Kovalikhinsky Street (colloquially Kovalikhа) — a street and the historical locality of the same name in the eastern part of the Historic Center of Nizhny Novgorod. It runs from Varvarskaya Street to Belinsky Street along the floor of Kovalikhinsky Ravine, following all its bends; beneath the roadway, in an underground culvert, flows the Kovalikhа stream, which gave its name to both the ravine and the street itself [1][2].
Origin of the name
The name is connected with the blacksmithing trade of the inhabitants of this part of the city: smiths were called "kovali" (blacksmiths), and in their forges they shod horses [2]. Kovalikhа is one of the old place names of Nizhny Novgorod that has survived to the present day unchanged.
"Koval'" is a southern word, and in it scholars have seen a trace of the origins of the first settlers of the sloboda (a craft or trade settlement) that grew up to the southeast of the Kremlin; by comparison, on the other side of the city stands Kuznechikha, named after the same trade but using the Russian word. This conjecture rests solely on the sound of the word and is not supported by documentary evidence.
According to another version, the name came to the street through water: the Kovalikhа stream flowed out of Zvezdinsky Ravine at the site of present-day Alekseevskaya Street and Black Pond, carving a deep, winding gully that by the seventeenth century came to be called Kovalikhinsky Ravine. Around the same time, the relatively flat terraces on its slopes began to be built up with posad (townspeople's) homesteads [2].
There is also an explanation according to which the lands of the eastern part of the center — Pecherka and Kovalikhа — had belonged since the time of the Nizhny Novgorod Principality to its rulers, while the western part (Ilyinka, Grebeshok) was developed by the local prosperous population; this division likewise lacks documentary confirmation.
| What bears the name | What it is | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Kovalikha Stream | a stream mentioned in the city's chronicles and early historical records [1] | routed underground into a culvert beneath the roadway of the street [2] |
| Kovalikhinsky Ravine | the valley of the stream, which began southwest of Bolshaya Pokrovka and had several branches [1] | within the street's bounds, its floor is occupied by the roadway; below Belinsky Street the ravine retains open water [3] |
| Kovalikhinsky Street | a thoroughfare cut along the floor of the ravine in the 19th century [1][2] | a street approximately 1,350 metres long [2] |
| Kovalikhinsky Square | an unpaved square on the hillside slope in the middle of the street [1] | replaced by Kovalikhinsky Garden [4] |
| Kovalikhinsky Baths | public baths on the bank of the stream, opened in 1868 [5] | operating at building no. 58 [2][5] |
| Kovalikhinsky Scarp | the edge of the ravine above Bolshaya Pokrovka, ending at Alekseevskaya Street [1] | the name survives only in 19th-century descriptions [1] |
How a Ravine Became a Street
The ravine along whose floor the street was laid appears on the 1784 plan of Nizhny Novgorod — the very plan on which the former watercourse is shown no longer as a river but as a ravine (more about the ravine).
In 1857, N. I. Khramtsovsky described Kovalikhinsky Street as running between Tikhanovskaya and Varvarskaya streets, from Varvarskaya Dam all the way to the city boundary, following the ravine through which the Kovalikhinsky brook — mentioned in the chronicles and old records of Nizhny Novgorod — had once flowed [1].
By that time the brook no longer ran openly: down the middle of the street ran a ditch to drain spring and rainwater, into which excess water from Black Pond was also discharged through underground pipes [1].
The turning point came with an imperial visit. In October 1834, Nicholas I spent two days in Nizhny Novgorod, summoned the city mayor Fyodor Perepletchikov, spread a map before him, and drew in his own hand bypasses around the kremlin; in all he gave 33 recommendations for improving the city, and for the next five years the center became one continuous construction site [6].
Kovalikhinsky Street was directly affected: the emperor ordered that a roadway be made along it, a square laid out at its far end, and the stream enclosed underground [2]. Implementation stretched over roughly three decades — by the time it was complete, public bathhouses were already being built on the street [5].
Today the stream runs through a culvert beneath the roadway [2]; beyond Belinsky Street the water surfaces and flows in an open channel through Kovalikhinsky Ravine under the name of the Kova [3].
Down the middle of Kovalikhinsky Street runs a ditch for draining spring and rainwater, as well as surplus water discharged from Black Pond, for which purpose underground pipes have been laid from the pond to the ditch.
Street
Kovalikhinsky Street connects Varvarskaya Street with Maxim Gorky Street; it is approximately 1,350 metres long, and walking its entire length takes you through different eras of the city [2].
In the mid-nineteenth century, it was connected to Varvarskaya by Kastalsky and Martynovsky Lanes, Martynovskaya and Zamkovskaya Streets, while Kovalikhinsky Street was crossed by streets running from Zamkovskaya to the embankment — Proviantskaya, Spasskaya, and Kizevetterskaya [1].
In the middle of the street lay Kovalikhinsky Square: sloping, unpaved, and nearly impassable in spring and autumn; part of the old workhouse faced onto it. Martynovskaya Street began at the Ostrozhnaya Dam near the prison ostrog — where Freedom Square now stands — crossed Kovalikhinsky Square, and ended at Martynovskaya Hospital on the embankment [1].
During the Soviet period the street bore the name of Maxim Gorky for a time, but the name was later transferred to the longer Polevaya Street — the present-day Gorky Street [2].
At the end of the twentieth century there were plans to make Kovalikhinsky Street a major arterial road: some of the single-storey houses were demolished, and the cleared plots were built over with nine-storey panel apartment blocks [2].
| Address | Description | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Kovalikhinsky, 8 | International Trade Center: a building with panoramic glazing, designed by chief project architect A. B. Dekhtyar to resemble a ship; the design team also included R. V. Nekhoroshev, V. P. Bandakov, V. A. Kovalenko, and D. L. Fevralyov [7][2] | in operation; construction 2007–2009 [7], according to Komsomolskaya Pravda — open since 2006 [2] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 18 | meatpacking plant: the building predates the revolution; in the 1930s it was renovated, and the façade was given a frieze with bulls' heads [2] | demolished in August 2023 to make way for a residential complex [8] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 26 and 28 | urban estate of A. V. Savinova and N. E. Verenинov, an example of a wooden estate in the eclectic style: the main house dates from the 1860s, the annex was added in the late 1880s [2][9] | cultural heritage site; sold at auction in March 2025, restoration to be completed by November 2027 [9] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 33 | Kashirin estate: main house of 1864 built to the designs of R. Ya. Kilevein, with Maxim Gorky born in the annex [10] | federal-level cultural heritage site; restoration work scheduled for 2027 [10] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 51 | residential building whose courtyard development was the subject of a long-running dispute [11] | the dispute over the plot was renewed in 2020 [11] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 53 | residential building where criminologist Leonid Vidonov lived [12] | commemorative plaque [12] |
| Kovalikhinsky, 58 | Kovalikhinsky Baths, formerly known as Kolokol'tsev's Baths, opened in 1868 [5] | in operation [2][5] |
Courtyards and neighborhood
Kovalikhinsky Street is the only street in the Historic Center compactly built up with Soviet-era multi-storey apartment blocks: amid the old Nizhegorodsky District with its one- and two-storey houses, a distinct — if informal — microdistrict emerged [2].
The difference was noted in everyday life as well. The old Nizhegorodsky District "socializes in courtyards," where people of different ages come together and develop a shared way of doing things; in the multi-storey block, neighbors often do not recognize each other by sight, and children's groups gather in large, mixed-age gangs — something like a "Republic of Shkid" — with their own rules and their own markers. Children from the apartment blocks either joined the courtyard circles of neighboring streets, adopting their customs, or kept to themselves — an observation made by the street's own residents.
The Kashirin Estate: the house where Gorky was born
The main house of the estate at Kovalikhinsky Street, 33 was built in 1864 to designs by the architect R. Ya. Kilevein; the plot with its garden belonged to the writer's grandfather — guild elder Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin [10].
On 16 (28) March 1868, in the outbuilding of this estate, Kashirin's daughter Varvara and the townsman Maxim Peshkov had a son, Alexei — the future writer Maxim Gorky. He spent the first three years of his life here [10].
On the right side of the street, this wooden two-storey house is the only one left untouched; its façade bears two memorial plaques — one noting that Alexei Maximovich Gorky was born on the estate, and one stating that the monument is under state protection [2].
The estate received the status of a federal-level cultural heritage site in 1974; at that time the ensemble comprised the main house and two outbuildings, one of which was subsequently lost. Plans for restoration of the main house became known in 2024: project documentation was to be completed by autumn 2025, with restoration work and landscaping of the grounds scheduled for spring 2027 [10].
This address should not be confused with the "Kashirin Cottage", where the future writer spent his childhood years: it was on Kovalikha that he was born [10].
Kovalikhinsky Baths
The public bathhouse was built in 1868 on the bank of a stream in Kovalikhinsky Ravine — where water was plentiful: running water was available to few city residents at the time, and such establishments were typically sited beside rivers and streams [5].
At first it bore the name of its owner, Kolokoltsevy; in the 1901 directory "Commercial and Industrial Establishments of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate," the list of bathhouses includes the entry "Heirs of Kolokoltsevy — Kovalikhа 44" [5]. From the very day it opened, the baths were accessible to all townspeople regardless of social background: officials and common folk bathed there side by side [2][5].
The bathhouse at No. 58, on the corner with Proviantskaya, is still in operation and is considered one of the oldest functioning bathhouses in the entire Volga Region [5].
Local tradition holds that the compiler of the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language," Vladimir Dal, the writers Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky and Maxim Gorky, and Fyodor Shalyapin — who used to visit the latter — were all patrons of the Kolokoltsevy Baths; there is no documentary evidence for this [5].
The baths found their way into cinema thanks to Aleksey Balabanov: an episode of "Dead Man's Bluff" was filmed there, and one of the washing rooms was turned into a morgue for the shoot [2][5].
Savinova–Verenинov Estate
The wooden house was built in the early 1860s–1870s by a peasant woman, Avdotya Savinova. A few years later the property changed hands, and in the late 1880s a wing was added directly adjacent to the house; the ensemble was then owned by the merchant Nikolay Vereninov. In the Soviet era the estate was converted into a multi-apartment residential building [2].
The main house at Kovalikhinsky Street, 28, with a floor area of 317.7 square metres, is an example of a wooden urban estate in the eclectic style; it was built to a design by architect Ivan Kostryukov in the 1860s. The wing has a floor area of 171.3 square metres [9].
In March 2025 the heritage site was sold at auction for nearly 15 million roubles: the main house went for 9.5 million against a starting price of 8.014 million, and the wing for 5.2 million against a starting price of 4.4 million. The buyer was Aleksandr Bystranov, owner and president of the Lesavik group of companies. Under the terms of the auction, restoration work on both buildings must be completed by November 2027, beginning with a concept for adapting the houses to contemporary use [9].
Construction Projects and Disputes
The intersection of Kovalikhinsky Street and Semashko Street was for nearly a decade the focus of a citywide dispute over infill development. Residents' protests began with a rally in 2007 and continued through pickets and demonstrations that at times included blocking the roadway; under this pressure the contract with the developer was terminated and construction halted. In April 2020 construction trailers were brought onto the site once again [11].
The dispute also left traces online: residents set up a website with a webcam pointed at the construction site and a blog where they kept a chronicle of their actions [13][11].
The underground stream makes Kovalikhinsky Street a difficult location for builders: specialists warned that ill-considered underground work in the city centre disturbs established drainage patterns and risks waterlogging over large distances. The stream's underground course is described in the article about the Kovalikhа River [14].
In April 2023 the regional architectural council reviewed a concept for developing the block bounded by Kovalikhinsky Street, Nesterov Street, Ulyanova Street, and Semashko Street: on the site of the former meat-processing plant and neighbouring dilapidated structures, the proposal called for a six-storey residential building and five three-storey commercial buildings. The developer behind the project is the company Dom na Kovalikhе, founded in 2022 by Oleg Golovko, a shareholder in the Stolitsa Nizhny group, and Vadim Agafonov, a former City Duma deputy. The project was sent back for revision: the Region's chief architect, Sergey Popov, asked that the silhouette of the six-storey building and the aesthetic of the new construction be reconsidered, and that fire-service access routes and turning areas be added [15].
Demolition of the former meat-processing plant building at Kovalikhinsky Street, 18 began on 27 August 2023. Witnesses filmed pieces of wall falling onto the roadway during the dismantling and breaking through a covered pedestrian walkway that, by a fortunate coincidence, was empty at the time. The State Labour Inspectorate for Nizhny Novgorod Region issued a warning to the works client, having established that the work was being carried out in violation of occupational health and safety rules for construction [8].
Kovalikhinsky Square
The middle of Kovalikha — the site of the former Kovalikhinsky Square — is occupied by a small park at the intersection with Semashko Street. It was landscaped in 2020: the opening was postponed from September 1 to September 10, and then the contractor needed another two or three days — to finish the rubber surfacing of the sports area and clear away fallen leaves. Work on replacing the lighting was carried out separately, so that the square would be safe at any hour of the day or night [4].
The concept for the square was tied to the literary heritage of the area: a display board with quotations from works by Maxim Gorky was planned to be installed here [4].
Local residents say that the proletarian writer Maxim Gorky and the ethnographer and author of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Vladimir Dal, used to spend time here
The Red Tunnel
Kovalikha has its own underground legend. According to it, in 1914–1916 a 600-metre tunnel of red brick was built in the city centre, connecting a collector sewer along Kovalikhinsky Street to a treatment station on the bank of the Volga — at the spot where a Ski Jump was later erected. Most of the tunnel is flooded by groundwater, the sewer line has been abandoned, and the entrance to the "Red Tunnel," as Nizhny Novgorod residents tell it, can still be found today [2]. Its route ran beneath the neighbouring Sennaya Square: the entrance was framed by an old arch, partly demolished when the ski jump was built, while the passage itself was damaged during the construction of a residential complex on the hill [16].
The passage began at the end of Kovalikha, near a petrol station, and emerged at the Volga beneath the ski jump; later the owner of the premises standing above the entrance blocked it off, and the tunnel could only be accessed through the portal at the foot of the ruined ski jump. This is known from accounts by urban explorers of the underground.
People of Kovalikha
The defining name associated with this place is Maxim Gorky: he was born on Kovalikhinsky Street and spent his earliest years there [10].
A memorial plaque dedicated to Leonid Georgiyevich Vidonov (1927–2013) has been installed on building 53. He was a forensic specialist, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Honored Jurist of the RSFSR, and Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Region. He worked in the Prosecutor's Office of Gorky Region, served as Deputy Prosecutor of the Region and Head of the Investigative Department, taught criminal procedure at the Gorky Higher School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, and authored a scholarly work on methods of developing investigative theories in murder cases with no eyewitnesses [12].
Sources
- kostromka.ru — N. I. Khramtsovsky, "A Brief Historical Sketch and Description of Nizhny Novgorod" (1857) — description of Kovalikhinsky Street, the ravine, the stream, and the square — Streets of Nizhny Novgorod
- KP — Nizhny Novgorod — Komsomolskaya Pravda in Nizhny Novgorod, 6 February 2025 — a history of the street — History of a Street: Kovalikhinsky — Birthplace of Maxim Gorky and Filming Location of Zhmurki
- GIPERNN — GiperNN, 11 August 2020 — on the clearing of Kovalikhinsky Ravine and the bed of the Kova — Kovalikhinsky Ravine Being Cleared in Nizhny Novgorod
- V gorode N — on the landscaping of Kovalikhinsky Square — Kovalikhinsky Square Again Not Delivered on Time
- kovaliha.rf — Local history website "Kovaliha" — history of the Kovalikhinsky Baths — Kovalikhinsky Baths
- MK — Nizhny Novgorod — MK in Nizhny Novgorod, 22 January 2014 — interview with historian Fyodor Seleznev on the visit of Nicholas I and his instructions for the improvement of the city
- ardexpert.ru — Stroitelnyy ekspert (Construction Expert) — project profile for the International Trade Centre, with authors and construction timeline — International Trade Centre in Nizhny Novgorod
- GTRK "Nizhny Novgorod" (Vesti) — GTRK Nizhny Novgorod, 31 August 2023 — on the demolition of the former meatpacking plant building at Kovalikhinsky, 18
- GIPERNN — GiperNN, 24 March 2025 — on the auction sale of the Savinova estate — Historic Savinova Estate in Nizhny Novgorod Sold for 15 Million Rubles
- progorodnn.ru — Pro Gorod Nizhny Novgorod — on the Kashirin estate and plans for its restoration — The Kashirin Estate in Kovaliha — Birthplace of the Future Maxim Gorky
- kovaliha.blogspot.com — "Nizhny Novgorod Against Infill Development" — a blog by residents of Kovalikhinsky Street about the dispute at the intersection of Kovaliha and Semashko
- names52.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Biographical Encyclopedia — on criminalist Leonid Vidonov and the commemorative plaque at Kovalikhinsky, 53 — Vidonov Leonid Georgievich
- kovaliha.ru — Kovaliha.Ru — residents' website about the dispute with developers on Kovaliha — Semashko, webcam page from the construction site (archived copy) — Kovaliha. Webcam from the Construction Site
- web.archive.org — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod, 3 December 2012 (archived copy) — on underground Kovaliha and the risks of underground construction — Underground Construction in the City Centre Is Dangerous (archive)
- NN.RU — 7 April 2023 — on the development concept for the block on Kovalikhinsky — A New Residential Complex Planned for Kovalikhinsky to Replace Existing Houses. Its Concept Presented to the Architecture Council
- travelblognn.ru — "Blog About the Best Places in Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod Region", 29 April 2020 — a guide to the city's underground spaces, including the "Red Tunnel"