The city was founded by TsarPeter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of acaptured Swedish fortress, and was named after the apostleSaint Peter.[8] In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a Europeangreat power.[9] It served as a capital of theTsardom of Russia, and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1712 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period between 1728 and 1730).[10] After theOctober Revolution in 1917, theBolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.[11] The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. It was the site of thesiege of Leningrad duringWorld War II, the most lethal siege in history.[12] In June 1991, only a few months before theBelovezha Accords and thedissolution of the Soviet Union, voters ina city-wide referendum supported restoring the city's original name.[13]
While not originally named for TsarPeter the Great, during World War I the city was changed from the Germanic "Petersburg" to "Petrograd" in his honour.
Thename day of TsarPeter the Great falls on 29 June, when theRussian Orthodox Church observes the memory ofapostlesPeter andPaul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of thePeter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became theeponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such asСанктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating GermanSankt Petersburg, andСантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating DutchSint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized andrussified toСанкт-Петербург (Sankt-Peterburg).[17][18][19]
A former spelling of the city's name in English wasSaint Petersburgh. This spelling survives in the name of astreet in theBayswater district of London, nearSt Sophia's Cathedral, named after a visit by the Tsar to London in 1814.[20]
A 14 to 15-letter-long name, composed of the threeroots, proved too cumbersome, and many shortened versions were used. The first General Governor of the cityMenshikov is maybe also the author of the first nickname of Petersburg, which he calledПетри (Petri). It took some years until the known Russian spelling of this name finally settled. In 1740sMikhail Lomonosov uses a derivative of Greek:Πετρόπολις (Петрополис,Petropolis) in a Russified formPetropol' (Петрополь). A comboPiterpol (Питерпол) also appears at this time.[21] In any case, eventually the usage of the prefix "Sankt-" ceased except for the formal official documents, where a three-letter abbreviation "СПб" (SPb) was very widely used as well.
From 1924 to 1991 the city was known as 'Leningrad'. This photograph of the Saint Petersburg port entrance shows an old 'Ленинград' (Leningrad) sign.
In the 1830sAlexander Pushkin translated the "foreign" city name of "Saint Petersburg" to the more RussianPetrograd (Russian:Петроград,IPA:[pʲɪtrɐˈgrat])[e] in one of his poems. However, it was only on 31 August [O.S. 18 August] 1914, afterthe war with Germany had begun, that TsarNicholas II renamed the city Petrograd in order to expunge the German wordsSankt andBurg.[22] Since the prefix "Saint" was omitted,[23] this act also changed theeponym and the "patron" of the city from Saint Peter to Peter the Great, its founder.[19] On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death ofVladimir Lenin, it was renamed toLeningrad (Russian:Ленинград,IPA:[lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]), meaning 'Lenin City'. On 6 September 1991, the original name,Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English, the city is known asSaint Petersburg. Residents often refer to the city by its shortened nickname,Piter (Russian:Питер,IPA:[ˈpʲitʲɪr]).
After theOctober Revolution, the nameRed Petrograd (Красный Петроград,Krasny Petrograd) was often used in newspapers and other prints until the city was renamedLeningrad in January 1924.
The referendum on restoring the historic name was held on 12 June 1991, with 55% of voters supporting "Saint Petersburg" and 43% supporting "Leningrad".[13] Renaming the cityPetrograd was not an option. This change officially took effect on 6 September 1991.[24] Meanwhile, the oblast which surrounds Saint Petersburg is still namedLeningrad.
Having passed the role of capital to Petersburg, Moscow never relinquished the title of "capital", being calledpervoprestolnaya ('first throned') for 200 years. An equivalent name for Petersburg, the "Northern Capital", has re-entered usage today since several federal institutions were recently moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Solemn descriptive names like "the city of three revolutions" and "the cradle of theOctober Revolution" used in the Soviet era are reminders of the pivotal events in national history that occurred here.Petropolis is a translation of a city name to Greek, and is also a kind of descriptive name:Πέτρ- [el] is a Greek root for 'stone', so the "city from stone" emphasizes the material that had been forcibly made obligatory for construction from the first years of the city[21] (a modern Greek translation is Αγία Πετρούπολη,Agia Petroupoli).[25]
Saint Petersburg has been traditionally called the "Window to Europe" and the "Window to the West" by the Russians.[26][27] The city is thenorthernmost metropolis with more than 1 million people in the world, and is also often described as 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 andculture, which is combined with the city's Russian heritage.[28][29][30] Another nickname of Saint Petersburg is "The City of the White Nights" because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to thepolar region and ensures that in summer the night skies of the city do not get completely dark for a month.[31][32] The city is also often called the "NorthernPalmyra", due to its extravagant architecture.[33]
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.[36] He needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the time,Arkhangelsk, which was on theWhite Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter.
The city was built byconscripted peasants from all over Russia; in some years several Swedishprisoners of war were also involved under the supervision ofAlexander Menshikov.[40] Tens of thousands of serfs died while building the city.[41] Later, the city became the centre of theSaint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, nine years before theTreaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. He referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital (or seat of government) as early as 1704.[36]
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, theSwiss ItalianDomenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be onVasilyevsky 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 FrenchmanJean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as thechief architect of Saint Petersburg.[42]
In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. His endeavors to modernize Russia had been opposed by theRussian nobility. There were several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son.[43] In 1728,Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under EmpressAnna of Russia, Saint Petersburg was again designated as the capital of theRussian Empire. It remained the seat of theRomanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of theRussian tsars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until thecommunist revolution of 1917.
In 1736–1737, the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee underBurkhard 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 andFontanka.
Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled that no structure in the city could be higher than the Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign ofCatherine the Great in the 1760s–1780s, the banks of the Neva were lined withgranite embankments.
However, it was not until 1850 that the first permanent bridge across the Neva,Annunciation Bridge, was allowed to open. Before that, onlypontoon bridges were allowed.Obvodny Canal (dug in 1769–1833) became the southern limit of the city.
The most prominent neoclassical andEmpire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included:
With theemancipation of the serfs undertaken byAlexander II in 1861 and anIndustrial Revolution, the influx of former peasants into the capital increased greatly. Poor boroughs spontaneously developed on the outskirts of the city. Saint Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth; it became one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (inKronstadt), the Neva River, and a seaport on the Baltic.
TheRevolution 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 cityPetrograd,[22] meaning "Peter's City", to remove the German wordsSankt andBurg.
In March 1917, during theFebruary Revolution Nicholas II abdicated for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years ofRomanovdynastic rule.
On 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917, theBolsheviks, led byVladimir Lenin, stormed theWinter Palace in an event known thereafter as theOctober Revolution, which led to the end of the social-democraticprovisional government, the transfer of all political power to theSoviets, and the rise of theCommunist Party.[44] After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions",[45] referring to the three major developments in the political history of Russia of the early 20th century.
On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamedLeningrad.[46] Later many streets and othertoponyms were renamed accordingly, with names in honour of communist figures replacing historic names given centuries before. The city has over 230 places associated with the life and activities of Lenin. Some of them were turned into museums,[47] including thecruiserAurora– a symbol of the October Revolution and the oldest ship in theRussian Navy.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the poor outskirts were reconstructed intoregularly planned boroughs.Constructivist architecture flourished around that time. Housing became a government-providedamenity; 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 under very poor conditions. In 1935, a new general plan was outlined, whereby the city should expand to the south. Constructivism was rejected in favour of a more pompousStalinist 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 ofMoskovsky Prospekt, designated as the new main street of Leningrad. After theWinter (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 fromLeningrad Oblast. At that time, it included the Leningrad Suburban District, some parts of which were transferred back to Leningrad Oblast in 1936 and turned intoVsevolozhsky District,Krasnoselsky District, Pargolovsky District and Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944).[48]
During the Soviet era, many historic architectural monuments of the previous centuries were destroyed by the new regime for ideological reasons. While that mainly concerned churches and cathedrals, some other buildings were also demolished.[49][50][51]
On 1 December 1934,Sergey Kirov, the Bolshevik leader of Leningrad, was assassinated under suspicious circumstances, which became the pretext for theGreat Purge.[52] In Leningrad, approximately 40,000 were executed during Stalin's purges.[53]
Citizens of Leningrad during the 872-daysiege, in which more than one million civilians died, mostly from starvation,Nevsky Prospect (then known as the25 October Prospekt)
During World War II,German forces besieged Leningrad following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.[54] The siege lasted 872 days, or almost two and a half years,[54] from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944.[55]
TheSiege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, andmost lethal sieges of a major city inmodern history. It isolated the city from food supplies except those provided through theRoad of Life acrossLake Ladoga, which could not make it through until the lake froze. More than one million civilians were killed, mainly from starvation. There were incidents of cannibalism, with around 2,000 residents arrested for eating other people.[56] Many others escaped or were evacuated, so the city became largely depopulated.
In October 1946 some territories along the northern coast of theGulf of Finland, which had been annexed into the USSR from Finland in 1940 under thepeace treaty following theWinter War, were transferred from Leningrad Oblast to Leningrad and divided intoSestroretsky District andKurortny District. These included the town ofTerijoki (renamedZelenogorsk in 1948).[48] Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the post-war decades, partially according to pre-war plans. The 1948 general plan for Leningrad featured radialurban development in the north as well as in the south. In 1953, Pavlovsky District in Leningrad Oblast was abolished, and parts of its territory, including Pavlovsk, merged with Leningrad. In 1954, the settlementsLevashovo,Pargolovo andPesochny merged with Leningrad.[48]
Leningrad gave its name to theLeningrad Affair (1949–1952), a notable event in the postwar political struggle in theUSSR. It was a product of rivalry between Stalin's potential successors where one side was represented by the leaders of the cityCommunist Party organization – the second most significant one in the country after Moscow. The entire elite leadership of Leningrad was destroyed, including the former mayorKuznetsov, the acting mayor Pyotr Sergeevich Popkov, and all their deputies; overall, 23 leaders were sentenced to the death penalty, 181 to prison or exile (rehabilitated in 1954). About 2,000 ranking officials across the USSR were expelled from the party and the Komsomol and removed from leadership positions.[57]
TheLeningrad Metro undergroundrapid transit system, designed before the war, opened in 1955 with its first eight stations decorated withmarble andbronze. However, after Stalin died in 1953, the perceived ornamental excesses of the Stalinist architecture were abandoned. From the 1960s to the 1980s, many new residential boroughs were built on the outskirts; while thefunctionalist apartment blocks were nearly identical to each other, many families moved there fromkommunalkas in the city centre to live in separate apartments.
Meanwhile, economic conditions started to deteriorate as the country's people tried to adapt to major changes. For the first time since the 1940s, foodrationing was introduced, and the city received humanitarianfood aid from abroad.[24] This dramatic time was depicted in photographic series of Russian photographerAlexey Titarenko.[59][60] Economic conditions began to improve only at the beginning of the 21st century.[61] In 1995, a northern section of theKirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of theSaint Petersburg Metro was cut off by underground flooding, creating a major obstacle to the city development for almost ten years. On 13 June 1996, Saint Petersburg, alongside Leningrad Oblast andTver Oblast, signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.[62] This agreement was abolished on 4 April 2002.[63]
In 1996,Vladimir Yakovlev defeatedAnatoly Sobchak in the elections for the head of thecity administration. The title of the city head was changed from "mayor" to "governor".[64] In 2000, Yakovlev won re-election.[65] His second term expired in 2004; the long-awaited restoration of the broken subway connection was expected to finish by that time. But in 2003, Yakovlev suddenly resigned, leaving the governor's office toValentina Matviyenko.
The law on the election of the City Governor was changed, breaking the tradition of democratic election by universal suffrage that started in 1991. In 2006, thecity legislature re-approved Matviyenko as governor. Residential building had intensified again;real-estate prices inflated greatly, which caused many new problems for the preservation of the historical part of the city.
Although the central part of the city has aUNESCO designation (there are about 8,000 architectural monuments in Petersburg), the preservation of its historical and architectural environment became controversial.[66] After 2005, the demolition of older buildings in the historical centre was permitted.[67] In 2006,Gazprom announced an ambitious project to build a skyscraper as part of the Gazprom City complex, with its main tower set to soar significantly higher than the city's most famous landmarks. The tower would be located opposite theSmolny Cathedral on theNeva river, and critics warned it could disrupt the architectural harmony of the city's landscape.[68] Urgent protests by citizens and prominent public figures of Russia against this project were not considered by GovernorValentina Matviyenko and the city authorities until December 2010, when after the statement of PresidentDmitry Medvedev, the city decided to find a more appropriate location for this project. In the same year, the new location for the project was relocated toLakhta, a historical area northwest of the city centre, and the new project would be namedLakhta Center. Construction was approved by Gazprom and the city administration and commenced in 2012. The 462 m (1,516 ft) high Lakhta Center has become the firsttallest skyscraper in Russia andEurope outside of Moscow.
Satellite image of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs
The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km2 (233.9 square miles). The area of the federal subject is 1,439 km2 (556 sq mi), which contains Saint Petersburg proper (consisting of eighty-one municipalokrugs), nine municipal towns (Kolpino,Krasnoye Selo,Kronstadt,Lomonosov,Pavlovsk,Petergof,Pushkin,Sestroretsk,Zelenogorsk), and twenty-one municipal settlements.
The elevation of Saint Petersburg ranges from the sea level to its highest point of 175.9 m (577 ft) at the Orekhovaya Hill in theDuderhof Heights in the south. Part of the city's territory west ofLiteyny Prospekt is no higher than 4 m (13 ft)above sea level, and has suffered from numerous floods.Floods in Saint Petersburg are triggered by a long wave in theBaltic Sea, caused by meteorological conditions, winds, and shallowness of theNeva Bay. The five most disastrous floods occurred in 1824 (4.21 m or 13 ft 10 in above sea level, during which over 300 buildings were destroyed[f]); 1924 (3.8 m, 12 ft 6 in); 1777 (3.21 m, 10 ft 6 in); 1955 (2.93 m, 9 ft 7 in); and 1975 (2.81 m, 9 ft 3 in). To prevent floods, theSaint Petersburg Dam has been constructed.[69]
Since the 18th century, the city's terrain has been raised artificially, at some places by more than 4 m (13 ft), making mergers of several islands, and changing the hydrology of the city. Besides the Neva and its tributaries, other important rivers of the federal subject of Saint Petersburg areSestra,Okhta, andIzhora. The largest lake is Sestroretsky Razliv in the north, followed byLakhtinsky Razliv, Suzdal Lakes, and other smaller lakes.
Due to its northerly location at c. 60° Nlatitude, theday length in Petersburg varies across seasons, ranging from 5 hours 53 minutes to 18 hours 50 minutes. A period from mid-May to end-July during which it doesn't get darker thannautical twilight is calledthewhite nights.
Saint Petersburg is about 165 km (103 miles) south-east of the border with Finland, connected to it via theM10 highway (E18), along which there is also a connection to the historic city ofVyborg.
Under theKöppen climate classification, Saint Petersburg is classified asDfb, ahumid continental climate. The distinct moderating influence ofBaltic Sea cyclones results in mild to hot, humid, short summers and long, moderately cold, wet winters. The climate of Saint Petersburg is close to that ofHelsinki, although slightly more continental (i.e., colder in winter and warmer in summer) because of its more eastern location, while slightly less continental than that ofMoscow.
The average high temperature in July is 23 °C (73 °F), and the average low temperature in February is −8.5 °C (16.7 °F); an extreme temperature of 37.1 °C (98.8 °F) occurred during the2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat wave. A winter low of −35.9 °C (−32.6 °F) was recorded in 1883. The average annual temperature is 5.8 °C (42.4 °F). The Neva River within the city limits usually freezes up in November–December and break-up occurs in April. From December to March, there are 118 days on average with snow cover, which reaches an average snow depth of 19 cm (7.5 in) by February.[70] The frost-free period in the city lasts on average for about 135 days. Despite St. Petersburg's northern location, its winters are warmer thanMoscow's due to theGulf of Finland and someGulf Stream influence from Scandinavian winds that can bring temperatures slightly above freezing. The city also has a slightly warmer climate than its suburbs due to theurban heat island effect. It also has a pretty lowdiurnal temperature variation, especially during fall and winter. Weather conditions are quite variable all year round.[71][72]
Average annualprecipitation varies across the city, averaging 660 mm (26 in) per year and reaching a maximum in late summer. Due to the cool climate, soil moisture is almost always high because of lowerevapotranspiration.Air humidity is 78% on average, and there are, on average, 165overcast days per year.
Climate data forSaint Petersburg (1991–2020, extremes 1743–present)
Population pyramid of St. Petersburg in the 2021 Russian Census
Saint Petersburg is the second-largest city in Russia. As of the2021 Census,[4] the federal subject's population is 5,601,911 or 3.9% of the total population of Russia; up from 4,879,566 (3.4%) recorded in the2010 Census,[74] and up from 5,023,506 recorded in the1989 Census.[75] Over 6.4 million people reside in themetropolitan area.
1884,678 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
During the 20th century, the city experienced dramatic population changes. From 2.4 million residents in 1916, its population dropped to less than 740,000 by 1920 during theRussian Revolution of 1917 andRussian Civil War. The minorities of Germans, Poles, Finns, Estonians, and Latvians were almost completelytransferred from Leningrad during the 1930s.[86] From 1941 to the end of 1943, population dropped from 3 million to less than 600,000, as people died in battles, starved to death or were evacuated during theSiege of Leningrad. Some evacuees returned after the siege, but most influx was due to migration from other parts of the Soviet Union. The city absorbed about 3 million people in the 1950s and grew to over 5 million in the 1980s. From 1991 to 2006, the city's population decreased to 4.6 million, while the suburban population increased due to the privatization of land and a massive move to the suburbs. Based on the 2010 census results, the population is over 4.8 million.[87][88] For the first half of 2007, the birth rate was 9.1 per 1000[89] and remained lower than thedeath rate (until 2012[90]); people over 65 constitute more than twenty percent of the population; and the median age is about 40 years.[91] Since 2012 thebirth rate became higher than thedeath rate.[90] But in 2020, theCOVID-19 pandemic caused a drop in birth rate, and the city population decreased to 5,395,000 people.[92]
According to various opinion polls, more than half of the residents of Saint Petersburg "believe inGod" (up to 67% according toVTsIOM data for 2002).
Among the believers, the overwhelming majority of the residents of the city areOrthodox (57.5%), followed by small minority communities ofMuslims (0.7%),Protestants (0.6%), andCatholics (0.5%), andBuddhists (0.1%).[93]
In total, roughly 59% of the population of the city isChristian, of which over 90% are Orthodox.[93] Non-Abrahamic religions and other faiths are represented by only 1.2% of the total population.[93]
Religion in Saint Petersburg as of 2012 (Sreda Arena Atlas)[94][95]
229 religious buildings in the city are owned or run by religious associations. Among them are architectural monuments of federal significance. The oldest cathedral in the city is thePeter and Paul Cathedral, built between 1712 and 1733, and the largest is theKazan Cathedral, completed in 1811.
According to thefederal law passed in 2004, heads of federal subjects, including the governor of Saint Petersburg, were nominated by thePresident of Russia and approved by local legislatures. Should the legislature disapprove the nominee, the President could dissolve it. The former governor,Valentina Matviyenko, was approved according to the new system in December 2006. She was the only woman governor in all of Russia until her resignation on 22 August 2011. Matviyenko stood for elections as a member of the Regional Council of Saint Petersburg and won comprehensively with allegations of rigging and ballot stuffing by the opposition. Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedev has already backed her for the position ofSpeaker to theFederation Council, and her election qualifies her for that job. After her resignation,Georgy Poltavchenko was appointed as the new acting governor the same day. In 2012, following passage of a new federal law,[98] restoring direct elections of heads of federal subjects, the city charter was again amended to provide for direct elections of governor.[99] On 3 October 2018, Poltavchenko resigned, andAlexander Beglov was appointed acting governor.[100]
Saint Petersburg is also the unofficial,de facto administrative centre ofLeningrad Oblast (a separate federal subject), and of theNorthwestern Federal District.[101] Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast share several local departments of federal executive agencies and courts, such as court of arbitration, police,FSB, postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services.
Saint Petersburg is a major trade gateway, serving as the financial and industrial centre of Russia, with specializations in oil and gas trade; shipbuilding yards;aerospace industry; technology, including radio, electronics, software, and computers; machine building, heavy machinery and transport, including tanks and othermilitary equipment; mining;instrument manufacture; ferrous and nonferrousmetallurgy (production of aluminium alloys); chemicals,pharmaceuticals, andmedical equipment; publishing and printing; food and catering; wholesale and retail; textile andapparel industries; and many other businesses. It was also home to Lessner, one of Russia's two pioneering automobile manufacturers (along withRusso-Baltic); it was founded by machine tool and boilermaker G.A. Lessner in 1904, with designs by Boris Loutsky, and it survived until 1910.[103]
Admiralty ShipyardPower Machines plant building on Sverdlovskaya embankment in Saint Petersburg
A complex system of riverports on both banks of theNeva River are interconnected with the system of seaports, thus making Saint Petersburg the main link between theBaltic Sea and the rest of Russia through theVolga–Baltic Waterway.
TheSaint Petersburg Mint (Monetny Dvor), founded in 1724, is one of the largestmints in the world. It mintsRussian coins, medals, and badges. Saint Petersburg is also home to the oldest and largest Russian foundry, Monumentskulptura, which made thousands of sculptures and statues that now grace the public parks of Saint Petersburg and many other cities.[citation needed] Monuments andbronze statues of the Tsars, as well as other important historic figures and dignitaries, and other world-famous monuments, such as the sculptures byPeter Clodt von Jürgensburg,Paolo Troubetzkoy,Mark Antokolsky, and others, were made there.[citation needed]
In 2007,Toyota opened aCamry plant after investing 5 billion rubles (approx. US$200 million) in Shushary,[citation needed] one of the southern suburbs of Saint Petersburg.Opel,Hyundai and Nissan have also signed deals with theRussian government to build their automotive plants in Saint Petersburg.[citation needed] The automotive and auto-parts industry is on the rise there during the last decade.[which?]
Saint Petersburg has a large brewery and distillery industry. Known as Russia's "beer capital" due to the supply and quality of local water, its five large breweries account for over 30% of the country's domestic beer production. They include Europe's second-largest breweryBaltika, Vena (both operated by BBH),Heineken Brewery,Stepan Razin (both byHeineken) andTinkoff brewery (SUN-InBev).
The city's many localdistilleries produce a broad range ofvodka brands. The oldest one isLIVIZ [ru] (founded in 1897). Among the youngest isRussian Standard Vodka introduced in Moscow in 1998, which opened in 2006 a new $60 million distillery in Petersburg (an area of 30,000 m2 (320,000 sq ft), production rate of 22,500 bottles per hour). In 2007, this brand was exported to over 70 countries.[107]
Saint Petersburg has the second largestconstruction industry in Russia, including commercial, housing, and road construction.
In 2006, Saint Petersburg's city budget was 180 billion rubles (about US$7 billion at 2006 exchange rates).[108] The federal subject'sGross Regional Product as of 2016[update] was 3.7 trillionRussian rubles (or around US$70 billion), ranked 2nd in Russia, after Moscow[109] and per capita of US$13,000, ranked 12th among Russia's federal subjects,[110] contributed mostly by wholesale andretail trade and repair services (24.7%) as well as processing industry (20.9%) and transportation and telecommunications (15.1%).[111]
Budget revenues of the city in 2009 amounted to 294.3 billion rubles (about US$10.044 billion at 2009 exchange rates), expenses – 336.3 billion rubles (about US$11.477 billion at 2009 exchange rates). The budget deficit amounted to about 42 billion rubles[112] (about US$1.433 billion at 2009 exchange rates).
In 2015, St. Petersburg was ranked in 4th place economically amongst all federal subjects of the Russian Federation, surpassed only by Moscow, the Tyumen and Moscow Region.[113]
From April to November, 22 bridges across the Neva and main canals are drawn to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea according to a schedule.[114] It was not until 2004 that the first high bridge across the Neva, which does not need to be drawn,Big Obukhovsky Bridge, was opened. The most remarkable bridges of our days are Korabelny and Petrovsky cable-stayed bridges, which form the most spectacular part of the city toll road,Western High-Speed Diameter. There are hundreds of smallerbridges in Saint Petersburg spanning numerous canals and distributaries of the Neva, some of the most important of which are theMoika,Fontanka,Griboyedov Canal,Obvodny Canal,Karpovka, andSmolenka. Due to the intricate web of canals, Saint Petersburg is often calledVenice of the North. The rivers and canals in the city centre are lined with granite embankments. The embankments and bridges are separated from rivers and canals bygranite orcast ironparapets.
Southern suburbs of the city feature former imperial residences, includingPetergof, with majestic fountain cascades and parks,Tsarskoe Selo, with the baroqueCatherine Palace and the neoclassicalAlexander Palace, andPavlovsk, which has a domed palace ofEmperor Paul and one of Europe's largest English-style parks. Some other residences nearby and making part of the world heritage site, including a castle and park inGatchina, actually belong toLeningrad Oblast rather than Saint Petersburg. Another notable suburb isKronstadt with its 19th-century fortifications and naval monuments, occupying theKotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland.
Since around the end of the 20th century, a great deal of active building and restoration works have been carried out in a number of the city's older districts.The authorities have recently been compelled to transfer the ownership of state-owned private residences in the city centre to private lessors. Many older buildings have been reconstructed to allow their use as apartments and penthouses.
Saint Petersburg is home to many parks and gardens. Some of the most well-known are in the southern suburbs, includingPavlovsk, one of Europe's largestEnglish gardens.Sosnovka is the largest park within the city limits, occupying 240 ha. TheSummer Garden is the oldest, dating back to the early 18th century and designed in the regular style. It is on the Neva's southern bank at the head of the Fontanka and is famous for its cast iron railing and marble sculptures.
In order to commemorate 300 years anniversary of Saint Petersburg, a new park was laid out. The park is in the northwestern part of the city. The construction started in 1995. It is planned to connect the park with the pedestrian bridge to the territory ofLakhta Center's recreation areas. In the park 300 trees of valuable sorts, 300 decorative apple trees, and 70 limes. 300 other trees and bushes were planted. These trees were presented to Saint Petersburg by non-commercial and educational organizations of the city, its sister-cities, the city of Helsinki, heads of other regions of Russia, German Savings Bank and other people and organizations.[116]
Cameron gallery in Catherine park of Tsarskoe Selo
Grotto pavilion in Catherine park of Tsarskoe Selo
Regulations forbid the construction of tall buildings in Saint Petersburg's city centre. Until the early 2010s, threeskyscrapers were built: Leader Tower (140 m), Alexander Nevsky (124 m), and Atlantic City (105 m) – all situated far from the historical centre. The 310-metre (1,020 ft) tallSaint Petersburg TV Tower, constructed in 1962, was the tallest structure in the city.
However, a controversial project endorsed by the city authorities was announced, known as theOkhta Center, to build a 396-metre (1,299 ft)supertall skyscraper. In 2008, theWorld Monuments Fund included the Saint Petersburg historic skyline on the watch list of the 100 most endangered sites due to the expected construction, which threatened to alter it drastically.[117] The Okhta Center project was cancelled at the end of 2010.
In 2012, theLakhta Center project began in the city's outskirts, to include a 463-metre (1,519 ft) tall office skyscraper and several low-rise mixed-use buildings. The latter project caused much less controversy. Unlike the previous unbuilt project, it was not seen byUNESCO as a potential threat to the city's cultural heritage due to its remote location from the historic centre. The skyscraper was completed in 2019, and at 462.5 meters, it is currently thetallest in Russia and Europe.
This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Needs discussion on how theRussian invasion of Ukraine has affected tourism. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2023)
The city's 18th and 19th-century architectural ensemble and its environs are preserved in virtually unchanged form. For various reasons (including large-scale destruction during World War II and construction of modern buildings during the postwar period in the largest historical centres of Europe), Saint Petersburg has become a unique reserve of European architectural styles of the past three centuries. Saint Petersburg's loss of capital city status helped it retain many of its pre-revolutionary buildings, as modern architectural 'prestige projects' tended to be built in Moscow; this largely prevented the rise of mid-to-late-20th-century architecture and helped maintain the architectural appearance of the historic city centre.
Saint Petersburg is inscribed on theUNESCO World Heritage list as an area with 36 historical architectural complexes and around 4000 outstanding individual monuments of architecture, history, and culture. New tourist programs and sightseeing tours have been developed for those wishing to see Saint Petersburg's cultural heritage.
The city has 221 museums, 2,000 libraries, more than 80 theatres, 100 concert organizations, 45 galleries and exhibition halls, 62 cinemas, and 80 other cultural establishments. Every year, the city hosts around 100 festivals and various competitions of art and culture, including more than 50 international ones.[citation needed]
Grand Peterhof Palace and the Grand Cascade
Despite theeconomic instability of the 1990s, not a single major theatre or museum was closed in Saint Petersburg; on the contrary many new ones opened, for example a private museum of puppets (opened in 1999) is the third museum of its kind in Russia, where collections of more than 2000 dolls are presented including 'The multinational Saint Petersburg' and Pushkin's Petersburg. The museum world of Saint Petersburg is incredibly diverse. The city is not only home to the world-famousHermitage Museum and theRussian Museum with its rich collection ofRussian art, but also the palaces of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs, so-called small-town museums and others like the museum of famous Russian writerDostoyevsky; Museum of Musical Instruments, the museum of decorative arts and the museum of professional orientation.
Themusical life of Saint Petersburg is rich and diverse, with the city now playing host to a number of annual carnivals. Ballet performances occupy a special place in the cultural life of Saint Petersburg. The Petersburg School of Ballet is named as one of the best in the world. Traditions of the Russian classical school have been passed down from generation to generation among outstanding educators. The art of famous and prominent Saint Petersburg dancers likeRudolf Nureyev,Natalia Makarova,Mikhail Baryshnikov was, and is, admired throughout the world. Contemporary Petersburg ballet is made up not only of traditional Russian classical school but also ballets by those likeBoris Eifman, who expanded the scope of strict classicalRussian ballet to almost unimaginable limits. Remaining faithful to the classical basis (he was a choreographer at theVaganova Academy of Russian Ballet), he combinedclassical ballet with theavant-garde style, and then, in turn, with acrobatics, rhythmic gymnastics, dramatic expressiveness,cinema, color, light, and finally with spoken word.
All major Russian newspapers are active in Saint Petersburg. The city has a developed telecommunications system. In 2014,Rostelecom, the national operator, announced the beginning of a major modernization of the fixed-line network in the city.[126]
TheKunstkamera, with its collection established in 1714 by Peter the Great to collect curiosities from all over the world, is sometimes considered the first museum in Russia, which has evolved into the present-dayPeter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. TheRussian Ethnography Museum, which has been split from the Russian Museum, is devoted to the cultures of the people of Russia, theformer Soviet Union, and the Russian Empire.
The State Russian Museum is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art.
The Russian Museum of Ethnography is one of the largest ethnographic museums in the world.[128]
Several museums provide insight into the Soviet history of Saint Petersburg, including the Museum of the Blockade, which describes theSiege of Leningrad and the Museum of Political History, which explains many authoritarian features of the USSR.
Dmitri Shostakovich, who was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, dedicated hisSeventh Symphony to the city, calling it the "Leningrad Symphony". He wrote the symphony while based in the city during the siege of Leningrad. It was premiered in Samara in March 1942; a few months later, it received its firstperformance in the besieged Leningrad at the Bolshoy Philharmonic Hall under the baton of conductorKarl Eliasberg. It was heard over the radio and was said to have lifted the spirits of the surviving population.[130] In 1992, the 7th Symphony was performed by the 14 surviving orchestral players of the Leningrad premiere in the same hall as half a century before.[131] TheLeningrad Philharmonic Orchestra remained one of the best knownsymphony orchestras in the world under the leadership of conductorsYevgeny Mravinsky andYuri Temirkanov. Mravinsky's term as artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic – a term that is possibly the longest of any conductor with any orchestra in modern times – led the orchestra from a little-known provincial ensemble to one of the world's most highly regarded orchestras, especially for the performance of Russian music.
The Imperial Choral Capella was founded and modelled after theroyal courts of other European capitals.
Saint Petersburg has been home to the newest movements inpopular music in the country. The early Sovietjazz bands founded here includedLeopold Teplitsky's First Concert Jazz Band (1927),Leonid Utyosov 's TheaJazz (1928, under the patronage of composerIsaak Dunayevsky), and Georgy Landsberg's Jazz Cappella (1929). The first jazz appreciation society in the Soviet Union was founded here in 1958 as J58, and later namedjazz club Kvadrat. In 1956, the popular ensemble Druzhba was founded by Aleksandr Bronevitsky andEdita Piekha to become the first popular band in the USSR during the 1950s. In the 1960s, student rock-groups Argonavty, Kochevniki, and others pioneered a series of unofficial andunderground rock concerts and festivals. In 1972,Boris Grebenshchikov founded the bandAquarium, which later grew to huge popularity. Since then, "Peter's rock"music style was formed.
In the 1970s many bands came out from the "underground" scene and eventually founded theLeningrad Rock Club, which provided a stage to bands such asDDT,Kino,Alisa,Zemlyane,Zoopark,Piknik, andSecret. The first Russian-style happening showPop Mekhanika, mixing over 300 people and animals on stage, was directed by the multi-talentedSergey Kuryokhin in the 1980s. The Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) is named after him. In 2004, theKuryokhin Center was founded, where the SKIF and the Electro-Mechanica and Ethnomechanica festivals take place. SKIF focuses onexperimental pop music andavant-garde music, Electro-Mechanica onelectronic music, and Ethnomechanica onworld music.
TheWhite Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg is famous for spectacular fireworks and a massive show celebrating the end of theschool year.
The rave bandLittle Big also hails from Saint Petersburg. Their music video for "Skibidi" was filmed in the city, starting at Akademicheskiy Pereulok.[132]
Saint Petersburg has a longstanding and world-famous tradition in literature.Dostoyevsky called it "The most abstract and intentional city in the world", emphasizing its artificiality, but it was also a symbol of modern disorder in a changing Russia. It often appeared toRussian writers as a menacing and inhuman mechanism. The grotesque and often nightmarish image of the city is featured in Pushkin's last poems, the Petersburg stories ofGogol, the novels ofDostoyevsky, the verse ofAlexander Blok andOsip Mandelshtam, and in the symbolist novelPetersburg byAndrey Bely. According to Lotman in his chapter, 'The Symbolism of Saint Petersburg' inUniverse and the Mind, these writers were inspired by symbolism from within the city itself. The effect of life in Saint Petersburg on the plight of the poor clerk in a society obsessed with hierarchy and status also became an important theme for authors such asPushkin, Gogol, and Dostoyevsky. Another important feature of early Saint Petersburg literature is its mythical element, which incorporatesurban legends and popularghost stories, as the stories of Pushkin and Gogol included ghosts returning to Saint Petersburg to haunt other characters as well as other fantastical elements, creating a surreal and abstract image of Saint Petersburg.
Twentieth-century writers from Saint Petersburg, such asVladimir Nabokov,Ayn Rand, Andrey Bely andYevgeny Zamyatin, along with his apprentices, TheSerapion Brothers, created entirely new styles in literature and contributed new insights to the understanding of society through their experience in this city.Anna Akhmatova became an important leader forRussian poetry. Her poemRequiem adumbrates the perils encountered during the Stalinist era. Another notable 20th-century writer from Saint Petersburg isJoseph Brodsky, recipient of theNobel Prize in Literature (1987). While living in the United States, his writings in English reflected on life in Saint Petersburg from the unique perspective of being both an insider and an outsider to the city in essays such as "A Guide to a Renamed City" and the nostalgic "In a Room and a Half".[133]
Over 300 international and Russian movies were filmed in Saint Petersburg.[134] Well over a thousand feature films about tsars, revolution, people and stories set in Saint Petersburg have been produced worldwide but not filmed in the city. The firstfilm studios were founded in Saint Petersburg in the 20th century, and since the 1920s,Lenfilm has been the largest film studio based in Saint Petersburg. The first foreign feature movie filmed entirely in Saint Petersburg was the 1997 production of Tolstoy'sAnna Karenina, starringSophie Marceau andSean Bean and made by an international team of British, American, French, and Russian filmmakers.
The cult comedyIrony of Fate[135] (also Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!) is set in Saint Petersburg and pokes fun at Soviet city planning. The 1985 filmWhite Nights received considerable Western attention for having captured genuine Leningrad street scenes at a time when filming in the Soviet Union by Western production companies was generally unheard of. Other movies includeGoldenEye (1995),Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996),Brother (1997) andTamil romanticthriller film-Dhaam Dhoom (2008).Onegin (1999) is based on thePushkin poem and showcases manytourist attractions. In addition, the Russian romantic comedy,Piter FM, intricately showcases the cityscape, almost as if it were a main character in the film.
Several international film festivals are held annually, such as theFestival of Festivals, Saint Petersburg, as well as the Message to Man International Documentary Film Festival, since its inauguration in 1988 during the White Nights.[136]
In boating, the first competition here was the 1703rowing event initiated by Peter the Great, after the victory over theSwedish fleet. The Russian Navy has heldYachting events since the foundation of the city.Yacht clubs:[141]St. Petersburg River Yacht Club,Neva Yacht Club, the latter is the oldest yacht club in the world. In the winter, when the sea and lake surfaces are frozen and yachts and dinghies cannot be used, local people sailice boats.
Equestrianism has been a long tradition, popular among the Tsars and aristocracy, as well as part ofmilitary training. Several historic sports arenas were built for equestrianism since the 18th century to maintain training all year round, such as the Zimny Stadion and Konnogvardeisky Manezh.
Kirov Stadium formerly existed as Zenit's home from 1950 to 1993 and again in 1995, being one of the largest stadiums in the world at the time. In 1951, a crowd of 110,000 set the single-game attendance record for Soviet football. The stadium was knocked down in 2006, with Zenit temporarily moving to thePetrovsky Stadium before theKrestovsky Stadium was built on the same site as the Kirov Stadium. The Krestovsky Stadium opened in 2017, hosting four matches at the2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, including thefinal. The stadium then hosted seven matches at the2018 FIFA World Cup, including a semi-final and the third-placed playoff. It also hosted seven matches atUEFA Euro 2020, including a quarter-final. The stadium was going to host the2022 UEFA Champions League final, however UEFA removed Saint Petersburg as host in February 2022, citing the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[142]
Saint Petersburg is a major transport hub. The first Russian railway was built here in 1837, and since then, the city's transport infrastructure has kept pace with the city's growth. Petersburg has an extensive system of local roads and railway services, maintains a large public transport system that includes theSaint Petersburg tram and theSaint Petersburg Metro, and is home to several riverine services that convey passengers around the city efficiently and in relative comfort.
The city is connected to the rest of Russia and the wider world by several federal highways and national and international rail routes.Pulkovo Airport serves most of the air passengers departing from or arriving in the city.
Buses carry up to 3 million passengers daily, with over 250 urban and suburban bus routes.
Saint Petersburg Metro was opened in 1955; it now has 5 lines with 73 stations, connecting all five railway terminals,[147] and carrying 2.3 million passengers daily. Many stations are elaborately decorated with materials such as marble and bronze. There are plans for extending several lines and building one new depot.[148] Plans call for 16 new stations to open between 2025 and 2035, including 10 that will open between 2025 and 2030.[149] The Admiralteysko-Okhtinskaya and Koltsevaya line is projected to open after the 2030s.[150]
Traffic jams are common in the city due to daily commuter traffic volumes, intercity traffic, and excessive winter snow. The construction offreeways such as theSaint Petersburg Ring Road, completed in 2011, and theWestern High-Speed Diameter, completed in 2017, helped reduce traffic in the city. TheM11 Neva, also known as the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Motorway, is afederal highway, and connects Saint Petersburg to Moscow by a freeway.
The first high bridge that does not need to be drawn, the 2,824-metre-long (9,265 ft)Big Obukhovsky Bridge opened in 2004.Meteor hydrofoils link the city centre to the coastal towns ofKronstadt andShlisselburg from May through October.[151] In the warmer months, many smaller boats and water-taxis navigate the city's canals.
TheSapsan high-speed train runs between Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
The city is the final destination for a web of intercity and suburban railways, served by five different railway terminals (Baltiysky,Finlyandsky,Ladozhsky,Moskovsky andVitebsky),[g][153] as well as dozens of non-terminalrailway stations within the federal subject. Saint Petersburg has international railway connections toHelsinki, Finland; Berlin, Germany; and many former republics of the USSR. TheHelsinki railway, built in 1870 and 443 kilometres (275 mi) long, had until 2022 trains running five times a day, in a journey lasting about three and a half hours with theAllegro train.
TheMoscow–Saint Petersburg Railway opened in 1851, and is 651 kilometres (405 mi) long; the commute to Moscow now requires from three and a half to nine hours.[154]
In 2009,Russian Railways launched a high-speed service for the Moscow–Saint Petersburg route. The new train, known asSapsan, is a derivative of the popularSiemens Velaro train; various versions of this already operate in some European countries. It set records for the fastest train in Russia on 2 May 2009, travelling at 281 kilometres per hour (175 mph)[155] and on 7 May 2009, travelling at 290 kilometres per hour (180 mph).
From 12 December 2010 until March 2022,Karelian Trains, a joint venture betweenRussian Railways andVR (Finnish Railways), has been runningAlstom Pendolino operated high-speed services between Saint Petersburg'sFinlyandsky and Helsinki'sCentral railway stations. These services are branded as "Allegro" trains. "Allegro" is known for suffering from some big technical problems from time to time, which sometimes result in significant delays and even cancellation of tourists' trips.[156] The service has been suspended indefinitely in the context of theRussian invasion of Ukraine and is not expected to resume.
Intercity and suburban rail terminals of St. Petersburg
Pulkovo airport was opened to passengers as a small aerodrome in 1931. As of 2013[update], the Pulkovo airport, which handles over 12 million passengers annually, is the 3rd busiest in Russia after Moscow'sSheremetyevo andDomodedovo. As a result, the steadily increasing passenger traffic has triggered a massive modernization of the entire airport infrastructure. A newly built Terminal 1 of the Pulkovo airport was put into operation on 4 December 2013 and integrated international flights of the former terminal Pulkovo-2. The renovated terminal Pulkovo-1 has been opened for domestic flights as an extension of Terminal 1 in 2015.[158] One of the oldest air carriers of the Russian Federation (Rossiya Airlines) is registered in Saint Petersburg and is the largest and the base carrier of Pulkovo Airport.[159]
There is a regular rapid-bus connection (buses 39, 39E, K39) between Pulkovo airport and theMoskovskaya metro station as well as a 24/7 taxi service.
List of sister cities to Saint Petersburg as it appears on the official portal of the City Government, listing both sister cities and partnership ties:[160]
Non CIS/Baltic states sister cities of Saint Petersburg (from official government list)
Italian citiesMilan andVenice were formerly twin cities of Saint Petersburg, but suspended this link due to St. Petersburg's ban on "gay propaganda".[208] Milan suspended the relationship with Saint Petersburg on 23 November 2012[209] and Venice did so on 28 January 2013.[210]
Some Russian cities are twinned with ones in occupied Ukraine, in particular, Saint Petersburg is twinned withMariupol.[222] An art symbol of the twinning was unveiled onPalace Square in Saint Petersburg, defaced and removed.[223]
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