Saint-Pétersbourg

Saint-Pétersbourg (in Russian: Санкт-Петербург, retranscribed Sankt-Peterbourg and pronounced Sankt-Péterbourgue ) is a city located at the North-West of the Russia close to the delta of the Neva. The city extends on several islands, at the bottom of the Golfe of Finland. More important Russian port on the the Baltic, Saint-Pétersbourg is, after Moscow, the second plus big city of the country and the fourth larger metropolis of Europe. This city has an total surface area of 1.439 km ², which makes of it largest in terms of surface among the cities of more than one million inhabitants in Europe, and this Juste after London. It is as wider as New York (which occupies 1.214 km ²). Within the cities having more than one million inhabitants, it is more Septentrional E of the world (with 59°57 NR, of the polar circle is only six degrees).

Founded by the Pierre Tsar Large the in May 1703 which wanted to thus open in Russia “a window on Europe”, Saint-Pétersbourg was the capital of the Russian Empire of the 18th century at the 20th century (the capital was transferred to Moscow after the Russian Révolution from 1917). It is at present an eminent arts center on a European scale. The downtown area is registered on the list of the world heritage since 1990 (UNESCO). The city which was during more than 200 years the political and cultural center of Russia, has until today a cultural heritage impressing and is sometimes called “the capital of North” (in Russian, севернаястолица, severnaïa stolitsa).

Saint-Pétersbourg is usually called Piter (Питер) by his inhabitants. It also bore the names of Petrograd (Петроград) and of Leningrad (Ленинград).

The city forever known of foreign occupation.

History

See also: History of Russia, Union of the Soviet socialist republics

Origin of the name of Saint-Pétersbourg

The beautiful city of North does not draw its name from its founder the tsar Pierre Ier, contrary to current perception, but of the Apôtre Pierre. After the fortress had briefly borne the name Sankt-Pieterburch , imitation of the Dutch name Sint Petersburg , the city was called very quickly Sankt-Peterburg (German consonance). The noun of the city was modified three times for political reasons during the 20th century:

  • the entry in war of Russia in the European conflict of 1914 opens the field of influence to a basic nationalist movement which aimed at emphasizing Slavic particularism . The name of Saint-Pétersbourg, considered to be too German, is Russianized in 1914 in Petrograd .
  • In 1924, with died of Lénine, the city which was the theater of the revolution of October receives the name of the founder of the the USSR, becoming thus Leningrad (Ленинград). While referring to the political symbolic system, of the major reasons justify this change: Saint-Pétersbourg was attached to the Russia tsarist and was the imperial capital; also was advisable it to make clean slate of the past. It was also the second plus big city of Russia, which contributed to raise the prestige of the founder and directing party Bolchevik. Ultimately, the redesignation in Leningrad symbolized not only the transformation of the political regime, but also of the social system.

  • In 1991, after the fall of the Communist party of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the the USSR, a popular referendum on the question involves a return to its label of origin, Saint-Pétersbourg .

In the vernacular language , the city is called affectionate diminutive of Piter (in Russian, Питер ).

The regional administrative territory kept after a referendum the name Oblast of Leningrad. Saint-Pétersbourg is the capital of the federal District of the North-West.

First steps

Well before the construction of Saint-Pétersbourg, the tsars wanted to have a city resplendent on Europe and showing with this one the radiating glare of Russia. Saint-Pétersbourg was thus the completion of a long dream of glory imagined of all parts by the tsars of Russia.

Of Pierre Ier of Russia with Nicolas II of Russia

Saint-Pétersbourg was founded by Pierre Large the, Tsar of Russia, with the site of the Swedish city of Nyen and his Nyenskans fortress, captured by him in 1703 during the Great War of North. The date of foundation is the May 17th 1703. Pierre the Large one made of it the seat of the Court as from 1712. The noble ones had the obligation to build with their expenses their own house and this with the Western manner. Reign of Pierre Large the with that of Nicolas II, Saint-Pétersbourg was the capital of the Russian empire.

The Russian revolution

Like port and important industrial town, its working population many and was gained with the socialist ideas as of the end of the 19th century. It was the principal center of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 after which the Bolchevik S of Lénine and Trotsky seized the power, then Moscow remade the capital of the country.

Sit of 1941 to 1944

The Siège of Leningrad begins on September 8th 1941. It will last nearly nine hundred days until January 27th, 1944. The famine of the first winter terrible, with more than ten thousand died per in January day. The single bond with outside was the lake Ladoga. It is by there that were evacuated the majority of the children and that the trucks of supply arrived, in winter, on the ice recovering the lake. The seat will have made two million deaths, in particular by the hunger, artillery and the franc-tireurs.

Contemporary Saint-Pétersbourg

The city counted to 500 orthodoxe churches. It opened with the other confessions: it obtained thus with a synagog, a mosque and even a Buddhist temple which was recently returned to the worship.

In June (during deux-trois weeks) the sun almost does not lie down, from where “the sleepless nights” which make city a spectacle.

Geography

Districts

Policy

Demography

Ethnos groups in 2002

With the census of 2002 there are 3.949.623 Russians, 87.119 Ukrainians, 54.484 Belorusses, 36.570 Jews, 35.553 Tatars, 19.164 Armenians, 16.613 Azeris, 10.104 Georgiens…

Demographic trends

The following tables show the evolution of the number of inhabitants. Up to 1944, they are generally estimates, but the data of 1959 to 2002 come from the results from the census, and for year 2005 of an evaluation. | valign=" top" | |}

Saint-Pétersbourg, cultural capital

Saint-Pétersbourg is an arts center of foreground. Visited tourist destination each year by a few three million foreign tourists, Saint-Pétersbourg proposes in particular more than 70 museums, such as the Musée of the Hermitage or the Russian Museum.

Remarkable monuments

  • the Museum of the Hermitage, one of most beautiful and more important the Museums of the world, occupies six splendid buildings located along the Neva. The collections of the Hermitage represent more than 3 million parts. To reach the rooms of the museum of the Hermitage, the visitors who cross the entry of the Palais of winter must climb the stairs of honor. This wonder of the monumental Baroque art led to the Throne room. The residence of the Tsar S.A. built between 1754 and 1762 by Bartolomeo Rastrelli; it shelters the largest museum of the old empire.
  • the Monastery Alexandre Nevsky
  • the Theater Mariinsky (in the past called Kirov)
  • the Fortress Pierre and Paul
  • the cathedral Saint-Saver-on-the-Blood-Versed
  • the Amirauté
  • the cathedral Saint-Isaac dominates the historical center. It is by its dimension, the third church Baroque of Europe after the Basilique Saint-Pierre of Rome or more exactly of the the Vatican and the Cathédrale Saint-Paul of London. High, it 101,5 meters is visible with tens of kilometers in the flat delta of the river Neva.
  • the cathedral Notre-Dame de Kazan
  • the church Saint-Nicolas-of-Sailors is an good example of the imported Baroque art of Europe by the Tsar Pierre Ier. It contains 10 gold icons offered by Catherine II to commemorate the 10 plus Russian naval great victories.
  • the Passage, a commercial arcade
  • the Station of Finland where Lénine arrived before the revolution of October
  • the Kresty prison: the Kresty building (in the shape of cross) is the largest prison of Europe. The administration wants to sell it for a transformation into apartments (like Boutyrskaïa with Moscow).

Sites pétersbourgeois

Imperial residences close to Saint-Pétersbourg

  • Yelagin
  • Petrodvorets
  • Tsarskoïe Selo
  • Pavlovsk
  • Lomonossov

Religion

Economy and transport

See also: Economy of Russia

Economy

The harbor infrastructures of Saint-Pétersbourg make the first commercial port of Russia and cover with it close to 25  % of the commercial transit of Russia.

Transport

The city is an important node of transport. It is the center of the local system of road and railroad, and has a vital seaport for Eastern Europe (the delta of the Neva, to the bottom of the Golfe of Finland, offers a maritime opening to Russia on the the Baltic). The city counts river ports (in the delta of Neva). It is the terminus of the water the Volga-Baltic way which connects the Baltic with the Black Sea. Saint-Pétersbourg is a city where public transport is rather developed.

Airports

The city is served by two Aéroport S located at approximately twelve kilometers in the south of the downtown area:
  • the International airport Pulkovo II for the international flights. Many companies serve Saint-Pétersbourg, of which the Russian airline company Pulkovo Aviation Entreprise (code AITA FV);
  • the airport Pulkovo I for the interior flights.

Subway

See also: Subway of Saint-Pétersbourg

The city is also served by a network of entirely underground subway inaugurated in 1955. It is the deepest subway of the world since it goes down up to 90 meters of depth. It currently has four lines. It currently counts 59 stations extending on 101,7 km from network and transports daily more than 3,43 million passengers. Several stations of the network are magnificiently decorated, in particular the Avtovo stations and Narvskaïa. These two stations belong to the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaïa line (in Russian, Кировско-Выборгская) where appear much of public works, of which sculptures, stained glasses and murals.

Trains

The city has six main stations serving various directions: Park of Baltiysky, Gare of Vitebsk, Gare of Ladoga, Gare of Moscow, Gare of Warsaw (museum), and Parks of Finland. St Pétersbourg has regular rail connections towards Helsinki via Vyborg (on the Russian side) and Kouvola and Lahti (on the Finnish side). Three beautiful obsolete trains - Sibelius, Repin and Tolstoi - function exclusively on this route.

The station of Vitebsk (ВитебскийВокзал) is the oldest station of Saint-Pétersbourg, its architecture is of traditional style with an ocher and white yellow tone. It is from there that the first train coming from Moscow arrived (September 1851). The station of Vitebsk was restored (2001-2003) at the time of tercentenary of the creation of Saint-Pétersbourg. Before the First World War, the North-express train went directly from Saint-Pétersbourg to Paris. Saint-Pétersbourg has a regional railway network very far (“Elektritschka”) extending; of Oblast of Leningrad it is inserted to the Oblast de Novgorod, the Oblast de Pskov and the Republic of Karelia.

Bus and Tram

The network of bus of the town of Saint-Pétersbourg is very developed and counts X lines of bus of day and X ways of night. The network of Saint-Petersbourg tram is regarded as largest in the world by the extent of its ways.

Taxis

The taxis of line (“Marchroutkas”) control a great market share traveller in Saint-Pétersbourg.

Highway network

Saint-Pétersbourg is served by twelve important road axes. Currently, a broader highway around the city is built. The deviation towards the east making it possible to avoid crossing the city was opened with in December 2005 transport.

Famous characters

In Saint-Pétersbourg were born:

In Saint-Pétersbourg died:

Twinnings

  • , first partner of Saint-Pétersbourg
  • (more particularly the district of Neukölln)

See too

Summary bibliography

French
  • Wladimir Berelowitch and Olga Medvedkova, History of Saint-Pétersbourg , Beech
  • Dominique Fernandez, white magic of Saint-Pétersbourg , Gallimard, 01/2003, Collection Discovered, number 205, ISBN 2070428486
  • Vladimir Fédorovski, the Novel of Saint-Pétersbourg or Loves at the edge of Neva , Rock
  • Ettore Lo Gatto, the Myth of Saint-Pétersbourg , the Paddle
  • Aurraine of Meaux, Saint-Pétersbourg. History, walks, anthology and dictionary , 2003, Laffont/Books
  • Dominique Senay, Saint-Pétersbourg, Genius, madness, poetry of a boreal city , Rebirth of the book.
  • Natalia Smirnova, Saint-Pétersbourg or the Removal of Europe , Olizane

Related articles

External bonds

  • Descriptive UNESCO
  • Encyclopedia of Saint Pétersbourg

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