After the railroad to Helsinki was opened by czar Alexander II in 1870, Raivola was used for changing of locomotive crews.

Establishment of the railroad station turned Raivola into a suburb of St. Petersburg and development of the area continued with construction of summer cottages.

The importance of the local railway station was eclipsed by Terijoki where Finnish customs depot was established in 1911 [10] In the first quarter of the 20th century Raivola was a summer home (and after 1914 the permanent home) to the Finnish-Swedish family of the young modernist poet Edith Södergran who died there in 1923.

The Soviet government's decree of May 28, 1940 provided for establishment of collective farms and resettlement of Russians from Yaroslavl Oblast.

Plans of Stalin's government also included forced population transfer of native Finns (116 people, mostly sick and elderly) [11] to Kazakhstan however were disrupted by the Nazi Germany and its Axis allies invasion.

[2] In 1948, the village again became a Leningrad suburb (the railroad was electrified in 1954) with seasonal swelling of population due to widespread construction of summer cottages, development of privately owned and leased garden plots, establishment of recreational facilities, and youth summer camps.

Ferdinand Gabriel Fockel, a German forest expert, established the oldest stands in 1738–1750 with seedlings of European Larch (Larix decidua) from the province of Arkhangelsk.