What whispers linger in the air here at Olgino? Olgino is more than just a place. It is a historical area located in St. Petersburg. To be precise, it sits in the Lakhta-Olgino Municipal Okrug. It is south-west of Lakhta and east of Lisy Nos.
In the mid-19th century, Count Stenbock-Fermor owned this coast on the Neva Bay. The Count, of Swedish descent, named it after his wife Olga. By the early 20th century, Olgino had become a dacha village. It thrived as a community north of the Russian capital. Among the people who lived here was the famous poet Korney Chukovsky. Olgino became part of the city of Leningrad in 1963.
But Olgino has a more recent claim to fame. From 2013, it housed a group of internet trolls. There were at least one hundred of them. They were paid to spread messages online. Their purpose was to support Russian propaganda. The trolls operated from Olgino. By October 2014, they had moved to Savushkina Street. That is in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg.
These trolls from Olgino were part of the Internet Research Agency. The agency engaged in online propaganda. It aimed to influence public opinion. It worked on behalf of Russian business and political interests. The Internet Research Agency had ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin was a Russian oligarch and leader of the Wagner Group.
The Internet Research Agency used fake accounts. These accounts were on social networking sites. They also used discussion boards. They posted on online newspaper sites. They even used video hosting services. They pushed the Kremlin’s agenda. This included both domestic and foreign policy. Ukraine and the Middle East were targets. They also tried to influence the 2016 United States presidential election. In 2015, reports indicated that over 1,000 employees worked in one building. That was all for this single agency.
The story of Olgino is complex. It goes from a peaceful village to a center of internet activity. Olgino’s history reminds us that places can have hidden stories. Olgino shows how the internet can be used. It also shows how quickly a place can change.