Pushkina Street — a street in the Sovetsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, running from Belinsky Street at Lyadov Square to Beketov Street, covering roughly two kilometers with 88 buildings and structures numbered 1 through 54 [13]. Before the Soviet era the street was called Perepletchikovsky — after the city mayor, merchant, and philanthropist F. P. Perepletchikov [1]. Its current name honors Pushkin, who visited Nizhny Novgorod on 2 and 3 September 1833 while travelling to gather material on the Pugachev Rebellion [8]. Its most well-known address is No. 34: the Bugrovsky Cemetery, which appears in municipal records simply as the cemetery on Pushkina Street [6].
Location
The street lies in the upper part of the city and connects the two main axes of Sovetsky District — Belinsky Street at Lyadov Square and Beketov Street. Numbering starts from Belinsky and runs up to 54; addresses on the street are divided among three postal codes — 603022 at the beginning, 603098 in the middle, and 603057 at the end [13].
Tram lines run along the street: from the terminal loop at Myza, trams travel along Nartov Street and Pushkina Street to the "Ulitsa Kulibina" stop, then onward to Lyadov Square via Timiryazeva Street, Kulibina Street, and Belinsky Street [12].
Perepletchikovsky: the origin of the street
Until the 1880s, the city ended here. Under the new general plan approved in 1881, the residential blocks of Nizhny Novgorod extended beyond Napolno-Monastyrskaya Street — today's Belinsky Street — for the first time, along the stretch from the ostrog to the present-day Pushkin Garden [2]. It was within this strip that the future Perepletchikova Street was laid out.
The street received a "personal" name — a rarity in old Nizhny Novgorod, where streets were usually named after churches, the occupations of their residents, or nearby landmarks. Memorial names were reserved for those who had done much for the city, and Fyodor Petrovich Perepletchikov — a prominent merchant, major philanthropist, and public figure — belonged squarely in that company [1]. Napolnaya Street itself was renamed after the literary critic V. G. Belinsky only in 1912, on the centenary of his birth [1].
Part of the present-day street grew out of the Stroitel and Vuzstroy settlements — workers' and students' quarters from the Soviet era. These names no longer appear on modern maps, surviving only in the oral memory of the city's residents.
| Former name | Named after | Current name |
|---|---|---|
| Perepletchikovsky | F. P. Perepletchikov, merchant, philanthropist, and public figure | Pushkina Street |
| Mistrovsky | General I. I. Mistrov, participant in Suvorov's campaigns | Akademika Blokhinoy Street |
| Gotmanovsky | engineer and urban planner P. D. Gotman, designer of the yarmarka, streets, and squares | Kostina Street |
| Kizevetter | G. I. Kizevetter, the first municipal architect | Frunze Street |
A new name
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin arrived in Nizhny Novgorod on 2 September 1833, stayed until the evening of the following day, toured the city, and visited the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka — then hurried onward, to Kazan, Orenburg, and Uralsk, in search of oral traditions and archival documents about the Pugachev Rebellion [8]. A month later, on 1 October, he was in Boldino, where in forty days he wrote A History of Pugachev, The Bronze Horseman, The Queen of Spades, and Autumn [8].
The name Pushkin became associated with this corner of the city before it appeared on the street itself: the buildings of the 1880s extended as far as Pushkin Garden, which lies on the other side of Belinsky Street [2]. Perepletchikovsky Street became Pushkina Street only in the Soviet era, when merchant and church names were being removed from the city map in bulk [1].
How many Pushkina Streets exist in the city and the region
This article is about Nizhny Novgorod's Pushkina Street in Sovetsky District — the one that ends at Bugrovskoye Cemetery. But within the boundaries of the Nizhny Novgorod urban district there are two streets bearing this name: the second is in the settlement of Kudma, in the Novinskoye rural council, which belongs to Prioksky District [10]. The Novinskoye rural council formerly belonged to Bogorodsky District and was incorporated into the urban district with the status of a rural settlement — with rural benefits preserved for its residents [11].
Beyond the city limits the name recurs many times over: Pushkina Street exists in Arzamas (162 buildings) and in Bor (139 buildings) [13], in Dzerzhinsk, Vyksa, Balakhna, Sergach, Bolshoe Boldino, and dozens of villages and settlements across the region. This is not a Nizhny Novgorod peculiarity: according to Rosreestr calculations, "Pushkina" ranks among the ten most common street names in the country — alongside Oktyabrskaya, Lenina, Sovetskaya, Gagarina, Pobedy, Kirova, Mira, Sadovaya, and Zarechnaya [9].
Building 34: Bugrovskoye Cemetery
Several blocks of the street are lined by the cemetery wall. The Old Believer cemetery had been operating here since 1843, and Nikolay Aleksandrovich Bugrov took particular care of it: above the graves of his family he erected a church dedicated to St. Nicholas, which became the center of the community. An Orthodox cemetery was opened nearby in 1916 — initially called the New Cemetery, sometimes the Red Cemetery, after its red brick wall. Local historians consider the name "Bugrovskoye" imprecise, though historically understandable [1]. About the community itself, see the article Old Belief in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The Old Believer Church of the Dormition was built in 1916 to a design by architect V. A. Pokrovsky; owing to the war and revolution, the interior decoration was never completed. In the 1930s the church was handed over to the Orthodox, then closed altogether, and in the 1960s returned to the Old Believers, who moved into it the furnishings from a demolished church on Studenaya Street [5].
Between 1918 and 1938, those shot or who died in prison were buried in mass graves on the cemetery grounds; their number has not been established, and the burial plots were later covered over by new graves. In 1994, at the initiative of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Political Repression, a monument was erected here bearing the inscription "Eternal memory to the victims of the totalitarian regime," and in 2005 a brick "Wall of Memory" for personal plaques was erected alongside it [4].
The cemetery on Pushkina Street also became a common refuge for Nizhny Novgorod necropolises demolished during the Soviet years. From those demolished sites came the cross from the grave of Decembrist Ivan Annenkov, his wife Pauline Gébl, and their son Nikolai — they had been buried at the cemetery of Krestovozdvizhensky Monastery, which was liquidated in 1953; by the same process, the remains of photographer Andrey Karelin [5] were transferred here. Also here is the grave of his pupil, photographer Maxim Dmitriev [7]. In 1953, the grave of Katyusha Peshkova, daughter of Maxim Gorky, was also relocated — sculptor Andrey Kikin created a monument to her four years later; in 1957, the burial of revolutionary German Liven was transferred from the Lutheran cemetery [7]. Also buried here is the designer of hydrofoil vessels Rostislav Alekseev [5].
In 2023, a decision was made to restore twenty graves of prominent Nizhny Novgorod residents all at once [7].
Historic graves, such as those of the Annenkov spouses and photographer Maxim Dmitriev, must be maintained through the joint efforts of city authorities and volunteers
In modern official documents, the Bugrov Cemetery is called "Cemetery on Pushkina Street" or "Old City Cemetery," effectively remaining nameless
Tram, 1964
By the late 1950s, the capacity of Arzamas Highway had been exhausted, and it was decided to remove the tram tracks from it. Bypass lines were built in their place: first along Beketov Street, then in 1963 along Nartov Street, Koreyskaya, and Tereshkova Streets to Karavaikha, and on November 5, 1964, service opened on a new line along Pushkina and Nartov Streets. A photograph from that day survives: in the front row stand Deputy Chairman of the City Executive Committee A. A. Sokolov and Chief Engineer of the City Tram and Trolleybus Directorate A. V. Putyrsky [3].
The main construction work on Pushkina and Nartov Streets was carried out by units of Trust No. 12, while the removal of the old tracks was handled by workers from the Prioksky district [3]. For more on the city's tram network, see the article Nizhny Novgorod tram.
In 1964, the tracks built along Pushkina and Nartov Streets made it possible to open a direct service between Lyadov Square and Myza, bypassing Lapshikha
The Street Today
In 2024, the street underwent reconstruction of its tram infrastructure: on the section from Myza to Lyadov Square, the track superstructure and overhead contact network were replaced, while landscaping of the areas adjacent to the rails along Nartov, Tereshkova, Koreyskaya, Pushkina, and Kulibina Streets was completed by summer. Service on Route 5 between the "Myza" and "Ulitsa Kulibina" stops along Nartov and Pushkina Streets was restored on June 6 [12].
The street's address sequence is denser than the numbers suggest: many addresses carry letter suffixes — 9A, 11A and 11B, 34A–34G, 39A–39V, 43A–43G, 45A–45G [13]. The cemetery's address in this sequence is building 34 [4].
Nearby on the Map
- Timiryazeva Street — a parallel street along which the tram runs toward Lyadov Square
- Studencheskaya Street — a neighboring street in the same district
- Beketov Street — the southern end of Pushkina Street
- Belinsky Street — the northern end, near Lyadov Square
- Nartov Street and Artelnaya Street — neighbors along the tram route and across the blocks
- Bugrovskoye Cemetery — building no. 34
- Marina Roscha Cemetery — another city cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod
Sources
- biblmr.r52.ru — Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod — local history reference on the names of Nizhny Novgorod streets
- wiki.nashtransport.ru — Book on the centenary of the Nizhny Novgorod tram, part one — on the city on the eve of the tram's appearance — Your Friend the Tram. A Century of the Nizhny Novgorod Tram (book, part 1)
- wiki.nashtransport.ru — Book on the centenary of the Nizhny Novgorod tram, part two — the postwar reconstruction of the network — Your Friend the Tram. A Century of the Nizhny Novgorod Tram (book, part 2)
- rusgolgofamap.ru — "National Tragedy" — a map of mass burial sites of victims of political repression 1917–1938 — Nizhny Novgorod. Bugrovskoe Cemetery
- laperuz.com — "Laperuz" — a Nizhny Novgorod local history tour of Bugrovskoe Cemetery — The Eternal Rest of Rostislav Alekseev. Bugrovskoe Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod
- karta.psmb.ru — "Memory Map" of the Transfiguration Brotherhood — on Bugrovskoe Cemetery and its official name — Bugrovskoe Cemetery, Nizhny Novgorod
- nn.aif.ru — "Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod" — on twenty graves of prominent Nizhny Novgorod residents being restored to order
- ngounb.ru — Literary Map of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library — Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich
- progorodnn.ru — "About the City of Nizhny Novgorod" — on Rosreestr's tallies of street names — The Most Popular Street Names in Russia Named
- openaddress.ru — "Open Address" — address directory based on FIAS data: Pushkina Street in the settlement of Kudma — Postal Index of Pushkina Street, Kudma s.p., Nizhny Novgorod
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — on the incorporation of the Novinskoye rural council into the urban district — Novinki to Join Nizhny Novgorod: What Changes Await Residents of the City and the Settlement
- NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — "Nizhny Novgorod" Agency — on the return of the tram to Nartov and Pushkina streets after reconstruction — Tram No. 5 to Return to Its Route in Nizhny Novgorod on June 6
- indexmap.ru — "IndexMap" — postal codes and list of buildings on Pushkina Street — Postal Code of Pushkina Street, Nizhny Novgorod