Like many settlements on the Karelian Isthmus on the Saint Petersburg-Vyborg railroad line, Kellomäki was vigorously developed in the late 19th – early 20th century at the height of the summer-resort boom. The original meaning of Kellomäki was "Bell Hill", named after a bell positioned on a sandy hill for railroad workers. The bell notified workers of the dinner break and the end of the workday. A railroad station opened near that spot on May 1, 1903, which is the unofficial date of Kellomäki's founding.

The Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit was built in 1908, and burnt down in 1917. After that, a house chapel in one of the dachas served as the church until the Soviet takeover. In 1916, about 800 dachas were counted in the settlement.

Among the well-known residents of Kellomäki before the Russian Revolution were:

• Leonid Andreyev – writer
• George Borman – owner of a famous Saint Petersburg chocolate factory
• Peter Carl Fabergé – jeweller
• Mathilde Kschessinska – ballerina
• Augustin Reiche – speech therapist, had a facility for children at his dacha.
• Anna Vyrubova – lady-in-waiting to the Romanov family

The development of summer-resort towns on the Karelian Isthmus was slowed down after Finland's declaration of independence in 1917. Many of the dachas were abandoned, and some 200 buildings were auctioned off, dismantled and rebuilt in other Finnish towns. An Émigré community formed in Kellomäki after the revolution as the White Russians fled to Finland. By the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War, 167 families remained in the settlement – most of them were evacuated to Järvenpää during the Soviet-Finnish border negotiations in the fall of 1939. On November 30, 1939, after an artillery bombardment, Kellomäki surrendered to Soviet troops without a battle. Several buildings were destroyed, but overall the damage to the settlement was not serious.^[3]

The town was annexed to the Soviet Union in the Moscow Peace Treaty (1940). Immediately after World War II, the Council of Peoples Commissars issued decree No. 2638 "on building dachas for members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and setting aside land plots from 1.25 to 2.5 acres (10,000 m²) as gratis personal property". Standard houses manufactured in Finland on account of war reparations, were transported and assembled on the spot. Kellomäki was renamed to Komarovo in honor of botanist Vladimir Komarov, President of the academy in 1948. Special resorts and dachas were also established for Writers, Composers, Theater and Cinema WWorkers. The land was set aside for Atomic Scientists as well.

Komarovo was built on this principle : people serve the state, and the state pays back with rewards. And the principle was subverted by an aging lady: Anna Akhmatova. It turned out that there are more attractive values than those offered by the state.^[4] – Lev Lurye, historian.

Easily reachable from the city by elektrichka train, the settlement became home to many prominent figures in science and culture, members of the Saint Petersburg (then named Leningrad) intelligentsia.

Komarovo <...> was a place of both family relaxation and work. The settlement had developed its own daily routine. Usually, from the morning until six in the evening, people were busy with <scientific or cultural> work, and closer to seven, under the rays of the warm evening sun, the unhurried stroll along the Kurortnaya street and the nearby paths took place. On this street, they walked, discussed various topics with colleagues, talked about books, theater, and life, brought guests...^[5]

Since the 1990s, the academic and cultural traditions of Komarovo have been weakened, and currently, the New Russians and the well-to-dos of Saint Petersburg construct new villas here or redesign existing dachas purchased from the older residents.

In 2005 a nonprofit fund "Kellomaki-Komarovo" was founded. Some of the projects include building a new church, opening a museum, and preserving the yet unprotected forests.^[6]

Komarovo has served as a residence for government officials of Saint Petersburg, and still does today. Mayor Valentina Matviyenko lives here in the summer and commutes to the city.

Literature edit

• Fyodor Abramov – writer
• Anna Akhmatova – poet
• Joseph Brodsky – poet
• Daniil Granin – writer
• Lydia Chukovskaya – writer
• Lydia Ginzburg – literary critic

   

• Dmitry Likhachev – linguist
• Vera Panova – writer
• Evgeny Shvarts – playwright
• Mikhail Slonimsky – writer
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – science fiction writers
• Ivan Yefremov – sci-fi writer and paleontologist

Visual arts edit

• Nathan Altman – painter
• Boris Piotrovsky – director of the Hermitage Museum

Classical and popular music edit

• Boris Grebenshchikov – rock musician
• Oleg Karavaychuk – composer
• Sergey Kuryokhin – rock musician
• Dmitri Shostakovich – classical composer
• Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi – songwriter
• Viktor Reznikov – musician

Science and Exploration edit

• Zhores Alferov – physicist, Nobel laureate
• Vladimir Fock – mathematician
• Abram Ioffe – physicist
• Irina Levshakova – palaeontologist, geologist and artist^[11]
• Yuri Linnik – mathematician
• Vladimir Komarov – botanist
• Mikhail Somov – oceanologist
• Vladimir Smirnov – mathematician
• Aleksei Treshnikov – polar explorer
• Ivan Yefremov – paleontologist and sci-fi writer

Theater and cinema edit

• Aleksey Batalov – actor
• Mikhail Boyarsky – actor^[12]
• Nikolay Cherkasov – actor
• Alisa Freindlich – actress
• Grigori Kozintsev – film director
• Andrey Krasko – actor
• Innokenty Smoktunovsky – actor
• Georgy Tovstonogov – theater director
• Galina Ulanova – ballerina

Komarovo is renowned for its sandy beaches and dunes, scots pine, and spruce forests, and glacial lakes. Its residents and visitors enjoy cross-country skiing in the winter, and hiking, bicycling, fishing, wild mushroom, blueberry and raspberry picking in the summer. Its coastal stretch has been designated a protected zone: "Komarovo Shore Natural Reserve".^[8]

Remnants of the Winter War, such as trenches and dug-outs, can be seen in the surrounding forests.

Komarovo became well known throughout the entire former USSR in the 1980s because of the popular song by Igor Sklyar: "На недельку, до второго, Я уеду в Комарово" ("For a week until the second [of the month], I will leave for Komarovo")

Notes edit

^ Kellomäki – Komarovo. Komarovo Municipal Council, Balashov et al. / Saint Petersburg: Izdatestvo "MKS", 2003. – 48pp. ISBN 5-901810-03-1

^ Komarovo Shore – Complex Natural Reserve. edited by Volkova, Isachenko, Khramtsov. / Saint Petersburg, 2002. – 92pp. ISBN 5-93938-030-1

• ^ komarovo.spb.ru Official website of Komarovo (in Russian)
• ^ Kellomäki-Komarovo – nonprofit fundraising organization dedicated to cultural and ecological preservation / development of Komarovo (in Russian)
• ^ Komarovo History – includes numerous photographs (in Russian)
• ^ Kellomäki – article on the Finnish period of the settlement's history by E.A. Balashov (in Russian)
• ^ TV Program on Komarovo part 1 ^ ^ part 2 – complete transcript of a 2-part TV episode that includes interviews with many Soviet-era residents and their children. Part of the "Kультурный Cлой/Cultural Layer" program, led by historian Lev Lurye. (in Russian)
• "My Komarovo" New web-project about Komarovo (in Russian)
• Eccentrics of Bell Hill Recollections about Komarovo's famous Soviet-era residents. (in Russian)