Lefortovo

Lefortovo 

(Lefortovskaia Sloboda; a sloboda is a taxexempt settlement), the historical name for a part of Moscow situated on the left bank of the Iauza River; it is now part of the Kalinin and Bauman districts.

At the end of the 17th century Lefortovo was the quarters of a regiment commanded by F. Lefort; this military heritage is reflected in the names Soldatskaia (Soldier) Street and Soldatskii Lane. In Lefortovo in 1707, Peter I founded the first military hospital in Russia, with a school for surgeons. From 1798 to 1802 the architect I. V. Egotov constructed a stone building in the classical style for this hospital (now the N. N. Burdenko Main Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR). In the second half of the 18th century the building known as the Catherine Palace was built in Lefortovo; after 1797 it was used as a military barracks. Beginning in 1824 the Moscow cadet corps was quartered in the palace (the first corps from 1838 on and then the second from 1849 on). The Alekseev Military School was located on Krasnokazarmennaia Street beginning in 1866.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lefortovo, including the right bank of the Iauza, became one of the proletarian districts of Moscow. The enterprises there (mainly textile mills) employed over 30,000 workers in 1917. During the October armed uprising in Moscow in 1917, detachments of the Red Guard and revolutionary soldiers fought battles with the cadets of the Alekseev Military School.

The name “Lefortovo” is preserved in the names of the embankment, a square, two streets (one the Lefortovo Val [Ramparts] Street), and a lane.

REFERENCES

Sytin, P. V. Iz istorii moskovskikh ulits (Ocherki), 3rd ed. Moscow, 1958. Pages 687–92.
Po ulitsam Moskvy: Putevoditel’. Moscow, 1962. Pages 301–05.

V. I. KANATOV