Gorelovo () is a former military

aerodrome An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes inc ...

. It is located southwest of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

city center, and west of

Pulkovo Airport Pulkovo Airport ( rus, links=no, Аэропорт Пулково, p=ˈpuɫkəvə, Location identifier#Russian location identifier, Internal code: ПЛК) is an international airport serving St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the List of the busiest ...

. Right now it is a developing place for general aviation and a take-off site for the "419th helicopter repair plant", which is located at the eastern part of the runway. Internal Russian index code for this airfield is XLLE.

History

Gorelovo was originally built in 1938 to house parts of the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

's 19th Fighter Aviation Regiment. The air base was named after the adjacent village of Gorelovo, now in Saint Petersburg's Krasnoselsky District. During the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

from November 1939 to March 1940, the regiment flew 3,412

sorties A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint. The term originated in siege warfar ...

while operating from Gorelovo in the north-western borders of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, earning the award the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

. In March 1951, Gorelovo became home to the 29th Guards Fighter Aviation Volkhov Regiment returning from the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, and was established as part of the

air defense system Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-bas ...

for Leningrad (Saint Petersburg). In 1952, the 11th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was also based at Gorelovo until June 21, 1965, when the regiment was disbanded. In May 1969, the 29th Guards Fighter Aviation Volkhov Regiment was disbanded, and the airfield was transferred to the 419th Aircraft Repair Plant, and part of the regiment's premises was occupied by the Leningrad Higher Military-Political School of the

Soviet Air Defence Forces The Soviet Air Defence Forces (; ) was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western ...

. Until the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

in 1991, Gorelovo was primarily used by military transport planes such as the

Antonov An-8 The Antonov An-8 (NATO reporting name: Camp) is a Soviet-designed twin-turboprop, high-wing light military transport aircraft. Development In December 1951, OKB-153 initiated the design of a twin-engined assault transport aircraft, designated D ...

and

An-12 The Antonov An-12 (Russian language, Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop Cargo aircraft, transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has ...

heading to airfields in the

Baltic Military District The Baltic Military District () was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Baltic states, formed shortly before the German invasion during World War II. After the end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's co ...

. Gorelovo was renamed Annino after another adjacent village in Leningrad Oblast and briefly used by the

Russian Air Force The Russian Air Force () is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the latter being formed on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the reb ...

before falling out of military use. Today, the airfield is used by aircraft enthusiasts for mostly

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a Maximum Takeoff Weight, maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are use ...

, and houses one of only three airworthy

Ilyushin Il-14 The Ilyushin Il-14 (NATO reporting name: Crate) is a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950 in aviation, 1950, and entered service in 1954. The Il-14 was also manufactured in East ...

References

* Airports in Leningrad Oblast {{Russia-airport-stub