St. Petersburg

      The city of St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great, who named it after his patron saint, in 1703. It was built on top of a drained swamp that was won in battle from Sweden. Located on the Gulf of Finland, it was Russia's first oceanic port in Russia. It became the seat of Peter's Imperial government.

      Because the form of the city's Russian name, "Sankt-Peterburg," had come from Dutch, which Peter the Great had studied while in Western Europe, it used the suffix "-berg" rather than a more Slavic form. When Germany declared war on Russia, it was felt that the name sounded too German. It was renamed "Petrograd." During Soviet times, the Bolsheviks moved the capital of Russia back to Moscow, but upon Lenin's death, it was Petersburg that was again renamed in his honor, being called Leningrad.

      In 1991, the name of St. Petersburg was restored, though the name of the province and most of its institutions, such as the airport, still retain the name "Leningrad."