St. Petersburg was built by its namesake, Peter the Great, in 1703, on the banks of and upon islands located within
channels of the Neva River. In 1914, due to the fact that Russia was then at war with Germany, since "burg" was deemed to be a German language name ending, the name of the city was changed to a more Russian, or Slavonic, name. St. Petersburg became Petrograd. Ten years later, following the Bolshevik Revolution and the death of one of its leaders, Lenin, who had fomented revolution while in residence in St. Petersburg, as a member of a group called the Fighting Union for the Liberation of the Working Class, the city name was changed to Leningrad.
St. Petersburg is truly unique. Other facts, concerning St. Petersburg, are often as quirky as the name changes the city has undergone. They include:
1. Before St. Petersburg was built, Russian stories, songs, and poems were still handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, because printing had not yet come into common usage.
2. Peter the Great changed the date of the first day of the year on the Tsarist Russian calendar from September 1 to January 1. Since Russia would not adopt the Gregorian calendar, which we use today, until after 1917, the actual dates of all events of the Russian Revolution are 13 days askew, since they are based upon the old Tsarist Russian calendar.
3.This varies from source to source, but, according to Intourist, Leningrad, or St. Petersburg, has 100 islands, 66 rivers and canals, and 600 bridges.
4.While building St. Petersburg, Peter the Great, its chief architect and Tsar/Emperor, lived in a simple wooden cabin, rather than in a palace.
5.The huge Winter Palace, built by Peter the Great and others, and which housed 6500 residents, would become the future home of all tsars who followed. Today, the Winter Palace is bordered by a magnificent paved area called Palace Square. In the mid-Eighteenth Century, however, the area which was to become Palace Square was an oat field. Empress Anne, daughter of Peter the Great, prohibited all persons from hunting hares in the field "by shooting, coursing, or any other means".
6.The crowd at famed Russian writer Dostoevsky's funeral in St. Petersburg was so large that his widow was almost excluded.
7.The pre-Revolutionary U.S. Embassy in Leningrad became the official palace for marriages, following the Revolution.
8.In mid-1917, when ordered into hiding by the Party Central Committee, Lenin, under the alias Ivanov, lived in a third floor Leningrad apartment, complete with a drainpipe which could be used for a quick escape. A hole was hammered in an adjacent wooden fence to complete the escape route. While in hiding, Lenin shaved off his trademark beard and wore a cheap wig, which was frequently matted with dirt, because it kept blowing off and landing in mud. During the victory celebrations for the Revolution, which followed in October of 1917, Lenin, now without a wig, refused to be photographed until the stubble on his chin once again grew into a beard.
9.During World War II, Leningrad was completely surrounded by Axis forces and forced into starvation, even though it was never conquered. Lasting over 900 days, it became known as the Seige of Leningrad. During the siege, a sugar plant burned to the ground, embedding the soil beneath it with mounds of molten sugar. Since there was no food available to the citizens of Leningrad, the top three feet of this "Badayev earth" was sold for consumption for 100 roubles per glass.
10.As a tribute to the majestic capitol of his homeland, a Russian engineer, who built the first road into the town in 1888, was responsible for bestowing the name "St. Petersburg" on St. Petersburg, Florida, in the United States.
11.The Leningrad Cowboys, a rock music group which performs with the Red Army Chorus, is composed entirely of Finnish musicians. All concerts and events occur in Finland, a country which opposed Russia during World War II.