Saint Petersburg
Template:City in Russia Saint Petersburg (Russian: , tr.: Sankt-Peterburg, IPA: [sankt pʲɪtʲɪˈrburk]) is a city and a federal subject located in Northwestern Federal District of Russia on the delta of the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is informally known as Piter (Питер) and was formerly known as Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924) and Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991)
Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703 as a "window to Europe", it served as the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 when the government moved to Moscow after the Russian Revolution of 1917. With about 4.8 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and over 6 million people in the city with its vicinity, Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest and one of largest cities in Europe, a major European cultural center, and the second most important Russian port on the Baltic Sea (after Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast). The city has a total area of 1439 square km.
Among cities of the world having populations of over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200 years, the city is impressive even today, and is sometimes referred to in Russia as "the Northern Capital" (северная столица, severnaya stolitsa). It is the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast (itself a separate region) and of the Northwestern Federal District.
The Constitutional Court of Russia is scheduled to move from Kitai-gorod in Moscow to the Senate and Synod buildings on the Decembrists Square by 2008, returning to Saint Petersburg a part of the role of a national capital, acting as a second judicial capital while Moscow retains its status as administrative, legislative and the first judicial capital of Russia (since both the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation won't move from the Russian capital) .
History
The overview
Tsar Peter the Great founded the city on May 27, 1703 (May 16, Old Style) after reconquering the Ingrian land from Sweden in the beginning of the Great Northern War. He named it after his patron saint, the apostle Saint Peter. The original name Sankt Pieterburg (pronounced Sankt Piterburh) was actually an imitation of the pronunciation of Dutch (Modern Dutch Sint Petersburg); Peter had lived and studied in the Netherlands for quite some time. The Swedish fortress of Nyenskans and the city Nyen had formerly occupied the site, in the marshlands where the river Neva drains into the Gulf of Finland.
The building of this new city under adverse weather and geographical conditions, and the high mortality rate that went with it, required a constant supply of new workers. Since inhabitants in the area were few and far between, Peter, exercising his prerogative as tsar, drafted forced labor from all parts of the country. A yearly conscription of 40,000 peasants was levied; to obtain this a quota of one conscript for every nine to sixteen households, depending on location, was applied. Conscripts were expected to provide their own tools and food for the journey. They traveled hundreds of kilometers, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and shackled to prevent desertion, yet despite these precautions many escaped. Others died from disease and exposure under the harsh conditions of the trek. Consequently Peter seldom received more than 20,000 workers in any year—a loss of about 50% from the very start.
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 Sankt Pieterburg. It was laid down on Zaiachiy (Hare's) 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 whom Peter had 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.[1]
"The most artificial city in the world", as Dostoevsky put it, was intended to become the new capital of Russia. Peter the Great transferred the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, though its territory was formally annexed by Russia only in 1721 according to the Treaty of Nystad. By virtue of its position on an arm of the Baltic Sea, it was called by Pushkin a "window on Europe". It was also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the island fortress of Kronstadt, built soon after the city in 1704. Indeed, the first person to build a house in Saint Petersburg was Cornelis Cruys, commander of the Baltic Fleet. Inspired by example of Venice and Amsterdam, Peter the Great envisaged boats and coracles as principal means of transport in his city of canals. No permanent bridges across the Neva were allowed until 1850.
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov was the first Governor General of Saint Petersburg in 1703-1727. In 1724 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was established in the city. In 1728 Peter II of Russia moved the capital back to Moscow, where it remained until 1732.
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. By the end of the century, St Petersburg had grown up into one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe.
With the growth of industry, radical 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, 1914 (August 18, Old Style).
1917 saw the beginnings of the Russian Revolution. The first step (the February Revolution) was the removal of the Tsarist government and the establishment of two centers of political power, the Provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional 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 24 1924, three days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. The central committee's reason for renaming the city again was that Lenin had led the October revolution. Deeper reasons existed at the level of political symbolism: Saint Petersburg had stood as the head of the Tsarist empire. After Moscow it was the largest city and the change gave great prestige to Lenin. The renaming to Leningrad emphatically symbolized the upheaval that had occurred to the social and political system.
The 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).
In 1931 Leningrad became administratively separate from Leningrad Oblast.
Siege of Leningrad
During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded and besieged by the German Wehrmacht from September 8 1941 to January 27 1944, a total of 29 months. By Hitler's order the Wehrmacht constantly shelled and bombed the city and systematically isolated it from any supplies, which led to the death of more than 1 million people, about 800,000 of them civilians. The secret instruction of the Wehrmacht's high command from 23 September 1941 said that "the Führer is determined to eliminate the city of Petersburg from the face of earth. There is no reason whatsoever for subsequent existence of this large-scale city after the neutralization of the Soviet Russia." Starting in early 1942, the Ingermanland region was included into the Generalplan Ost annexation plans as the "German settlement area". This implied the genocide of 3 million Leningrad residents, who had no place in this "New East European Order".
Hitler ordered preparations for celebrating the New Year 1942 at the Tsar's Palaces, and planned his residence at the hotel Astoria. A printed invitation to Hitler's reception ball at the Hotel Astoria is now on display at the City Museum of St. Petersburg.
During the German blockade, the only ways to supply the city, and suburbs, inhabited by several millions, were by aircraft or via Lake Ladoga. The Germans systematically shelled this route, called the Road of Life. The situation in the city was especially horrible in the winter of 1941 - 1942. The German bombing raids obliterated most of the food reserves. A daily ration declined in October to 400 grams of bread for a worker and 200 grams for a woman or child. On 20 November 1941, the rations were reduced to 250 and 125 grams respectively. Those grams of bread were the bulk of a daily meal for a person in the city. The running water supply was destroyed. The situation further worsened in winter by lack of heating fuel. In December 1941 alone some 53,000 people in Leningrad died of starvation, many corpses were scattered in the streets all over the city.
"Savichevs died. Everyone died. Only Tanya is left," wrote 11-year-old Leningrad girl Tanya Savicheva in her diary. This diary became one of the symbols of the blockade tragedy and was shown as one of many documents at the Nuremberg trials.
The city suffered severe destruction - the Wehrmacht fired about 150,000 shells at Leningrad and dropped about 100,000 air bombs. Many houses, schools, hospitals and other buildings were leveled, and those in the occupied territory were plundered by German troops.
Altogether, as a result of the German blockade, about 800,000 of 3 million Leningrad civilians perished because of bombardment, starvation and cold.
Historians speak about the Nazi genocide of the Leningrad residents in terms of the "racially motivated starvation policy" which became the integral part of the unprecedented German war of extermination against the civilian population of the Soviet Union. [2]
For the heroic tenacity of the city's population, Leningrad became the first Soviet city to be awarded the title Hero City in 1945.
After the war
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. In 1955 Leningrad Metro, the second underground rapid transit system in the country, was opened.
Shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, on June 121991, day of the first Russian presidential election, a referendum was held, where 54% of voters chose to restore "the original name, Saint Petersburg," on September 6, 1991. In that very election Anatoly Sobchak became the first democratically elected mayor of the city.
As well as the city, 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks were renamed. Nevertheless, some, especially older people, still use the old names and, for example, use the old addresses on letters. The name releases positive associations particularly in connection with the siege - so that on holidays even authorities call places connected with World War II "Hero city Leningrad". Among young people the name Leningrad seems to be a vague protest against the new society. One of the most successful bands in Russia, a Ska punk band from Saint Petersburg, called themselves Leningrad (not to be confused with Leningrad Cowboys from Finland).
Leningrad Oblast, separate federal subject of Russia of which the city is the capital, retained its name after a popular vote.
Vladimir Yakovlev defeated Anatoly Sobchak in the next gubernatorial elections in 1996. In 2003, after Yakovlev's resignation a year before his second term expired, Valentina Matviyenko was elected governor. After direct gubernatorial elections were abolished, in 2006 she was reapproved as governor by the city legislature.
Geography and climate
Floods
In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia's elite built lavishly in the city, leaving many palaces that survive to this day. But the city also suffered from regular flooding. The worst such flood occurred in November 7 1824, when the water level rose 4.21 meters above normal. The playwright Alexander Griboyedov wrote, "The embankments of the various canals had disappeared and all the canals had united into one. Hundred-year-old trees in the Summer Garden were ripped from the ground and lying in rows, roots upward." When the waters receded 569 dead bodies were found, with thousands more injured or made ill, and more than 300 buildings had been washed away. The 1824 inundation is the setting for Alexander Pushkin's famous poem, The Bronze Horseman (1834). Other disastrous floods took place in 1777 and 1924. Construction of the Saint Petersburg Dam to prevent floods has been under way since 1979.
Landmarks and tourist attractions
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, monuments 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 led to St. Petersburg being given the name of "Venice of the North".
St. Petersburg's position below the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as nearby Helsinki, Stockholm, Aberdeen 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 eight drawbridges spanning the Neva. Tourists flock to see the bridges drawn and lowered again at night to allow shipping to pass up and down the river. Bridges open from May to late October according to a special schedule between approximately 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.
The historical center of St. Petersburg, sometimes called the outdoor museum of Architecture[citation needed], was the first Russian patrimony inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Bridges
Saint Petersburg is built on what originally were more than 100 islands created by a maze of rivers, creeks, canals and other bodies of water, with the Neva river being the main waterway.
When Peter the Great was designing the city, he is said to have conceived it as another Amsterdam, with canals instead of streets and citizens skillful in sailing. This is why initially, there were only about ten bridges constructed in the city, mainly across ditches and minor creeks. By Peter's plans, in the summer months, the citizens were supposed to move around in boats, and in the winter months when the water froze to move in sledges. However, after Peter's death, new bridges were built, as it was a much easier way of transportation. The first bridge across the Neva appeared in the 19th century.[citation needed]
Today, there are 342 bridges of different sizes, styles and constructions, built at different periods. Some of them are small pedestrian bridges, such as Bank and Lion bridges, others are huge transport arteries such as almost one kilometer long Alexander Nevsky Bridge. The nearly 100-meter-wide Blue Bridge, claimed to be the widest in the world, spans the Moyka River. There are bridges decorated in medieval styles with lions, horses and griffins, and there are modern styles lacking any decor. Basically they go up and down at night, pretty much at random, and contribute greatly to the magestic shit-show that is day-to-day life in St. Petersburg.
The names of the bridges are of a great diversity as well. Some take their names from geographic locations — such as English, Italian and Egyptian bridges. Other names refer to the places such as Postoffice, Theater and Bank bridges. Many bridges are named after famous people - Alexander Nevsky, Peter the Great, Lomonosov bridges. There are "colored" bridges — Red, Green, Blue and Yellow bridges.
A familiar view of St. Petersburg is a drawbridge across the Neva. Every night during the navigation period from April to November, the bridges across Neva are drawn to let ships pass through the city.
Palaces
St. Petersburg has been known as the city of palaces. One of the earliest of these is the Summer Palace, a modest house built for Peter I in the Summer Garden (1710–1714). Much more imposing are the baroque residences of his associates, such as the Kikin Hall and the Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment, constructed from designs by Domenico Trezzini over the years 1710 to 1716. A residence adjacent to the Menshikov palace was redesigned for Peter II and now houses the State University.
Probably the most illustrious of imperial palaces is the baroque Winter Palace (1754–1762), a huge building with dazzlingly luxurious interiors, now housing the Hermitage Museum. The same architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, was also responsible for three residences in the vicinity of the Nevsky Prospekt: the Stroganov palace (1752–1754, now a wax museum), the Vorontsov palace (1749–1757, now a military school), and the Anichkov Palace (1741–1750, many times rebuilt, now a palace for children). Other baroque palaces include the Sheremetev house on the Fontanka embankment (also called the Fountain House), and the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace (1846–1848) on the Nevsky Prospekt, formerly a residence of the Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich.
Of Neoclassical palaces, the foremost is St Michael's (or Engineers') Castle, constructed for Emperor Paul in 1797–1801 to replace the earlier Summer Palace. The Tauride Palace of Prince Potemkin (1783–1789), situated nearby, used to be a seat of the first Russian parliament. Just to the left from the Hermitage buildings is the Marble Palace, commissioned by Count Orlov and built in 1768–1785 from various sorts of marble to a Neoclassical design by Antonio Rinaldi. The Michael Palace (1819–1825), famed for its opulent interiors and named after its first lodger, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, now houses the Russian Museum. Also built in the Neoclassical style are the Yusupov palace (the 1790s), where Rasputin was killed; the Razumovsky palace (1762–1766); the Shuvalov palace (1830–1838); and the Yelagin Palace (1818–1822), a sumptuous summer dacha of the imperial family, situated on the Yelagin Island. The last important residences were built for Nicholas I's children: the Mariinsky Palace (1839–1844), located just opposite St Isaac's Cathedral and housing a city council, the Nicholas Palace (1853–61), and the New Michael Palace (1857-1861).
Churches
Most of the church buildings belong to the Russian government, since their seizure in 1917. The largest church in the city is St Isaac's Cathedral (1818–1858), one of the biggest domed buildings in the world, constructed for 40 years under supervision of its architect, Auguste de Montferrand. Another magnificent church in the Empire style is the Kazan Cathedral (1801–1811), situated on the Nevsky Prospekt and modeled after St Peter's, Vatican. The Church of the Savior on Blood (1883–1907), is a monument in the old Russian style which marks the spot of Alexander II's assassination. The Peter and Paul Cathedral (1712–1732), a long-time symbol of the city, contains the sepulchers of Peter the Great and other Russian emperors. Apart from these four principal cathedrals, which operate today primarily as museums, there are numerous other churches.
Of baroque structures, the grandest is the white-and-blue Smolny Convent (1748–1764), later the Smolny Institute, a striking design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, but never completed. It is followed by the Naval Cathedral of St Nicholas (1753–1762), a lofty structure dedicated to the Russian Navy, the outside being covered with plaques to sailors lost at sea. The church of Sts Simeon and Anna (1731–1734), St Sampson Cathedral (1728–1740), St Pantaleon church (1735–1739), and St Andrew Cathedral (1764–1780) are all worth mentioning.
The Neoclassical churches are numerous. Many of them are intended to dominate vast squares, like St. Vladimir's Cathedral (1769–1789), not to be confused with the church of Our Lady of Vladimir (1761–1783). The Transfiguration Cathedral (1827–29) and the Trinity Cathedral (1828–1835, fire-damaged) were both designed by Vasily Stasov. Smaller churches include the Konyushennaya (1816–1823), also by Stasov, the "Easter Cake" church (1785–1787), noted for its droll appearance, St Catherine church on the Vasilievsky Island (1768–1771), and numerous non-Orthodox churches on the Nevsky Prospekt.
The Alexander Nevsky Monastery, intended to house the relics of St Alexander Nevsky, contains two cathedrals and several smaller churches in various styles. It is also remarkable for the Tikhvin Cemetery, where many notable Russians are buried.
The city has two small churches in the early Gothic Revival style, those of St John the Baptist (1776–1781) and the Chesmenskaya (1777–1780), both designed by Yury Velten. The late 19th century and early 20th century temples are all constructed from Russian Revival or Byzantine Revival designs. Saint Petersburg Mosque (1909–1920), once the largest in Europe, is built after the model of the Gur-e Amir Mosque in Samarkand.
St Petersburg Buddhist temple was the first in Europe. Construction was funded by subscriptions of the Dalai Lama and Russian and Mongolian Buddhists; the structure was inaugurated in the presence of Itigilov in 1914 and served as a valuable resource to transient Buryats and Kalmyks during World War I. It functioned until 1935 when the lamas passed into gulags. The temple and its grounds were used for secular purposes until 1991, when the datsan was eventually reopened for worship.
Public buildings
The Peter and Paul Fortress, formerly a political prison, occupies a dominant position in the center of the city. A boardwalk was built along a portion of the fortress wall, giving visitors a clear view of the city across the river to the south. On the other bank of the Neva, the spit of the Vasilievsky island is graced by the former Bourse building (1805–1810), reminiscent of a classic Greek temple, with two great Rostral Columns, decorated with ships' prows, standing in front of it.
The most famous of St. Petersburg's museums is the Hermitage, one of the world's largest and richest collections of Western European art. Its vast holdings were originally exhibited in the Greek Revival building (1838–1852) by Leo von Klenze, now called the New Hermitage. But the first Russian museum was established by Peter the Great in the Kunstkammer, erected in 1718–1734 on the opposite bank of the Neva River and formerly a home to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Other popular tourist destinations include the Stieglitz Museum of Applied Arts (1885–1895), the Ethnography Museum (1900–1911), the Suvorov Museum of Military History (1901–1904), and the Political History Museum (1904–06).
The imperial government institutions were housed in the General Staff building on the Palace Square (1820–1827), with a huge triumphal arch in the centre, the Senate and Synod buildings on the Senate Square (1827–1843), the Imperial Cabinet (1803–1805) and the City Duma (1784-87) on the Nevsky Prospekt, the Assignation Bank (1783–1790), the Customs Office (1829–1832), and the splendid Admiralty (1806–1823), one of the city's most conspicuous landmarks. Most of these buildings were designed either by Giacomo Quarenghi, or by Carlo Rossi.
The former imperial capital is rich in educational institutions. Saint Petersburg State University occupies several buildings on the Vasilievsky Island, including the spacious baroque edifice of Twelve Collegia (1722–1744). The Academy of Arts (1764–1788), an exceedingly handsome structure, overlooks a quayside adorned with genuine Egyptian griffins and sphinxes. The Smolny Institute (1806–1808), originally the first school for Russian women, was picked up by Lenin as his headquarters during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Catherine Institute (1804–1807), also designed by Quarenghi, has been affiliated with the Russian National Library. Another Neoclassical building by Quarenghi, a roomy Horse Guards Riding School (1804–1807), was recently designated the Central Exhibition Hall.
Some of the city shops and storehouses are landmarks in their own right. For example, the monumental New Holland Arch (1779–1787) and adjacent walls of the New Holland isle are occupied by commercial enterprises. The Merchant Court on the Nevsky Prospekt (1761–1785), also designed by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, houses the largest extant 18th-century supermarket in the world, as well as several coffee bars and a metro station. Nearby are the Circular Market, erected in 1785–1790, and the Passage, one of the great covered arcades of the mid-19th century. Other department stores, built in the majestic Art Nouveau style, line the Nevsky Prospekt and include the Eliseev emporium and the House of Books.
St Petersburg is a home to many theatres. The oldest is the Hermitage Theatre, a private palatial theatre of Catherine the Great, still preserving the complex stage machinery of the 18th-century. The Alexandrine Theatre, built in 1828–1832 by Carlo Rossi, was named after the wife of Nicholas I. Much more famous outside Russia is the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly known as the Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet), which has been styled the capital of the world ballet. Also worthy of note is the Ciniselli Circus, one of the oldest circus buildings in the world. The city conservatory, the first in Russia, was opened in 1862 and bears the name of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; its alumni include Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich.
Public monuments
Probably the most familiar symbol of St Petersburg is the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, known as the Bronze Horseman and installed in 1782 on the Senate Square. Considered the greatest masterpiece of the French-born Etienne Maurice Falconet, Aleksandr Pushkin's poem about the statue figures prominently in the Russian literature under the name of The Bronze Horseman.
The Palace Square is dominated by the unique Alexander Column(1830–1834), the tallest of its kind in the world and so nicely set that no attachment to the base is needed. A striking monument to Generalissimo Suvorov, represented as a youthful god of war, was erected in 1801 on the Field of Mars, formerly used for military parades and popular festivities. Saint Isaac's Square is graced by the Monument to Nicholas I (1856–1859), which was spared by Bolshevik authorities from destruction as the first equestrian statue in the world with merely two support points (the rear feet of the horse).
The public monuments of St Petersburg also include Mikeshin's circular statue of Catherine II on the Nevsky Avenue, fine horse statues on the Anichkov Bridge, a Rodin-like equestrian statue of Alexander III by Paolo Troubetzkoy, and the Tercentenary monument presented by France in 2003 and installed on the Sennaya Square.
Some of the most important events in the city's history are represented by particular monuments. The Russian victory over Napoleon, for example, was commemorated by the Narva Triumphal Gate (1827–1834), and the victory in the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829 — by the Moscow Triumphal Gates (1834–1838). Following this tradition, the Piskarevskoye Cemetery was opened in 1960 as a monument to the victims of the 900-Day Siege.
Suburbs
St Petersburg is surrounded by imperial residences, some of which are inscribed in the World Heritage list. These include: Peterhof, with the Grand Peterhof Palace and glorious fountain cascades; Tsarskoe Selo, with the baroque Catherine Palace and the neoclassical Alexander Palace; and Pavlovsk, which contains a domed palace of Emperor Paul (1782–1786) and one of the largest English-style parks in Europe.
Much of Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo had to be restored after being dynamited by the retreating Germans in 1944. Other imperial residences have yet to be revived to their former glory. Gatchina, lying 45 km southwest of St Petersburg, retains a royal castle with 600 rooms surrounded by a park. Oranienbaum, founded by Prince Menshikov, features his spacious baroque residence and the sumptuously decorated Chinese palace. Strelna has a hunting lodge of Peter the Great and the reconstructed Constantine Palace, used for official summits of the Russian president with foreign leaders.
Other notable suburbs are Shlisselburg, with a medieval fortress, and Kronstadt, with its 19th-century fortifications and naval monuments. Catherinehof, originally intended as a garden suburb, was engulfed by the city in the 19th century.
Administration
The superior executive body of the federation subject is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by the governor (mayor before 1996). Saint Petersburg has also a single-chamber legislature, the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly. The current governor is Valentina Matviyenko.
Demographics
Population: According to the 2002 census the population was 4,661,219, making it the second largest city in Russia with slightly less than half the population of Moscow. Just over 3.21% of the total population of Russia live in the city.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated there were up to 16,000 children living on the street in 2000.[3]
The Russian Orthodox church is still the most important religious denomination, though many people are atheist.[citation needed]
Ethnic groups: The 2002 census counted twenty-two ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each. The national composition was • Russian 84.72% • Ukrainian 1.87% • Belarusians 1.17% • Jewish 0.78% • Tatar 0.76% • Armenian 0.41% • Azeri 0.36% • Georgian 0.22% • Chuvash 0.13% • Polish 0.10% • Finnish 0.08% • Korean 0.08% • German 0.08% • Moldovan 0.07% • Mordovian 0.07% • Uzbek 0.06% • Kazakh 0.06% • Ossetian 0.06% • Bashkir 0.05% • Tajik 0.05% • Estonian 0.05% • Karelian 0.05% and many other ethnic groups of less than two thousand persons each. In addition, 7.89% of the inhabitants declined to state their nationality on the census questionnaire.[4]
Population development
The following charts show the numbers of inhabitants. Until 1944 these were mostly estimates, but the figures for 1959 to 2002 come from census returns, and the figure for 2005 is an estimate.
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Economy
The city is a major center of machine building, including power equipment, machinery, shipyards, instrument manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of aluminium alloys), chemicals, printing, and one of the major ports of the Baltic Sea. The Saint Petersburg Mint (Monetny Dvor) is apart from Goznak in Moscow the only place in Russia that mints Russian coins, medals and badges. Ford Motor Company began producing the Ford Focus automobile here in 2002. Toyota is building a plant in one of the suburbs; General Motors and Nissan have signed deals with the Russian government too. Saint Petersburg is also known as a "beer capital" of Russia contributing over 30% of the domestic production of beer with its five large-scale breweries including Europe's second largest brewery Baltika, Vena (both operated by BBH), Heineken Brewery, Stepan Razin (both by Heineken) and Tinkoff brewery (SUN-InBev). In 2006 Saint-Petersburg's budget reached volume of more than $9 billion and is planned to reach $15 billion by 2010.
Transport
The city is a major transport hub. It is the center of the local road and railway system, and has a seaport (in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea) and river ports (in the Neva delta). It is the terminus of the Volga-Baltic Waterway which links the Baltic with the Black Sea. The St Petersburg Dam (currently under construction) will complete a ring road around the city. The city has five major railway stations serving various directions: Baltiysky Rail Terminal, Vitebsky Rail Terminal, Ladozhsky Rail Terminal, Moskovsky Rail Terminal and Finlyandsky Rail Terminal. Until recently, the Varshavsky Rail Terminal served as another major station, however, it has been closed down and converted into a railway museum. Saint Petersburg has daily international railway connections to Helsinki, Finland via Vyborg (on the Russian side) and Kouvola and Lahti (on the Finnish side). Two Russian trains - the Repin and the Tolstoi - as well as the Finnish Sibelius operate exclusively on this route (although Tolstoi continues to Moscow). The journey to Helsinki takes just over 5 hours including the time used for border control and customs. The city is served by Pulkovo Airport, which carries both domestic and international flights, and the smaller Pushkin Airport and Rzhevka Airport. Saint Petersburg has an extensive public transport system, including trolleybuses and the tramway network that was once considered the world's largest by track length. The Saint Petersburg Metro (subway/underground) system began operation in 1955, and a number of its ornately decorated stations are tourist attractions in their own right. Construction of the Saint Petersburg Ring Road, the first beltway encircling the city, has been under way since the end of the 1990s.
Administrative divisions
The city has numerous islands on which many historically important parts of the city are located. Vasilyevsky island is the largest of them and forms the whole Vasileostrovsky District. Petrogradsky, Petrovsky, Aptekarsky, Krestovsky, Yelagin, and Kamenny islands form Petrogradsky District.
Culture
Music in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg has always been known for its high-quality cultural life. Among the city's more than forty theaters is the world-famous Mariinsky Theater (known as the Kirov Theater under Communism ), home to the Mariinsky Ballet company and first-class ballet and opera. The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the best in Russia.
The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who was born in St. Petersburg, dedicated his Seventh Symphony to the city, calling it the "Leningrad Symphony." He wrote the symphony during the German siege of the city in 1941.
The Male Choir of St Petersberg moved to the City of St Petersberg in the 18th century from Moscow. At the end of the 19th Century the choir numbered 90. 40 adults and 50 boys (women were not admitted). Of the 22 basses, 7 were profundi capable of reaching bottom G easily. These unique voices are produced on Russian soil to this day.[5]
St. Petersburg has also been home to the newest movements in modern music. For example, in 1972 mathematics student Boris Grebenshchikov founded the band Aquarium, an underground rock group that grew to huge popularity in the 70s and 80s. St. Petersburg was similarly home to Kino, headed by the legendary Viktor Tsoi. Since then the "Piter's rock" music style was formed.
Today's St. Petersburg boasts many pioneering musicians, from Leningrad's Sergei Shnurov to the group Tequilajazzz.
St. Petersburg in the movies
(see also Cinema of Russia and Soviet Union)
The end of the cultural predominance of St. Petersburg coincided with Moscow's being chosen as the new capital and the dawn of film industry in Russia. Few films achieved international acclaim and international productions from Western countries couldn't film there. Lenfilm was the Soviet film studio based in St. Petersburg; however, films that became known internationally were often based on famous literary works, such as a few versions of Anna Karenina (a Russian and a French film, each of 1911; the first Western Anna Karenina was shot in Petersburg after the end of communism) or of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot (the first one, Russian, in 1910).
Several films deal with the complex history of the city many of which have propagandistic purposes. Outstanding is the film Noi Vivi (Italy, 1942,[6] based on the novel We the Living by Ayn Rand, a film that comments on Italian politics by way of featuring the October Revolution. Anastasia has been shot several times, and especially famous is the 1956 version casting Ingrid Bergman; Warner Brothers also set a 1997 musical in the city. Giuseppe Tornatore planned a film about the Siege of Leningrad in 2005. The Russian Ark, shot in the Winter Palace (now the Russian State Hermitage Museum), let the audience meet various real and fictional personages from 300 years of Russian history up till the present. Der Untergang was also filmed in Petersburg because of similarities of the historical city centre and the center of Berlin of 1945.
St. Petersburg also is seen in Interdevochka (also Интердевочка or Intergirl) by Pyotr Todorovsky in 1989 featuring impressive shots of the city. The cult comedy Irony of Fate (Cyrillic: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!) even if mostly shot at Cheremushki, Moscow) is set in St. Petersburg and pokes fun at Soviet city planning. Other movies include GoldenEye (1995) or the action movie Midnight in St. Petersburg (UK, 1996). Onegin (1999 featuring Liv Tyler) is based on the Pushkin poem and showcases many tourist attractions. The Stroll (2003) by Aleksei Uchitel featured many attractions of the city with Irina Pegova playing the role of a mysterious, well endowed and enchanting Russian beauty. Two Brothers and A Bride (2002), originally titled A Foreign Affair and starring David Arquette, is a comedy about brothers seeking a mail order bride in St. Petersburg and end up finding much more. The International Film Festival in Saint Petersburg has been held annually since its inauguration in 1993 during the White Nights.[citation needed]
St. Petersburg in literature
St. Petersburg has a longstanding and world famous tradition in literature. Dostoyevsky called it “The most deliberate city in the world," emphasizing its artificiality, but it was also a symbol of modern disorder in a changing Russia. It frequently appeared to Russian 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 of Gogol, the novels of Dostoyevsky, the verse of Alexander Blok and Osip Mandelshtam, and in the symbolist novel Petersburg by Andrey Bely. According to Lotman in his chapter, 'The Symbolism of St. Petersburg' in Universe and the Mind, these writers were inspired from symbolism from within the city itself. The themes of water and the conflict between water and stone, interpreted as the conflict between nature and the artificial, and also the theme of theatricality, in which St. Petersburg's building facades and massive boulevards create a stage designed for spectators became important themes for these writers. The effect of life in St. Petersburg on the plight of the poor clerk in a society obsessed with hierarchy and status also became an important theme for authors such as Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoyevsky. Another important feature of early St. Petersburg literature is its mythical element, which incorporates urban legends and popular ghost stories, as the stories of Pushkin and Gogol included ghosts returning to St. Petersburg to haunt other characters as well as other fantastical elements, creating a surreal and abstract image of St. Petersburg.
Twentieth century writers from St. Petersburg contributed new insights in the understanding of city. Anna Akhmatova became an important leader for poetry in St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century and later. Her most well known work, Requiem, focuses on the tragedies of living during the time of the Stalinist terror. Another notable 20th century writer from St. Petersburg is Joseph Brodsky, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1987). While living in the United States, his writings in English reflected on life in St. 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" (in Less Than One: Selected Essays, 1986).
Notable people
Numerous Russian and international aristocrats, politicians, artists, and scientists were born and/or have lived in Saint Petersburg. These include many of the Russian emperors; the historic figures Grigori Rasputin, Felix Yusupov, Aleksandr Menshikov, Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin, Aleksandr Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov, Eugene Botkin, and the Stroganovs; the writers Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolay Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nikolai Leskov, Ayn Rand, Yevgeni Zamyatin, Vladimir Nabokov, Osip Mandelstam, Nikolai Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova, Ivan Efremov, and Joseph Brodsky; the composers Anton Rubinstein, Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Andrei Petrov; the painters Ilya Repin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ivan Shishkin, Ivan Kramskoy, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, Aleksandr Benois, Kazimir Malevich, Leon Bakst, and Marc Chagal; the scientists Dmitri Mendeleev, Nikolay Semyonov, Pyotr Kapitsa, Yakov Frenkel, Zhores Alferov, Leonid Kantorovich, Mikhail Lomonosov, Ivan Pavlov, Ivan Sechenov, Heinrich Schliemann, Abram Ioffe, and Boris Piotrovsky; businessmen Alfred Nobel, Ludvig Nobel, Emanuel Nobel, Robert Nobel, Nikolai Putilov, and brothers Eliseev; the cosmonauts Georgi Grechko and Sergei Krikalyov; the ballet dancers Vaslav Nijinsky, Marius Petipa, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Matilda Kshesinskaya, Agrippina Vaganova, George Balanchine, Galina Ulanova, Natalia Dudinskaya, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev; the entertainers Sergei Diaghilev, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Fedor Shalyapin, Grigori Kozintsev, Nikolai Cherkasov, Boris Babochkin, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Georgy Zhzhyonov, Georgy Tovstonogov, Kirill Lavrov, and Alisa Freindlikh, the conductors Eduard Napravnik, Aleksandr Gauk, Evgeny Mravinsky, Yuri Temirkanov, and Valery Gergiev; the mathematicians Sofia Kovalevskaya, Pafnuti Chebyshev, Leonhard Euler, and Grigori Perelman; and the politicians Vladimir Lenin, Piotr Stolypin, Aleksandr Kerensky, Sergey Kirov, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Anatoly Sobchak, and Vladimir Putin.
Education
Saint Petersburg has long been a center of education in Russia.
- Saint Petersburg State University (founded 1724)
- Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology (1828)
- Saint Petersburg Conservatory (1862)
- Saint Petersburg Electrical Engineering University (1886)
- Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University (1899)
- Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (1900)
- Saint Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics (1906)
- St. Petersburg State Medical Academy (1907)
- Smolny College (1999)
- Saint Petersburg State Technical University of Telecommunications
Sister cities
See also
- Treaty of Saint-Petersburg, a list of the treaties concluded in Saint-Petersburg.
- City directory of Ves Petersburg
Notes
- ^ http://www.websher.net/yale/rl/trends/ie-frames/history-petersburg-tainstvo_files/anisimov.html
- ^ Joerg Ganzenmueller, Das belagerte Leningrad, pp.13-82, quotation p. 17 und 20.
- ^ Template:PDFlink
- ^ "National Composition of Population for Regions of the Russian Federation" (XLS). 2002 Russian All-Population Census. 2002. Retrieved 2006-07-20.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ EMI Classics - The Male Choir of St. Petersburg CD Booklet - Vadim Afanasiev
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035130/ see Noi Vivi at IMDB]
References
- Нежиховский Р. А. Река Нева и Невская губа, Leningrad, Гидрометеоиздат, 1981.
- Oleg Kobtzeff, "Espaces et cultures du Bassin de la Neva: représentations mythiques et réalités géopolitiques", in-Saint-Petersbourg: 1703-2003, Actes du Colloque international, Université de Nantes, Mai 2003, ouvrage coordonné par Walter Zidaric, CRINI, Nantes, 2004. ISBN 2-9521752-0-9
External links
 | This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. |
- WikiSatellite view of Saint Petersburg at WikiMapia
- Official website of St. Petersburg
- Online Map of St. Petersburg
- Key Tourist Sights on Google Map linked to Official websites and/or wiki pages.
- Historical maps (in Russian)
- PetersburgCity.com
- ""Wandering Camera" - Notes about Saint Petersburg and its suburbs". enlight.ru. – several hundred photo albums by Peter Sobolev
- Many pages about St.Petersburg's architecture and history with hundreds of images
- Saint Petersburg in 1900 - a photographic travelogue
- "St. Petersburg In Your Pocket". The English language city guide of St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Encyclopaedia of Saint Petersburg
- The famous museum, the Hermitage
- "The St. Petersburg Times". The English-language newspaper of St. Petersburg, Russia.
- non-governmental Organizations in St.Petersburg
- St. Petersburg in Architecture, from University of Michigan
- Satellite photo, via Google Maps
- Petersburg Pictures (in English) - Online album, created by young European photographers living in St. Petersburg, both tourist as art pictures.
- Photo-site about life in Saint-Petersburg.
- Vintage postcards of St. Petersburg
- History and photos of the St. Petersburg bridges
- Template:Wikitravel
- Saint Petersburg telephone directory
- St.Petersburg Outdoor Train Museum [1]
- St. Petersburg pictures
- Russia Profile - in-depth coverage of politics, business, culture and international issues in Russia
- My Piter - new web portal Saint-Petersburg
59°56′N 30°20′E / 59.933°N 30.333°E
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