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St Petersburg
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About St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg (English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg),
formerly known as Leningrad (1924-1991) and Petrograd (1914-1924),
is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the Gulf of Finland
of the Baltic Sea. Founded by tsar Peter the Great, it served
as the capital of the country during the 18th and 19th centuries.
With over 4.7 million inhabitants (2002), it is today Russia's
second largest city, a major cultural center and an important
port.
Landmarks and tourist attractions
The Hermitage MuseumPerhaps the most famous of St. Petersburg's
landmarks is the Hermitage Museum, one of the world's largest
and richest collections of Western European art. The building
that houses the Hermitage - the old Winter Palace - is an
architectural landmark in its own right. Another, rather different
museum is the Kunstkamera, established by Peter the Great
and housing primarily ethnographic collections.
The city is graced by a number of cathedrals, including the
Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral,
and the Church of the Savior on Blood. These operate today
primarily as museums.
The Resurrection ChurchThe Peter and Paul Fortress (see "History",
below) occupies a dominant position in the center of the city.
It houses the cathedral of the same name, as well as a number
of other museums. A boardwalk has been built along a portion
of the fortress wall, giving visitors a clear view of the
city across the river to the south.
Other noteworthy landmarks include the Alexander Column and
Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery (monastery),
where many members of the Russian royal family received their
education.
Architectural landmarks of 18th and 19th centuries include
the Smolny Institute, Palace Square with the Winter Palace,
Nevsky Prospekt, the labour exchange building (Russian: ??????
????? ?????) 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, decorative wrought-iron
fences, monumental and decorative sculptures. The Neva River
itself, together with its many canals and their granite embankments
and bridges, gives the city a unique and striking ambience.
These bodies of water give St. Petersburg the name of 'Venice
of the North'.
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 (60°
N), causes twilight to last all night in May, June and July.
This celebrated phenomenon is known as the 'white nights.'
The white nights are closely linked to another attraction
- the nine drawbridges spanning the Neva. Tourists flock to
see the bridges drawn and lowered again at night to allow
shipping to pass through the city.
Many historic buildings in the city have been restored in
preparation for the three hundredth anniversary of its founding
(May 27, 2003).
The Hermitage museum complex
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 Saint Peter.
The original name of Sankti-Pitersburh 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.
Since construction began during a time of war, the new city's
first building was a fortification. Known today as the Peter
and Paul Fortress, it originally also bore the name of Sankti-Pitersburh.
It was laid down on Zaichiy (Hare) Island, just off the right
bank of the Neva, a couple of miles inland from the Gulf.
The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from
the fortress under the supervision of German engineers Peter
invited to Russia. Peter forbade the construction of stone
buildings in all of Russia outside of St. Petersburg, so that
all stonemasons would come to help build the new city. 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, built soon after the city.
1888 German map of Saint PetersburgRussia's elite built lavishly
in the city, leaving many palaces that survive to this day.
By far the largest of these structures is the Winter Palace,
constructed between 1754 and 1762 on the orders of the Empress
Elizabeth of Russia. It is now the home of the vast State
Hermitage Museum.
Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs (1861) caused the
influx of large numbers of poor into the city. Tenements were
erected on the outskirts, and nascent industry sprang up.
At the same time, though, the city was the nation's cultural
center, with composers (such as the "Mighty Handful"),
artists, writers, and art collectors.
Intellectual movements were also astir. Socialist organizations
were responsible for the assassinations of many royal officials,
including that 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, on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II, the city was renamed
Petrograd on August 31 (August 18, Old Style), 1914.
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 was overthrown in the October Revolution,
and the Russian Civil War broke out. The city's proximity
to anti-revolutionary armies, and generally unstable political
climate, forced Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to flee to
Russia's historic 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. On January 26, 1924, three days after Lenin's death,
Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor.
The Nevsky ProspectThe government's removal to Moscow caused
a reversal of the mass immigration of the latter 19th century.
The benefits of capital status had left the city. Petrograd's
population in 1920 was a third of what it had been in 1915
(see table below).
During World War II, Leningrad 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 "Road of Life" was established over Lake Ladoga
(frozen for a large part of the year), but it was open to
airstrikes; only one out of three supply trucks that embarked
on the journey reached its destination. Another route, running
through the frontline, was opened on January 18, 1943. Some
800,000 of the city's 3,000,000 inhabitants are estimated
to have perished. For the heroic tenacity of the city's population,
Leningrad became 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 with the intention of letting its intelligentsia
perish at the hands of the Germans. Many of those Leningraders
who were evacuated to distant corners of the Soviet Union
never returned to their home city.
The war damaged the city and killed off many of those old
Petersburgers who had not fled after the revolution and did
not perish in the mass purges before the war. Nonetheless,
Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the following
decades to the old drawings. Though changes in the social
fabric were more permanent, the city remained an intellectual
and arts centre.
The original name, Saint Petersburg, was restored on September
6, 1991, as a result of the collapse of Soviet rule. 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
Education
Saint Petersburg State University
Economy
One of St. Petersburg's many canalsThe 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.
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 (subway/underground) system began
operation in 1955 and now includes four lines.
Ford Motor Company began producing the Ford Focus automobile
here in 2002.
Administrative division
Saint Petersburg is divided into 13 administrative districts,
called "rayons" (?????). They are:
Admiralteysky District (??????????????)
Frunzensky District (???????????)
Kalininsky District (???????????)
Kirovsky District (?????????)
Krasnogvardeysky District (?????????????????)
Krasnoselsky District (??????????????)
Moskovsky District (??????????)
Nevsky District (???????)
Petrogradsky District (?????????????)
Primorsky District (??????????)
Tsentralny District (???????????)
Vasileostrovsky District (????????????????)
Vyborgsky District (??????????)
City has numerous islands and many historically important
city parts are located on them. Vasilyevsky island is the
largest of them and forms the whole Vasileostrovsky District.
Petrogradskaya, Krestovsky, Yelagin and Kamenny islands form
Petrogradsky District.
Famous people
Anna Akhmatova, died in Leningrad in 1966
Elsa Brandstrom, born in St. Petersburg in 1888
Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler, worked in St. Petersburg
Joseph Brodsky, born in Leningrad in 1940
Fyodor Dostoevsky, lived in St. Petersburg and died there
in 1881
Aleksandr Pushkin, died following a duel in St. Petersburg
in 1837
Vladimir Putin, born in Leningrad in 1952
Ayn Rand, born in St. Petersburg in 1905
Alexandr Rodchenko, born in St. Petersburg 1891
See also
Catherine the Great
Catherine Palace
Peter the Great
Peterhoff
Russian Revolution
Siege of Leningrad
Winter Palace
This article is licensed
under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "st petersburg'.
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