St._petersburg

For other uses of "Saint Petersburg", see Saint Petersburg (disambiguation).

"Leningrad" redirects here. For other uses, see Leningrad (disambiguation).

Saint Petersburg (English) Санкт-Петербург (Russian)
The English Embankment with Saint Isaac\'s Cathedral
Location of Saint Petersburg in Europe
Coordinates 59°56′N 30°20′E / 59.933, 30.333Coordinates: 59°56′N 30°20′E / 59.933, 30.333
Coat of Arms	Flag
City Day: May 27
Political status Federal district Economic region	Federal city Northwestern Northwestern
Code	78
Area
Area	606 km² (234 sq mi)
Population (as of the 2002 Census)
Population - Rank - Density	4,661,219 inhabitants 2nd 7,691.8/km² (19,921.7/sq mi)
Government
Head	Valentina Matviyenko
Legislative body	Legislative Assembly
Charter	Charter of Saint Petersburg
Events
Founded	May 27, 1703
Became the capital of Russia	May 8, 1713
Renamed Petrograd	August 31, 1914
Capital moved back to Moscow	1918
Renamed Leningrad	January 26, 1924
Renamed St. Petersburg	September 6, 1991
Other information
Postal code	190000–199406
Dialing code	+7 812
Official website
http://eng.gov.spb.ru/ http://www.st-petersburg.ru/en/

Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг (help·info), tr.: Sankt-Peterburg, IPA: [sankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk]) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg\'s informal name, Piter (Пи́тер), is based on how Peter the Great was called by foreigners.^{[citation needed]} The city\'s other names were Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924) and Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991).Governor of Sankt Petersburg: [1]

Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1713-1728, 1732-1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917.Nicholas and Alexandra: 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 fourth largest city (by city limit) after Moscow, London and Paris. 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 live in the city\'s vicinity. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. The city, as federal subject, has a total area of 1,439 square kilometres (556 sq mi).

St. Petersburg has the image of being the most Western European styled city of Russia.V. Morozov. The Discourses of St. Petersburg and the Shaping of a Wider Europe. Copenhagen Peace Research institute. 2002. [2] Among cities of the world with over one million people, Saint Petersburg is the northernmost. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO 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" (северная столица, severnaya stolitsa).

Contents 1 History 1.1 The new capital 1.2 Revolutions 1.3 Siege of Leningrad 1.4 After the war 2 Geography 2.1 Climate 3 Demographics 4 Government 5 Crime 6 Economy 7 Transport 8 Built environment and landmarks 8.1 Canals and Bridges 8.2 Palaces of the Tsars 8.3 Cathedrals and temples 8.4 Museums and popular sites 8.5 Monuments and sculptures 8.6 Suburban parks and palaces 9 Society and Culture 9.1 Music in St. Petersburg 9.2 St. Petersburg in the movies 9.3 St. Petersburg in literature 9.4 Sport 9.5 Notable people 10 Education and science 11 Honors 12 Sister cities 13 Gallery 14 See also 15 Sources 16 References 17 Further reading 18 External links

History

Further information: History of Saint Petersburg

The new capital

The Bronze Horseman, monument to Peter the Great

Map of Saint Petersburg, 1903

On May 1, 1703 Peter the Great took the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans and the city Nyen on the Neva river. On May 27, 1703 (May 16, Old Style) he founded Saint Petersburg 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 (Modern Dutch Sint-Petersburg), because Peter had lived and studied in the Netherlands; he also spent three months in Britain and was 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 16 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. Many escaped, however, and others died from disease and exposure under the harsh conditions.Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980) by Robert K. Massie, ISBN 0-394-50032-6 The 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 German and Dutch 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 [3]

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 modernization in Moscow and the rest of Russia were completely misunderstood by the old-fashioned Russian nobility and eventually failed. This resulted in considerable opposition, including several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his own son.Matthew S. Anderson, Peter the Great (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978)

Peter moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1712, nine years before the Treaty of Nystad. It was a seaport and also a base for Peter\'s navy, protected by the fortress of Kronstadt (literally \'Crown City\'). The first person to build a home in St. 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 the Neva was built every summer. Today there are more than 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. [4]

Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Peter\'s best friend, was the first Governor General 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 four 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 of the most powerful women in Russian history. Peter\'s daughter, Empress Elizabeth, 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 12,000 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 Summer Palace, which then became residencies of Empress Catherine the Great, who reigned for 34 years, from 1762 to 1796. Under her rule, which exemplified that of an enlightened despot, more palaces were built in St. Petersburg than in any other capital in the world.

Revolutions

The Church of the Savior on Blood commemorates the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated

Several revolutions, uprisings, assassinations of Tsars and power takeovers in St. Petersburg had shaped the course of history in Russia and influenced the world. In 1801, after the assassination of Emperor Paul I, his son became Emperor Alexander I. 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 Emperor Nicholas I, 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, 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. Socialist organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many public figures, government officials, members of the royal family, and the Tsar himself. Tsar Alexander II was killed by suicide bomber Ignacy Hryniewiecki in 1881, in a plot with connections to the family of Lenin and other revolutionaries. The 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 Revolution,Rex A. Wade The Russian Revolution, 1917 2005 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521841550 and re-emergence of the Communist party led by Lenin, who declared "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, Tsar Nicholas II was arrested and the Tsar\'s government was replaced by two opposing centers of political power: the "pro-democracy" Provisional government 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 Revolution,Reed, John. 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 [5] After the Civil War and murder of 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 the 1930s, about two million people fled the city, including hundreds of thousands of 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, Kirov, was assassinated, because Stalin apparently became increasingly paranoid about Kirov\'s growth.Dmitri 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[6] 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

Main article: Siege of Leningrad

Diorama of the Siege of Leningrad, in the Museum of the Great Patriotic war, in Moscow

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. [7] 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 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 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 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 (14 oz) of bread for a worker and 200 grams (7 oz) for a woman or child. On 20 November 1941, the rations were reduced to 250 g (9 oz) and 125 g (4 oz) 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.

After the Victory in WWII, search for the looted treasures from museums and palaces of Leningrad and suburbs was continued in Germany.

For the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Siege, Leningrad was the first city in the former USSR to be awarded the title Hero City in 1945. Some performance and cinema theatres were opened for public by the middle of 1946, and in May of 1947 the famous fountains of the Peterhof park were re-constructed from ruins and opened for public again. However, the palaces of the Tsars were in ruins for the next several decades as the country recovered from war.

After the war

Saint Petersburg TV Tower (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.

The Leningrad Metro, which was designed before the war in the 1930s, was finally completed and opened in 1955 with its first seven stations decorated with marble and bronze. It became the second underground rapid transit system in Russia. Population of Leningrad with suburbs had increased rapidly in the 10 post-war years from under 0.8 million to about 4 million.

However, during the late 1940s and 1950s, the entire political and cultural elite of Leningrad suffered from more harsh repressions under dictatorship of Stalin,Dmitri 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?: [8] Independent thinkers, writers, artists and other intellectuals were attacked, magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad" were banned, Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were repressed,Russian publication: Маленков против Жданова. Игры сталинских фаворитов. [9] and tens of thousands Leningraders were exiled to Siberia. More crackdowns on 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.^{[citation needed]}

On June 12, 1991, the day of the first Russian presidential election, in a referendum 54% of voters chose to restore the name "Saint Petersburg" (change later occurring on September 6, 1991). In the same election Anatoly Sobchak became the first democratically elected mayor of the city.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

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 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 city legislature.

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

Further information: Geography of Saint Petersburg

Satellite picture of St. Peterburg

Territory of the federal subject of St. Petersburg

The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km² (233.9 sq mi). The area of the federal subject is 1,439 km² (556 sq mi), which contains the Saint Petersburg proper, and suburban towns (a.o. Kolpino, Krasnoye Selo, Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Pushkin, Sestroretsk and Zelenogorsk), 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. The latter together with Yelagin 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 ft) 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 (13 ft) 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/13.8 ft above sea-levelThe level of flooding is measured near Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, which is normally 11 cm (4 in) a.s.l.), 1924 (380 cm/12.5 ft), 1777 (321 cm/10.5 ft), 1955 (293 cm/9.6 ft) and 1975 (281 cm/9.2 ft). 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 (13 ft), 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, Okhta and Izhora. 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 (Köppen: Dfb), due to the distinct moderating influence of the Baltic Sea cyclones. 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 22 °C (72 °F); summer maximum is about 34 °C (94 °F), 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 in) 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 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. Air humidity is 78% on average, while overcast is 165 days a year on average.

Weather averages for Saint Petersburg
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	8.6 (47)	10.2 (50)	14.9 (59)	25.3 (78)	30.9 (88)	34.6 (94)	34.3 (94)	33.5 (92)	30.4 (87)	21.0 (70)	12.3 (54)	10.9 (52)	34.6 (94)
Average high °C (°F)	-4.8 (23)	-4.6 (24)	0.0 (32)	7.4 (45)	14.7 (58)	19.4 (67)	22.0 (72)	20.1 (68)	14.5 (58)	7.7 (46)	1.6 (35)	-2.5 (28)	8.1 (47)
Average low °C (°F)	-10.5 (13)	-10.6 (13)	-6.9 (20)	-0.2 (32)	5.7 (42)	10.8 (51)	13.9 (57)	12.5 (55)	7.9 (46)	2.8 (37)	-2.4 (28)	-7.3 (19)	1.4 (35)
Record low °C (°F)	-35.9 (-33)	-35.2 (-31)	-29.9 (-22)	-21.8 (-7)	-6.6 (20)	0.1 (32)	4.9 (41)	1.3 (34)	-3.1 (26)	-12.9 (9)	-22.2 (-8)	-34.4 (-30)	-35.9 (-33)
Precipitation mm (inch)	37 (1.5)	30 (1.2)	34 (1.3)	33 (1.3)	37 (1.5)	57 (2.2)	77 (3)	80 (3.1)	69 (2.7)	66 (2.6)	55 (2.2)	50 (2)	625 (24.6)
Source: Pogoda.ru.netPogoda.ru.net (Russian). Retrieved on July 29, 2007. 29.07.2007

Demographics

Further information: Demographics of Saint Petersburg

Population history of Saint PetersburgЧистякова Н. Третье сокращение численности населения… и последнее? Демоскоп Weekly 163 – 164, August 1-15, 2004.Юбилейный статистический сборник. / Под ред. И.И. Елисеевой и Е.И. Грибовой. - Вып.2. - СПб: Судостроение, 2003. с.16-17

Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. The 2002 census recorded a population of the federal subject of 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: 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% and many other smaller ethnic groups. 7.89% of the inhabitants declined to state their ethnicity. (2002). "National Composition of Population for Regions of the Russian Federation" (XLS). 2002 Russian All-Population Census. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.

The 20th century saw hectic ups and downs in population. From 2.4 million in 1916 it had dropped to less than 740,000 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 expelled from Leningrad by the Soviet government during the 1930s.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 700 000, 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 about 3 million people in the 1950s and grew to over 5 million in the 1980s. From 1991 to 2006 the city\'s population decreased to the 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 The birth rate remains lower than the death rate; people over 65 constitute more than twenty percent of the population; and the median age is about 40 years.Russian statisticsОсновные показатели социально-демографической ситуации в Санкт-Петербурге

People in urban Saint Petersburg live mostly in apartments. Between 1918 and the 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 city in the USSR with the largest 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 about an 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 commuter areas.

For the first half of 2007, the birth rate was 9.1 per 1000.[10]

Government

Further information: Government in Saint Petersburg

Mariinsky Palace, the seat of the Assembly

Saint Petersburg is a federal subject of Russia.The Constitution of the Russian federation: [11] 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.[12] The superior executive body is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by the governor (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 eighteen districts.

Saint Petersburg is also the administrative center of Leningrad Oblast, and of the Northwestern Federal District.Offivial site of the Northwestern Federal District (Russian): [13]

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, postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services.

Crime

The Kresty prison

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 notable 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

At 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, 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

Further information: Economy of Saint Petersburg

The Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange, or Bourse, houses the Central Naval Museum.

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, instrument manufacture, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of aluminium alloys), chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, publishing and printing, food and catering, wholesale and retail, textile and apparel 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 there at the LMZ, 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^{[citation needed]}, Sovkomflot, Petersburg Fuel Company and SIBUR among other major Russian and international companies.

The busy St Petersburg docks at dawn

St. Petersburg has three large cargo seaports: 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 coins, 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 there.

In 2007 Toyota opened a Camry plant after investing 5 billion dollars in Shuishary, one of the southern suburbs of St. Petersburg. General Motors, Hyundai and Nissan have signed deals with the Russian government to build their automotive plants in St. Petersburg too. Automotive and auto-parts industry is on the rise there during the last decade. Saint Petersburg is also known as the "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): [14] 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 exquisite decoration of Saint Petersburg Metro

The city is a major transport hub. The first Russian railroad was built here, in 1837. Today, St. Petersburg is the final destination of the Trans-Siberian railroad and a web of intercity and suburban railways, served by five different railway terminals (Baltiysky, Finlyandsky, Ladozhsky, Moskovsky, and Vitebsky),Until 2001, the Varshavsky Rail Terminal served as a major station; it now is 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. The Helsinki railroad was built in 1870, 443 km (275 mi), commutes three times a day, in a journey lasting about five and a half hours. The Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway opened in 1851, 651 km (405 mi); the commute to Moscow now requires about four and a half to nine hours.http://www.russianrail.com/ Saint Petersburg is also served by Pulkovo International Airport,Rossiya (Pulkovo): Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise and by 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.

Map of the Saint Petersburg Metro

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 and White Sea-Baltic waterways. In 2004 the first high bridge that doesn\'t need to be drawn, a 2,824 m (9,265 ft) long Big Obukhovsky Bridge, was opened. Meteor hydrofoils link the city centre to the coastal towns of Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Peterhof, Sestroretsk and Zelenogorsk from May through October.

Saint Petersburg has an extensive city-funded network of public transport (buses, trams, trolleybuses) and several hundred routes served by marshrutkas. Trams in Saint Petersburg used to be the main transport; 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 bus routes. Saint Petersburg Metro underground rapid transit system was opened in 1955; it now has four 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 centre, intercity traffic, and at times excessive snow in winter. Five segments of the Saint Petersburg Ring Road were opened between 2002 and 2006, and full ring is planned to open in 2010.

Saint Petersburg is part of the important transport corridor linking Scandinavia to Russia and Eastern Europe. The city is a node of the international European routes