(Source: http://xtfnut.livejournal.com)

The “herds” of cars move from St. Petersburg towards Zelenogorsk on a Friday evening. Primorskoe highway is a kind of Moscow Rublyovskoe highway for Petersburg. New residents of suburban area: businessmen, bureaucrats, highly paid managers, - are gradually building a new patchwork civilization here, which is evolving rapidly right before our eyes.

We stand only at the beginning of this dynamic social process. The buildings of the early 1990s resemble Caucasian huts, castles of Louis of Bavaria and Disneyland simultaneously. They have towers with conical tops, loopholes, bath houses, guards’ houses. Fences resemble those of a feudal castle: ditches, curtain walls, towers. Everything is ready for all-round defense and will withstand a direct hit of a powerful “Mukha” grenade launcher.

A lot of unfinished mighty buildings are left from the boisterous time of primitive accumulation: the owners were killed or forced to flee to Greece, Spain, to the Cayman Islands. Development pattern has changed radically in the last ten years: they possess bionic, rounded shapes (look at the “Dubki” house at the entrance to Sestroretsk which is called “The Third Eye” by the locals) or Scandinavian wooden pseudo-simplicity: no fences, a tricoloured flag on the flagpole, reception dishes providing communications.

Karelian Isthmus is gradually moving from the Mediterranean luxury to the Protestant asceticism. This is not Finland yet, but it seems to be a lot like one. Alongside with the boom of individual construction the infrastructure has somewhat developed: every half-kilometer of highway has cafes, roadside motels, gas stations with shops. “Dyuny” offers golf, Repino – horse rental, the Resort (“Kurort”) – delta planes riding, aquabikes; an equipped ski slope with a lift is located to the north from Zelenogorsk. Roadside trade begins from Lisiy Nos: flowers, wood for barbecue, chanterelles, milk mushrooms, smoked fish, panoramic restaurants with different views of the bay. This splendor initially gravitating towards the road gradually moves to the periphery: the shores of Shchuchye Lake which were earlier full of trash are now clean and covered with specially brought boulders; summer cafe umbrellas are seen near railroad stations, asphalt roads lead to dachas.

Suburbia is the suburban area of North American metropolises which was equipped with banks, churches, schools. Our Suburbia is still developing: machines huddled near the Kazan Cathedral in Zelenogorsk, a church in a Vladimir-Suzdal style grew at the feet of the Lenin monument, the former “Terijoki” Lutheran church is being improved. The children are still studying in the city, but trampolines, pools and small zoos have already appeared on the beaches. It will take some time, and the place will follow the example of Moscow: there will be small private schools, kindergartens, exclusive teen camps. Sanatoriums and resorts are almost 100% full.

The dressed ladies of “Sestroretsky Resort” move along the esplanade of “Ermolovsky” beach: straw hats, long light dresses, spitz dogs on leashes. Cars with flashing lights rush to the “White Nights”: here come deputies, deputy ministers, governors. Karelian Isthmus turns into a circumpolar Sochi again just like it did ten years ago. The modern Lopakhins did not push Ranevskys and Gaevs away, but peacefully get along with them. However, the Suburbia is not only for car owners and vacationers. This route has long attracted couples - from students living in tents or sleeping bags to modern Vronskys and Karenins dramatically tearing family ties. Everything is saturated with vice, adultery, love. Small hotels providing rooms’ rental not for days but for hours the way they do in France, bath houses intended not for family washing, motels and resorts where people dance, get acquainted with each other, have holiday romances.