Belinsky Street — one of the main streets of Nizhny Novgorod: it runs from Lyadov Square to Sennaya Square, forming the boundary between Nizhegorodsky and Sovetsky Districts, and stretches 3,119 metres [2]. A century and a half ago this was the city's outskirts — pastureland, brick factories, and wine warehouses — and the present name, honouring literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, was given to part of the street only in 1911 [1][2].
Route
The street connects two squares: Lyadov Square and Sennaya [4][5]. It runs along the boundary between Nizhegorodsky and Sovetsky Districts and is 3,119 metres long [2]. The reference book Streets of the City of Gorky traces the street all the way to Sennaya Square, while Komsomolskaya Pravda, in its description, cuts it off at Kovalikhinsky Street, the last intersection before Sennaya [2][4].
Several streets meet Belinsky Street and dead-end into it: Novaya, Oshарskaya, Kovalikhinsky, Proviantskaya, Vaneev, and Maxim Gorky; crossing it are Ashkhabadskaya, Lomonosov, and Kievskaya, while Genkina Street runs parallel to it [4][5]. Closer to the Volga, Bolshaya Pecherskaya — known as Lyadov Street in the Soviet era — also runs into the same Sennaya Square, parallel to Minin Street [4]. The neighboring Maxim Gorky Street was called Polevaya before the revolution and ran along the other side of the old cemetery [4][6].
Two large parks face the street — Kulibina Park and Pushkina Park; between them stands the opera and ballet theatre, and opposite the theatre lies a small garden named after the year 1905 [2][3]. Locals call the street simply "Belinka" [3].
All of this is the Historic Center of the Upper Town: what a century and a half ago lay "outside the city" has long since become its very heart [1][2].
Napolnye Streets: how it came about
The place where the street now runs was once the outskirts of the city: grazing lands lay here, cows pastured, and later brick factories and wine warehouses appeared [1][2].
In 1774, the city's first public cemetery was established on the grazing land between the branches of Kovalikhinsky Ravine — burial at parish churches had been banned. It received the name Petropavlovskoye after the Church of Peter and Paul, built in the early 1780s [6].
The cemetery expanded to the southeast, toward Napolno-Monastyrskaya Street — also known as Napolno-Zamkovaya Street — and by the 1830s this street had become the new boundary of the city [6].
In 1866, four blocks of timber yards were laid out beyond the cemetery, and it was this that traced the line of the future street. At the same time its width was set at 12 sazhens [1][3].
The name "Napolnaya" meant "leading to the field" [1][2]. There was as yet no single unified street: the reference book Streets of the City of Gorky lists the separate thoroughfares from which it was eventually formed [4][5].
| Section | Former name and its origin |
|---|---|
| From present-day Lyadov Square to Kulibina Park | Napolno-Monastyrskaya: the Krestovozdvizhensky convent stood where the square [4] now is |
| From Kulibina Park to Freedom Square | Napolno-Lesnaya: named after the blocks of timber warehouses laid out in 1866 [1][4] |
| From Freedom Square to Sennaya | Napolno-Zamkovaya, also known as Napolno-Ostrozhnaya: named after the prison castle — the Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog [4] |
| Other names listed in the directory | Napolno-Pechyorskaya Street, Grazhdanskaya Street, Grazhdansky Descent, Narkomprosovskaya Street [5] |
The Name Belinsky
In 1911, to mark the centenary of the birth of Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (1811–1848), part of Napolnaya Street was renamed in his honor; later the name was extended to the entire street [1][2][4].
Belinsky was a literary critic and journalist: he introduced standards of contemporaneity and fidelity to character into the evaluation of literary works, published in the leading journals of his day, and championed the idea of a national literature [3].
The State Wine Warehouse
The oldest building on the street is a state wine warehouse erected in 1901 to a standard design by civil engineer Vladimir Pyasetsky. Identical complexes were built in Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan, Tula, Tambov, and Yaroslavl [1].
The warehouse had three floors and a basement for wine storage, with a residential building, a stable shelter, a guardhouse, a barn, and other outbuildings nearby. It operated for its intended purpose until 1914 [1][2].
In the Soviet era, a production unit of the Start factory was established on the site, where artillery shells were manufactured during the Great Patriotic War. Today, building No. 61 houses a bank, restaurants, and shops [2].
The complex is a regional-level cultural heritage site (Belinsky Street, 61, buildings A, A1, A2, A4), with a 200-metre protective zone established around it [10].
The People's House and the Opera Theatre
On November 5, 1897, at a jubilee session of the "Society for the Promotion of Primary Education in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate," it was decided to build a Narodniy Dom (People's House). The main initiators were Alexei Peshkov, Yekaterina Peshkova, Pavel Malinovsky, and Elena Malinovskaya [11].
Malinovsky, a native of Nizhny Novgorod, designed the building and oversaw its construction, waiving his fee. The house was built with public funds and donations: Countess Sofya Panina contributed 10,000 gold rubles, and charitable concerts by Fyodor Shalyapin — who came three times at Gorky's request — also raised money [1][11].
On September 5, 1903, the Narodniy Dom opened with a concert by Shalyapin. The entire proceeds, around three thousand rubles, were donated by the singer toward the completion of the building; fifteen hundred spectators greeted him with an ovation, and he bowed down to the ground before the Nizhny Novgorod residents [1][11].
On the 5th of September, the Narodniy Dom was opened in Nizhny Novgorod, built by the society for the promotion of primary education in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate… It contains a spacious and magnificent hall for theatrical performances, public readings, lectures, and the like, accommodating more than fifteen hundred people
The concert was such that, surely, a hundred people will count their memory of it among the finest memories of their lives. I am not exaggerating. Fyodor sang like a young god, and the reception was such that even he, accustomed to triumphs, was moved
From the Narodniy Dom to a theatre
The Narodny Theatre, for the sake of which the whole venture was undertaken, lasted just one season: in May 1904 the troupe was disbanded. The house remained a venue for touring performers, amateur productions, and film screenings [11].
In December 1905, it housed the Nizhny Novgorod united committee of the RSDLP, the headquarters of the Nizhny Novgorod druzhina (armed detachment), and a laboratory for manufacturing bombs [2][11].
In 1931, the city council resolved to rebuild the People's House (Narodny Dom) as an opera theater. The design was by the Moscow architect Alexander Grinberg, who enlarged and reorganized the auditorium and reworked the main façade. Construction began in June 1931, and the building's appearance, created together with M. T. Smurov, was decided in the Constructivist manner [11]. The walls of the auditorium were retained from the People's House [1].
On June 1, 1935, the theater welcomed its first audience with a performance of La Traviata by Moscow performers; the company's birthday is considered to be October 24, 1935, the premiere of Prince Igor [11]. On February 10, 1937, on the centennial of Pushkin's death, the theater was named after the poet [11]. From 1937 to 1943, Boris Pokrovsky served as artistic director, staging thirteen productions here [11].
The Pushkin Opera and Ballet Theater stands at 59/2 Belinsky Street and is protected as a cultural heritage site of regional significance; its protection zone is 100 meters [10].
Georgievskoye School
At the intersection with Vaneev Street stands the red-brick Georgievskoye boys' school, built in 1915 to a design by the Nizhny Novgorod architect Leonid Dmitrievich Agafonov, a monument of regional significance [1]. According to another description, the building dates to 1905 [3].
There have almost always been educational institutions here; the exception was the years of the Great Patriotic War, when the building housed a hospital. Today it is Lyceum No. 38 [1][3].
"Krasny Prosveshchenets": the first cooperative
The resolution on housing cooperatives was adopted on August 19, 1924, and in Nizhny Novgorod the housing construction partnership "Obyedineniye" took up the task [16].
In 1926–1928, between Nevzorovykh, Belinsky, Tverskaya, and Ashkhabadskaya Streets, 14 two-storey wooden houses and two brick ones went up — the city's first housing cooperative, named "Krasny Prosveshchenets" ("The Red Educator") [1][2][16].
On the outskirts of the city, not far from the abandoned Petropavlovskoye Cemetery, the "Ob"yedinenie" ("Unity") housing cooperative completed two buildings. This is the first step
Who Lived in "Krasny Prosveshchenets"
The project was based on a design by Boris Grinev of Kursk, which won an all-Union competition: a wooden house on a brick foundation, with no superfluous decoration, four apartments of approximately 55 square metres each, and stove heating [16].
The residents were intellectuals — teachers, doctors, engineers, and performers: the Agafonov family of architects, actor Leonid Kulagin, the chief surgeon of the City of Gorky David Zavelgelsky, physician Zinovy Glezerov, and the Uvyatkin family. Leonid Agafonov participated in the design of the neighbourhood's buildings as an engineer on the housing cooperative promotion committee [16].
The houses were handed over in stages: the first two in 1926, eight more in December 1927, and the rest in 1928. The apartments had running water and sewerage; outbuildings, cellars, and gardens accompanied the houses; residents played football and volleyball in the courtyard, there was a croquet lawn, an ice rink was flooded in winter, and the residents maintained a courtyard theatre [16].
In 1937, a decree of the USSR Council of People's Commissars dissolved housing cooperatives, and the buildings were transferred to the local soviets' housing stock. In the 1960s they underwent major renovation — gas was connected and bathrooms were installed — but the shared courtyard was given over to a kindergarten [16].
In May 2022, part of the neighbourhood — the area within the boundaries of Belinsky, Ashkhabadskaya, Nevzorovykh, and Tverskaya Streets, along with the buildings on the odd-numbered side of Nevzorovykh Street — was added to the list of identified heritage sites [17]. In July 2024, the state heritage protection authority decided not to designate the neighbourhood as a protected monument [18], and in the autumn of 2025, demolition began under the integrated territory development programme: the first building to be taken down was a two-storey wooden house [19].
Stalinka buildings, the generals' house, nine-story blocks
The next wave of construction came in the late 1940s — these were already Stalinka-style buildings, sometimes with quite unusual layouts. In the two-room apartments of building No. 43, the bathrooms are located behind the bedroom; according to long-time residents, this came about because the buildings were constructed by German prisoners of war working from their own designs [1].
Closer to Sennaya Square stands the "Defenders of the Fatherland" building — Nos. 106a and 106b. It was home to 129 veterans of the Great Patriotic War, among them 47 women who served at the front, 75 senior officers, and seven combat generals [1].
The street's peak of development came in the 1960s: modern nine-story buildings with elevators and refuse chutes, and the Gagarin Children's Club [1][3]. By the late 1970s, Belinsky Street had become one of the city's main thoroughfares, and tram lines were laid along it, connecting the former outskirts with the rest of the city [2].
Kulibina Park: a city built on a cemetery
By the early twentieth century, the Petropavlovskoye Cemetery lay between Polevaya Street (now Maxim Gorky Street) and Napolno-Lesnaya — the present-day section of Belinsky Street [6]. Buried here were the inventor I. P. Kulibin (1818), city mayor F. P. Perepletchikov (1845), Nizhny Novgorod poet L. G. Grave (1891), merchants and public figures A. I. Volkov (1900) and I. A. Afanasyev (1901). According to some accounts, in the part of the cemetery furthest from the church, those executed at the Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog were buried in the 1910s, and during the First World War communal graves were established here for fallen Nizhny Novgorod soldiers [6].
In 1937 the cemetery was closed: the graves were leveled, the headstones smashed and carted away, and the fencing replaced. In 1938 the Church of Saints Peter and Paul was closed and extensively rebuilt, and in 1939–1940 the grounds were turned into I. P. Kulibina Park [2][6].
The park occupies almost an entire city block between Gorky Street, Belinsky Street, Osharskaya Street, and Ashkhabadskaya Street — roughly 320 by 380 meters. There are five entrances, three of them from Belinsky Street; the fence on that side was erected in the 2000s. A broad avenue from the main entrance on Belinsky Street leads to a circular plaza with a sculpture of Maxim Gorky, from which paths radiate outward like spokes [6].
Between 1981 and 1985, a stela of black granite blocks with a high-relief portrait was erected at Kulibin's grave, while a bust of the inventor [6] was placed to mark the avenue leading from the entrance on Gorky Street. In the central part of the park, at the approximate site of the burial, stand a stylized gravestone and a stela with an epitaph to Akulina Ivanovna Kashirina — Gorky's grandmother; the park also contains a chapel in memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents who perished in the First World War [2][6].
The municipal Petropavlovskoye Cemetery was declared a monument of history and culture of regional significance by a resolution of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region dated 21 June 1994, No. 38 (Appendix 1, item 20) [7]. The boundaries of its territory were approved by a regional government resolution dated 25 March 2008, No. 95 — a document directly connected with the construction of the Metro: it defined the zone in which underground works could be carried out [8].
Pushkina Park and the Square of 1905
In 1880, following the unveiling of the Pushkin monument in Moscow, cities across Russia began marking the poet's birthday by planting trees and shrubs. Nizhny Novgorod was no exception: eleven desyatinas of land behind the Widow's Home of the Blinovs and Bugrovs [1][2] were set aside for the "Pushkin Garden."
For a long time the garden existed mainly on paper: the trees were not planted until 1907, and even then they suffered from goats and people — it was on the outskirts [1]. During the Great Patriotic War, units of the people's militia trained on the park's grounds, and in the 1950s a zoo operated here where townspeople could ride an elephant [2].
The garden received the status of a municipal park only in 1990, when benches, a fountain, and small architectural features were added; a major reconstruction was carried out in 2019 under the "Creating a Comfortable Urban Environment" programme [1].
The "Park Founded in Memory of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin" was added to the list of regional heritage sites by a decision of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Council of People's Deputies dated 31 August 1993, No. 288-m; the document describes it as the city block bounded by Belinsky Street, Studenaya Street, Timiryazeva Street, and Pushkina Street [9]. The park's buffer zone is 150 metres [10].
Opposite the theatre, in 1905, a small garden was laid out in honour of the first revolutionary activists of Nizhny Novgorod. By 1930 a commemorative stele had been erected there, and it survives to this day: a composition of red granite blocks evoking barricades, with the names of those who died carved into them, and on the stele a mosaic panel depicting a worker leading an armed people, along with the inscription "To the Heroes and Martyrs of the Revolution of the Fifth Year" [2].
Srednoy Market and the Television Centre
Srednoy Market had its origins in the late nineteenth century in the area of what is now Gorky Square: trade in hay was relocated here from Novobazarnaya Square, followed by all other trading. After the square was landscaped, the market moved to Belinsky Street. According to one version, the name derives from the market day — sreda (Wednesday) [2][20].
Trade here was brisk all year round; in midwinter horse fairs were held, and alongside Pushkin Garden horses were put through their paces for speed, with races occasionally taking place that drew crowds of spectators [20]. In the Soviet era, traders from across the Union would converge on Srednoy [20].
On 4 December 2018 the market opened in a new building — three storeys, 11,000 square metres, lifts, escalators, and a car park; the address remains the same, 26 Belinsky Street, open Tuesday through Sunday [2][20].
Opposite the market stands the television centre. Construction began in 1955, and in 1957 Gorky television started broadcasting [2]. Around the same time a radio-and-television tower was erected nearby, designed to support the antenna-feeder systems of three television channels and two radio broadcasting stations [2].
Dear viewers! We are beginning a trial broadcast from a standard television centre. Watch the film "Money"
Transport
The street has always been a transport artery. The directory "Streets of the City of Gorky" lists, for Belinsky Street, trolleybus routes 6, 9, and 13 and tram routes 2, 5, 11, 18, 20, and 21, as well as about fifteen bus routes [4]; in the Soviet-era section of the street — buses 2, 3, 9, 28, and 38, Trolleybus 9, and trams 2, 18, and 27 [5].
The main mode of transport on Belinsky Street is the tram: the city ring route passes along it [12][14].
In 2024, the tracks were replaced entirely. In late May, the section from Sennaya Square to the Shokolad shopping centre was blocked off, works encompassed the ring from Black Pond to Oshara Street, and over six months workers replaced nearly seven kilometres of rails, laying them on a concrete bed [13]. On 1 August 2024, reconstruction began on the section from Oshara Street to the tram junction at Lyadov Square — around 1.7 kilometres of track and overhead contact line; for the duration, route no. 2 was suspended and routes no. 18 and no. 27 were altered [12].
The replacement is part of a concession agreement under which, by the end of 2026, the city will replace 149.3 kilometres of track, overhaul 15 traction substations and three tram depots, and purchase 170 new trams [12]. In January 2025, route 2 partially returned to its former scheme — from the Black Pond stop along Belinsky Street to Lyadov Square [14].
Beneath the street, the terminal station of the Avtozavodskaya line of the Metro — "Sennaya" — is under construction. By March 2026, two tunnels had been driven from Sennaya Square to Freedom Square; according to the current schedule, the contractor is to complete construction and installation work at the Sennaya and Freedom Square stations by 1 August 2027, and to fully close the contract by 25 December of that year [15].
Cultural Heritage Sites
| Object | Address | Category | Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Wine Warehouse | Belinsky Street, 61 (sections A, A1, A2, A4) | regional significance | 200 m protective zone per the list of the Nizhny Novgorod administration dated 23 March 2021 [10] |
| A. S. Pushkin Opera and Ballet Theatre (formerly the People's House) | Belinsky Street, 59/2 | regional significance | 100 m protective zone per the same list [10] |
| City Petropavlovskoye Cemetery (territory of Kulibina Park) | block between Gorky Street, Belinsky Street, Osharskaya Street, and Ashkhabadskaya Street | regional significance | Resolution of the Regional Legislative Assembly dated 21 June 1994, No. 38, Appendix 1, Item 20 [7]; boundary of the territory — Resolution of the Regional Government dated 25 March 2008, No. 95 [8] |
| Park Founded in Memory of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin | block within the boundaries of Belinsky Street, Studenaya Street, Timiryazeva Street, and Pushkina Street | regional significance | Resolution of the Regional Council of People's Deputies dated 31 August 1993, No. 288-m, Appendix 1 [9]; 150 m protective zone [10] |
| Georgiyevskoye Boys' School (now Lyceum No. 38) | intersection of Belinsky Street and Vaneev Street | regional significance | building of 1915, architect L. D. Agafonov [1] |
Milestones
| Year | What Happened |
|---|---|
| 1774 | Peter and Paul Cemetery is established on pasture land outside the city [6] |
| 1830s | Napolno-Monastyrskaya (Napolno-Zamkovaya) Street becomes the city's new boundary [6] |
| 1866 | four blocks of lumber yards are planned beyond the cemetery, and the street is given a width of 12 sazhens [1][3] |
| 1901 | a state-owned wine warehouse is built to a design by V. Pyasetsky [1] |
| 1903 | on September 5, the People's House opens with a concert by Chaliapin [1][11] |
| 1911 | part of Napolnaya Street is named after Belinsky, marking the centennial of the critic's birth [1][2] |
| 1915 | the Georgievsky Men's School is built (architect L. D. Agafonov) [1] |
| 1926—1928 | the cooperative housing block "Krasny Prosveshchenets" is built [1][16] |
| 1935 | on June 1, an opera and ballet theater opens in the rebuilt People's House [11] |
| 1937—1940 | Peter and Paul Cemetery is liquidated, and Kulibin Park is laid out on its site [2][6] |
| late 1940s | Stalin-era buildings are constructed, including the "Defenders of the Fatherland" building [1] |
| 1957 | the Gorky television center and television tower go into operation [2] |
| 1960s | peak of construction: nine-story buildings with elevators and garbage chutes [1][3] |
| 1990 | Pushkin Garden receives the status of a city park [1] |
| 2018 | Sredny Market moves into a new building [20] |
| 2024 | nearly seven kilometers of tram track are replaced [12][13] |
| 2025 | demolition begins on part of the "Krasny Prosveshchenets" block [19] |
| 2027 | planned completion date for work at the Sennaya metro station [15] |
The Street Today
Today Belinsky Street is one of the city's main arteries: buses and cars share it with trams, a metro line is being built alongside, and there are several shopping centers and a market on the street itself and nearby. Yet from here it is also easy to escape the bustle of the city — to two parks, a public garden, and a theater [2].
The age of the surrounding buildings makes locals look closely at every new construction project: between Pushkina Park and Kulibina Park, the Kontinental residential complex has been built — two high-rises of 12 and 18 floors and a five-story building with twelve apartments, with underground parking and commercial space on the ground floors [3].
On a single street stand buildings from the early twentieth century, the city's first cooperative housing block, Stalin-era houses, standard nine-story apartment blocks, and elite twenty-first-century housing — nearly all of the last century's architecture [1].
- The oldest building on the street is the state wine warehouse of 1901, building no. 61 [1][2]
- The most famous is the former People's House, since 1935 the opera and ballet theater, building no. 59/2 [1][11]
- The most unusual block is the wooden "Krasny Prosveshchenets," the city's first housing construction cooperative [1][16]
Sources
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — regional newspaper — From cows to elite homes: how Belinsky Street began
- KP — Nizhny Novgorod — Komsomolskaya Pravda — The history of one street: Belinsky — from a vacant lot where cows grazed to a park on a cemetery and an opera theater (archive)
- V gorode N — Nizhny Novgorod news agency — The path from the outskirts: the fate of Belinsky Street in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- history.wikireading.ru — Trube L. L., "Streets of the City of Gorky" — reference book — Nizhegorodsky District (archive)
- history.wikireading.ru — Trube L. L., "Streets of the City of Gorky" — reference book — Sovetsky District (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Open Text — Nizhny Novgorod local history publication — Materials from the cultural heritage site passport — the Peter and Paul Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Open Text — publication of a regional document — Resolution of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region of June 21, 1994, No. 38 (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — Open Text — publication of a regional document — Resolution of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region of March 25, 2008, No. 95 on the boundary of the territory of the Peter and Paul Cemetery (archive)
- base.garant.ru — Garant — legal database — Appendix 1. List of cultural heritage sites of regional significance in the city of Nizhny Novgorod (decision of 08/31/1993 No. 288-m) (archive)
- web.archive.org — Administration of Nizhny Novgorod — official list — List of cultural heritage sites for which a protective zone is being established (03/23/2021) (archive)
- operann.ru — Pushkin Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theater — History of the theater (archive)
- nobl.ru — Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region — official website — Reconstruction work on the tram tracks from Belinsky Street to Lyadov Square will begin on August 1
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — regional newspaper — Repair of the tram tracks on Belinsky Street will be completed by November 2024 (archive)
- GIPERNN — GiperNN — Nizhny Novgorod real estate and urban development portal — Tram No. 2 will partially return to the route to Lyadov Square (archive)
- GIPERNN — GiperNN — Nizhny Novgorod real estate and urban development portal — Plans to build the Sennaya and Ploshchad Svobody metro stations by August 2027 (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — regional newspaper — The Krasny Prosvetitel cooperative: remembering how the housing problem was solved in the USSR (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Nizhny Novgorod — The block that made it into history (archive)
- reporter-nn.ru — Reporter-NN — Nizhny Novgorod publication — The Krasny Prosvetitel block once again denied cultural heritage site status (archive)
- Pro Gorod Nizhny Novgorod — Vanishing history: how the comprehensive development of territories (KRT) erased the Krasny Prosvetitel block from the map of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- srednoy.ru — Sredny Market Trading Rows — official market website — History of the Sredny Market (archive)