РаспечататьST PETERSBURG
St. Petersburg (Sankt—Peterburg) is a Russian city situated on the Neva River, which empties into the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter theGreat as the new capital of the Russian Empire. St. Petersburg (known as Petrograd during World War I) remainedthe Russian seat of power until 1918, when the Bolsheviks moved the capital to Moscow. In 1924, following thedeath of Vladimir Lenin, the city was renamed Leningrad. The original name was restored in 1991 as part of theprocess of de-Sovietization of Russian culture. The name of the surrounding area—Leningrad Oblast—remainedin place as a symbol of reconciliation between the Soviet and post-Soviet generations. Informally, the city is knownas Piter.
St. Petersburg is Russia’s second-largest city and one of Europe’s largest metropolises. Approximately 5 millionpeople live in St. Petersburg proper, with another 2 million in its environs. The city is a large industrial center,specializing in shipbuilding, aerospace, software and computers, heavy machinery, and weapons production. St.Petersburg is an important financial center and Russia’s secondlargest center for the construction industry. The city serves as an important foreigntrade gateway; the city’s port connects the rest of Russia to Baltic and Nordic Europe via the Volga-Don Canal. Asa tourism destination, cultural capital, and educational center, St. Petersburg is Moscow’s main rival. As a homeof the Romanov dynasty, the city boasts an extraordinarily rich history and culture, memorialized in the city’slandscape, architecture, museums, and arts centers. The Hermitage houses the richest collection of art in theworld; the Russian Museum specializes in the Russian visual arts; the Kunstkamera, founded by Peter the Greatto house collections of curiosities from around the world, is considered to be Russia’s first museum. The royalpalaces in the city and its suburbs, such as Tsarskoye Selo, are unique examples of landscape art. A number ofworld-renowned authors are associated with St. Petersburg, including Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky,Anna Akhmatova, and Joseph Brodsky. Russia’s world-famous ballet and avant-garde art originated in thenorthern capital as well.
OUR PROGRAMS