Leninsky Avenue, Moscow

Coordinates: 55°41′04″N 37°32′23″E / 55.68444°N 37.53972°E / 55.68444; 37.53972

Leninsky Avenue (Russian: Ле́нинский проспе́кт) is a major avenue in Moscow, Russia, that runs in the south-western direction between Kaluzhskaya Square in the central part of the city through Gagarin Square to the Moscow Ring Road. It is a part of the M3 highway which continues from Moscow to Kaluga and Bryansk to the border with Ukraine, and provides connections with Kiev and Odessa. It is also a part of the European route E101 connecting Moscow and Kiev.

It is the second widest street in Moscow after Leningradsky Avenue. Its width varies between 108 and 120 metres.^[1]

Location

Leninsky Avenue continues north beyond Kaluzhskaya Square as Yakimanka Street and southwest beyond the Ring Road as Kievskoye Highway. Oktyabrskaya and Leninsky Prospekt are the only two metro stations located at the avenue, the second one being named after the avenue itself. In late 2014, Troparyovo station is schedled to be open at the southern end of the avenue, at the intersection with Ostrovityanova Street.

The major intersections are with the Zhitnaya Street/Krymsky Val (Kaluzhskaya Square), Avenue of 60th Anniversary of October Revolution and Kosygina Street (Gagarin Square, where the avenue also crosses the Moscow Little Ring Railway and the Third Ring Road), Universitetsky Avenue, Lomonosovsky Avenue, Obrucheva Street/Lobachevskogo Street, as well as Vernadsky Avenue.

In terms of the administrative division, Leninsky Avenue runs through Yakimanka, Gagarinsky, Lomonosovsky, Obruchevsky, Prospekt Vernadskogo, Tyoply Stan, and Troparyovo-Nikulino Districts.

History

The road in place of the current avenue appeared before the 18th century. Only the area between Kaluzhskaya Square and Kaluzhskaya Zastava Square (currently Gagarin Square) was included into Moscow. The name of this stretch was Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, and the construction in the area was active between the 18th century and the 1940s. It continued further as Kaluzhskoye Highway and the highway from Moscow to Kiev. All the three stretches were merged in 1957, and the street was avenue the name of Vladimir Lenin. In the 1940s and the 1950s the construction along the stretch between Gagarin Square and Kravchenko Street took place.^[1]

Notable landmarks

In the vicinity are landmarks as such as Palace of Pioneers.^[2]

Public transportation

The stretch between Kaluzhskaya Square and Miklukho-Maklay Street is covered by trolleybus traffic.^[3] The whole avenue is covered by public bus traffic, though the routes typically take short stretches of the avenue, and there is no single route which travels through the whole length of the avenue.^[4]

References