MARITIME PILOT VILLAGE
Lebyazhye — a maritime pilot village on the shores of the Gulf of Finland
The Lebyazhye village was once inhabited by the Izhora people who taught their Russian neighbors how to survive in this dank place. But there are almost no indigenous people left here: in Soviet times they were evicted to Siberia. The heyday of the village is associated with the Pilot Village — today it is one of the districts of the village. Here lived the Kronstadt pilots, who were supposed to escort commercial ships to the port of St. Petersburg and back through the ribbed barriers in the Gulf of Finland for a fee. They spent part of the money they earned on setting up a school for their own and village children, thanks to them there was a pharmacy, a shop, a laundry and even a bowling alley in the village. At the beginning of the 20th century, pilots rented houses for the summer to summer residents of St. Petersburg: the ornithologist and naturalist writer Vitaly Bianchi and other representatives of the intelligentsia. Football was played in Lebyazhye, organized concerts and performances, until in 1920 the pilots with their families were relocated to the Podzorny Island in St. Petersburg, and their houses were transferred to the military departments. Border guards arrived in Lebyazhye and the village became a military town No. 4. Soon the pilots were declared spies and repressed. According to rumors, 8 people survived, who crossed the ice of the Gulf of Finland to Finland.
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