Vasilyevsky Island
Vasilyevsky Island (Russian: Васи́льевский о́стров, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, V.O.) is an island in St. Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva Rivers (in the delta of the Neva River) in the south and northeast, and by Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland in the west. Vasilyevsky Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River. Together they form the territory of Vasileostrovsky District, an administrative division of Saint Petersburg.
Situated just across the river from the Winter Palace, it constitutes a large portion of the city's historic center. Two of the most famous St. Petersburg bridges, Palace Bridge and Blagoveshchensky Bridge, connect it with the mainland to the south. The Exchange Bridge and Tuchkov Bridge across the Malaya Neva connect it with Petrogradsky Island. Vasilyevsky Island is served by Vasileostrovskaya and Primorskaya stations of Saint Petersburg Metro (Line 3 
). There are plans to build new Metro stations on Vasilyevsky Island by extending Line 4 (the Orange Line) to the Island. In addition, the island is serviced by bus routes and tramway lines.
Originally, planners wanted Vasilyevsky Island to have canals in lieu of streets (similar to Venice). However, this plan never came to fruition and today the island has streets.
Speakers of Russian understand the name of the island as a possessive adjective made of the Russian masculine personal name Vasily (Basil), or possibly of the family name Vasilyev (derived from "Vasily").
There are various versions of who the original Vasily was, though these may be a product of false etymology, as the Russian name of the island may in fact be a corruption of its previous Swedish or Finnish name, because the island had been shown under them on Swedish maps before its present Russian history began after the Great Northern War.
First Russian record of the island, and under virtually its modern name, is found in a registry book of 1500 land survey (Pistsovaya kniga) of Votes' Pyatina (Vodskaya Pyatina) of Novgorod Republic.[2][3]
