- For alternate uses, see Saint Petersburg (disambiguation).
Saint Petersburg (Russian:
Санкт-Петербург,
Sankt-Peterbúrg), formerly known as Leningrad
(Ленинград, Leningrád) and
Petrograd (Петроград,
Petrográd), is a city located in Northwestern Russia
on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, capital of the country during the 18th and 19th centuries, founded by tsar Peter the Great. With over 4.7 million
inhabitants (2002), it is today Russia's second
largest city, a major cultural center and an important port.
The Nevsky Prospect
History
Tsar Peter the Great founded the city on May 27 (May 16, Old Style), 1703 after reconquering the Ingrian land from Sweden. He named it after his patron saint, the apostle St.
Peter. The original name of Sankt Piterburh was actually Dutch; Peter had lived and studied in that country for some
time. The Swedish fortress of Nyen and later Nöteborg had formerly occupied the site, in the marshlands where the river
Neva drains into the Gulf of
Finland. The marshland was drained and the city constructed under the supervision of German engineers Peter invited to Russia. Serfs provided most of the labor for the project. According to one estimate, 30,000 died.
St. Petersburg was founded to become the new capital of Russia. By virtue of its
position on an arm of the Baltic Sea, it was called by Peter a "window on
the West". Russia would be a major British trading partner for years to come. It was also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the island
fortress of Kronstadt.
1888 German map of Saint Petersburg
By the late 19th century, the city was the nation's cultural center,
with composers (such as the Big Five), artists, and Socialists. A Socialist group was responsible for the assassination of Alexander II in 1881. The
Revolution of 1905 began here and spread
rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name Sankt
Peterburg was seen to be too German and the city was renamed Petrograd on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II.
1917 saw the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. The first step (the February Revolution) was the removal of the Tsarist government and the introduction of a liberal
multi-party governance. The new government did not last, and the Russian Civil War broke out, after the October Revolution with the Bolsheviks in charge of
the government. The city's proximity to anti-Bolshevik armies forced revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to flee to the former capital at Moscow on March 5, 1918. The move may have been intended as
temporary (it was certainly portrayed as such), but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. Upon Lenin's death in 1924, the city was renamed Leningrad in his honor.
Whereas Alexander II's emancipation of the
serfs had caused a mass influx of people and the erection of tenements on the periphery, the government's removal to Moscow
caused a mass emigration. The benefits of capital status had now shifted to Moscow. Petrograd's population in 1920 was a third of what it had been in 1915 (see table
below).
During World War II, it was surrounded and besieged by the German
Wehrmacht in the Siege of Leningrad from September 8, 1941, until January 27, 1944, a total of twenty-nine months. A supply and evacuation road running through the frontline was established
on January 18, 1943, but just like the
ice road ("Road of Life") and the water road over Lake Ladoga, it was open
to German air strikes. Some 800,000 of the city's three million inhabitants are estimated to have perished. For the heroic
tenacity of the city's population, Leningrad was the first Soviet city to be awarded the title Hero City. (According to some historians, Soviet ruler
Joseph Stalin delayed the breaking of the siege and stymied the
evacuation of the city because of a desire to curb its free-thinking tendencies and intellectual sophistication.)
Previous Names
- Petrograd (Петроград), from August 31 (August 18, Old Style), 1914 until January 26, 1924.
- Leningrad (Ленинград), until September 6, 1991. The original name, Saint
Petersburg, was restored on September 6, 1991. However, the name of the Oblast (administrative province) of
which the city is the capital remains Leningrad Oblast.
Population development
| Year |
Number of inhabitants |
| 1800 |
220,200 |
| 1830 |
435,500 |
| 1850 |
487,300 |
| 1881 |
928,000 |
| 1900 |
1,440,000 |
| 1915 |
2,348,000 |
| 1920 |
763,900 |
| 1925 |
1,379,000 |
| 2002 |
4,700,000 |
Landmarks and tourist attractions
The Resurrection Church
Saint Petersburg contains many famous landmarks. The Hermitage
Museum, housed in the former Winter Palace, displays some of the most
valuable paintings in the world. Other noteworthy landmarks include the Cathedral of Saint
Isaac, and the Alexander
Column and Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky
Lavra (monastery), where many members of the Russian royal family
received their education.
Architectural landmarks of 18th and 19th
centuries include the St. Peter and St.
Paul Fortress, Alexander Nevsky Monastery (Alexander Nevsky Lavra), Smolny Institute, Palace Square with the Winter Palace, Nevsky
Prospekt, the stock exchange building on Vasilyevskiy Island, Dekabristov Square with the monument of Peter I (erected 1782), the Mariinsky Theater, Rossi Street
and the Ostrovskiy Square, Square of Arts. Between 1950-1980 there were erected new residential areas, administrative and public
buildings. The memorial complex at Piskarevsky Cemetery was created in 1960. The historical center
of St. Petersburg is included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.
The majestic appearance of St. Petersburg is achieved through a variety of architectural details including long, straight
boulevards, vast spaces, gardens and parks, figured fences, monumental and decorative sculptures. The Neva River and numerous
canals are well integrated with the city spaces all these waterways in striking relief throughout the city with their various
embankments and bridges further adding to the unique atmosphere of the city.
During the city's original construction, the mouth of the Neva was routed into a series of canals, which still crisscross the
central portion of the city, giving it the name of Venice of the North.
St. Petersburg's position near the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as nearby Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo, causes twilight to last all
night in May and June. This celebrated phenomenon is known as the "white nights."
Many historic buildings in the city have been restored in preparation for the three hundredth anniversary of its founding
(May 27, 2003).
Economy
One of St. Petersburg's many canals
The city is a major center of machine building, including power equipment, machinery, shipyards, instrument manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy
(production of aluminum alloys), chemicals, printing, and one of the major ports of the Baltic Sea.
Education
Transportation
The city is a major transportation hub. It is the center of the
local road and railway system, and has a
seaport (in the Gulf of
Finland of Baltic Sea) and river ports (in the delta of Neva). It is the terminus of the Volgo-Baltic
waterway which links the Baltic with the Black Sea. The city is served by Pulkovo Airport,
which carries both domestic and international flights. The city's Metro (underground
intracity railway) system began operation in 1955.
Famous People
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