Saint Petersburg 

(Russian: Санкт-Петербург, tr. Sankt-Peterburg, IPA: [ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk] ( listen)), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), is the second-largest city in Russia. It is situated on
the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, with a population of roughly 5.4 million residents.[9] Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, as well as the
world's northernmost city with over 1 million residents. As Russia's Imperial capital, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city.

The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after apostle Saint Peter. Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian
Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power.[10] It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time
between 1728 and 1730).[11] After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.[12]

Saint Petersburg is known as the "Cultural Capital of Russia",[13] and received over 15 million tourists in 2018.[14][15] It is considered an important economic, scientific, cultural, and tourism centre of Russia and Europe. In modern times, the
city has the nickname of the "Northern Capital" and serves as a home to some federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation. It is also a seat
for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia, as well as the home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy, and the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces. The Historic
Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest
skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Imperial era (1703–1917)
o 2.2Revolution and Soviet era (1917–1941)
o 2.3World War II (1941–1945)
o 2.4Post-war Soviet era (1945–1991)
o 2.5Contemporary era (1991–present)
 3Geography
o 3.1Climate
o 3.2Toponymy
 4Demographics
o 4.1Religion
 5Government
o 5.1Administrative divisions
 6Economy
 7Cityscape
o 7.1Parks
 8Tourism
 9Media and communications
 10Culture
o 10.1Museums
o 10.2Music
o 10.3Literature
o 10.4Film
o 10.5Dramatic theatre
 11Education
 12Sports
 13Transport
o 13.1Roads and public transport
o 13.2Saint Petersburg public transportation statistics
 13.2.1Waterways
 13.2.2Rail
 13.2.3Air
 14Notable people
 15International relations
 16See also
 17Notes
 18References
o 18.1Citations
o 18.2Sources
 19External links

Etymology[edit]
A proponent of westernising Russia, Peter the Great, the then Tsar, who established the city, originally named it Sankt-Pieter-Burch (Сан(к)т-Питер-Бурхъ) in Dutch manner and later its spelling was standardised as Sankt-Peterburg
(Санкт-Петербургъ[a]) under German influence.[16] (The Russian name lacks the letter s between Peter and burg.) On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the
city Petrograd (Russian: Петроград[a], IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat]),[17] meaning "Peter's city", in order to expunge the German words Sankt and Burg. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed
to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград, IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]), meaning "Lenin's City". On 6 September 1991, the original name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as "Saint Petersburg".
Local residents often refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter (Russian: Питер, IPA: [ˈpʲitʲɪr]).

Saint Petersburg was traditionally called the "Window to the West" by the Russians. The northernmost metropolis in the world, Saint Petersburg is often called the "Venice of the North" or the "Russian Venice" due to its many water
corridors, as the city is built on swamp and water. Furthermore, it has strongly Western European-inspired architecture and culture, which is combined with the city's Russian heritage.[18][19][20] Another nickname of St. Petersburg is "The
City of the White Nights" because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to the polar region and ensures that in summer the night skies of the city do not get completely dark for a month.[21][22]

History[edit]
Main articles:  History of Saint Petersburg  and Timeline of Saint Petersburg

Imperial era (1703–1917)[edit]

The Bronze Horseman, monument to Peter the Great

Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, which was later called Ingermanland, which was inhabited by Finnic tribe of Ingrians. The small town of Nyen grew up around it.

At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great, who was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, wanted Russia to gain a seaport to trade with the rest of Europe.[23] He needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the
time, Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter.

Street leads to St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral

On 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans and soon replaced the fortress.[24] On 27 May [O.S. 16 May] 1703,[25] closer to the estuary (5 km (3 mi) inland from the gulf), on Zayachy
(Hare) Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city.[26]

The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia; a number of Swedish prisoners of war were also involved in some years under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov.[27] Tens of thousands of serfs died building the city.
[28]
 Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, 9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war; he referred to Saint Petersburg as
the capital (or seat of government) as early as 1704.[23]

Map of Saint Petersburg, 1744

During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan. By 1716 the Swiss
Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed but is evident in the layout of the streets. In 1716,
Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg.[29]

The style of Petrine Baroque, developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace, Kunstkamera, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Twelve Collegia, became prominent in the city architecture
of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great.

In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met with opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son.[30] In 1728, Peter II of
Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia, Saint Petersburg was again designated as the capital of the Russian Empire. It remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the
Imperial Court of the Russian Tsars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917.

In 1736–1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned a new plan in 1737. The city was divided into five boroughs, and the city
centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka.

Palace Square backed by the General staff arch and building; as the main square of the Russian Empire, it was the setting of many events of historic significance.

It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty building and are now known as Nevsky Prospect (which is considered the main street of the city), Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue. Baroque
architecture became dominant in the city during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace. In the 1760s, Baroque
architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture.

Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled no structure in the city can be higher than the Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign of Catherine the
Great in the 1760s–1780s, the banks of the Neva were lined with granite embankments.

However, it was not until 1850 that the first permanent bridge across the Neva, Annunciation Bridge, was allowed to open. Before that, only pontoon bridges were allowed. Obvodny Canal (dug in 1769–1833) became the southern limit
of the city.

The most prominent neoclassical and Empire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included:

 Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe (Imperial Academy of Arts, Small Hermitage, Gostiny Dvor, New Holland Arch, Catholic Church of St. Catherine)
 Antonio Rinaldi (Marble Palace)
 Yury Felten (Old Hermitage, Chesme Church)
 Giacomo Quarenghi (Academy of Sciences, Hermitage Theatre, Yusupov Palace)
 Andrey Voronikhin (Mining Institute, Kazan Cathedral)
 Andreyan Zakharov (Admiralty building)
 Jean-François Thomas de Thomon (Spit of Vasilievsky Island)
 Carlo Rossi (Yelagin Palace, Mikhailovsky Palace, Alexandrine Theatre, Senate and Synod Buildings, General staff Building, design of many streets and squares)
 Vasily Stasov (Moscow Triumphal Gate, Trinity Cathedral)
 Auguste de Montferrand (Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Alexander Column)

Decembrist revolt at the Senate Square, 26 December 1825

In 1810, Alexander I established the first engineering Higher education, the Saint Petersburg Main military engineering School in Saint Petersburg. Many monuments commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleonic France in
the Patriotic War of 1812, including the Alexander Column by Montferrand, erected in 1834, and the Narva Triumphal Arch.

In 1825, the suppressed Decembrist revolt against Nicholas I took place on the Senate Square in the city, a day after Nicholas assumed the throne.

By the 1840s, neoclassical architecture had given way to various romanticist styles, which dominated until the 1890s, represented by such architects as Andrei Stackenschneider (Mariinsky Palace, Beloselsky-Belozersky
Palace, Nicholas Palace, New Michael Palace) and Konstantin Thon (Moskovsky railway station).

With the emancipation of the serfs undertaken by Alexander II in 1861 and an Industrial Revolution, the influx of former peasants into the capital increased greatly. Poor boroughs spontaneously emerged on the outskirts of the city. Saint
Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth; it developed as one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (in Kronstadt), river and sea port.

The names of Saints Peter and Paul, bestowed upon original city's citadel and its cathedral (from 1725—a burial vault of Russian emperors) coincidentally were the names of the first two assassinated Russian Emperors, Peter III (1762,
supposedly killed in a conspiracy led by his wife, Catherine the Great) and Paul I (1801, Nikolay Alexandrovich Zubov and other conspirators who brought to power Alexander I, the son of their victim). The third emperor's assassination
took place in Saint Petersburg in 1881 when Alexander II fell victim to terrorists (see the Church of the Savior on Blood).

The Revolution of 1905 began in Saint Petersburg and spread rapidly into the provinces.

On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd,[17] meaning "Peter's City", to remove the German words Sankt and Burg.

Revolution and Soviet era (1917–1941)[edit]

In March 1917, during the February Revolution Nicholas II abdicated for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years of Romanov dynastic rule.

Bolsheviks celebrating 1 May near the Winter Palace half a year after taking power, 1918

On 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as the October Revolution, which led to the end of the post-Tsarist provisional government, the
transfer of all political power to the Soviets, and the rise of the Communist Party.[31] After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions",[32] referring to the three major developments in the political history of
Russia of the early 20th century.

In September and October 1917, German troops invaded the West Estonian archipelago and threatened Petrograd with bombardment and invasion. On 12 March 1918, the Soviets transferred the government to Moscow, to keep it
away from the state border. During the ensuing Civil War, in 1919 general Yudenich advancing from Estonia repeated the attempt to capture the city, but Leon Trotsky mobilized the army and forced him to retreat.

On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. Later some streets and other toponyms were renamed accordingly. The city has over 230 places associated with the life and activities of Lenin.
Some of them were turned into museums,[33] including the cruiser  Aurora—a symbol of the October Revolution and the oldest ship in the Russian Navy.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the poor outskirts were reconstructed into regularly planned boroughs. Constructivist architecture flourished around that time. Housing became a government-provided amenity; many "bourgeois" apartments
were so large that numerous families were assigned to what were called "communal" apartments (kommunalkas). By the 1930s, 68% of the population lived in such housing. In 1935 a new general plan was outlined, whereby the city
should expand to the south. Constructivism was rejected in favour of a more pompous Stalinist architecture. Moving the city centre further from the border with Finland, Stalin adopted a plan to build a new city hall with a huge adjacent
square at the southern end of Moskovsky Prospekt, designated as the new main street of Leningrad. After the Winter (Soviet-Finnish) war in 1939–1940, the Soviet–Finnish border moved northwards. Nevsky Prospekt with Palace
Square maintained the functions and the role of a city centre.

In December 1931, Leningrad was administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast. At that time it included the Leningrad Suburban District, some parts of which were transferred back to Leningrad Oblast in 1936 and turned
into Vsevolozhsky District, Krasnoselsky District, Pargolovsky District and Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944).[34]

On 1 December 1934, Sergey Kirov, the popular communist leader of Leningrad, was assassinated, which became the pretext for the Great Purge.[35] In Leningrad, approximately 40,000 were executed during Stalin's purges.[36]

World War II (1941–1945)[edit]

Main article: Siege of Leningrad
Citizens of Leningrad during the 872-day siege, in which more than one million civilians died, mostly from starvation

During World War II, German forces besieged Leningrad following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.[37] The siege lasted 872 days, or almost two and a half years,[37] from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944.[38]

The Siege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history. It isolated the city from food supplies except those provided through the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga,
which could not make it through until the lake literally froze. More than one million civilians were killed, mainly from starvation. Many others escaped or were evacuated, so the city became largely depopulated.

On 1 May 1945 Joseph Stalin, in his Supreme Commander Order No. 20, named Leningrad, alongside Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and Odessa, hero cities of the war. A law acknowledging the honorary title of "Hero City" passed on 8 May
1965 (the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War), during the Brezhnev era. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Leningrad as a Hero City the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "for the
heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Siege". The Hero-City Obelisk bearing the Gold Star sign was installed in April 1985.