Toksovo, Urban settlement in Leningrad Oblast, Russia.
Toksovo is an urban-type settlement on the Karelian Isthmus, 20 km north of St. Petersburg. Its core is a low wooden building with a snow-covered gable roof and a tall capped brick chimney; a white sign with red Cyrillic letters reading "СТОПОВА" hangs on its front wall beside two notice boards and large multi-pane windows. A taller two-storey wing with a steep pyramidal roof adjoins it.
Toksovo was first recorded in 1500 as four villages in the Vodskaya Pyatina of Novgorod Land, and appeared on a map as Tocksova in 1580. After the Livonian War it passed to Sweden in 1583, and Russia took it in 1708 during the Great Northern War. A Lutheran parish was founded in 1625; its wooden church, rebuilt in Toksovo in 1757, was replaced by the stone Peter and Paul church, consecrated on 30 August 1887 and designed by K. T. Solovyov for 1,136 seats.
The name Toksovo is linked to the Finnish tuoksuva, "fragrant", for the bird cherry and scented herbs of the area; the Lutheran parish founded in 1625 made the village a religious centre, and the stone church of Peter and Paul, consecrated on 30 August 1887, was popularly called Alexandrovskaya after Alexander III's visit. Since 2000 Toksovan Sanomat, a Finnish-language newspaper, has been published here.
Toksovo lies on the Saint Petersburg–Sortavala railway via Priozersk, with two stops in the settlement: Toksovo station (built 1917) and Kavgolovo platform (1929), both served by suburban trains from Finland Station. The northern part, called Kavgolovo, holds the ski jumps and slopes; the smaller hills operate with plastic matting in snowless seasons.
In 2002 the Memorial society found a secret grave at Koirankangas near Toksovo holding the remains of about 30,000 people executed by the NKVD, among them most probably the philosopher Pavel Florensky. The site lies near a settlement whose Finnish-language newspaper, Toksovan Sanomat, began publication in 2000.
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