Pushkino, Moscow Oblast

Pushkino ( _ru. Пу́шкино) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Ucha and Serebryanka Rivers some 30 km northeast of Moscow. Population: 96,400 (2005 est.); 72,425 (2002 Census); 57,000 (1974); 30,000 (1959); 21,000 (1939).

According to one of the historic versions, the village of Pushkino was first documented in 1499 when it belonged to Grigory Morkhinin "Pushka", a boyar whose male-line descendants include Aleksandr Pushkin, a poet whose statue graces one of the town's main squares. During the following centuries, the neighbourhood evolved into a favoured summer retreat of Russian nobility. In 1678, a five-domed church of Saint Sergius was built at the manor of Komyagino. ( [http://sobory.ru/pic/03500/03505_20060219_164846.jpgpicture] ). Another notable estate is Muranovo, where the Russian poets Evgeny Baratynsky and Fyodor Tyutchev used to spend their summers. A dacha of Vladimir Mayakovsky, who lived in Pushkino during summer seasons of 1920-1928 is also a museum. Pushkino was granted town status in August of 1925. Today it is notable for its Institute of Forest Science, one of the few in Russian Federation.