Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Saint Petersburg shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Saint Petersburg offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Saint Petersburg at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Saint Petersburg? Wrong! If the Saint Petersburg is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Saint Petersburg then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Saint Petersburg? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Saint Petersburg and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Saint Petersburg wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Saint Petersburg then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Saint Petersburg site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Saint Petersburg, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Saint Petersburg, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
{{City in Russia|official_name = Санкт-Петербург
Saint Petersburg|nickname= Piter|image_skyline = Angliyskaya Enbankment SPb.jpg|imagesize = 300px|image_caption = The
English Embankment with
Saint Isaac's Cathedral
[Federal districts of Russia Subdivisions of Russia|subdivision_name =
RussiaNorthwestern Federal District Federal cities of Russia|leader_title =
Governor|area_magnitude = 1 E9|area_total = 606|area_land =|area_water =|population_as_of = 2002|population_note =|population_total = 4,661,219 ([Russian Census (2002))|population_metro = 6 million|population_density = 3330|timezone =
Moscow Time|utc_offset = +3|timezone_DST = Moscow Time|utc_offset_DST = +4|latd=59 |latm=56 |latNS=N|longd=30 |longm=20 |longEW=E|elevation = 3 to 175|postal_code = 190000–199406|dialing_code = +7 812|license_plate = 78, 98|website = www.gov.spb.ru|footnotes =-->
Saint Petersburg (, romanization of Russian:
Sankt-Peterburg, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia located in
Northwestern Federal District of
Russia on the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the
Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg's informal name,
Piter (), is based on how Peter the Great was called by foreigners. The city's other names were
Petrograd (, 1914–1924) and
Leningrad (, 1924–1991) Governor of Sankt Petersburg:
Founded by Tsar Peter I of Russia on May 27,
1703, it was capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the
Russian Revolution of 1917.
Nicholas and Alexandra (book): An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia (Athenum, 1967) by Robert K. Massie, ASIN B000CGP8M2 (also, Ballantine Books, 2000, ISBN 0-345-43831-0 and Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-57912-433-X) It is Russia's second largest and Europe's third largest city (by city limit) after Moscow and London. At latitude 59°56′N, Saint Petersburg is the world's largest city north of Moscow (55°45′N). 4.6 million people live in the city, and over 6 million people in the city with its vicinity. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and important Russian ports of the Baltic Sea. The city, as federal subject, has a total area of 1439 square km.
St. Petersburg enjoys the image of being the most European city of Russia.V. Morozov. The Discourses of St. Petersburg and the Shaping of a Wider Europe. Copenhagen Peace Research institute. 2002. Among cities of the world with over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The historic center of St. Petersburg is a World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200 years, the city is impressive, and is sometimes referred to in Russia as "the Northern Capital" (,
severnaya stolitsa).
History
The new capital
, monument to Peter the GreatOn May 1,
1703 Peter the Great took the Swedish fortress of Nyenschantz and the city
Nyen on the
Neva river. On
May 27, 1703 (May 16,
Julian calendar) he founded the city after reconquering the Ingrian land from Sweden in the
Great Northern War. He named the city after his patron saint, the apostle Saint Peter. The original name
Sankt Pieterburg (pronounced
Sankt Piterburh) was borrowed from Dutch language (Modern Dutch
Sint Petersburg), because Peter had lived and studied in the
Netherlands; he also spent three months in
Kingdom of Great Britain, and was also influenced by his experience in the rest of Europe.
Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-50032-6
The city was built under adverse weather and geographical conditions. High mortality rate required a constant supply of workers. Peter ordered a yearly conscription of 40,000 serfs, one conscript for every nine to sixteen households. Conscripts had to provide their own tools and food for the journey of hundreds of kilometers, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and shackled to prevent desertion, yet many escaped, others died from disease and exposure under the harsh conditions.
Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-50032-6The new city's first building was 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, three miles (5 km) inland from the Gulf. The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from the fortress under the supervision of
ethnic Germans and Dutch (ethnic group) engineers whom Peter had invited to Russia. Peter restricted 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.The St. Petersburg of Peter the Great
At the same time Peter hired a large number of engineers, architects, shipbuilders, scientists and businessmen from all countries of Europe. Substantial immigration of educated professionals eventually turned St. Petersburg into a much more cosmopolitan city than Moscow and the rest of Russia. Peter's efforts to push for modernisation in Moscow and the rest of Russia were completely misunderstood by the old-fashioned Russian Nobility, and eventually failed, causing him much trouble with opposition, including several attempts on the Tsar's life and the treason involving his own son.Matthew S. Anderson, Peter the Great (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978)
Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, 9 years before the Treaty of Nystad. It was a seaport and also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the fortress of Kronstadt. The first person to build a home in Saint Petersburg was
Cornelis Cruys, commander of the Baltic Fleet. Inspired by Venice and Amsterdam, Peter the Great proposed boats and coracles as means of transport in his city of canals. Initially there were only 12 permanent bridges over smaller waterways, while the
Bolshaya Neva was crossed by boats in the summertime and by foot or horse carriages during winter. A
pontoon bridge over Neva was built every summer. Now, there are over 800 bridges.
Peter was impressed by Versailles and other palaces in Western Europe. His official palace of a comparable importance in
Peterhof was the first suburban palace permanently used by the Tsar as the primary official residence and the place for official receptions and state balls. The waterfront palace,
Monplaisir, and the Great
Peterhof Palace were built between 1714 and 1725.St. Petersburg:Architecture of the Tsars. 360 pages. Abbeville Press, 1996. ISBN-10: 0789202174 In 1716, Prussia's King presented a gift to Tsar Peter: the Amber Room.Peter the Great's amber room reborn.
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Peter's best friend, was the first
Saint Petersburg Governorate of
Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1703-1727. In 1724
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was established in the city. After the death of Peter the Great, Menshikov was arrested and exiled to Siberia. In 1728 Peter II of Russia moved the capital back to Moscow, but 4 years later, in 1732, St. Petersburg again became the capital of Russia and remained the seat of the government for about two centuries.
St. Petersburg prospered under the rule of two most powerful women in Russian history. Peter's daughter,
Elizabeth of Russia, reigned from 1740 to 1762, without a single execution in 22 years. She cut taxes, downsized government, and was known for masquerades and festivities, amassing a wardrobe of about 12 thousand dresses, most of them now preserved as museum art pieces. She supported the Russian Academy of Sciences and completed both the Winter Palace and the Catherine Palace, which then became residencies of Empress Catherine II of Russia, who reigned for 34 years, from 1762 to 1796. Under her rule, which exemplified that of an
enlightened absolutism, more palaces were built in St. Petersburg than in any other capital in the world.
Revolutions
commemorates the spot where Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinatedSeveral revolutions, uprisings, assassinations of Tsars, and power takeovers in St. Peterburg had shaped the course of history in Russia and influenced the world. In 1801, after the assassination of the Emperor
Paul I of Russia, his son became the Emperor Alexander I of Russia. Alexander I ruled Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and expanded his Empire by acquisitions of Finland and part of Poland. His mysterious death in 1825 was marked by the Decembrist revolt, which was suppressed by the Emperor
Nicholas I of Russia, who ordered execution of leaders and exiled hundreds of their followers to Siberia. Nicholas I then pushed for Russian nationalism by suppressing non-Russian nationalities and religions.Edvard Radzinsky. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005. ISBN-10: 074327332X
Cultural revolution that followed after the Napoleonic wars, had further opened St. Petersburg up, in spite of repressions. The city's wealth and rapid growth had always attracted prominent intellectuals, scientists, writers and artists. St. Petersburg eventually gained international recognition as a gateway for trade and business, as well as a cosmopolitan cultural hub. The works of
Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol,
Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and numerous others brought Russian literature to the world. Music, theatre and ballet became firmly established and gained international stature.
The son of Tsar Nicholas I, Tsar Alexander II of Russia implemented the most challenging reformsEdvard Radzinsky. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005. ISBN-10: 074327332X undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great. The
emancipation of the serfs (1861) caused the influx of large numbers of poor into the capital. Tenements were erected on the outskirts, and nascent industry sprang up, surpassing Moscow in population and industrial growth. By 1900, St. Petersburg had grown into one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe, an important international center of power, business and politics, and the 4th largest city in Europe.
With the growth of industry, radical movements were also astir. Socialism organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many public figures, government officials, members of the royal family, and the Tsar himself. Tsar
Alexander II of Russia was killed by a suicide bomber
Ignacy Hryniewiecki in 1881, in a plot with connections to the family of Lenin and other revolutionaries. The
Russian Revolution of 1905 initiated here and spread rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name
Sankt Peterburg was seen to be too German, so the city was renamed
Petrograd.
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (Random House, 1995) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-58048-6 and ISBN 0-679-43572-7
1917 saw next stages of the Russian RevolutionRex A. Wade
The Russian Revolution, 1917 2005 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521841550, and re-emergence of the
Communist party led by Lenin, who declared "Guns give us the power" and "All power to the Soviets!"
Tony Cliff "Lenin: All power to the Soviets"
Lenin: All Power to the Soviets 1976 Pluto Press After the February Revolution, the Tsar Nicholas II was arrested and the Tsar's government was replaced by two opposing centers of political power: the "pro-democracy"
Russian Provisional Government, 1917 and the "pro-communist" Petrograd Soviet.Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution (New York, 1990) Then the Provisional government was overthrown by the
Bolsheviks in the
October RevolutionJohn Reed (journalist). Ten Days that Shook the World. 1919, 1st Edition, published by BONI & Liveright, Inc. for International Publishers. Transcribed and marked by David Walters for John Reed Internet Archive. Penguin Books; 1st edition. June 1, 1980. ISBN 0-14-018293-4, causing the Russian Civil War.
The city's proximity to anti-Soviet armies, forced communist leader Vladimir Lenin to move his government to Moscow on
March 5 1918. The move was disguised as temporary, but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. On January 24 1924, three days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed
Leningrad. The Communist party's reason for renaming the city again was that Lenin had led the revolution. Deeper reasons existed at the level of political propaganda: Saint Petersburg had stood as the symbol of capitalist culture and the Tsarist empire, but the Soviet empire needed to destroy that. Russian source: Factbook on the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. Справочник по истории Коммунистической партии и Советского Союза 1898 - 1991 After the Civil War, and murder of the Tsar Nicholas II and his family, as well as millions of anti-Soviet people, the renaming to Leningrad was designed to destroy last hopes among the resistance, and show strong dictatorship of Lenin's communist party and the Soviet regime. Leon Trotsky. Memoir and Critique. New York, 1989. Felix Yusupov. Memoirs,
Lost Splendor, New York, 1953.
St. Petersburg was devastated by Lenin's
Red TerrorLenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. By Robert Gellately, 2007, Random House, 720 pages. ISBN 1400040051 then by Stalin's
Great PurgeStalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union by Barry McLoughlin and Kevin McDermott (eds). Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, p. 6 in addition to crime and vandalism in the series of revolutions and wars. Between 1917 and 1930s, about two million people fled the city, including hundreds of thousands of educated intellectuals and aristocracy, who emigrated to Europe and America. At the same time many political, social and paramilitary groups had followed the communist government in their move to Moscow, as the benefits of capital status had left the city. In 1931 Leningrad administratively separated from
Leningrad Oblast.
In 1934 the popular governor of Leningrad, Sergey Kirov, was assassinated, because Stalin apparently became increasingly paranoid about Kirov's growthDmitri Volkogonov.
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 1996, ISBN-10: 0761507183. The death of Kirov was used to ignite the
Great PurgeGreat Purges: Great Purges Spartacus Educational where supporters of Trotsky and other suspected "enemies of the Soviet state" were arrested. Then a series of "criminal" cases, known as the
Leningrad Centre and Leningrad Affair
Stalin and the Betrayal of Leningrad by John Barber, were fabricated and resulted in death sentences for many top leaders of Leningrad, and severe repressions of thousands of top officials and intellectuals.
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, causing death of more than 1 million civilians in 3 years; 1942 alone saw 650,000 people die. The siege of Leningrad September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944. The secret instruction from 23 September 1941 said: "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 Ingria 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 Hitler's "New East European Order".
Hitler ordered preparations for victory celebrations at the Tsar's Palaces. The Nazis looted art from museums and palaces, as well as from private homes. All looted treasures, such as the
Amber Room, gold statues of
Peterhof, paintings and other valuable art were taken to Germany. Hitler also prepared a party to celebrate his victory 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 Nazi siege of 1941 - 1944, the only ways to supply the city, and suburbs, inhabited by several millions, were by aircraft or by cars crossing the frozen
Lake Ladoga. The Nazis systematically shelled this route, called the Road of Life, so thousands of cars with people and food supplies had sank in the lake. The situation in the city was especially horrible in the winter of 1941 - 1942. The German bombing raids destroyed most of the food reserves. Daily food ration was cut 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 water supply was destroyed. The situation further worsened in winter due to 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 the Luftwaffe 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.
As a result of the Nazi siege, about 1,2 million of 3 million Leningrad civilians lost their lives because of bombardment, starvation, infections and stress. Hundreds of thousands of unregistered civilians, who lived in Leningrad prior to WWII, had perished in the Nazi siege without any record at all. About 1 million civilians escaped with evacuation, mainly by foot. After two years of the siege, Leningrad became an empty "ghost-city" with thousands of ruined and abandoned homes.
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. Joerg Ganzenmueller,
Das belagerte Leningrad, pp.13-82, quotation p. 17 und 20.
For the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Nazi Siege, Leningrad was the first city in the former USSR awarded the title
Hero City in 1945.
After the war
(315 m high)The war damaged the city and killed many 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 post-war decades, partially according to the pre-war plans. In 1950 the Kirov Stadium was opened and soon set a record when 110,000 fans attended a football match. In 1955 the
Leningrad Metro, the second underground rapid transit system in the country, was opened with its first six stations decorated with marble and bronze.
However, during the late 1940s and 1950s, the entire political and cultural elite of Leningrad suffered from more harsh repressions under dictatorship of StalinDmitri Volkogonov.
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 1996, ISBN-10: 0761507183, hundreds were executed and thousands were imprisoned in repressions known as the
Leningrad Affair.Russian publication: Ленинградское дело – надо ли ставить кавычки?: Independent thinkers, writers, artists and other intellectuals were attacked, magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad" were banned,
Anna Akhmatova and
Mikhail Zoshchenko were repressedRussian publication: Маленков против Жданова. Игры сталинских фаворитов. , and tens of thousands Leningraders were exiled to Siberia. More crackdowns on the Leningrad's intellectual elite, known as the "Second Leningrad affair", were part of the economic policies of the Soviet state. Leningrad's economy was producing about 6% of the USSR
GNP, having less than 2% of the country's population, but such economic efficiency was negated by the
Soviet Communist Party which diverted the income from people of Leningrad to other Soviet places and programs. As a result during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the city of Leningrad was seriously underfunded in favor of Moscow. Leningrad suffered from the imbalanced distribution of wealth because the Soviet leadership drained the city's resources to subsidise higher standards of living in Moscow as well as some underperforming parts of the Soviet Union and beyond. Such redistribution of wealth caused struggle within the Soviet government and Communist Party, which lead to their fragmentation and played a role in the eventual collapse of the USSR.
On
June 12,
1991, the day of the Russian presidential election, 1991, in a referendum 54% of voters chose to restore "
the original name, Saint Petersburg, on
September 6,
1991. In the same election Anatoly Sobchak became the first democratically elected list of heads of Saint Petersburg government.Jack F. Matlock, Jr.,
Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0679413766 Among the first initiatives of Sobchak was his efforts to minimise the federal control by Moscow to keep the income from St. Petersburg's economy in the city.
Original names returned to 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks. Older people sometimes use old names and old mailing addresses. The name Leningrad was heavily promoted in media, mainly in connection with the siege, so even authorities may call it "Hero city Leningrad." Young people may use
Leningrad as a vague protest against some social and economic changes. A popular ska punk band from Saint Petersburg is called
Leningrad (band)Leningrad Oblast retained its name after a popular vote. It is a separate
federal subject of Russia of which the city of St. Petersburg is the capital.
In 1996,
Vladimir Anatolyevich Yakovlev was elected the head of the Saint Petersburg City Administration, and changed his title from "mayor" to "governor." In 2003, Yakovlev resigned a year before his second term expired.
Valentina Matviyenko was elected governor. In 2006 she was reapproved as governor by the
Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
The Constitutional Court of Russia is scheduled to move to the former Senate and Synod buildings at the Decembrists Square in St. Petersburg by 2008. The move will partially restore Saint Petersburg's historic status, making the city the second judicial capital.
Geography
The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km². The area of the federal subject is 1439 km², which contains the Saint Petersburg proper, and suburban towns (
Kolpino, Krasnoye Selo, Kronstadt,
Lomonosov, Russia, Pavlovsk,
Peterhof, Pushkin (town),
Sestroretsk and
Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg), all together over 20 municipalities and rural localities.
Saint Petersburg is situated on the middle taiga lowlands along the shores of the Neva Bay of the
Gulf of Finland, and islands of the river delta. The largest are Vasilyevsky island (besides the artificial island between Obvodny canal and
Fontanka, and Kotlin in the Neva Bay), Petrogradsky, Dekabristov and
Krestovsky island. The latter together with
Yelagin Island and Kamenny island are covered mostly by parks.
The
Karelian Isthmus, north of the city, is a popular resort area. In the south Saint Petersburg crosses the Baltic-Ladoga Klint and meets the Izhora Heights.
The elevation of Saint Petersburg ranges from the
sea level to its highest point of 175.9 m (577') at the Orekhovaya hill in the Duderhof Heights in the south. Part of the city's territory west of
Liteyny Prospekt, is no higher than 4 m above sea level, and has suffered from numerous floods. Floods in Saint Petersburg are triggered by a long wave in the Baltic Sea, caused by meteorological conditions, winds and shallowness of the Neva Bay. The most disastrous floods occurred in 1824 (421 cm above sea-levelThe level of flooding is measured near Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, which is normally 11 cm a.s.l.), 1924 (380 cm), 1777 (321cm), 1955 (293 cm) and 1975 (281 cm). To prevent floods, the Saint Petersburg Dam has been under construction since 1979.Нежиховский Р. А.
Река Нева и Невская губа, Leningrad: Гидрометеоиздат, 1981.
Since the 18th century the terrain in the city has been raised artificially, at some places by more than 4 m, making mergers of several islands, and changing the hydrology of the city.
Besides Neva and its distributaries, other important rivers of the federal subject of Saint Petersburg are
Sestra River (Leningrad Oblast), Okhta River (Neva basin) and
Izhora River. The largest lake is Sestroretsky Razliv in the north, followed by Lakhtinsky Razliv, Suzdal Lakes and other smaller lakes.
St. Petersburg's position on the
latitude of ca. 60° N, causes variation in
day length across seasons, ranging from 5:53 to 18:50.
Twilight may last all night in early summer, from June to mid-July, the celebrated phenomenon known as the white nights.
Climate
Saint Petersburg experiences a humid continental climate of the cool summer subtype (
Climate Zone: Dfb), due to the distinct moderating influence of the
Baltic Sea cyclons. Summers are typically cool, humid and quite short, while winters are long, cold, but with frequent
warm spells. The average daily temperature in July is 22C (72 F), summer maximum is about 34C (94F), winter minimum is about -27 °C (-17 °F), the record low temperature is -35.9 °C (-33 °F), recorded in 1883. The average wholeyear temperature is +4 °C (39 °F). The River Neva within the city limits usually freezes up in November-December, break-up occurs in April. From December to March there are 123 days average with snow cover, which reaches the average of 24 cm (9.5") by February. The frost-free period in the city lasts on average for about 135 days. The city has a climate slightly warmer than its suburbs. Weather conditions are quite variable all year round.See
Historical weather records for Saint Petersburg (since 1932) and
Historical weather in Saint Petersburg for further information.
Average annual precipitation (meteorology) varies across the city, averaging 600 mm per year and reaching maximum in late summer. Soil moisture is almost always high because of lower
evapotranspiration due to the cool climate. Relative humidity is 78% on average,
overcast is 165 days a year on average.
{{Infobox Weather|metric_first= Yes|single_line= Yes|location = Saint Petersburg|Jan_Hi_°C = -4.8 |Jan_REC_Hi_°C = 8.6|Feb_Hi_°C = -4.6 |Feb_REC_Hi_°C = 10.2|Mar_Hi_°C = 0.0 |Mar_REC_Hi_°C = 14.9|Apr_Hi_°C = 7.4 |Apr_REC_Hi_°C = 25.3|May_Hi_°C = 14.7 |May_REC_Hi_°C = 30.9|Jun_Hi_°C = 19.4 |Jun_REC_Hi_°C = 34.6|Jul_Hi_°C = 22.0 |Jul_REC_Hi_°C = 34.3|Aug_Hi_°C = 20.1 |Aug_REC_Hi_°C = 33.5|Sep_Hi_°C = 14.5 |Sep_REC_Hi_°C = 30.4|Oct_Hi_°C = 7.7 |Oct_REC_Hi_°C = 21.0|Nov_Hi_°C = 1.6 |Nov_REC_Hi_°C = 12.3|Dec_Hi_°C = -2.5 |Dec_REC_Hi_°C = 10.9|Year_Hi_°C = 8.1 |Year_REC_Hi_°C = 34.6
|Jan_Lo_°C = -10.5 |Jan_REC_Lo_°C = -35.9|Feb_Lo_°C = -10.6 |Feb_REC_Lo_°C = -35.2|Mar_Lo_°C = -6.9 |Mar_REC_Lo_°C = -29.9|Apr_Lo_°C = -0.2 |Apr_REC_Lo_°C = -21.8|May_Lo_°C = 5.7 |May_REC_Lo_°C = -6.6|Jun_Lo_°C = 10.8 |Jun_REC_Lo_°C = 0.1|Jul_Lo_°C = 13.9 |Jul_REC_Lo_°C = 4.9|Aug_Lo_°C = 12.5 |Aug_REC_Lo_°C = 1.3|Sep_Lo_°C = 7.9 |Sep_REC_Lo_°C = -3.1|Oct_Lo_°C = 2.8 |Oct_REC_Lo_°C = -12.9|Nov_Lo_°C = -2.4 |Nov_REC_Lo_°C = -22.2|Dec_Lo_°C = -7.3 |Dec_REC_Lo_°C = -34.4|Year_Lo_°C = 1.4 |Year_REC_Lo_°C = -35.9
|Jan_Precip_cm = |Jan_Precip_mm = 37|Feb_Precip_cm = |Feb_Precip_mm = 30|Mar_Precip_cm = |Mar_Precip_mm = 34|Apr_Precip_cm = |Apr_Precip_mm = 33|May_Precip_cm = |May_Precip_mm = 37|Jun_Precip_cm = |Jun_Precip_mm = 57|Jul_Precip_cm = |Jul_Precip_mm = 77|Aug_Precip_cm = |Aug_Precip_mm = 80|Sep_Precip_cm = |Sep_Precip_mm = 69|Oct_Precip_cm = |Oct_Precip_mm = 66|Nov_Precip_cm = |Nov_Precip_mm = 55|Dec_Precip_cm = |Dec_Precip_mm = 50|Year_Precip_cm = |Year_Precip_mm = 625|source = Pogoda.ru.net{{cite web| url = http://pogoda.ru.net/climate/26063.htm | title = Pogoda.ru.net| accessmonthday = July 29| accessyear = 2007| publisher = | language = Russian-->|accessdate = 29.07.2007-->|accessdate2 = -->-->
Demographics
]Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. Census (2002)] recorded population of the federal subject 4,661,219, or 3.21% of the total population of Russia. The 2002 census recorded twenty-two ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each. The ethnic composition was:
Russians 84.72% •
Ukrainians 1.87% •
Belarusians 1.17% • Jews 0.78% • Tatars 0.76% •
Armenians 0.41% •
Azeris in Russia 0.36% •
Georgian people 0.22% • Chuvash 0.13% •
Poles 0.10% and many other smaller ethnic groups. 7.89% of the inhabitants declined to state their ethnicity.
The 20th century saw hectic ups and downs in population. From 2.4 million in 1916 it had dropped to less than 740 thousand by 1920 during the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War. The sizeable minorities of Germans, Poles, Finns, Estonians and Latvians were almost completely population transfer in the Soviet Union from Leningrad by the Soviet government.Martin, Terry (1998). The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing.
The Journal of Modern History 70.4, 813-861. From 1941 to the end of 1943, population dropped from 3 million to less than 700 thousand, as people died in battles, starved to death during the
Siege of Leningrad, or were evacuated. After the siege, some of the evacuees returned, but most influx was due to migration from other parts of the Soviet Union. The city absorbed 3 million people in the 1950s and grew over 5 million in the 1980s. From 1991 to 2006 the city's population decreased to current 4.6 million, while the suburban population increased due to privatization of land and massive move to suburbs.Чистякова Н. Третье сокращение численности населения… и последнее?
Демоскоп Weekly 163 – 164, August 1-15, 2004.Russian source: "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg" Чистяков А. Ю. Население (обзорная статья).
Энциклопедия Санкт-Петербурга Birth rate remains lower than
death rate, people over 65 make more than 20% of population, and the median age is about 40 years.Russian statistics Основные показатели социально-демографической ситуации в Санкт-Петербурге
People in urban Saint Petersburg live mostly in apartments. Between 1918 and 1990s, the Soviets
nationalised housing and forced residents to share communal apartments (
kommunalkas). With 68% living in shared flats in the 1930s, Leningrad was the largest city in the USSR by the number of
kommunalkas. Resettling residents of
kommunalkas is now on the way, albeit shared apartments are still not uncommon. As new boroughs were built on the outskirts in the 1950s-1980s, over half a million low income families eventually received free apartments, and additional hundred thousand condos were purchased by the middle class. While economic and social activity is concentrated in the historic city centre, the richest part of Saint Petersburg, most people live in the commuter areas.
For the first half of 2007, the birth rate was 9.1 per 1000
Government
, the seat of the AssemblySaint Petersburg is a
federal subject of RussiaThe Constitution of the Russian federation: . The political life of Saint Petersburg is regulated by the city charter adopted by the city legislature in 1998.Russian source: Charter of St. Petersburg City.The superior executive body is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by the
list of heads of Saint Petersburg government (mayor before 1996). Saint Petersburg has a single-chamber legislature, the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
According to the federal law passed in 2004, heads of federal subjects, including the governor of Saint Petersburg, are nominated by the
President of Russia and approved by local legislatures. If the legislature disapproves the nominee, it is dissolved. The current governor,
Valentina Matviyenko was approved according to the new system in December 2006.
Saint Petersburg city is currently divided into
Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg is also the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast, and of the Northwestern Federal DistrictOffivial site of the Northwestern Federal District (Russian): .
Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, being two different federal subjects, share a number of local departments of federal executive agencies and courts, such as court of arbitration, police,
FSB (Russia), postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services.
Crime
As in other large Russian cities, Saint Petersburg experiences fairly high levels of
Street crime and bribery. In addition, in recent years there has been a noticeable increase in racially motivated violence. On the other hand, unlike in Moscow, there have been no major terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg in recent years. Russia 2007 Crime & Safety Report: St. Petersburg
In the end of the 1980s – beginning of the 1990s Leningrad became home to a number of gangs, such as Tambov Gang, Malyshev Gang, Kazan Gang and ethnic criminal groups, engaged in a
racket (crime), extortion and violent clashes with each other.
After the sensational assassinations of City Property Committee Chairman Mikhail Manevich (1997),
State Duma deputy
Galina Starovoytova (1998), acting City Legislature Speaker Viktor Novosyolov (1999) and a number of prominent businesspeople, Saint Petersburg was dubbed capital of crime in the Russian press.Trumbull, Nathaniel S. (2003) The impacts of globalization on St. Petersburg: A secondary world city in from the cold?
The Annals of Regional Science 37:533–546Powell, Bill & Brian Whitmore. The Capital Of Crime.(St. Petersburg, Russia).
Newsweek International, May 15, 2000.
Economy
St. Petersburg is a major trade gateway, financial and industrial center of Russia specialising in oil and gas trade, shipbuilding yards,
aerospace industry,
radio and
electronics, software and computers; machine building, heavy machinery and transport, including tanks and other military equipment, mining, Tool manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous
metallurgy (production of
aluminium alloys),
chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, publishing and
printing, food and catering,
wholesale and
retail,
textile and clothing industries, and many other businesses. It was also home to Lessner, one of Russia's two pioneering automobile manufacturers (along with Russo-Baltic),
Lessner; founded by machine tool and
boiler maker
G. A. Lessner in 1904, with designs by Boris Loutsky, it survived until 1910.Georgano, G. N.
Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985)
10% of the world's power turbines are made here at the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod, which built over two thousand turbines for power plants across the world. Major local industries are Admiralty Shipyard,
Baltic Shipyard,
LOMO,
Kirov Plant,
Elektrosila, Izhorsky Zavod; also registered in St. Petersburg are Gazprom Neft, Sovkomflot,
Petersburg Fuel Company and
SIBUR among other major Russian and international companies.
St. Petersburg has three large cargo
ports of the Baltic Sea: Bolshoi Port St. Petersburg,
Kronstadt, and Lomonosov. International cruise liners are served at the passenger port at Morskoy Vokzal on the west end of the Vasilevsky Island. A complex system of riverports on both banks of the Neva river are interconnected with the system of seaports, thus making St. Petersburg the main link between the Baltic sea and the rest of Russia through the Volga-Baltic Waterway.
The Saint Petersburg Mint (
Monetny Dvor), founded in 1724, is one of the largest
mints in the world, it mints Russian rubles, medals and
badges. St. Petersburg is also home to the oldest and largest Russian foundry, Monumentskulptura, which made thousands of sculptures and statues that are now gracing public parks of St. Petersburg, as well as many other cties. Monuments and bronze statues of the Tsars, as well as other important historic figures and dignitaries, and other world famous monuments, such as the sculptures by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, Paolo Troubetzkoy,
Pavel Antokolsky, and others, were made here.
Toyota is building a plant in Shuishary, one of the suburbs; General Motors and Nissan have signed deals with the Russian government too. Automotive and parts industry is on the rise here during the last decade. Saint Petersburg is known as a "beer capital" of Russia, due to the supply and quality of local water, 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). St. Petersburg has the second largest construction industry in Russia, including commercial, housing and road construction.
In 2006 Saint-Petersburg's city budget was 179,9 billion rubles,Budget of St. Petersburg (Russian document): and is planned to double by 2012. The federal subject's
gross regional product as of 2005 was 667,905.4 million
Russian rubles, ranked 4th in Russia, after
Moscow, Tyumen Oblast, and
Moscow Oblast Валовой региональный продукт по субъектам Российской Федерации в 1998-2005гг. (в текущих основных ценах; млн.рублей), or 145,503.3 rubles per capita, ranked 12th among Russia's federal subjects Валовой региональный продукт на душу населения (в текущих основных ценах; рублей), contributed mostly by wholesale and retail trade and repair services (24.7%) as well as processing industry (20.9%) and transportation and telecommunications (15.1%). Отраслевая структура ВРП по видам экономической деятельности (по ОКВЭД) за 2005 год
Transport
The city is a major transport hub. In 1837 the first Russian railroad was built here. Today St. Petersburg is the final destination of
Trans-Siberian railroad, and a web of intercity and suburban railways, served by five different railway terminals (Baltiysky Rail Terminal,
Finlyandsky Rail Terminal,
Ladozhsky Rail Terminal, Moskovsky Rail Terminal and
Vitebsky Rail Terminal)Until 2001, the Varshavsky Rail Terminal served as a major station, it is now converted into a railway museum. Reconstruction of the Warsaw Railway Station, as well as dozens of non-terminal railway stations within the federal subject. Saint Petersburg has international railway connections to Helsinki,
Finland,
Berlin,
Germany, and all former republics of the USSR.
Riihimäki-Saint Petersburg railroad was built in 1870, 443 km, commutes 3 times a day, about 5.5 h. The
Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway opened in 1851, 651 km, commute to
Moscow is 4.5-9 h.http://www.russianrail.com/ Saint Petersburg is also served by the
Pulkovo Airport,Rossiya (Pulkovo): Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise and three smaller commercial and cargo airports in the suburbs. There is a regular 24/7 rapid bus transit connection between Pulkovo airport and the city center.
The city is also served by the passenger and cargo seaports in the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea, the river port higher up Neva, and tens of smaller passenger stations on both banks of the Neva river. It is a terminus of the Volga-Baltic Waterway and White Sea-Baltic Canal waterways. In 2004 the first high bridge that doesn't need to be drawn, a 2824 m long Big Obukhovsky Bridge, was opened. Meteor
hydrofoils link the city centre to the coastal towns of Kronstadt,
Lomonosov, Russia, Peterhof, Sestroretsk and
Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg from May through October.
in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg has an extensive city-funded network of
public transportation (buses, trams, trolleybuses) and several hundred routes served by
marshrutkas. Tramways in Saint Petersburg used to be the main transportation; in the 1980s, Leningrad had the largest tramway network in the world, but many tramway rail tracks were dismantled in the 2000s. Buses carry up to 3 million passengers daily, serving over 250 urban and a number of suburban bas routes.
Saint Petersburg Metro underground rapid transit system was opened in 1955; it now has 4 lines with 60 stations, connecting all five railway terminals, and carrying 2,8 million passengers daily. Metro stations are decorated in marble and bronze. The 5th metro line is scheduled to open in 2008.
Traffic jams are common in the city, because of narrow streets, parking sites along their edges, high daily traffic volumes between the commuter boroughs and the city center, intercity traffic, and at times excessive snowing in winter. Five segments of the Saint Petersburg Ring Road were opened between 2002 and 2006, and full ring is planned to open in 2012.
Saint Petersburg is part of the important transport corridor linking Scandinavia to Russia and Eastern Europe. The city is a node of the
International E-road network European route E18 towards
Helsinki,
European route E20 towards
Tallinn,
European route E95 towards Pskov, Kiev and
Odessa and European route E105 towards
Petrozavodsk,
Murmansk and Kirkenes (north) and towards Moscow and Kharkiv (south).
Built environment and landmarks
at night 2006The 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 Dike (construction)s and Bridges in Saint Petersburg 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° latitude), 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
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, sometimes called the outdoor museum of
Architecture, was the first Russian patrimony inscribed on the
UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Canals and Bridges
{{City in Russia|official_name = Санкт-Петербург
Saint Petersburg|nickname= Piter|image_skyline = Angliyskaya Enbankment SPb.jpg|imagesize = 300px|image_caption = The English Embankment with Saint Isaac's Cathedral
[Federal districts of Russia
Subdivisions of Russia|subdivision_name =
RussiaNorthwestern Federal District Federal cities of Russia|leader_title = Governor|area_magnitude = 1 E9|area_total = 606|area_land =|area_water =|population_as_of = 2002|population_note =|population_total = 4,661,219 ([Russian Census (2002))|population_metro = 6 million|population_density = 3330|timezone = Moscow Time|utc_offset = +3|timezone_DST = Moscow Time|utc_offset_DST = +4|latd=59 |latm=56 |latNS=N|longd=30 |longm=20 |longEW=E|elevation = 3 to 175|postal_code = 190000–199406|dialing_code = +7 812|license_plate = 78, 98|website = www.gov.spb.ru|footnotes =-->
Saint Petersburg (,
romanization of Russian:
Sankt-Peterburg, ) is a
types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia located in Northwestern Federal District of
Russia on the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg's informal name,
Piter (), is based on how Peter the Great was called by foreigners. The city's other names were
Petrograd (, 1914–1924) and
Leningrad (, 1924–1991) Governor of Sankt Petersburg:
Founded by
Tsar Peter I of Russia on May 27,
1703, it was capital of the
Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the
Russian Revolution of 1917.
Nicholas and Alexandra (book): An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia (Athenum, 1967) by Robert K. Massie, ASIN B000CGP8M2 (also, Ballantine Books, 2000, ISBN 0-345-43831-0 and Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-57912-433-X) It is Russia's second largest and Europe's third largest city (by city limit) after Moscow and
London. At latitude 59°56′N, Saint Petersburg is the world's largest city north of Moscow (55°45′N). 4.6 million people live in the city, and over 6 million people in the city with its vicinity. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and important Russian ports of the Baltic Sea. The city, as federal subject, has a total area of 1439 square km.
St. Petersburg enjoys the image of being the most European city of Russia.V. Morozov. The Discourses of St. Petersburg and the Shaping of a Wider Europe. Copenhagen Peace Research institute. 2002. Among cities of the world with over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The historic center of St. Petersburg is a World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200 years, the city is impressive, and is sometimes referred to in Russia as "the Northern Capital" (,
severnaya stolitsa).
History
The new capital
, monument to
Peter the GreatOn May 1, 1703
Peter the Great took the Swedish fortress of Nyenschantz and the city
Nyen on the
Neva river. On
May 27,
1703 (
May 16, Julian calendar) he founded the city after reconquering the Ingrian land from
Sweden in the Great Northern War. He named the city after his patron saint, the apostle Saint Peter. The original name
Sankt Pieterburg (pronounced
Sankt Piterburh) was borrowed from
Dutch language (Modern Dutch
Sint Petersburg), because Peter had lived and studied in the Netherlands; he also spent three months in Kingdom of Great Britain, and was also influenced by his experience in the rest of
Europe.
Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-50032-6
The city was built under adverse weather and geographical conditions. High mortality rate required a constant supply of workers. Peter ordered a yearly conscription of 40,000
serfs, one conscript for every nine to sixteen households. Conscripts had to provide their own tools and food for the journey of hundreds of kilometers, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and shackled to prevent desertion, yet many escaped, others died from disease and exposure under the harsh conditions.
Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-50032-6The new city's first building was 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, three miles (5 km) inland from the Gulf. The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from the fortress under the supervision of
ethnic Germans and Dutch (ethnic group)
engineers whom Peter had invited to Russia. Peter restricted 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.The St. Petersburg of Peter the Great
At the same time Peter hired a large number of engineers, architects, shipbuilders, scientists and businessmen from all countries of Europe. Substantial immigration of educated professionals eventually turned St. Petersburg into a much more cosmopolitan city than Moscow and the rest of Russia. Peter's efforts to push for modernisation in Moscow and the rest of Russia were completely misunderstood by the old-fashioned Russian Nobility, and eventually failed, causing him much trouble with opposition, including several attempts on the Tsar's life and the treason involving his own son.Matthew S. Anderson, Peter the Great (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978)
Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, 9 years before the Treaty of Nystad. It was a seaport and also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the fortress of
Kronstadt. The first person to build a home in Saint Petersburg was Cornelis Cruys, commander of the
Baltic Fleet. Inspired by Venice and Amsterdam, Peter the Great proposed boats and coracles as means of transport in his city of canals. Initially there were only 12 permanent bridges over smaller waterways, while the
Bolshaya Neva was crossed by boats in the summertime and by foot or horse carriages during winter. A pontoon bridge over Neva was built every summer. Now, there are over 800 bridges.
Peter was impressed by Versailles and other palaces in Western Europe. His official palace of a comparable importance in Peterhof was the first suburban palace permanently used by the Tsar as the primary official residence and the place for official receptions and state balls. The waterfront palace,
Monplaisir, and the Great
Peterhof Palace were built between 1714 and 1725.St. Petersburg:Architecture of the Tsars. 360 pages. Abbeville Press, 1996. ISBN-10: 0789202174 In 1716, Prussia's King presented a gift to Tsar Peter: the
Amber Room.Peter the Great's amber room reborn.
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Peter's best friend, was the first
Saint Petersburg Governorate of Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1703-1727. In 1724 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was established in the city. After the death of Peter the Great, Menshikov was arrested and exiled to Siberia. In 1728
Peter II of Russia moved the capital back to Moscow, but 4 years later, in 1732, St. Petersburg again became the capital of Russia and remained the seat of the government for about two centuries.
St. Petersburg prospered under the rule of two most powerful women in Russian history. Peter's daughter, Elizabeth of Russia, reigned from 1740 to 1762, without a single execution in 22 years. She cut taxes, downsized government, and was known for masquerades and festivities, amassing a wardrobe of about 12 thousand dresses, most of them now preserved as museum art pieces. She supported the
Russian Academy of Sciences and completed both the
Winter Palace and the Catherine Palace, which then became residencies of Empress
Catherine II of Russia, who reigned for 34 years, from 1762 to 1796. Under her rule, which exemplified that of an
enlightened absolutism, more palaces were built in St. Petersburg than in any other capital in the world.
Revolutions
commemorates the spot where Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinatedSeveral revolutions, uprisings, assassinations of Tsars, and power takeovers in St. Peterburg had shaped the course of history in Russia and influenced the world. In 1801, after the assassination of the Emperor Paul I of Russia, his son became the Emperor
Alexander I of Russia. Alexander I ruled Russia during the
Napoleonic Wars and expanded his Empire by acquisitions of Finland and part of Poland. His mysterious death in 1825 was marked by the Decembrist revolt, which was suppressed by the Emperor
Nicholas I of Russia, who ordered execution of leaders and exiled hundreds of their followers to Siberia. Nicholas I then pushed for Russian nationalism by suppressing non-Russian nationalities and religions.Edvard Radzinsky. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005. ISBN-10: 074327332X
Cultural revolution that followed after the Napoleonic wars, had further opened St. Petersburg up, in spite of repressions. The city's wealth and rapid growth had always attracted prominent intellectuals, scientists, writers and artists. St. Petersburg eventually gained international recognition as a gateway for trade and business, as well as a cosmopolitan cultural hub. The works of
Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol,
Ivan Turgenev,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and numerous others brought Russian literature to the world. Music, theatre and
ballet became firmly established and gained international stature.
The son of Tsar Nicholas I, Tsar
Alexander II of Russia implemented the most challenging reformsEdvard Radzinsky. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. New York: The Free Press, 2005. ISBN-10: 074327332X undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great. The emancipation of the serfs (1861) caused the influx of large numbers of poor into the capital. Tenements were erected on the outskirts, and nascent
industry sprang up, surpassing Moscow in population and industrial growth. By 1900, St. Petersburg had grown into one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe, an important international center of power, business and politics, and the 4th largest city in Europe.
With the growth of industry, radical movements were also astir. Socialism organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many public figures, government officials, members of the royal family, and the Tsar himself. Tsar
Alexander II of Russia was killed by a suicide bomber
Ignacy Hryniewiecki in 1881, in a plot with connections to the family of Lenin and other revolutionaries. The Russian Revolution of 1905 initiated here and spread rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name
Sankt Peterburg was seen to be too German, so the city was renamed
Petrograd.
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (Random House, 1995) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-58048-6 and ISBN 0-679-43572-7
1917 saw next stages of the Russian RevolutionRex A. Wade
The Russian Revolution, 1917 2005 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521841550, and re-emergence of the
Communist party led by
Lenin, who declared "Guns give us the power" and "All power to the Soviets!"Tony Cliff "Lenin: All power to the Soviets"
Lenin: All Power to the Soviets 1976 Pluto Press After the February Revolution, the Tsar
Nicholas II was arrested and the Tsar's government was replaced by two opposing centers of political power: the "pro-democracy"
Russian Provisional Government, 1917 and the "pro-communist"
Petrograd Soviet.Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution (New York, 1990) Then the Provisional government was overthrown by the
Bolsheviks in the
October RevolutionJohn Reed (journalist). Ten Days that Shook the World. 1919, 1st Edition, published by BONI & Liveright, Inc. for International Publishers. Transcribed and marked by David Walters for John Reed Internet Archive. Penguin Books; 1st edition. June 1, 1980. ISBN 0-14-018293-4, causing the
Russian Civil War.
The city's proximity to anti-Soviet armies, forced communist leader Vladimir Lenin to move his government to
Moscow on March 5
1918. The move was disguised as temporary, but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. On
January 24 1924, three days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed
Leningrad. The Communist party's reason for renaming the city again was that Lenin had led the revolution. Deeper reasons existed at the level of political propaganda: Saint Petersburg had stood as the symbol of capitalist culture and the Tsarist empire, but the Soviet empire needed to destroy that. Russian source: Factbook on the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. Справочник по истории Коммунистической партии и Советского Союза 1898 - 1991 After the Civil War, and murder of the Tsar
Nicholas II and his family, as well as millions of anti-Soviet people, the renaming to Leningrad was designed to destroy last hopes among the resistance, and show strong dictatorship of Lenin's communist party and the Soviet regime. Leon Trotsky. Memoir and Critique. New York, 1989. Felix Yusupov. Memoirs,
Lost Splendor, New York, 1953.
St. Petersburg was devastated by Lenin's Red TerrorLenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. By Robert Gellately, 2007, Random House, 720 pages. ISBN 1400040051 then by Stalin's Great PurgeStalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union by Barry McLoughlin and Kevin McDermott (eds). Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, p. 6 in addition to crime and vandalism in the series of revolutions and wars. Between 1917 and 1930s, about two million people fled the city, including hundreds of thousands of educated intellectuals and aristocracy, who emigrated to Europe and America. At the same time many political, social and paramilitary groups had followed the communist government in their move to Moscow, as the benefits of capital status had left the city. In 1931 Leningrad administratively separated from
Leningrad Oblast.
In 1934 the popular governor of Leningrad, Sergey Kirov, was assassinated, because Stalin apparently became increasingly paranoid about Kirov's growthDmitri Volkogonov.
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 1996, ISBN-10: 0761507183. The death of Kirov was used to ignite the Great PurgeGreat Purges: Great Purges Spartacus Educational where supporters of Trotsky and other suspected "enemies of the Soviet state" were arrested. Then a series of "criminal" cases, known as the
Leningrad Centre and Leningrad Affair
Stalin and the Betrayal of Leningrad by John Barber, were fabricated and resulted in death sentences for many top leaders of Leningrad, and severe repressions of thousands of top officials and intellectuals.
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, causing death of more than 1 million civilians in 3 years; 1942 alone saw 650,000 people die. The siege of Leningrad September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944. The secret instruction from
23 September 1941 said: "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
Ingria 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 Hitler's "New East European Order".
Hitler ordered preparations for victory celebrations at the Tsar's Palaces. The Nazis looted art from museums and palaces, as well as from private homes. All looted treasures, such as the Amber Room, gold statues of
Peterhof, paintings and other valuable art were taken to Germany. Hitler also prepared a party to celebrate his victory 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 Nazi siege of 1941 - 1944, the only ways to supply the city, and suburbs, inhabited by several millions, were by aircraft or by cars crossing the frozen Lake Ladoga. The Nazis systematically shelled this route, called the Road of Life, so thousands of cars with people and food supplies had sank in the lake. The situation in the city was especially horrible in the winter of 1941 - 1942. The German bombing raids destroyed most of the food reserves. Daily food ration was cut 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 water supply was destroyed. The situation further worsened in winter due to 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 the Luftwaffe 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.
As a result of the Nazi siege, about 1,2 million of 3 million Leningrad civilians lost their lives because of bombardment, starvation, infections and stress. Hundreds of thousands of unregistered civilians, who lived in Leningrad prior to WWII, had perished in the Nazi siege without any record at all. About 1 million civilians escaped with evacuation, mainly by foot. After two years of the siege, Leningrad became an empty "ghost-city" with thousands of ruined and abandoned homes.
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. Joerg Ganzenmueller,
Das belagerte Leningrad, pp.13-82, quotation p. 17 und 20.
For the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Nazi Siege, Leningrad was the first city in the former USSR awarded the title Hero City in 1945.
After the war
(315 m high)The war damaged the city and killed many 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 post-war decades, partially according to the pre-war plans. In 1950 the Kirov Stadium was opened and soon set a record when 110,000 fans attended a football match. In 1955 the
Leningrad Metro, the second underground rapid transit system in the country, was opened with its first six stations decorated with marble and bronze.
However, during the late 1940s and 1950s, the entire political and cultural elite of Leningrad suffered from more harsh repressions under dictatorship of StalinDmitri Volkogonov.
Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 1996, ISBN-10: 0761507183, hundreds were executed and thousands were imprisoned in repressions known as the
Leningrad Affair.Russian publication: Ленинградское дело – надо ли ставить кавычки?: Independent thinkers, writers, artists and other intellectuals were attacked, magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad" were banned,
Anna Akhmatova and
Mikhail Zoshchenko were repressedRussian publication: Маленков против Жданова. Игры сталинских фаворитов. , and tens of thousands Leningraders were exiled to Siberia. More crackdowns on the Leningrad's intellectual elite, known as the "Second Leningrad affair", were part of the economic policies of the Soviet state. Leningrad's economy was producing about 6% of the USSR GNP, having less than 2% of the country's population, but such economic efficiency was negated by the
Soviet Communist Party which diverted the income from people of Leningrad to other Soviet places and programs. As a result during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the city of Leningrad was seriously underfunded in favor of Moscow. Leningrad suffered from the imbalanced distribution of wealth because the Soviet leadership drained the city's resources to subsidise higher standards of living in Moscow as well as some underperforming parts of the Soviet Union and beyond. Such redistribution of wealth caused struggle within the Soviet government and Communist Party, which lead to their fragmentation and played a role in the eventual collapse of the USSR.
On June 12, 1991, the day of the
Russian presidential election, 1991, in a referendum 54% of voters chose to restore "
the original name, Saint Petersburg, on September 6,
1991. In the same election
Anatoly Sobchak became the first democratically elected
list of heads of Saint Petersburg government.
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.,
Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0679413766 Among the first initiatives of Sobchak was his efforts to minimise the federal control by Moscow to keep the income from St. Petersburg's economy in the city.
Original names returned to 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks. Older people sometimes use old names and old mailing addresses. The name Leningrad was heavily promoted in media, mainly in connection with the siege, so even authorities may call it "Hero city Leningrad." Young people may use
Leningrad as a vague protest against some social and economic changes. A popular ska punk band from Saint Petersburg is called
Leningrad (band)Leningrad Oblast retained its name after a popular vote. It is a separate federal subject of Russia of which the city of St. Petersburg is the capital.
In 1996, Vladimir Anatolyevich Yakovlev was elected the head of the
Saint Petersburg City Administration, and changed his title from "mayor" to "governor." In 2003, Yakovlev resigned a year before his second term expired. Valentina Matviyenko was elected governor. In 2006 she was reapproved as governor by the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
The
Constitutional Court of Russia is scheduled to move to the former Senate and Synod buildings at the Decembrists Square in St. Petersburg by 2008. The move will partially restore Saint Petersburg's historic status, making the city the second judicial capital.
Geography
The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km². The area of the federal subject is 1439 km², which contains the Saint Petersburg proper, and suburban towns (Kolpino,
Krasnoye Selo,
Kronstadt,
Lomonosov, Russia, Pavlovsk, Peterhof,
Pushkin (town),
Sestroretsk and
Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg), all together over 20 municipalities and rural localities.
Saint Petersburg is situated on the middle taiga lowlands along the shores of the Neva Bay of the
Gulf of Finland, and islands of the river delta. The largest are
Vasilyevsky island (besides the artificial island between Obvodny canal and
Fontanka, and Kotlin in the Neva Bay), Petrogradsky, Dekabristov and Krestovsky island. The latter together with
Yelagin Island and
Kamenny island are covered mostly by parks.
The
Karelian Isthmus, north of the city, is a popular resort area. In the south Saint Petersburg crosses the Baltic-Ladoga Klint and meets the Izhora Heights.
The elevation of Saint Petersburg ranges from the
sea level to its highest point of 175.9 m (577') at the Orekhovaya hill in the Duderhof Heights in the south. Part of the city's territory west of
Liteyny Prospekt, is no higher than 4 m above sea level, and has suffered from numerous floods. Floods in Saint Petersburg are triggered by a long wave in the Baltic Sea, caused by meteorological conditions, winds and shallowness of the Neva Bay. The most disastrous floods occurred in 1824 (421 cm above sea-levelThe level of flooding is measured near Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, which is normally 11 cm a.s.l.), 1924 (380 cm), 1777 (321cm), 1955 (293 cm) and 1975 (281 cm). To prevent floods, the
Saint Petersburg Dam has been under construction since 1979.Нежиховский Р. А.
Река Нева и Невская губа, Leningrad: Гидрометеоиздат, 1981.
Since the 18th century the terrain in the city has been raised artificially, at some places by more than 4 m, making mergers of several islands, and changing the hydrology of the city.
Besides Neva and its distributaries, other important rivers of the federal subject of Saint Petersburg are
Sestra River (Leningrad Oblast), Okhta River (Neva basin) and
Izhora River. The largest lake is Sestroretsky Razliv in the north, followed by Lakhtinsky Razliv, Suzdal Lakes and other smaller lakes.
St. Petersburg's position on the
latitude of ca. 60° N, causes variation in day length across seasons, ranging from 5:53 to 18:50.
Twilight may last all night in early summer, from June to mid-July, the celebrated phenomenon known as the white nights.
Climate
Saint Petersburg experiences a humid continental climate of the cool summer subtype (Climate Zone: Dfb), due to the distinct moderating influence of the
Baltic Sea cyclons. Summers are typically cool, humid and quite short, while winters are long, cold, but with frequent warm spells. The average daily temperature in July is 22C (72 F), summer maximum is about 34C (94F), winter minimum is about -27 °C (-17 °F), the record low temperature is -35.9 °C (-33 °F), recorded in 1883. The average wholeyear temperature is +4 °C (39 °F). The River Neva within the city limits usually freezes up in November-December, break-up occurs in April. From December to March there are 123 days average with snow cover, which reaches the average of 24 cm (9.5") by February. The frost-free period in the city lasts on average for about 135 days. The city has a climate slightly warmer than its suburbs. Weather conditions are quite variable all year round.See
Historical weather records for Saint Petersburg (since 1932) and
Historical weather in Saint Petersburg for further information.
Average annual precipitation (meteorology) varies across the city, averaging 600 mm per year and reaching maximum in late summer. Soil moisture is almost always high because of lower
evapotranspiration due to the cool climate. Relative humidity is 78% on average,
overcast is 165 days a year on average.
{{Infobox Weather|metric_first= Yes|single_line= Yes|location = Saint Petersburg|Jan_Hi_°C = -4.8 |Jan_REC_Hi_°C = 8.6|Feb_Hi_°C = -4.6 |Feb_REC_Hi_°C = 10.2|Mar_Hi_°C = 0.0 |Mar_REC_Hi_°C = 14.9|Apr_Hi_°C = 7.4 |Apr_REC_Hi_°C = 25.3|May_Hi_°C = 14.7 |May_REC_Hi_°C = 30.9|Jun_Hi_°C = 19.4 |Jun_REC_Hi_°C = 34.6|Jul_Hi_°C = 22.0 |Jul_REC_Hi_°C = 34.3|Aug_Hi_°C = 20.1 |Aug_REC_Hi_°C = 33.5|Sep_Hi_°C = 14.5 |Sep_REC_Hi_°C = 30.4|Oct_Hi_°C = 7.7 |Oct_REC_Hi_°C = 21.0|Nov_Hi_°C = 1.6 |Nov_REC_Hi_°C = 12.3|Dec_Hi_°C = -2.5 |Dec_REC_Hi_°C = 10.9|Year_Hi_°C = 8.1 |Year_REC_Hi_°C = 34.6
|Jan_Lo_°C = -10.5 |Jan_REC_Lo_°C = -35.9|Feb_Lo_°C = -10.6 |Feb_REC_Lo_°C = -35.2|Mar_Lo_°C = -6.9 |Mar_REC_Lo_°C = -29.9|Apr_Lo_°C = -0.2 |Apr_REC_Lo_°C = -21.8|May_Lo_°C = 5.7 |May_REC_Lo_°C = -6.6|Jun_Lo_°C = 10.8 |Jun_REC_Lo_°C = 0.1|Jul_Lo_°C = 13.9 |Jul_REC_Lo_°C = 4.9|Aug_Lo_°C = 12.5 |Aug_REC_Lo_°C = 1.3|Sep_Lo_°C = 7.9 |Sep_REC_Lo_°C = -3.1|Oct_Lo_°C = 2.8 |Oct_REC_Lo_°C = -12.9|Nov_Lo_°C = -2.4 |Nov_REC_Lo_°C = -22.2|Dec_Lo_°C = -7.3 |Dec_REC_Lo_°C = -34.4|Year_Lo_°C = 1.4 |Year_REC_Lo_°C = -35.9
|Jan_Precip_cm = |Jan_Precip_mm = 37|Feb_Precip_cm = |Feb_Precip_mm = 30|Mar_Precip_cm = |Mar_Precip_mm = 34|Apr_Precip_cm = |Apr_Precip_mm = 33|May_Precip_cm = |May_Precip_mm = 37|Jun_Precip_cm = |Jun_Precip_mm = 57|Jul_Precip_cm = |Jul_Precip_mm = 77|Aug_Precip_cm = |Aug_Precip_mm = 80|Sep_Precip_cm = |Sep_Precip_mm = 69|Oct_Precip_cm = |Oct_Precip_mm = 66|Nov_Precip_cm = |Nov_Precip_mm = 55|Dec_Precip_cm = |Dec_Precip_mm = 50|Year_Precip_cm = |Year_Precip_mm = 625|source = Pogoda.ru.net{{cite web| url = http://pogoda.ru.net/climate/26063.htm | title = Pogoda.ru.net| accessmonthday = July 29| accessyear = 2007| publisher = | language = Russian-->|accessdate = 29.07.2007-->|accessdate2 = -->-->
Demographics
]Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. Census (2002)] recorded population of the federal subject 4,661,219, or 3.21% of the total population of Russia. The 2002 census recorded twenty-two ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each. The ethnic composition was: Russians 84.72% • Ukrainians 1.87% • Belarusians 1.17% • Jews 0.78% •
Tatars 0.76% •
Armenians 0.41% • Azeris in Russia 0.36% •
Georgian people 0.22% •
Chuvash 0.13% • Poles 0.10% and many other smaller ethnic groups. 7.89% of the inhabitants declined to state their ethnicity.
The 20th century saw hectic ups and downs in population. From 2.4 million in 1916 it had dropped to less than 740 thousand by 1920 during the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War. The sizeable minorities of Germans, Poles, Finns, Estonians and Latvians were almost completely population transfer in the Soviet Union from Leningrad by the Soviet government.Martin, Terry (1998). The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing.
The Journal of Modern History 70.4, 813-861. From 1941 to the end of 1943, population dropped from 3 million to less than 700 thousand, as people died in battles, starved to death during the
Siege of Leningrad, or were evacuated. After the siege, some of the evacuees returned, but most influx was due to migration from other parts of the Soviet Union. The city absorbed 3 million people in the 1950s and grew over 5 million in the 1980s. From 1991 to 2006 the city's population decreased to current 4.6 million, while the suburban population increased due to privatization of land and massive move to suburbs.Чистякова Н. Третье сокращение численности населения… и последнее?
Демоскоп Weekly 163 – 164, August 1-15, 2004.Russian source: "Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg" Чистяков А. Ю. Население (обзорная статья).
Энциклопедия Санкт-Петербурга Birth rate remains lower than death rate, people over 65 make more than 20% of population, and the median age is about 40 years.Russian statistics Основные показатели социально-демографической ситуации в Санкт-Петербурге
People in urban Saint Petersburg live mostly in apartments. Between 1918 and 1990s, the Soviets
nationalised housing and forced residents to share communal apartments (
kommunalkas). With 68% living in shared flats in the 1930s, Leningrad was the largest city in the USSR by the number of
kommunalkas. Resettling residents of
kommunalkas is now on the way, albeit shared apartments are still not uncommon. As new boroughs were built on the outskirts in the 1950s-1980s, over half a million low income families eventually received free apartments, and additional hundred thousand condos were purchased by the middle class. While economic and social activity is concentrated in the historic city centre, the richest part of Saint Petersburg, most people live in the
commuter areas.
For the first half of 2007, the birth rate was 9.1 per 1000
Government
, the seat of the AssemblySaint Petersburg is a federal subject of RussiaThe Constitution of the Russian federation: . The political life of Saint Petersburg is regulated by the city charter adopted by the city legislature in 1998.Russian source: Charter of St. Petersburg City.The superior executive body is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by the
list of heads of Saint Petersburg government (mayor before 1996). Saint Petersburg has a single-chamber legislature, the
Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
According to the federal law passed in 2004, heads of federal subjects, including the governor of Saint Petersburg, are nominated by the President of Russia and approved by local legislatures. If the legislature disapproves the nominee, it is dissolved. The current governor, Valentina Matviyenko was approved according to the new system in December 2006.
Saint Petersburg city is currently divided into
Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg is also the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast, and of the Northwestern Federal DistrictOffivial site of the Northwestern Federal District (Russian): .
Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, being two different federal subjects, share a number of local departments of federal executive agencies and courts, such as court of arbitration, police, FSB (Russia), postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services.
Crime
As in other large Russian cities, Saint Petersburg experiences fairly high levels of Street crime and
bribery. In addition, in recent years there has been a noticeable increase in racially motivated violence. On the other hand, unlike in Moscow, there have been no major terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg in recent years. Russia 2007 Crime & Safety Report: St. Petersburg
In the end of the 1980s – beginning of the 1990s Leningrad became home to a number of gangs, such as Tambov Gang, Malyshev Gang, Kazan Gang and ethnic criminal groups, engaged in a racket (crime),
extortion and violent clashes with each other.
After the sensational assassinations of City Property Committee Chairman Mikhail Manevich (1997), State Duma deputy Galina Starovoytova (1998), acting City Legislature Speaker Viktor Novosyolov (1999) and a number of prominent businesspeople, Saint Petersburg was dubbed capital of crime in the Russian press.Trumbull, Nathaniel S. (2003) The impacts of globalization on St. Petersburg: A secondary world city in from the cold?
The Annals of Regional Science 37:533–546Powell, Bill & Brian Whitmore. The Capital Of Crime.(St. Petersburg, Russia).
Newsweek International, May 15, 2000.
Economy
St. Petersburg is a major trade gateway, financial and industrial center of Russia specialising in oil and gas trade, shipbuilding yards, aerospace industry,
radio and electronics,
software and
computers; machine building, heavy
machinery and transport, including tanks and other military equipment,
mining,
Tool manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of
aluminium alloys),
chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, publishing and
printing, food and catering, wholesale and
retail,
textile and clothing industries, and many other businesses. It was also home to Lessner, one of Russia's two pioneering
automobile manufacturers (along with
Russo-Baltic), Lessner; founded by machine tool and boiler maker
G. A. Lessner in 1904, with designs by Boris Loutsky, it survived until 1910.Georgano, G. N.
Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985)
10% of the world's power turbines are made here at the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod, which built over two thousand turbines for power plants across the world. Major local industries are
Admiralty Shipyard,
Baltic Shipyard, LOMO, Kirov Plant, Elektrosila,
Izhorsky Zavod; also registered in St. Petersburg are Gazprom Neft, Sovkomflot,
Petersburg Fuel Company and
SIBUR among other major Russian and international companies.
St. Petersburg has three large cargo
ports of the Baltic Sea: Bolshoi Port St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, and Lomonosov. International cruise liners are served at the passenger port at Morskoy Vokzal on the west end of the Vasilevsky Island. A complex system of riverports on both banks of the Neva river are interconnected with the system of seaports, thus making St. Petersburg the main link between the Baltic sea and the rest of Russia through the
Volga-Baltic Waterway.
The
Saint Petersburg Mint (
Monetny Dvor), founded in 1724, is one of the largest mints in the world, it mints Russian rubles, medals and
badges. St. Petersburg is also home to the oldest and largest Russian foundry,
Monumentskulptura, which made thousands of sculptures and statues that are now gracing public parks of St. Petersburg, as well as many other cties. Monuments and bronze statues of the Tsars, as well as other important historic figures and dignitaries, and other world famous monuments, such as the sculptures by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, Paolo Troubetzkoy,
Pavel Antokolsky, and others, were made here.
Toyota is building a plant in Shuishary, one of the suburbs; General Motors and Nissan have signed deals with the Russian government too. Automotive and parts industry is on the rise here during the last decade. Saint Petersburg is known as a "beer capital" of Russia, due to the supply and quality of local water, 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). St. Petersburg has the second largest construction industry in Russia, including commercial, housing and road construction.
In 2006 Saint-Petersburg's city budget was 179,9 billion rubles,Budget of St. Petersburg (Russian document): and is planned to double by 2012. The federal subject's
gross regional product as of 2005 was 667,905.4 million
Russian rubles, ranked 4th in Russia, after Moscow, Tyumen Oblast, and Moscow Oblast Валовой региональный продукт по субъектам Российской Федерации в 1998-2005гг. (в текущих основных ценах; млн.рублей), or 145,503.3 rubles per capita, ranked 12th among Russia's federal subjects Валовой региональный продукт на душу населения (в текущих основных ценах; рублей), contributed mostly by wholesale and retail trade and repair services (24.7%) as well as processing industry (20.9%) and transportation and telecommunications (15.1%). Отраслевая структура ВРП по видам экономической деятельности (по ОКВЭД) за 2005 год
Transport
The city is a major transport hub. In 1837 the first Russian railroad was built here. Today St. Petersburg is the final destination of
Trans-Siberian railroad, and a web of intercity and suburban railways, served by five different railway terminals (Baltiysky Rail Terminal, Finlyandsky Rail Terminal,
Ladozhsky Rail Terminal, Moskovsky Rail Terminal and Vitebsky Rail Terminal)Until 2001, the Varshavsky Rail Terminal served as a major station, it is now converted into a railway museum. Reconstruction of the Warsaw Railway Station, as well as dozens of non-terminal railway stations within the federal subject. Saint Petersburg has international railway connections to Helsinki, Finland, Berlin, Germany, and all former republics of the USSR.
Riihimäki-Saint Petersburg railroad was built in 1870, 443 km, commutes 3 times a day, about 5.5 h. The Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway opened in 1851, 651 km, commute to Moscow is 4.5-9 h.http://www.russianrail.com/ Saint Petersburg is also served by the
Pulkovo Airport,Rossiya (Pulkovo): Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise and three smaller commercial and cargo airports in the suburbs. There is a regular 24/7 rapid bus transit connection between Pulkovo airport and the city center.
The city is also served by the passenger and cargo seaports in the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea, the river port higher up Neva, and tens of smaller passenger stations on both banks of the Neva river. It is a terminus of the
Volga-Baltic Waterway and White Sea-Baltic Canal waterways. In 2004 the first high bridge that doesn't need to be drawn, a 2824 m long
Big Obukhovsky Bridge, was opened. Meteor hydrofoils link the city centre to the coastal towns of Kronstadt,
Lomonosov, Russia,
Peterhof, Sestroretsk and
Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg from May through October.
in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg has an extensive city-funded network of public transportation (buses, trams,
trolleybuses) and several hundred routes served by
marshrutkas.
Tramways in Saint Petersburg used to be the main transportation; in the 1980s, Leningrad had the largest tramway network in the world, but many tramway rail tracks were dismantled in the 2000s. Buses carry up to 3 million passengers daily, serving over 250 urban and a number of suburban bas routes.
Saint Petersburg Metro underground rapid transit system was opened in 1955; it now has 4 lines with 60 stations, connecting all five railway terminals, and carrying 2,8 million passengers daily. Metro stations are decorated in marble and bronze. The 5th metro line is scheduled to open in 2008.
Traffic jams are common in the city, because of narrow streets, parking sites along their edges, high daily traffic volumes between the commuter boroughs and the city center, intercity traffic, and at times excessive snowing in winter. Five segments of the
Saint Petersburg Ring Road were opened between 2002 and 2006, and full ring is planned to open in 2012.
Saint Petersburg is part of the important transport corridor linking Scandinavia to Russia and Eastern Europe. The city is a node of the International E-road network European route E18 towards Helsinki, European route E20 towards Tallinn,
European route E95 towards
Pskov, Kiev and Odessa and European route E105 towards Petrozavodsk,
Murmansk and
Kirkenes (north) and towards Moscow and
Kharkiv (south).
Built environment and landmarks
at night 2006The 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 Dike (construction)s and Bridges in Saint Petersburg 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°
latitude), 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
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, sometimes called the outdoor museum of
Architecture, was the first Russian patrimony inscribed on the
UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Canals and Bridges
St.Petersburg Russian Restaurant
Russian restaurant. Includes menus, online reservations and photos of the entertainment.
St Petersburg Collection
St Petersburg Collection
Saint-Petersburg.com - travel and event guide for St Petersburg ...
Travel and event guide, includes 360° panoramas of the city. Sightseeing and entertainment information, history section, special events, attractions and maps.
Panoramic views of St. Petersburg, Russia
Gallery of Quick Time 360-degree panoramas of major sights and attractions in St Petersburg, Russia. Get QTVR panoramic views of St. Petersburg's greatest sights.
BBC - Weather Centre - 5 Day Forecast in Celsius for St Petersburg ...
The BBC Weather five day forecast for your selected town or city, showing the temperature in Celsius.
Saint-Petersburg
Due to the highest representational level, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is the most significant informational event of the summer 2008 of not only political, but ...
Channel 4: Masters of Darkness
A vision involving the virgin of Kazan, or black virgin, is said to be responsible for his initial journey to St Petersburg. In another he is reputed to have seen his own death ...
Exploring Russia / St. Petersburg
S t. Petersburg is a city of haunting magnificence, an imperial capital that seems to have been built as a monument to its own passing.
St Petersburg - online travel guide to hotels, tours, restaurants in ...
Welcome to Saint-Petersburg - the Northern capital of Russia, its historical, architectural and cultural centre!
