[Edit]Industrialization
A neo-Gothic factory building on the Yauza in Preobrazhenskoye. Construction began duringWorld War I to house equipment evacuated fromRiga in anticipation of aGerman offensive.
State-run factories established by Peter I on the Yauza provided the seed for a chain of private factories; by the end of the 18th century significant industrial clusters emerged in Lefortovo and former German Quarter (then practically devoid of Western-European influence). In 1846, pollution from these mills prompted Moscow governor Aleksey Shcherbatov to survey the banks of the Yauza and enforce administrative action against the offenders.[26]
Industrialization of the Yauza outside of the Garden Ring limits increased with the advent of railroads; within the Ring, the banks of the Yauza were the only heavily-industrialized area.[27] A major hub of three railway stations emerged north from the Yauza in the third quarter of the 19th century. The dense rail network helped establish the eastern perimeter of Moscow (Basmanny, Lefortovo, Rogozhskoye and Sokolniki) as "the fastest growing and the most variegated area, holding dozens of textile and garment factories but also machinery enterprises and Moscow's one steel mill."[28]
The railroad infrastructure in Krasnoselsky District, a steady source of municipal revenue,[29] was threatened by regular floods on numerous tributaries of the Yauza.[30]This risk, along with the drive to free up land for development, led to the first modern flood control measures in the Yauza basin. Red Pond ( 55°45′37″N 37°40′36″E), connected to the Yauza by the Chechora River, was drained and converted to municipal rail yards in 1900–1911.[31] During the same period, the Chechora was diverted into an underground sewer[30] and the Yauza was spanned by new bridges.[32]
Higher education along the Yauza goes back to the Imperial Technical College, established in 1830[33] and now known as Moscow State Technical University. The present college community around MSTU includes Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, the Military University in Lefortovo, Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, the State University Of Land Use Planning, Moscow State Pedagogical University and others in Basmanny District.
[Edit]20th century
Tupolev headquarters in Basmanny District
TsAGI (the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute), established in 1918 in the former German Quarter,[34] ( 55°45′50″N 37°40′36″E) became a seed for one of two aircraft-industry clusters in Moscow.[35][36] An aircraft-engine plant (the present-day NPO Salyut) was established on the opposite bank in 1926.[35][37] Andrey Tupolev's design firm moved out of TsAGI into his own premises on the Yauza ( 55°45′37″N 37°40′36″E) in 1936;[38] by 1945, theTupolev staff reached 5,226.[39] The postwar period added the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant in Sokolniki and the Lyulka rocket-design bureau (now NPO Saturn) in Babushkinsky District.[35]
Joseph Stalin's 1935 Moscow Reconstruction Plan called for the creation of an inner ring of navigable waterways in northern Moscow.[40][41] The proposed Northern Shipping Canal (Russian: Северный судоходный канал) connectingKhimki Reservoir with the Yauza[40] would have made the latter navigable up to Sviblovo;[41] the Yauza valley north from Sviblovo would have been flooded into a broad reservoir.[41] A system of four[41] sets of locks would gradually reduce the water level; the river itself was to be deepened and widened into a navigable canal with granite embankments and broad, riverside highways.[40] Further industrialization of the Yauza was prohibited; the embankments of the Moskva and the Yauza were zoned for high-profile public and residential buildings.[40]
The Northern Canal, initially planned for completion in 1939,[42] was never built; instead, the water level in the Yauza was reinforced through a low-cost water pipe connecting the Khimki Reservoir and the Likhoborka River (right-side tributary of the Yauza). A single set of locks (instead of four), designed by Georgy Golts, was built in 1940. The river was widened and flanked with embankments according to plan, albeit at a slower pace.
The social and zoning policies made in 1935 were soon discarded; industrialization of the Yauza drainage basin continued unchecked through the Soviet period, particularly in the "reviled south-east quadrant" not obstructed by park and forest reserves.[43] The territory immediately east and southeast of the Yauza became "the city's worst rust and smokestack belt".[43] The "problem child of the first Five Year Plan" continued to grow until the economic collapse of early 1990s,[44] and the river itself became "a reeking porridge of raw wastes from eighty-two manufacturing plants."[45]
In the 1990s manufacturing along the Yauza declined, and by 2009 many former industrial sites had been converted or rebuilt into offices and housing.