Return to Personal The earliest known record of Vasil'evskiy Island dates back to the 1400s, but Russian trading posts and fishing villages had probably existed in the Neva River delta at least since the mid-1200s when the Novgorod Republic firmly established its presence in the region through Alexander Nevskiy's victorious military feats against the Swedes and Teutonic Order. The Island is believed to derive its name from the posadnik (local governor) Vasiliy Selezen', who fought for Novgorod's sovereignty from Moscow and, in 1471, was sent to the scaffold by Ivan III.

By and large, however, the Island remained quite an untamed place through the 1600s, as suggested by its old Finnish name, Hirvi-saari (Moose Island). Peter the Great, who once again secured these lands from the Swedes, envisioned Vasil'evskiy as the future center of St. Petersburg, i.e. the cultural and political hub of the growing Russian Empire. He even ordered in 1719 that all noblemen, gentry and tradesmen should settle on the Island. Although Peter's plans never materialized, a plethora of magnificent architectural ensembles rose on the right bank of the Neva River during the 1700s, including the Men'shikov's Palace (1710-1727), Twelve Colleges (1722-1742) and Academy of Arts (1764-1789). The Rostral Columns, granite ramp at the Forks and Stock Exchange (nearest on this photograph) followed shortly thereafter (1805-1816). The most refined, southeastern part of Vasil'evskiy quickly evolved into an elite neighborhood. The interior of the Island behind this flashy façade gradually became populated with shopkeepers, craftsmen and migrant workers, while the purlieus facing the Gulf remained green pastures well into the 1900s. The three eventful centuries of Island's history and its diversified social landscape are preserved in the names of luminaries who lived here at one point or another, including the poets Nikolay Gumilyov and Velimir Khlebnikov, naturalist Mikhail Lomonosov, mathematician Leonhard Euler, physiologist Ivan Pavlov, and many others.