Pulkovo Hills

a chain of hills south of Leningrad and the Neva Depression and extending southwest toward the Izhora Hills. The maximum elevation is 73 m.

The Pulkovo Hills run along the lower escarpment of the Baltic-Ladoga Glint, which is composed of Cambrian clays overlain with glacial nappes. The northern hill is the site of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

The position of the Pulkovo Hills, which provides a commanding view of the surrounding region up to Leningrad, made them strategically important in the Civil War of 1918–20 and in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). On Oct. 31 (Nov. 13), 1917, General P. N. Krasnov’s counterrevolutionary troops, who were advancing on Petrograd, were routed near the Pulkovo Hills. From Oct. 18 to 20,1919, the Red Army stopped General N. N. Iudenich’s White Guard troops on the Pulkovo Hills and routed them in fierce fighting from October 21 to 26.

In the Great Patriotic War, fascist German troops reached the Pulkovo Hills on Sept. 13, 1941. Stubborn battles were fought there until September 23, but the enemy could not break through the defense of the Soviet troops. The front line, which was stabilized until January 1944, ran along the Pulkovo foothills area.

In 1967 the Pulkovo Line memorial complex was erected at kilometer 20 on the Kiev highway (concrete and mosaic; architect Ia. N. Lukin; sculptor L. L. Mikhailenok; monument painter A. P. Ol’khovich).