Yakimanka District
Two river crossings, west and east of the Kremlin walls, continued south to Kaluga and Serpukhov, and served as main axes of settlement.
(See Balchug for an explanation of the Vodootvodny Canal flood control development that separated the Bersenevka and Boloto neighborhoods from the mainland and the history of the island.
)[3] The lands south of the Moskva River, exposed to southern enemies, were regularly destroyed by raiders, notably by Algirdas in 1366 and 1368, Tokhtamysh in 1382, Edigu in 1408, and the Tatar pretender Mazovsha in 1451.
Permanent militarized settlements of Muscovites, called slobodas, were established by Prince Vasili III in the early sixteenth century.
The church of St. Joachim and St. Anne at Bolshaya Yakimanka, 13, which gave the district its name, was initially built in 1493 and subsequently rebuilt before being destroyed by the Soviet government (see 19th century photo).
[4] Yakimanka District has had a diverse and rapidly changing ethnic and social composition: The century was preceded by mass executions of streltsy.
The areas on the edge of the city, where Peter hanged his soldiers, were taken over by grain warehouses and market squares, commemorated in the names of Zhitnaya ("wheat") and Mytnaya ("tax") streets.
The present-day territory of Gorky Park and Neskuchny Sad, between the Kaluga road and the Moskva River, was home to the country houses of the Golitsyn, Demidov, Trubetskoy, Stroganov and later Orlov families.
The Fire of 1812 swept the entire area except for a few blocks in the southern end of Bolshaya Yakimanka and Kazakov's hospital (which took care of both Russian and French troops).
The construction of the Babiegorodskaya Dam and the clearing of the Vodootvodny Canal in the 1830s reduced the flood hazard, but the land remained cheap.
The second power plant, built specifically for the tram network, emerged in Yakimanka District, also in Bersenevka, and operates today.
Pavel Tretyakov also financed the construction and operation of the free housing for widows and children of Russian artists, located north from the Gallery.
In the 1920s, the old Wine and Salt Court in Bersenevka was replaced by the House on Embankment; further south, Moscow's first cooperative apartment building was completed in 1926.
The most important outcome of Stalin's projects came with completion of the 1932–1938 Moscow Canal: floods were no longer a threat for the Yakimanka lowlands.
