Pribylovo, Leningrad Oblast

Pribylovo (Finnish: Makslahti) is an old Karelian settlement in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Karelian Isthmus, on the southern shore of the Klyuchevaya haven (Finnish: Makslahti). It also has its own station of the Primorsk-Vyborg railroad, called Bor.

The village starts to appear on the maps in late 17th century as Maxlax (Makslahti). It consisted of several parts as Karelians traditionally tend to settle individually and most of the settlements were little hamlets or a group of adjacent hamlets. The village consists of 4 different areas as the neighbouring hamlets (Makslahti, Kurkela, Peusa and Lähteenmaki) were merged in the second half of 19th century.^[1] At the end of the 19th century village opened a brick yard which later grew into a ceramic factory. Until 1939 A.D the village had a growing economy and was relatively large. The village boasted its own bakery, a sawmill and a fishing yard. After the Winter War (1939-1940) between Finland and Soviet Union the territories were ceded to Soviet Union and almost the entire local population migrated to Finland. The new-comers were brought from Kostroma, Yaroslavl and Vologda regions of Russia to populate the area. The village was given its current name Pribylovo after one of the Soviet soldiers that have fought on the Karelian Isthmus. The layout and the look of the village underwent significant changes. As Russians tend to settle in larger groups putting their houses next to each other many outlaying houses were moved to the centre of the village. Some of the houses for the new-comers were brought from the nearby islands. Until late 1988 the village has remained a small rustic settlement of approx. 150 houses on the outskirts of the Karelian Isthmus. After 1988 as the area was open for public access of all Russian citizens, the village had another surge of new-comers as people from Sankt-Peterburg were looking to acquire plots of land on the Karelian Isthmus. Many new plots of land were allocated for building of summer cottages and the village obtained its current look by the end of 1990's.

References