes from their establishments on this street, which became the main transport highway of the city after the opening of the Trinity Highway. This is evidenced by the plan of profitability of various institutions of the city, compiled by the city government in the early XX century. The right side had an escarpment, partially filled with discarded soil during the construction of the Trinity highway. In 2001, an iron grid was laid along the slope, which decorated this part of the street. Where Kutuzov Square with a monument to the commander is now located, before the war, one of the ancient streets - Metalistov Street was held. Before the revolution it was called Nizhne-Mitropol. But its western segment was formed during the construction of the Trinity Highway. In the 20s of the XX century, at the crossroads of B. Sovetskaya and Metallista streets, there was a building of one of the first cinemas of the city, which bore the name "Palace". It was built before the revolution. The cinema did not match its name. On the Great Soviet building came the end, whitewashed by a wall under a gable roof. The advantage of Palace over other cinemas was that it had its own power plant and therefore did not depend on the local Smolensk power plant. Until 1933, the supply of electricity to cinemas was not very stable, and you could leave without watching a session. It was in the Palace in Smolensk that the first domestic sound films were demonstrated. At the corner of Bolshoi Soviet and Sobolev streets there was a medium-sized two-storey building decorated with cornices and twisted decorations of window openings. From the twenties until the war, GUM was housed in the building originally intended for trade. On the first floor food products were sold, on the second - fabrics, outerwear, shoes. On the right side of the building, the architecture resembles the GUM building. This section of the Great Soviet during the war almost completely burned out. In the postwar period, the ruins were removed, the slopes of the hill were pulled, lilacs were planted, the square was smashed. In 1954, a monument to M.I. Kutuzov was erected by the sculptor G.I. Motovilov. For a long time near the cathedral staircase was preserved house of 1912. People lived in it. There was no comfort in this house. After much controversy, it was demolished in the seventies. Just above Krasny Creek Street, on the left, are the buildings of the former Trinity Monastery. On the right is the sidewalk of his bell tower. In the early twenties of the XX century the monastery existed. Then the monks disappeared. In the Trinity Cathedral, sports halls for a physical culture technical school were equipped. The gym on the second floor was high. It was easy to play volleyball, and easily rotated the “sun” on the crossbar Smolensk gymnasts. In the postwar period, a pasta factory was opened here. Now this building is occupied by the museum "Smolensk flax". On the right side, just above the Trinity Monastery, a tall, monumentally decorated building is skillfully inscribed by the architect into the narrow space of the street. Before the revolution, the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium was located here. The modern building was built in 1928 for the House of the Red Army. In it you could watch movies, sign up in any circles. In the postwar period there was a party-Soviet school. Since the mid 70s, the building has been occupied by an agricultural institute. This place can be considered historic. It was once the center of Smolensk. At the beginning of the XIX century there was a building of a male gymnasium. In the XVIII century - a secular school and a nearby police department, the neighborhood is very significant for Catherine's time. Even earlier, at the beginning of the XVII century, the Polish king Sigismund ordered to build a town hall in the center of Smolensk and buy a watch with battle. His instructions were followed. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who returned Smolensk to Moscow, considered that the clock was useless to the city and gave it to some monastery. So Smolensk lost its first public hours. Crossing Kozlov Street, we will approach the building of the House of Books. It was built at the end of the XIX century by the merchant Pavlov, who traded manufactory. The house combined residential apartments of the merchant, housing for clerks (3 floor), a large shopping hall and storage facilities. The courtyard was closed in the early XX century, which gave additional space. The house is classified as an architectural monument. After the revolution, the store was organized bookseller, warehouses for storing books. In the upper floors were various organizations. Before the war, the Teacher’s House was located on the third floor. He had a magnificent library with rare publications of the pre-revolutionary years. In the postwar years, the squares of the House of books were used by the Smolensk branch of the publishing house “Moscow Worker”. Now it houses the publishing house “Smyadyn” and other organizations. Above the House books to the crossroads with Lenin Street during the war houses were destroyed. In their place built a complex of buildings that do not violate the overall architectural appearance. At the crossroads with Lenin Street is the Lenin Regional Universal Library, opened in 1922. The old building of the library, on the corner of the streets, was built in 1888 by merchants for a merchant’s meeting. On the contrary, across Lenin Street is Lanin’s former home. It had a shopping school, a women's gymnasium. In Soviet times, this building was occupied at different times by a pedagogical institute, a model school, a military unit. Since the 70s of the XX century - agricultural institute. All of the above applies to the second floor. There were always outlets in the first place. To the building of Lanina close to the second. There was a hotel in the 20s. After the war, this building was occupied by a military unit. It is now an agricultural institute. On the right side, at the crossroads of B. Sovetskaya and Lenin streets, there is a court building. It was built at the end of the XIX century for the judiciary. Next are the buildings of the late XIX - early XX centuries. Each of them belonged to a private person, so they have a unique architecture. In the building, which is now a dairy store, before the war was 3 secondary school named after Chernyshevsky. Opposite the hotel "Smolensk" in the pre-war city in the house of Volkov was also a school. After the war, these buildings were inhabited by Smolensk. On the flat part of the Great Soviet, the bank building attracts attention. It was built in the 30s of the XX century. In the same years, the building of the hotel "Smolensk" was built. On the morning of September 25, 1943, Captain Klepach raised the Red Banner, a symbol of the liberation of Smolensk from the Nazi invaders. A new chapter in the life of the city began. The Smolyans, who fought on all fronts, met in a hurry to convey this joyful news. The evacuees started going home. Until 1936, Bolshaya Sovietskaya Street ended at the Molokhov Gate. Due to the fact that the gate could not miss the increasing traffic, they were demolished and dismantled part of the wall. So there is a new square, which was given the name Smirnov. During the war, only boxes remained of these buildings. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Smolenians, the professionalism of the architects, most of the buildings were given their original appearance. Only a few of them built the third floor. Thus, the street looks almost the same as it looked before the war. The exceptions are three houses: a house with a clock and two buildings at the intersection with Kommunskaya Street (a residential house where food store No. 1 is located and a residential house with a shoe store). Before the war, there were small two-storey buildings built in the middle of the XIX century. For a hundred years, there was a tram. In 2001, the tram line was removed. This expanded the roadway for road transport and eliminated the tremor of the ground, which was every time the tram passed. It has been detrimental to historic buildings. In the 90s, bars appear on the windows of shops. The bank building was fenced with a massive iron fence. In 2001, paving stones were laid at the top of the street and a few trees were cut down.