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St Petersburg

Capital of the St Petersburg region, Russian Federation, at the head of the Gulf of Finland; population (2002) 4,661,200. Industries include shipbuilding, machinery, chemicals, and textiles. It was renamed Petrograd 1914 and was called Leningrad 1924-91, when its original name was restored.

Built on a low and swampy site, St Petersburg is split up by the mouths of the River Neva, which connects it with Lake Ladoga. The climate is severe. The city became a seaport when it was linked with the Baltic by a ship canal built 1875-93. It is also linked by canal and river with the Caspian and Black seas, and in 1975 a seaway connection was completed via lakes Onega and Ladoga with the White Sea near Belomorsk, allowing naval forces to reach the Barents Sea free of NATO surveillance.

Features

St Petersburg is notable for its wide boulevards and the scale of its architecture. Most of its fine baroque and classical buildings of the 18th and early 19th centuries survived World War II. Museums include the Winter Palace, occupied by the tsars until 1917, the Hermitage, the Russian Museum (formerly Michael Palace), and St Isaac's Cathedral. The oldest building in St Petersburg is the fortress of St Peter and St Paul, on an island in the Neva, now a political prison. The university was founded 1819.

History

Saint Petersburg was founded as an outlet to the Baltic 1703 by Peter the Great, who took up residence here 1712. It was capital of the Russian Empire 1709-1918 and the centre of all the main revolutionary movements from the Decembrist revolt 1825 up to the 1917 revolution.

During the German invasion in World War II the city withstood siege and bombardment 30 August 1941-27 January 1944. Over 100,000 bombs were dropped by the Luftwaffe, and 150,000-200,000 shells were fired, but most deaths (estimate 1.3-1.5 million) resulted from famine and the cold. Soviet counter attacks began 1943, but the siege was not completely lifted until January 1944.

In June 1991, the city's electors voted by 55% to 43% to restore the Tsarist (1703-1914) designation, St Petersburg.

This vote received parliamentary sanction September 1991. In the previous month, the city's mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, and thousands of citizens had resisted an attempted coup to oust the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Leningrad

Leningrad (oblast)

Peter (I) the Great

Petrograd