Repino history

Repino (till 1948 Kuokkala, Finnish Kuokkala) – the urban settlement, municipal institution in the Kurortny district of Saint-Petersburg. Population according to the census of 2002 is 2011 people. The railroad station of the same name Saint-Petersburg- Vyborg-Helsenki. In the Middle ages the village Kuokkala occupied vast territories located in the downstream of the River Sestra right up to its mouth. In accordance with the Orekhovetskiy peace treaty concluded between Ancient Russia and Sweden in 1323 there was provision of the Russian for the use of fishing places located beyond the established border. This right of border fishing had been saved more than two centuries. According to one of the versions the name "Kuokkala" is the modified form from "Koukkula" (Finnish koukku – fish hook).

In 1870 after opening of the Finnish railroad rich residents of St. Petersburg began actively to buy up the lands and build them on. In 1889 in Kuokkala there had been built the platform which in 1897 was transformed into the station. Then in the south part of Kuokkala one more platform had appeared which in 1906 also was transformed into the station. It was built for the means of the financial entrepreneur residing in St. Petersburg, Olafa (Olly) Ullberg. By the name of its founder the station and the territory adjacent to it got soon the name "Ollila" (modern Solar). In 1917 practically near the border on the right side of the river Sestra one more station had appeared and got the name "Rayayoki" as the Finnish name of the border river. Now on the right side of the river Sestra there is the settlement Dyuny (within the borders of Beloostrov).

Till 1939 the village Kuokkala entered into the composition of the volost Teriyoki of the Vyborg province. It was composed of two parts: Western Kuokkala and Far Kuokkala. Far Kuokkala in its turn was symbolically separated into two settlements: Ollila and Rayayoki. Before the war 1939-1940 Western Kuokkala had about 160 residential houses, 5 hotels and boarding houses, a school, 4 shops, 2 drugstores, Workers Union House, Youth Society House, a police station, the Baptist prayer house and the Ryudinger Orthodox Church. Far Kuokkala had about 120 residential houses and dachas, 2 schools, some shops, a house of worship and dozens of public buildings.

The Russian and Finnish population lived there in the neighbourhood for some centuries. Local toponymy indicates this. The second name of Western Kuokkala – is Vanassi. As it is thought this is the Finnishized form of the name Afanasiy. In the XVII century at the crossroads of an offshore road and a road to the village Haapala there had already been the pub which in the next century had been named the Afanasiev pub, probably by the name of its owner. So it gave Western Kuokkala its second name. Central Kuokkala got after construction of the railway station the name Ollila also was named Kurnoynen. As for the Russian population it continued to name the place as before – Kurnosovo (modern Solar).

To the north from the station Kuokkala a little part of the territory was also built on by the dachas behind which the big Pontus bog started. The name of the famous Sweden captain Pontusade la Gardi was fixed in the local toponymy because during his campaign against Moskovia in 1580 the Pontus army had laid through that bog massive bridges where heavy guns were transported.

The history of health resort development has begun practically in 1899. At that time the artist Ilya Efimovich Repin bought in the Finnish place Kuokkala on the shore of the Gulf of Finland a small estate "Penaty" which became soon the favourite recreation place of the St. Petersburg intellectuals. The best representatives of the Russian culture liked to have e rest in Kuokkala: M. Gorkiy and V. Mayakovskiy, F. I. Shalyapin and I. V. Ershov, A. K. Glazunov, B. V. Asafiev, S. Esenin, I. A. Binin, A. I. Kuprin, M. M. Tarkhanov, V. M. Bekhterev, I. P. Pavlov. Famous children’s poet K. I. Chukovskiy lived in Kuokkala not far from I. E. Repin’s estate. It is the place where E. I. Repin (1844 - 1930) lived for the last 30 years and wished to be buried. The estate became one of the first memorial museums of the country under the patronage of the Russian Academy of Arts.

В возрождённых после войны "Пенатах" можно видеть личные вещи художника, его картины и рисунки, произведения сына - Юрия и работы других русских живописцев. Всего в "пенатах" хранится около шестисот произведений живописи и графики. В доме сохраняется мемориальный облик комнат, которые несут отпечаток вкусов и привычек хозяина : мастерская, столовая, кабинет, веранда.

In the restored after war "Penaty" it is possible to see the artist’s personal things, his pictures and drawings, the works of the son – Yuriy and the works of other Russian artists. Totally in "Penaty" there are about six hundred works of paintings and graphic arts. In the house the memorial view of the rooms which bear imprint of the owner’s tastes and habits is saved: studio, dining room, cabinet, veranda.

Visit of the museum includes acquaintance with exposition, viewing of the ancient news film depicted I. E. Repin in his house, viewing of the memorial park and surroundings which inspirated many Russian artists and writers. In 1848 the settlement was renamed in honor of the great Russian artist I. E. Repin.