Saint Petersburg

Background

Saint Petersburg is a major Russian city and federal city located on the River Neva at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow, with a population of 5,601,911 in 2021 and more than 6.4 million people in its metropolitan area. Covering 1,439 square kilometers, it is the smallest administrative division of Russia by area and the most populous city on the Baltic Sea. Its northern location also makes it the world’s northernmost city with more than 1 million residents.

The city has considerable political, military, economic, and cultural importance in Russia. It is home to major federal institutions including the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation, and it is also the location of the National Library of Russia. Saint Petersburg hosts the headquarters of the Russian Navy and the Leningrad Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, underlining its continuing strategic role. In addition, it is a major economic, scientific, and tourism center, and in 2018 it received more than 15 million tourists.

Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, the city became the capital of the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1712 to 1918, with a brief interruption between 1728 and 1730. It was renamed Petrograd during World War I and later Leningrad after Lenin’s death in 1924, before voters restored the original name in a 1991 referendum. The city was the site of the siege of Leningrad during World War II, regarded as the deadliest siege in history, and its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.