St Petersburg Travel Guide - History

Following victory against the Swedes, which saw Peter seize power of a 100-year-old fortress at Nyen on the river Neva, St Petersburg was founded on 27 May 1703. Despite the harsh local climate and landscape, the city grew quickly under the direction of the Tsar as he conscripted forced labourers at a rate of 40,000 a year in the early days.

Unsurprisingly, huge numbers died. The Peter and Paul Fortress, still standing today, was the first building to be constructed to help protect the new city. It spread out from there thanks to the help of German engineers brought in by Peter.

Ships became a huge part of St Petersburg’s development due to its location on the Gulf of Finland and on the river Neva. The Navy was quickly formed although the first permanent bridge did not come until 1850, meaning boat travel was common throughout the city. Peter the Great’s death in February 1725 marked the beginning of a brief period of turmoil for the city as the capital was moved to Moscow in 1728 only to return again in 1732 after the death of Peter II.

St Petersburg remained the Russian capital during the whole of the 19th century, a time of plot and intrigue in the city that saw the assassination of Paul I in 1801 and a revolt in 1825 eventually brought under control by Nicholas I. By the middle of the century, St Petersburg had reached its zenith as home to stars of the arts world including Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Alexandr Pushkin among many others.

In 1917, two revolutions overtook the city as Russia witnessed the end of the Tsars and the beginning of Vladimir Lenin’s workers’ revolution. Recently changed to the name Petrograd, St Petersburg lost its status as capital to Moscow and in 1924 saw its name changed again, this time to Leningrad in honour of the recently deceased Lenin.

Huge depopulation of the city occurred up to 1930 as many fled the Communist takeover and others disappeared to Moscow. The city’s demise continued under Stalin as the governor, Sergey Kirov, was assassinated and other party leaders considered a threat were purged.

Hero City status was conveyed on St Petersburg at the end of the war in 1945. Despite this honour, the city continued to suffer under the paranoid rule of Stalin as executions and repression replaced Hitler’s bombardment. Throughout the rest of the Soviet era, St Petersburg remained second fiddle to Moscow which received huge funding in comparison, a cause of serious conflict within the higher echelons of the Communist Party.

The city’s name was reverted to St Petersburg soon after the fragmentation of the Soviet Union in 1991 following a referendum of local residents. During the difficult early years of market economics, St Petersburg has largely flourished.