Facts and statistics for St. Petersburg, Russia "The Venice of the North"(referring to St. Petersburg's many rivers and canals) "The Palmyra of the North" "The Northern Capital of Russia" (referring to the centuries-old rivalry between St. Petersburg and Moscow) Symbols: the Angel with a Cross (weather-vane on top of the Peter and Paul Cathedral ) the Little Ship - Korablik (weather-vane on top of the Admiralty tower ) The Seal: A sea anchor and a river anchor with a scepter - a symbol of royal power - on a red field. Local government: The Governor and the Governor's Office, The Legislative Assembly Zoning: 20 administrative districts, including satellite towns under St. Petersburg's jurisdiction Main cultural attractions: Passenger terminal on Vasilievsky Island MEMBER SERVICES Saint Petersburg Russia facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Saint Petersburg Russia COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. ST. PETERSBURG From 1712 until 1918, St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire.

Peter I (the Great) began the construction of the city as his "Window on the West" in 1703. During the subsequent three centuries, St. Petersburg was identified with the three major forces shaping Russian history: Westernization, industrialization, and revolution. The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914, at the beginning of World War I, because it sounded less German, was then named Leningrad after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, and again became St. Petersburg in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Confusingly, the surrounding region (oblast) is still known as Leningrad. In the early twenty-first century, with a metropolitan population of 4.8 million people, St. Petersburg is the second-largest city in Russia and the fourth-largest in Europe (behind Moscow , London, and Berlin ). It is also Russia's second-most important industrial center, having benefited from Soviet investment in heavy industry, research and development, military-industrial production, and military basing and training.

The city is a major international port and tourist destination, with tourists flocking there in May and June for the legendary "White Nights," during which the sun seems to never set. capital of the russian empire Peter the Great seized control over the confluence of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland from Sweden in 1703. Inspired by a visit to Amsterdam , he decided to build a major city on this barren marshland to better integrate Russia into Western Europe and secure a Baltic port. Thousands of peasants and prisoners-of-war were pressed into service to build the city's numerous canals and palaces. When the harsh climate combined with malaria to kill tens of thousands of them, their bodies were dumped into the construction sites, leading to St. Petersburg's nickname as the "city built on bones." Construction was hampered by floods, which also ravaged the city in 1777, 1824, 1924, and 1955.

Empress Elizabeth, Peter's daughter, improved upon her father's vision by commissioning European architects such as Bartolomeo Rastrelli to construct baroque landmarks, including Winter Palace, the Smolny Institute, and the palaces of Tsarskoe Selo. Catherine II (the Great) subsequently purchased the paintings, drawings, and other priceless artworks that are now the core of the Hermitage Museum's holdings. She also established the Russian Academy of Arts to further aesthetic production, and she commissioned the Pavlovsk Palace, the Hermitage, and the Tauride Palace, later the meeting place of the first Duma and the Provisional Government. The city's remarkable transformation from swamp to showcase paralleled the emergence of Russia as a major European power, from Peter's 1709 victory over the Swedes at Poltava to Alexander I's 1814 arrival in Paris . The city came to represent precisely this change from isolation to European integration.

Petersburg's growing symbolic dominance preoccupied the country's intelligentsia and nobility alike, with Tsar Nicholas I complaining that "Petersburg is Russian but it is not Russia." During the imperial era, Russia's leading politicians, intellectuals, and cultural figures were brought together by the major institutions based in St. Petersburg to generate events that vitally affected the life of every member of Russian society. The Decembrist uprising of 1825 culminated in Senate (now Decembrist) Square. In January 1905, Father Gapon led a peaceful march of workers and their families to the Winter Palace to petition the tsar; the resulting slaughter is remembered as Bloody Sunday. Following that tragedy, the workers of St. Petersburg became increasingly militant. Forced to live and work in squalor due to Russia's rapid forced industrialization, they began to protest and strike for improved conditions. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the city was the fifth-largest in Europe, behind London, Paris, Vienna , and Berlin, and was widely viewed as representative of imperial Russia's new military and industrial might.

But with industrialization there also emerged a surging revolutionary movement, and "Red Petrograd" soon became the "cradle of the Revolution." under the soviets With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Nicholas II russified the capital city's name to Petrograd. In the early days of the war, the streets of Petrograd were filled with young men volunteering for military service. But as Russian losses mounted and the economy declined still further, Petrograd became the focus of anti-tsarist sentiment. The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, founded in 1917 and modeled on a 1905 organization, was the most active. In March (February O.S.) 1917, workers struck and soldiers mutinied, leading to the eventual abdication of Nicholas II. A Provisional Government was installed, but constantly battled the Petrograd Soviet for control of the city. During the "July Days," the Soviet nearly succeeded in gaining power. On November 7 (October 25, O.S.), members of Trotsky's Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace, and the Provisional Government fled. For the next seventy-four years, the communists would control Russia.

The Soviet regime's shift of its seat of government to Moscow in March 1918 stripped Petrograd of many of its most creative and powerful institutions and prominent individuals. The city was renamed Leningrad after the death of Lenin in 1924. Its standing was further undermined by the December 1934 assassination of Leningrad Party leader Sergei Kirov in his office at the Smolny Institute, which precipitated Josef Stalin 's mass purges. Mass graves containing the victims were still being discovered outside the city as recently as 2002. World War II took a particularly heavy toll on Leningrad. For nine hundred days the Germans laid siege to the city, and there were anywhere from 700,000 to more than 1 million civilian deaths from attack and starvation. Although the Nazis never entered the city proper, they looted and burned many of the palaces in the environs, including Peterhof and the Catherine Palace. During the post-Stalin era Leningrad was an important economic and intellectual center, though still trailing Moscow. Aside from Kirov, one of Leningrad's best-known political leaders was the rather ironically named Grigory Romanov.

As first secretary of the Leningrad Oblast Party Committee from 1970 to 1983, Romanov encouraged production and scientific associations, as well as links among such groups to innovate and implement new technologies. As a result, Leningrad achieved enviable production levels. Romanov also made use of the city's extensive scientific establishment, linking the research and production sectors to improve production. the post-soviet era Although Romanov eschewed Mikhail Gorbachev 's reforms, other Leningrad leaders embraced the changes. Anatoly Sobchak was elected to the first USSR Congress of People's Deputies in 1989 and in 1991 became the city's first elected mayor. A major figure in Russia's democratic movement, Sobchak oversaw a difficult transition in his city. His resistance to the hardline August 1991 putsch was critical to its defeat. Following the coup's collapse, Sobchak immediately renamed the city St. Petersburg. As the city's economy suffered under the national shift to capitalism, St. Petersburg experienced a severe rise in organized crime.

Sobchak was unable to eradicate corruption, and in 1996 lost his bid for reelection to Vladmir Yakovlev. St. Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia. Among its most famous residents were the painters Marc Chagall and Ilya Repin; the writers Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin, Anna Akhmatova, and Fyodor Dostoevsky; the composers Peter Tchaikovsky and Dmitry Shoshtakovich; and the choreographers Marius Petipa and Sergei Diaghilev. Among its many art galleries, the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and the Stieglitz boast collections unparalleled in the world. St. Petersburg is the home of the renowned Mariinsky ballet company (known as the Kirov in Soviet times). Shostakovich named his Seventh Symphony Leningrad. Falconet's Bronze Horseman sculpture of Peter the Great, located in Decembrist Square, was commissioned by Catherine the Great and immortalized by Pushkin in a poem of the same name. Many palaces and Orthodox churches have been restored, including the Romanovs' Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Kazan Cathedral.

On the north bank of the Neva, the Peter and Paul Fortress has a long history as both a prison and, in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the burial site of all the Romanov tsars from Peter I to Nicholas II. St. Petersburg had begun to recapture some its lost splendor by 2003. UNESCO designated the city a World Heritage site. Extensive renovation, funded in part by a $31 million loan from the World Bank, took place in preparation for the city's tercentennial celebration in May 2003. Partly contributing to the city's renaissance was the fact that President Vladimir Putin was born in St. Petersburg. In addition to promoting the tercentennial commemoration, Putin oversaw the renovation of the Peterhof Palace into a world-class conference center. There was also talk of creating a presidential residence in St. Petersburg and even some sentiment to move the capital from Moscow. Whether or not St. Petersburg regains the political eminence of a century ago, it remains a vibrant, culturally rich European city, much as Peter envisioned.

See also: academy of arts; admiralty; bloody sunday; catherine ii ; decembrist movement and rebellion; elizabeth; museum, hermitage; peter i; peter and paul fortress; winter palace bibliography Glantz, David M. (2002). The Battle for Leningrad, 1941–1944. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. McAuley, Mary. (1991). Bread and Justice: State and Society in Petrograd, 1917–1922. New York : Oxford University Press. McKean, Robert B. (1990). St. Petersburg between the Revolutions, June 1907–February 1917. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Ruble, Blair A. (1989). Leningrad: Shaping a Soviet City. Berkeley: University of California Press. Sablinsky, Walter. (1976). The Road to Bloody Sunday: Father Gapon and the St. Petersburg Massacre of 1905. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Salisbury, Harrison E.

(1969). The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. New York: Harper & Row. Ann E. Robertson Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. ST. PETERSBURG ST. PETERSBURG. Founded in 1703 and by 1712 already the capital of Russia , St. Petersburg existed in the mind of Peter the Great (ruled 1682–1725) and on the planning boards of his architects almost before construction began—"the most abstract and intentional [or, 'premeditated'] city in the whole world," in the words of Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, 1864). In contrast to Moscow , which grew organically over the centuries in concentric circles, St. Petersburg was planned from scratch (like Washington, D.C.) by west European architects who attempted to impose geometric street patterns on the swampy delta of the Neva River.

Echoes of the city's planned origins are preserved in the not-so-romantic names of several north/south streets on Vasilii Island: Second/Third Line Street, Fourth/Fifth Line Street, and so forth (each of these streets was originally intended to be a canal, with a numbered line of houses on each side of the canal). LOCATION St. Petersburg is located far to the north, at about 60 degrees latitude, above the middle of Hudson's Bay in Canada and slightly above that of Juneau, Alaska . It is situated on the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea in the delta of the Neva River, which flows from Lake Ladoga forty-six miles to the east. Though short, the Neva carries a large volume of water (sixth largest in Europe ) and its currents are strong. Winding through St. Petersburg, the Neva divides at the tip (strelka, or 'arrow point') of Vasilii Island, the Large Neva to the south, the Small Neva to the right. Some one hundred islands dot the delta. The largest, Vasilii Island, was originally envisioned as the future city center, but security and supply considerations prompted a shift to the left bank.

The left bank itself is not "mainland": several rivulets, notably the Moika and the Fontanka, flowed through the area and were preserved as canals in the city center. Because the flat territory of the city is close to the level of the Gulf of Finland (only six feet above it at the western end of Vasilii Island), and because storms and tides sometimes combine to back up water in the entire delta, lowlying areas of the city periodically flood. In 1703, as Peter the Great was starting to build the city's fortress (a not unwise choice, given that the area belonged to Sweden at the time), a flood carried off construction materials. In 1777 a major flood destroyed buildings and some fifty fountains in the Summer Gardens. The gardens were restored, but not the fountains; the adjacent Fontanka River/Canal was named for the fountains. Snow lies on the ground some five months a year, and the river and nearby gulf typically freeze over for two to four months each year. Nevertheless, prevailing winds from the west over the Baltic have a slight moderating effect on the climate. There is no good building stone in the area.

In the early eighteenth century, a stone levy was placed on carts and boats entering the city, each one required to bring in stone for building foundations. As in Venice , many buildings in eighteenth-century St. Petersburg were set on wooden pilings driven into the mud. PETER THE GREAT'S MOTIVES Why did Peter persist in building the city in this inhospitable location? He had first tried to gain access to the Black Sea in the south, but he failed militarily to hold a position there. In any case, the Neva and the Gulf of Finland promised more direct contact with the countries of northern Europe with which he wanted to communicate and trade. From his youthful experiences among foreigners in Moscow and his two trips to western Europe, Peter was enamored with the accomplishments of west Europeans in science, industry, military and naval technology and training, and political administration. Sea power and maritime commerce captured his attention, and he determined to gain access to the sea for Russia by establishing a port city like Amsterdam . Moscow, with its narrow winding streets of logs or mud, its buildings of wood that fueled the city's frequent fires, its traditional culture, was for Peter—to use a modern term—backward and underdeveloped.

"Sanktpiterburkh"—as he named the city in a Germano-Dutch spelling—was his initial experiment in transforming Russia into a sea power and giving his new Russian Empire an impressive European capital. In the twenty-one-year-long Great Northern War (1700–1721), Peter defeated Sweden's army and naval forces and formally annexed territory on the Baltic. ST. PETERSBURG IN 1725 The rapidity with which St. Petersburg was created is remarkable. As of 1703, when the city was founded, there was one Swedish fortress in the immediate area and a few modest fishing villages. By 1725, when Peter died, St. Petersburg had some forty thousand residents and over six thousand buildings. James Cracraft, in his authoritative study The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture, lists the reasons why the city was built up so quickly: the government commanded the resources of the entire nation to be devoted to the cause; conscripted and convict labor was used; foreign architects and artisans were imported; Russian students were trained in architecture and building in St.

Petersburg and abroad; training and city planning were standardized and coordinated by newly established government offices; and factories were established for bricks and other building materials. The costs were high; thousands of laborers perished in the harsh conditions. While St. Petersburg acquired the epithet of "Venice of the north," it was also described as "built on bones." ARCHITECTURE For Peter, architectural style per se did not matter much, but he admired the sober practicality of north European restrained baroque, and he recognized that the Dutch use of brick as a construction material was appropriate for St. Petersburg. In any case, architecture was an integral part of the west European cultural package that he sought to implant in St. Petersburg (minus restraints on the ruler's authority). His chief architect, Domenico Trezzini, a Swiss-Italian, created most early structures: the Fortress of St. Petersburg (later called the Peter and Paul Fortress, after the name of its cathedral, which Trezzini also designed), the Summer Palace and Gardens, the Twelve Colleges government administrative building, the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and others.

Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth (ruled 1741–1762) and her favorite architect, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, added extravagant rococo concoctions (the Winter Palace, Smolnyi Convent, the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo). During Empress Catherine II the Great's reign (ruled 1762–1796), the city acquired numerous neoclassical ensembles designed by west Europeans, including the Hermitage Theater and State Bank by Quarenghi, the Marble Palace and Sliding Hill Pavilion at Oranienbaum by Rinaldi, the Cameron Gallery at Tsarskoe Selo and Great Palace at Pavlovsk by Charles Cameron. In addition, Russian architects, trained in west European neoclassical principles, made contributions, notably I. E. Starov, who built the Tauride Palace and rebuilt the Trinity Cathedral in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Catherine's most famous contribution to the city is the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, designed by the Frenchman Étienne-Maurice Falconet, later called the "Bronze Horseman," after Pushkin's poem (1833) of that name. St. Petersburg symbolizes Russia's turn to Western culture, and, as such, is a historic rival of Moscow, which symbolizes traditional Muscovite culture. See also Catherine II (Russia) ; Elizabeth (Russia) ; Moscow ; Northern Wars ; Peter I (Russia) ; Russia ; Sweden . BIBLIOGRAPHY The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Rus. Sankt-Peterburg, city (1990 est. pop. 5,036,000), capital of the Leningrad region (although not administratively part of it) and the administrative center of the Northwest federal district, NW European Russia, at Neva Bay (the head of the Gulf of Finland) on both banks of the Neva River and on the islands of its delta. St.

Petersburg's port is linked by deepwater canal with Kotlin Island, where the outer port and the Kronshtadt naval base are located. Russia's second largest city and its former capital, St. Petersburg is a major seaport, rail junction, and industrial, cultural, and scientific center. Although the harbor is frozen for three or four months annually, icebreakers have prolonged the navigation season. The seaport is one of the world's largest, but it handles relatively little traffic because the volume of foreign trade for Russia is small. The river port, one of the most important in the country, stands at the end of two artificial waterways, the Volga-Baltic and the White Sea–Baltic. A series of canals within the city carries considerable cargo. Neva Bay is separated from the Gulf of Finland at Kotlin Island by a 15.8-mi (25.4-km) flood-control dam (completed 2011) that allows for closing the navigation channels to prevent the flooding of the city; the causeways, bridges, and a tunnel built in conjunction with the dam form part of the city's ring road. St.

Petersburg's diverse industries include shipbuilding, metallurgy, oil refining, printing, woodworking, food and tobacco processing, and the manufacture of machinery, electrical equipment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and textiles. Points of Interest The city's main thoroughfare is the celebrated Nevsky Prospekt. On it are the high-spired admiralty building; the Winter Palace, built by Rastrelli; the Hermitage museum; and the Kazan Cathedral. Nearby on Senate (formerly Decembrists) Square are the huge domed Cathedral of St. Isaac (1858); Russia's Constitutional Court, in the Senate and Synod buildings; and the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, Falconet 's masterpiece and the subject of Pushkin 's poem "The Bronze Horsemen." The city's oldest building is the fortress of Peter and Paul (1703), which served as a political prison in imperial days. Among the baroque buildings of the early 18th cent. are the Alexander Nevsky monastery (1710), the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (1733), the Winter Palace (1762), and the Smolny convent (1764).

Neoclassical buildings of the late 18th and early 19th cent. include the Academy of Arts (1772), the Marble Palace (1785), the Taurida Palace (1788), the Kazan Cathedral (1811), and the Exchange (1816). Among the city's educational institutions are the St. Petersburg State Univ. (est. 1804) and the St. Petersburg State Univ. of Economics and Finance. There are numerous theaters, museums, scientific and medical institutes, and libraries, including the 18th-century Maryinsky Theater (including a new ballet and opera house, opened 2013), the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library (1795) and the Academy of Sciences library. Outside the city are Pushkin , with the summer palaces of Catherine II and Alexander I, and the former imperial residences of Peterhof and Gatchina . A striking phenomenon of St. Petersburg is the prolonged twilight, or the "white nights," of June and July.

History The city was built by Peter I (Peter the Great), who sought an outlet to the sea and a port for trade through the Baltic. It was built in 1703 in what was then Ingermanland , an area conquered from Sweden during the Northern War. The fortress of Peter and Paul was erected to defend the projected new capital, which was to be a modern city and a "window looking on Europe." Construction was carried out at tremendous human and material cost. The capital was moved from Moscow in 1712, although the land on which the city stood was not formally ceded to Russia until 1721. Italian and French architects planned the city, giving it the spacious, classical beauty that it has retained. St. Petersburg soon replaced Arkhangelsk as Russia's leading seaport and became an important commercial center. From the second half of the 18th cent., it was also the country's principal industrial center, at first for shipbuilding and engineering and later for textiles. In 1851, a rail link with Moscow was completed. One of the world's most brilliant capitals and cultural centers, St.

Petersburg was immortalized in the novels of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy. Its apex as an international center of literature, music, theater, and ballet and as the scene of lavish and reckless social life was reached in the late 19th and early 20th cent. Under the surface, however, the seeds of social upheaval ripened, especially among industrial workers. Secret revolutionary societies arose, and an attempt by city workers to petition the czar precipitated a revolution in 1905. The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914. The workers, soldiers, and sailors of Petrograd also spearheaded the revolutions of Feb. and Oct., 1917. Although it lost much of its former glamour, the city remained the economic and cultural rival of Moscow, which replaced it as capital in 1918. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in 1924. During World War II, the city was cut off from the rest of the USSR by the fall of Schlüsselburg (now Petrokrepost ) to the Germans (Aug., 1941).

It was besieged for over two years, during which many hundreds of thousands died of famine and disease. The city's original name was restored in 1991. In the 1990s, the city struggled to convert its heavily military-related industries to civilian purposes. See K. Clark, Petersburg: Crucible of Cultural Revolution (1998); W. B. Lincoln, Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia (2001); D. M. Glantz, The Battle for Leningrad, 1941–1944 (2002); A. Reid, Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941–1944 (2011). Cite this article Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes © Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes 2007, originally published by Oxford University Press 2007.

Leningrad •ad, add, Allahabad , bad, Baghdad , bedad, begad, cad, Chad , clad, dad, egad, fad, forbade, gad, glad, grad, had, jihad, lad, mad, pad, plaid, rad, Riyadh , sad, scad, shad, Strad, tad, trad •chiliad • oread •dryad, dyad, naiad, triad •Sinbad • Ahmadabad • Jalalabad •Faisalabad • Islamabad • Hyderabad •grandad • Soledad • Trinidad •doodad • Galahad • Akkad • ecad •cycad, nicad •ironclad • nomad • maenad •monad, trichomonad •gonad • scratch pad • sketch pad •keypad • helipad • launch pad •notepad • footpad • touch pad • farad •tetrad • Stalingrad • Leningrad •Conrad • Titograd • undergrad •Volgograd • Petrograd • hexad •Mossad • Upanishad • pentad •heptad • octad Cite this article By what name was the city of St Petersburg known between

 1924-1991?

Home » Trivia Crack » By what name was the city of St Petersburg known between 1924-1991? By what name was the city of St Petersburg known between 1924-1991? Posted in Trivia Crack By emoji On December 30, 2014 Question: By what name was the city of St Petersburg known between 1924-1991? Choices: History of St. Petersburg, Russia: Petrograd during WWI and the Revolution When WWI broke out in August 1914 it was decided to change the name of the Russian capital from St. Petersburg to Petrograd. The old name sounded too German for contemporary Russians. Germany was now the enemy of Russia and all the forces had to be employed to ensure her defeat. Most of the city's industry began to work to support the war effort and many of Petrograd's buildings, including a large portion of the Winter Palace , were turned into hospitals. Most construction work in the city stopped. The war did not go too well for Russia. The Tzar's government discredited itself and political tensions started rising.

To make things worse, the food supply of the Russian capital deteriorated significantly towards the end of 1916. (Located at the north-western edge of the Russian Empire, Petrograd was supplied with food via the railway network. With the transportation breakdown caused by the war it became very difficult to supply such a metropolis). Petrograd stepped into the New Year with its inhabitants infuriated by the long lines in front of food shops. The combination of social unrest and the people's wartime grievances brought about the February revolution of 1917 and the abdication of Nicholas II. At the time of the revolution the tzar was in Mogilev at the army headquarters and his family at Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin ). The political and economic crisis continued all through 1917 and in the fall the Bolshevik party led by Vladimir Lenin had captured political power. On October 25 (November 7), 1917 the blank shot of the cruiser "Aurora" gave workers and soldiers the signal to storm the Winter Palace, which was then the residence of the democratic, but largely inefficient Provisional Government. Most of the ministers were arrested and 73 years long Communist rule began.

At the beginning of 1918 the Civil War (1918-1921) broke out and the revolutionary soldiers and workers of Petrograd became the core of the Red Guard, which later turned into the Red Army. While the fit men were leaving the city for the fronts of the Civil War, a significant portion of the population migrated to the countryside, where families found it easier to provide for themselves. The population dropped from 2.3 million in 1917 to 722 thousand by the end of 1920. By the beginning of 1918 the German troops were so close to Petrograd that the Bolshevik government of Vladimir Lenin decided to move the capital to Moscow, which was still far from the front. Hence Petrograd was left to be just a regional center. Further change occurred, when many of the street names were altered according to the revolutionary fashion of the day. Palace Square was called the Uritski Square (after an assassinated Bolshevik politician) and Nevsky prospect became the Prospect of 25 October (after the October Revolution). A number of Revolutionary monuments were erected, but most of them were made of the cheapest materials and did not last long.

After the end of the Civil War the city of Petrograd started a recovery under the New Economic Policy (NEP), proclaimed by the Bolsheviks, allowing some elements of the market economy. In 1924 the name of the city was changed to Leningrad, and that was a symbol of its transition to a Socialist city. Leningrad, Petersburg and the Great Name Debate - NYTimes.com Leningrad, Petersburg and the Great Name Debate By SERGE SCHMEMANN, Published: June 13, 1991 LENINGRAD, Thursday, June 13— "Do you wish to restore to our city its original name, St. Petersburg?" That question, put to Leningrad's voters on Wednesday alongside ballots for a mayor and the president of the Russian republic, has set off one of the most impassioned debates across the Soviet land since Mikhail S. Gorbachev first lifted the 70-year Communist monopoly on how history is written. Preliminary, unofficial returns indicated early today that 55 percent of the voters had cast ballots in favor of restoring the city's original name, the independent news agency Interfax reported.

The referendum itself is not binding, and if the final results do show a preference for the old name, any action will still be up to the republic and national legislatures. And even if the name is changed, Leningrad's citizens are not likely to abandon the name by which they have always known their city -- simply, "Peter." But the notion of formally abandoning Leningrad for "Sankt-Peterburg," the Dutch-influenced name that Peter the Great gave it 288 years ago, has pierced to the core of the conflict that has absorbed the Soviet state over its direction, its identity -- or, as Russians put it, its soul. Name Dates to 1924 The city, known in English as "St. Petersburg." was changed to "Petrograd" in 1914 at the start of World War I because its original name sounded too German. In 1924, after Lenin's death, the city was given its present name. The current debate has ranged far beyond the city limits. The Communist Party and veterans of World War II campaigned ardently across the Soviet Union against what they portrayed as an insult to Lenin, the revolution and the wartime defenders of Leningrad.

Reformers, artists and nationalists argued with equal passion that the nation must reclaim its heritage. The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Mr. Gorbachev and even Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn plunged into the fray. Patriarch Alexey II urged a return to St. Petersburg, arguing in a statement that "Leningrad is just a casing, an ideological carcass into which the city founded by Peter the Great was ordered to fit." Mr. Gorbachev argued in a statement that "Leningrad holds a special place in the historical memory of the residents of the city and in the hearts of tens of millions of Soviet people." Mr. Solzhenitsyn said in a letter to the Leningrad authorities that the name should be changed not to "Sankt-Peterburg" -- which he said was "alien to the Russian language and to the Russian spirit" -- but to something Russian like Svyato Petrograd -- a Russified rendering of St. Petersburg. 'We Must Return' "Petersburg, of course," declared Yulia Ivanova, a retired engineer, as she left a polling booth on Wednesday in the city center.

"We must return to the values that were thrown out in the past 70 years. We must return to the faith, the spirituality, and we should start by giving the city back the name it had 200 years." "Leningrad," declared a cluster of pensioners sitting in the sun, all refusing to give their names. "It must remain Leningrad." "Petersburg," said Aleksandr Mikhailov, a retired actor. "It's the natural name. We're all battling against what was ugly, what was unnatural these past 70 years." "It should be changed, of course, but not now," said a police officer patrolling along the Moika Canal, Aleksandr Kovbasykh. "It'll cost a lot of money to change the name, and at the same time children are dying in hospitals." To be sure, many Communist names have already fallen in the six years of glasnost. The cities of Gorky, Kalinin, Brezhnev, Ustinov, Andropov, Zhdanov, Voroshilovgrad, Kirovabad and Ordzhonikidze, among others, have have had their former names restored.

Moscow alone has restored more than 30 old names of streets and squares. Those who hold Communism responsible for all their woes would purge the city of its Communist name. Veterans argue that the name of Leningrad became immortalized in World War II, and their adversaries retort that the battle will always be remembered as "the siege of Leningrad," just as the Battle of Stalingrad is even though the city is now called Volgograd. Placating Opponents The liberal administration of Leningrad, under Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, has tried to placate opponents of a name change, saying that it would be neither a sacrilege nor an insult to Lenin. Mr. Sobchak has even proposed that Lenin be reinterred, according to his wish, at the Volkovo Cemetery in Leningrad, next to his mother and sister, instead of the Mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square. Ultimately, both sides may win, if a Solomonic proposal by some young Leningrad city deputies is adopted. Their idea is to keep the name of Leningrad for the entire city, much of which is now a standard Soviet landscape of boxlike apartment buildings and rusted factories.

The old center would be named St. Petersburg. The city was built on the swampy delta of the Neva River by Peter the Great in 1703 as the centerpiece of his lifelong struggle to "hue a window into Europe." He christened it with the Dutch rendering of the patron saint, "Sankt-Peterburg," to underscore his ambition to build a city that would match Amsterdam and other great European ports. Thus from its inception the city plunged into the Russian debate between Westernizer and Slavophile. Potent Force in Literature Deliberately Western in style, a magnet of intrigue and power, a center of extraordinary grandeur and wretched poverty, Petersburg became a potent and direct force in Russian vice and literature. It was the dark power that killed Gogol's impoverished clerk in the "Overcoat" and propelled Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov to murder in "Crime and Punishment." To Tolstoy it was as cruel and foreign as Moscow was warm and Russian.

The most profound expression of Russia's love-hate relationship with the city became Pushkin's long poem "The Bronze Horseman," which opened with a ringing paean to "Peter's Creation" and ended with the Yevgeny running in mad panic from the mountain statue of Peter chasing him through the streets. True to its tradition, the city has come to hold different meanings for different generations and groups. To old Bolsheviks it is the last memorial to a faith, a struggle and a hero to which they dedicated their lives. To Russians it is the grand heritage that was hijacked and finally recovered after 70 years. To reformers and Westernizers it is a "window to the West" that must be reopened once again. Map of Russia highlighting Leningrad Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments - UNESCO World Heritage Centre Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments Assistance Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments The 'Venice of the North', with its numerous canals and more than 400 bridges, is the result of a vast urban project begun in 1703 under Peter the Great.

Later known as Leningrad (in the former USSR), the city is closely associated with the October Revolution. Its architectural heritage reconciles the very different Baroque and pure neoclassical styles, as can be seen in the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Marble Palace and the Hermitage. Centre historique de Saint-Pétersbourg et ensembles monumentaux annexes La « Venise du Nord », avec ses nombreux canaux et plus de 400 ponts, est avant tout le résultat d'un vaste projet d'urbanisme commencé en 1703 sous Pierre le Grand. Connue plus tard sous le nom de Leningrad (en ex-URSS), elle reste étroitement associée à la révolution d'Octobre. Son patrimoine architectural concilie dans ses édifices les styles opposés du baroque et du pur néoclassicisme comme on le voit dans l'Amirauté, le palais d'Hiver, le palais de Marbre et l'Ermitage.

وسط سانت بطرسبرغ التاريخي ومجمّعات فنيّة ملحقة بها هي بندقيّة الشمال بقنواتها العديدة وجسورها التي يتعدّى عددها الأربعمائة وقد بُنيت عملاً بمشروع تنظيم عمراني واسع بدأ عام 1703 بقيادة بطرس الأكبر. وعُرفت لاحقاً باسم لينينغراد (في الاتحاد السوفياتي السابق)، ظلّت مرتبطةً ارتبطاً وثيقاً بثورة أكتوبر. ويجمع تراثها الهندسي في أبنيتها بين الطراز الباروكي والنيوكلاسيكي كما يتجلّى في مقر الأميرالية وقصر الشتاء الرخامي ودير النساك. source: UNESCO/ERI Petergof.

Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments (Russian Federation) © UNESCO Outstanding Universal Value Brief synthesis The unique urban landscape of the port and capital city of Saint Petersburg, rising out of the Neva estuary where it meets the Gulf of Finland, was the greatest urban creation of the 18th century. Saint Petersburg was built at the beginning of the 18th century in an astonishingly short period of time, according to an orderly plan based on many of Peter the Great's own ideas. The city was constructed under difficult conditions on lowlands unprotected from floodwaters, and in the face of severe shortages of materials and workers. Within the first decades of its history, Saint Petersburg became a grandiose agglomeration consisting of the historical city core surrounded by ceremonial country residences, an advanced fortification system, estates and dachas, settlements and small towns linked by radial routes. It occupied the shore on both sides of the Gulf of Finland as well as the Kronstadt fortress-town on Kotlin Island, while moving up the Neva towards its source in Sсhlisselburg.

This Russian-European city, surrounded by suburban ensembles, became a socio-cultural phenomenon with an incomparable historic urban landscape, characterized by an absolute hierarchy of structures. A network of canals, streets and quays was built gradually, beginning in the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725). The Nevski perspective did not become the city's major east-west axis until 1738. Similarly, under the Empresses Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740), Elisabeth Petrovna (1741-1762) and Catherine II the Great (1762- 1796), the urban landscape of Saint Petersburg took on the monumental splendour that assured the world-renowned of the "Venice of the North".

An array of foreign architects (Rastrelli, Rinaldi, Quarenghi, Cameron and Vallin de la Mothe) rivaled one another with audaciousness and splendour in the capital's huge palaces and convents and in imperial and princely suburban residences, amongst which one numbers Peterhof (Petrodvorets), Lomonosov, Tsarskoуe Selo (Pushkin), Pavlovsk and Gatchina. The greatness of Russia's northern capital, with its horizontal silhouette coupled with vertical landmarks and its ensembles of embankments and squares, lies in the heart of the city's “imperial” spirit, its genius loci. The main feature and attraction of Saint Petersburg's historical centre is characterized by a perfect harmony of architecture and waterscapes. The full-flowing Neva bequeathed the city an exceptional spatial scale and wealth of spectacle. It became its main square and chief thoroughfare. The Neva water spaces were natural extensions of the system of city squares. The regularly-spaced network of streets superimposed on this natural background endowed the city with an artistic contrast and perceptual richness.

With its “view of stern and grace”, Saint Petersburg required a unified construction as an ensemble with Teutonic unity, qualities which emerged simultaneously with its birth. The city fabric is richly woven through with ensembles. These assemblages, linking one to another, create a complex multi-layered system where not one element exists alone or is isolated from its environment. The overarching value of all of the components in this system stems from their incorporation into a harmonious whole. It is precisely because of this that Saint Petersburg undoubtedly remains the only grand project in the history of urban planning to preserve its logical integrity despite rapid changes in architectural styles. In modern times, the city bore witness to and participated in the majestic and tragic events of the 1917 February and October Revolutions and the heroic blockade of 1941-1944, in which some million human lives were lost. Having survived the unprecedented trials of the 20th century, the city continues to be a symbol and base of Russian culture for new times and one of its centres of science, culture and education tied eternally to the personalities and creative works of Outstanding Universal Value.

Criterion (i): In the field of urban design, Saint Petersburg represents a unique artistic achievement in the ambition of the program, the coherency of the plan and the speed of execution. From 1703 to 1725, Peter the Great lifted from a landscape of marshes, peat bogs and rocks, architectural styles in stone and marble for a capital, Saint Petersburg, which he wished to be the most beautiful city in all of Europe. Criterion (ii): The ensembles designed in Saint Petersburg and the surrounding area by Rastrelli, Vallin de la Mothe, Cameron, Rinaldi, Zakharov, Voronikhine, Rossi, Montferrand and others, exerted great influence on the development of architecture and monumental arts in Russia and Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries. The normative value of the capital was increased from the beginning by the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, followed by that of the Academy of Fine Arts.

The urban model of Saint Petersburg, which was completed under Catherine II, Alexander I and Nicholas I, was used during the reconstruction of Moscow following the fire of 1812, and for new cities, such as Odessa or Sebastopol, in the southern part of the Empire. Criterion (iv): The nominated cultural property links outstanding examples of baroque imperial residences with the architectural ensemble of Saint Petersburg, which is the baroque and neoclassical capital par excellence. The palaces of Peterhof (Petrodvorets) and Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), which were restored following destruction during the Second World War, are some of the most significant constructions. Criterion (vi): Saint Petersburg was twice directly and tangibly associated with events of universal significance. From 1703 to 1725, the construction of Saint Petersburg (recalled by the equestrian statue of Peter the Great by Falconet, located in Senatskaya Square) symbolizes the opening of Russia to the western world and the emergence of the empire of the Tsars on the international scene. The Bolshevik Revolution triumphed in Petrograd in 1917 (the city had been renamed in 1914).

The Aurora cruiser and the town house of Mathilde Kchesinskaia, later the museum of the Great Socialist Revolution of October, are, in the heart of Leningrad, symbols of the formation of the U.S.S.R. Integrity The Saint Petersburg metropolitan area as a whole, and its historic centre in particular, have preserved their integrity. This has to do with the fact that the development of the historical centre practically ceased in 1913, and in 1918 the capital was moved to Moscow. As a result, new construction projects and the growth of industrial zones occurred outside the limits of the historic centre. Its integrity is ensured through the preservation of its planned layout, silhouette and opportunities for an unobstructed view, but high buildings and inappropriate development around the property have been an issue. The property also suffers from the impacts of traffic, air pollution and relative humidity. Authenticity The site has preserved the authenticity of its chief components. The initial city layout and a large portion of the original structures in Saint Petersburg's historic centre are testament to its Outstanding Universal Value.

The high quality of restoration and reconstruction efforts, accomplished on the basis of historical documents and using authentic techniques and materials, along with the work being done to restore the monuments and palace-parks of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs, are part of a strategy to preserve the integrity of the cultural landscape of the entire metropolitan area. Protection and management requirements Since the moment of its inscription on the World Heritage List, the site was protected in accordance with USSR and RSFSR law: 19 October 1976 No. 4962-IX “On the preservation and use of historical and cultural monuments” (USSR), and 15 December 1978 “On the preservation and use of historical and cultural monuments” (RSFSR). Protected zones and their regimes were approved by the Leningrad City Council Executive Committee decision No.1045, dated 30 December 1988, “On the approval of borders unifying the historical and cultural monuments of the protected zone in Leningrad's central rayon”.

In 1987, a master plan for the development of Leningrad and the Leningrad oblast for the period extending through 2005 was worked out by the main architectural-planning directorate of the Leningrad City Council and approved by the leadership of the USSR. In recent years, legislation has been expanded in the sphere of protection of cultural heritage and urban development.

The following laws were passed and amended between 2002 and 2014: “On the cultural heritage (historical and cultural) of the Russian Federation” (2002, 2014), The town planning code of the Russian Federation (2004, 2014), “On the master plan of Saint Petersburg” (2005, 2013), Leningrad oblast and Saint Petersburg regional laws protecting cultural heritage (2006, 2012; 2007, 2014), the law passed by the city of Saint Petersburg “On the boundaries of zones of protection of cultural heritage in the territory of Saint Petersburg and the modes of land use within the boundaries of such zones and on amendments into the law of Saint Petersburg”, and "On the master plan of Saint Petersburg and the boundaries of zones of protection of cultural heritage within the territory of Saint Petersburg" (2008, 2014), the law “On the rules of land use and development of Saint Petersburg” (2009, 2010).

All of the above documents regulate urban development and land use within the boundaries of the World Heritage property. For the purposes of ensuring the appropriate protection both of property components and their integrated value as the Historic Urban Landscape, the legal protection status, the system of protection zones and land-use regimes are being improved. A buffer zone will protect the low skyline and ensure the inviolability of panoramas and compositionally complete views in the historic centre while taking into consideration the sensitivity of this zone to the imposition of high rise buildings. Each year, funding is appropriated for major repair and restoration work on historical and cultural monuments. Management and monitoring of the condition of monuments of cultural heritage in the historic centre of Saint Petersburg, and those located within the administrative boundaries of the Leningrad oblast, is the joint responsibility of the federal and regional authorities. Measures are being taken to improve coordination between them. The preparation and development of a site management plan and the establishment of a uniform system of management for the site is underway. In October 2014 an agreement on cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Culture, the Government of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Government.

The Coordination Council for the conservation, management and promotion of the World Heritage property was established, one of its tasks being to contribute to the development and implementation of a management plan. Media St. Petersburg | Define St. Petersburg at Dictionary.com St. Petersburg noun 1. Formerly Leningrad (1924–91)Also called Petrograd (1914–24)a seaport in NW Russian Federation in Europe, in the Gulf of Finland, off the Baltic Sea: founded 1703 by Peter the Great; capital of the Russian Empire (1712-1917). 2. a city in W Florida, on Tampa Bay. Russia noun 1. Also called Russian Empire. Russian Rossiya . a former empire in E Europe and N and W Asia: overthrown by the Russian Revolution 1917. Capital: St. Petersburg (1703–1917). 2. Examples from the Web for St. Petersburg Expand Contemporary Examples Now 54, he studied philosophy at St. Petersburg College before transferring to University of Florida to study law.

Nine Amazing Places To Skinny Dip Around The World Erin Cunningham September 20, 2013 At his press conference in St. Petersburg last week, President Obama provided a clue. Virgin Soil Ivan S. Turgenev However, now it is the beginning of autumn, the best time of all the year in St. Petersburg. British Dictionary definitions for St. Petersburg Expand noun 1. the largest country in the world, covering N Eurasia and bordering on the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas: originating from the principality of Muscovy in the 17th century, it expanded to become the Russian Empire; the Tsar was overthrown in 1917 and the Communist Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was created; this merged with neighbouring Soviet Republics in 1922 to form the Soviet Union; on the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian Federation was established as an independent state. Official language: Russian. Religion: nonreligious and Russian orthodox Christian. Currency: rouble. Capital: Moscow.

Pop: 142 500 482 (2013 est). Area: 17 074 984 sq km (6 592 658 sq miles) 2. another name for the Russian Empire 3. another name for the former Soviet Union 4. another name for the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Russian name Rossiya Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for St. Petersburg Expand Russia 1530s, from Medieval Latin Russi "the people of Russia," from Rus, the native name of the people and the country (cf. Arabic Rus, Medieval Greek Rhos), originally the name of a group of Swedish merchant/warriors who established themselves around Kiev 9c.

and founded the original Russian principality; perhaps from Ruotsi, the Finnish name for "Sweden," from Old Norse Roþrslandi, "the land of rowing," old name of Roslagen, where the Finns first encountered the Swedes. This is from Old Norse roðr "steering oar," from Proto-Germanic *rothra- "rudder," from PIE *rot-ro-, from root *ere- (1) "to row" (see row (v.)). Derivation from the IE root for "red," in reference to hair color, is considered less likely. Russian city-states were founded and ruled by Vikings and their descendants. The Russian form of the name, Rossiya, appears to be from Byzantine Greek Rhosia. Russification is from 1842. Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Note: A popular winter resort. Note: Home for many retired persons from colder northern areas. Russia definition A vast nation that stretches from eastern Europe across the Eurasian land mass. It was the most powerful republic of the former Soviet Union ; ethnic Russians composed about half of the population. It is the world's largest country.

Its capital and largest city is Moscow . Note: Russia was ruled by czars of the Romanov family from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Note: Peter the Great , a czar who reigned in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, attempted to westernize Russian government and culture . Note: During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks , under Lenin , took control of the government; communists governed from 1917 until 1991. Note: Russia now occupies the seat on the Security Council of the United Nations formerly held by the Soviet Union. The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Question: What was St. Petersburg called between 1924 and 1991?
Answer: Leningrad