Saint Petersburg, Russia

Here is some basic information about Saint Petersburg, Russia. Our baby is somewhere in the Leningrad Oblast (Region). Since I don't know exactly where, I thought I would share some information about Leningrad's capital city. You didn't know following our adoption journey would qualify you for a World History degree, huh? Enjoy...

Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Russia was founded on May 16, 1703. It is the capital of the Leningrad region (although not administratively part of it) and the administrative center of the Northwest district. Located in NW European Russia at the head of the Gulf of Finland on both banks of the Neva River and on the islands of its delta, St. Petersburg's port is linked by deep water a canal with Kotlin Island, where the outer port and the Kronshtadt (krənshtät`)naval base are located.

Russia's second largest city and its former capital, St. Petersburg is a major seaport, rail junction, and industrial, cultural, and scientific center. Although the harbor is frozen for three or four months annually, icebreakers have prolonged the navigation season. The seaport is one of the world's largest, but it handles relatively little traffic because the volume of foreign trade for Russia is small. The river port, one of the most important in the country, stands at the end of two artificial waterways, the Volga-Baltic and the White Sea–Baltic. A series of canals within the city carries considerable cargo. The city's diverse industries include shipbuilding, metallurgy, oil refining, printing, woodworking, food and tobacco processing, and the manufacture of machinery, electrical equipment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and textiles.

Points of Interest

The city's main thoroughfare is the celebrated Nevsky Prospekt. On it are the high-spired admiralty building; the Winter Palace, built by Rastrelli; the Hermitage (ĕr'mētäzh`), one of the world's foremost houses of art, Cathedral of St. Isaac, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, Falconet's masterpiece and the subject of Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horsemen." The city's oldest building is the fortress of Peter and Paul (1703), which served as a political prison in imperial days. Among the baroque buildings of the early 18th century are the Alexander Nevsky monastery (1710), the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (1733), the Winter Palace (1762), and the Smolny convent (1764). Neoclassical buildings of the late 18th and early 19th cent. include the Academy of Arts (1772), the Marble Palace (1785), the Taurida Palace (1788), the cathedral of the Virgin of Kazan (1811), and the Exchange (1816). Among the city's educational institutions are the St. Petersburg State Univ. (est. 1804) and the St. Petersburg State Univ. of Economics and Finance. There are numerous theaters, museums, scientific and medical institutes, and libraries, including the Maryinsky Theater, the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library (1795) and the Academy of Sciences library. Outside the city are Pushkin (psh`kĭn), with the Summer Palace, and the former imperial residence of Peterhof (now Petrodvorets (pyĕ'trədvəryĕts`), formerly Peterhof and Gatchina (gä`chēnə). A striking phenomenon of St. Petersburg is the prolonged twilight, or the "white nights," of June and July.

History

The city was built by Peter I (Peter the Great), who sought an outlet to the sea and a port for trade through the Baltic. It was built in 1703 in what was then Ingermanland (ĭng`gərmənlănd) or Ingria, an area conquered from Sweden during the Northern War. The fortress of Peter and Paul was erected to defend the projected new capital, which was to be a modern city and a "window looking on Europe." Construction was carried out at tremendous human and material cost. The capital was moved from Moscow in 1712, although the land on which the city stood was not formally ceded to Russia until 1721. Italian and French architects planned the city, giving it the spacious, classical beauty that it has retained.

St. Petersburg soon replaced Arkhangelsk (ərkhän`gĭlsk) or Archangel as Russia's leading seaport and became an important commercial center. From the second half of the 18th cent., it was also the country's principal industrial center, at first for shipbuilding and engineering and later for textiles. In 1851, a rail link with Moscow was completed. One of the world's most brilliant capitals and cultural centers, St. Petersburg was immortalized in the novels of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy. Its apex as an international center of literature, music, theater, and ballet and as the scene of lavish and reckless social life was reached in the late 19th and early 20th cent.

Under the surface, however, the seeds of social upheaval ripened, especially among industrial workers. Secret revolutionary societies arose, and an attempt by city workers to petition the czar precipitated a revolution in 1905. The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914. The workers, soldiers, and sailors of Petrograd also spearheaded the revolutions of Feb. and Oct., 1917. Although it lost much of its former glamour, the city remained the economic and cultural rival of Moscow, which replaced it as capital in 1918. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in 1924. During World War II, the city was cut off from the rest of the USSR by the fall of Schlüsselburg (now Petrokrepost (pyĕ'trəkryĕ`pəstyə), formerly Schlüsselburg to the Germans (Aug., 1941). It was besieged for over two years, during which many hundreds of thousands died of famine and disease. The city's original name was restored in 1991. In the 1990s, the city struggled to convert its heavily military-related industries to civilian purposes.

Saint Petersburg Facts

Territory: As of 2003 the territory of the city is 606 (377 sq mi) square kilometers, and 1 439 square kilometers (894 sq mi) with the suburbs. The length of the city from North to South is 44 kilometers, and 25 kilometers from West to East.
Highest elevation: 42 meters above the sea level (Poklonnaya Gora)

Distance to the nearest cities:

Tallinn - 330 km
Helsinki - 383 km
Stockholm - 710 km
Moscow - 650 km

Neighbouring countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark (The Baltic Sea Region).

Neighbouring Russian regions: Leningrad Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Vologda Oblast, Pskov Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast and Republic of Karelia.

Population: According to the last census that took place in 2003, there are 4.7 mln people in St.Petersburg (which makes approximately 3% of the Russian population).

Gender distribution: men — 45.1%, women — 54.9%.

Ethnic: Russians, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Moldavian, Tatar, Jews, Karelian, Azerbaidzhanian and Gypsies (Roma).

Resources: Fresh surface waters and underground waters. The surface fresh waters are concentrated in the columbine of the water system "Lake Ladoga — the Neva River — the Neva Inlet — the Gulf of Finland". On the territory of the city and its environs there are sand and gravel quarries, pebble stones, sands, clays, sandstone, loamy soils, as well as peat (the resources make approximately 17.5 bin m3 of raw peat which is the equivalent of about 2 bin tons of dried peat).

Islands: The city is located on 44 islands formed by the Neva River and 90 more rivers and canals.

Bridges: The abundance of islands has led to the construction of a multitude of bridges. Of these, nowadays there are 308 within the city proper, and 534 if suburbs are included. 22 of the bridges are drawbridges. The total length of all the bridges is about 16 kilometers. The longest bridge across the Neva is the Alexander Nevsky Bridge (909 meters with runways), the widest bridge is the Siniy Bridge on the Moika River (99.5 meters).

Language: Russian

Religions: Predominantly Russian Orthodox, Islamic, Buddhism, Jewish concessions, Catholic and Baptist Church.

Voltage Requirements: 220 volts

Time Zone: 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Daylight Saving Time is observed March-October.

Airport Departure Tax: None

Telephone Code: country code-7; St.Petersburg city code-812

Tipping: Tip 10%-15% in restaurants and hotels. Taxi drivers aren't usually tipped.

Nicknames of the city:

"The Venice of the North" (referring to St.Petersburg's many rivers and canals)
"The Palmyra of the North" (referring to architecture of St.Petersburg and harmony of the city and its rivers and canals)
"The Northern Capital of Russia" (referring to the centuries-old rivalry between St.Petersburg and Moscow)
"Cultural Capital of Russia"
"The Babylon of the Snows"
"The Window on the West"
"The Window into Europe"
"Russia's Crown Jewel"
"The Cradle of the Revolution"

Symbols of the city:

The Angel with a Cross (weather-vane on top of the Peter and Paul Cathedral)
the Little Ship (Korablik), weather-vane on top of the Admiralty tower
drawbridges
White Nights
The Seal: A sea anchor and a river anchor with a scepter — a symbol of royal power — on a red field.

Local government: The Governor and the Governor's Office, The Legislative Assembly.

Zoning: 20 administrative districts, including satellite towns under St.Petersburg's jurisdiction.


Saint Petersburg's Seasons

Winter

The first snows fall in November. The Neva starts to freeze in great ripples of ice. The City takes on a new romantic quality as snow shrouds its famous landmarks and buries its parks in an icy mantle.

Made more temperate than Moscow by the waters of the Finnish Gulf, the snows come and go before setting into a thick white cloak soon after New Year. This is the time for Troika rides in the countryside and steaming bowls of Borscht.

Restaurants in the main hotels offer choices of Russian and international cuisine and bars and restaurants throughout the City provide a good choice of traditional Russian home cooking and international options.

Ballet and Opera are a major part of the City's winter attractions. The works of Russia's most talented musical sons Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov are at their best performed here in their cultural homeland.

The Russian festive season combines two Christmases and two New Years! So there is plenty to celebrate! As Russia re-discovers Yuletide traditions, long forbidden and forgotten, the big celebration is still New Year. That is when Father Frost alias Father Christmas, comes to town and the City puts on its glitziest face and parties until dawn.

Spring

As the snows melt and the first blossoms peep from St. Petersburg's many beautiful parks, the City casts off its winter mantle and embraces the spring sunlight.

The last of the winter ice flows dramatically down the Neva and out to sea. The haunting notes of St. Petersburg's street musicians can again be heard as the days grow ever longer and the City of the Tsars is filled with a vibrant sense of re-birth.

Spring is an ideal time to visit The Hermitage - the magnificent former residence of the Tsars and home to one of the world's greatest art collections. Ahead of the summer crowds, you can gaze in relative privacy at works of art by a multitude of famous artists from Rubens to Van Gogh.

Immerse yourself in the intrigue of pre-revolutionary Russia with a visit to Yusopov Palace, home to the once mighty Yusopov family and site of Rasputin's infamous murder. Or take a trip into the countryside and visit Paul's Palace at Pavlovsk - one of the finest examples of restoration work in Russia. After viewing the treasures of the Palace, enjoy the spring sunshine in the picturesque landscaped gardens which surround it.

Summer

St. Petersburg's Summer starts in early June and runs right through to the end of August. Long summer days linger late into the night providing a haunting quality to the light as it caresses the ornate facades of Peter's City.

The lango-rous evenings are ideal for lazy boat rides through the canals. As you glide gently under picturesque bridges and pass through the subdued elegance of the City's backstreets, St. Petersburg reveals its beauty from a new and more subtle perspective.

Enjoy summer picnics in the parks, on the sandy beaches north of the City, or by secluded wooded lakes in the surrounding countryside.

A typical Russian picnic comprises home grown cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh herbs, freshly baked bread, cold meats and the classic grilled Shaslik, not to mention plenty of Vodka and Russian Champagne!

The famous White Nights with their legendary midnight sun, fall in June each year, lending the City an intriguing and exotic mood, St. Petersburg celebrates with an international music festival. The program includes performances by the famous Kirov Ballet and Opera Company and concerts at the Philharmonia.

Autumn

Golden Autumn as the Russians call it, heralds days of crisp bronze sunlight and the first chill promise of winter. The leaves turn to burnished gold on the trees throughout the City's parks as St. Petersburg's residents enjoy the last days of sunshine. This is a quieter, more relaxed time to visit St. Petersburg and its many fabulous sights and exceptional museums.

Just behind the statue of St. Petersburg's favorite poet Pushkin, and a stone's throw from Nevsky Prospect, lies the Russian Museum. The Museum's treasure trove of art tells the enigmatic story of Russian history as seen through the eyes of Russia's most prominent artists.

Out in the countryside, Catherine's Palace in Pushkin embraces the autumn light with its golden spires and luxurious interiors. Perhaps the grandest of St. Petersburg's many palaces its eighteenth century baroque style reflects the glamour and glitz of those heady imperial days.

Discover Yelagin Palace, on the outskirts of the City, set on its own wooded island, poised above the river, it is a favorite autumn haunt for private parties, receptions, treasure hunts and barbecues.