 Facts at a Glance
Area: 600 sq km (235 sq mi)
Population: 5.5 million
Country: Russia
Time Zone: GMT/UTC plus 3 hours from October-March; plus 4 hours April-September
Telephone area code: 812
 History
Alexandr of Novgorod defeated the Swedes near the mouth of the Neva in 1240 - earning the title Nevsky (of the Neva). Sweden took control of the region in the 17th century and it was Peter the Great's desire to crush this rival and make Russia a European power that led to the founding of the city. At the start of the Great Northern War (1700-21) he captured the Swedish outposts on the Neva, and in 1703 he founded the Peter & Paul Fortress on the Neva a few kilometers in from the sea. After Peter trounced the Swedes at Poltava in 1709, the city he named, in Dutch style, Sankt Pieter Burkh, really began to grow. Canals were dug to drain the marshy south bank and in 1712 he made the place his capital, forcing administrators, nobles and merchants to move here and build new homes. Peasants were drafted in for forced labour, many dying for their pains. Architects and artisans were brought from all over Europe. By Peter's death in 1725 his city had a huge population and 90% of Russia's foreign trade passed through it.
Peter's immediate successors moved the capital back to Moscow but Empress Anna Ivanovna (1730-40) returned to St Petersburg. Between 1741 and 1825 under Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great and Alexander I it became a cosmopolitan city with a royal court of famed splendour. These monarchs commissioned great series of palaces, government buildings and churches, which turned it into one of Europe's grandest capitals.
The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and industrialisation, which peaked in the 1890s, brought a flood of poor workers into the city, leading to overcrowding, poor sanitation, epidemics and festering discontent. St Petersburg became a hotbed of strikes and political violence and was the hub of the 1905 revolution, sparked by 'Bloody Sunday' - 9 January 1905 - when a strikers' march to petition the tsar in the Winter Palace was fired on by troops. By 1914, when in a wave of patriotism at the start of WW I the city's name was changed to the Russian-style Petrograd, it had 2 million people.
Petrograd was again the cradle of revolution in 1917. It was here that workers' protests turned into a general strike and troops mutinied, forcing the end of the monarchy in March. The Petrograd Soviet, a socialist focus for workers' and soldiers' demands, started meeting in the city's Tauride Palace alongside the country's reformist Provisional Government. It was to Petrograd that Lenin travelled in April to organise the Bolshevik Party. The actual revolution came after Bolsheviks occupied key positions in Petrograd on 24 October. The new government operated from here until March 1918, when it moved to Moscow, fearing a German attack on Petrograd.
The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. It was a hub of Stalin's 1930s industrialisation programme and by 1939 had 3 million people and 11% of Soviet industrial output. But Stalin feared it as a rival power base and the 1934 assassination of local communist chief Sergey Kirov was the start of his 1930s Communist Party purge.
When the Germans attacked the USSR in June 1941 it took them only two-and-a-half months to reach Leningrad. As the birthplace of Bolshevism, Hitler hated the place and he swore to wipe it from the face of the earth. His troops besieged it from September 1941 until late January 1944. Many people had been evacuated; nonetheless, between 500,000 and a million died from shelling, starvation and disease. By comparison the US and UK suffered about 700,000 dead between them in all of WW II.
After the war, Leningrad was reconstructed and reborn, though it took until 1960 for its population to exceed pre-WW II levels. Corny as it may sound, St Petersburg did re-establish itself as Russia's window on the West. Today St Petersburg is a cosmopolitan city with a lively cultural and artistic core. Foreign and Russian business is quickly putting down roots. St Petersburg is Russia's biggest port, a huge industrial centre and truly an international city. For the first time in almost a century, St Petersburg residents live in a city that's both stunningly beautiful and well stocked.
St Petersburg is a year-round destination. The city's northern latitude means long days in summer and long nights in winter. In winter, hotels and tourist attractions are less crowded and, while some describe the weather merely as 'dark', there's a twinkling magic about the winter sky. And while white nights in mid-summer are undeniably beautiful, some people find it disconcerting to look out of a window and think it's about 8 pm when it's really 3 am.
Climate-wise, St Petersburg is much milder than its extreme northern latitude would suggest. January temperatures average -8°C (17°F); a really cold day will get down to -15°C (5°F). It's a windy city though and in some areas the wind chill is quite fierce, so bring a good warm hat and scarf. Summer is cool and takes a while to get going: snow in late April is not uncommon and the warm weather doesn't really start until the period between June and August, when temperatures reach 20°C (68°F). During these months the city is packed with foreign and Russian tourists.
St Petersburg was built on a grand scale, with palaces and boulevards designed to be viewed from afar, and bold symmetry embracing the whole. The city sprawls across and around the mouth of the Neva River, at the end of the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. The Neva splits the city into northern, eastern and southern sectors. The area spreading back from the Winter Palace and the Admiralty on the south bank is the city's heart, and Nevsky prospekt is its main artery. This central area is a pedestrian's dream, as the waterside walkways and elegant streetscapes are best seen on foot.
 Off the record
The north side of the city has three main areas. The westernmost is Vasilevsky Island at the eastern end of which stand many of the city's fine early buildings. The middle area is Petrograd Side, a cluster of delta islands whose southern end is marked by the tall gold spire of the SS Peter & Paul Cathedral. This is where the city began. The third, eastern, area is Vyborg Side, divided from Petrograd Side by the Bolshaya Nevka channel and stretching east along the north bank of the Neva.
Palace Square
For 200 years the vast Russian empire was ruled from this half-km block at St Petersburg's heart. This is one of Europe's great squares, lined with colourful yet elegant edifices and dotted with monuments commemorating Russia's victory over Napoleon. It witnessed Bloody Sunday in 1905, the Bolshevik's grab for power in 1917, and all-night vigils in the name of democracy during the 1991 coup.
 St Petersburg vista (17K)
The square is dominated by the green and white rococo fantasy of the Winter Palace, the largest of the architectural components which make up the State Hermitage Museum. In the grey old days visitors came to the city for the museum alone and even today it could probably eat up a week of your precious time. The complex of buildings is the size of a small town - a map and compass are absolute essentials. Four linked riverside buildings - the Winter Palace, the Little and Large Hermitage buildings and the Hermitage Theatre - hold a vast collection of Western European art, with enough chandeliers, over-the-top interior encrustations and tsarist jewels and treasures to have you seeing stars for days. The collection largely dates from the culturally heightened days of Catherine the Great, and many works were gained when Napoleon's power began to wane.
Adjacent to the Winter Palace is the gilded spire of the Admiralty - a good landmark to use when you're out and about. This Empire-style classical building houses a naval college and is replete with trumpeting angels, oversized statues and fountains. Another building which dominates the skyline is the golden-domed St Isaac's Cathedral, which provides fine views from the supporting colonnade.
St Isaac's Cathedral (16K)
Peter & Paul Fortress
Tiny Zayachy Island contains the oldest building in town - the Peter & Paul Fortress. It was built in 1703 to defend the newly acquired land from the Swedes and designed according to plans laid out by Peter the Great himself. However, its main use up to 1917 was as a political prison and the first inmate was Peter's own son Alexey, who was followed by other notables such as Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother, Alexander. The adjacent cathedral, though plain on the outside, has a magnificent baroque interior. Most of Russia's Romanov rulers are buried here. All this was built while Peter was still roughing it in a log cabin overlooking his golden embryonic city. The cabin is preserved as a shrinelike museum.
Tsarist St Petersburg
St Petersburg's splendid architecture provides a visible means of understanding the revolution of 1917: just mentally contrast the opulent lifestyles of the royal family and nobility with the lives of the have-not soldiers and workers. The city's buildings reflect European tastes and traditions, and were largely commissioned during the reigns of Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great and Alexander I. Neoclassical styles predominate. The Summer Palace, located in St Petersburg's loveliest public gardens, was built for Peter and is pretty nigh intact today. Its comparative modesty contrasts with the Versailles-like symmetry of the gardens.
One of the city's most photographed relics of former glories lies at the eastern end of Nevsky prospekt: the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace. The building is easily recognised by its dark-red stucco and row of weight-bearing musclemen sporting crumpled nappies. It's easy to understand why the building was utilised by the local branch of the Communist Party until 1991. Empress Elizabeth's favourite architect (and lover), Rastrelli, was responsible for the green and white Stroganov Palace, which overlooks the Moyka River. The family fortune was based on the Siberian fur trade, and, yes, their chef did invent beef stroganoff.
Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace (12K)
Vasilevsky Island
St Petersburg's largest island lies wedged like a plug in the mouth of the Neva. The main points of interest are clustered on its eastern 'nose', just across the river from the Admiralty. They include maritime buildings, the city's university, a clutch of museums, and some of the best views of the city. Museums include the Naval Museum, Zoological Museum, Kunstkammer (with its freakish collection) and the Academy of Arts. The island's nostrils are adorned with the Rostral Columns, navigation beacons shaped like ship's prows which today spurt forth gas-fuelled fire on holidays. The Menshikov Palace was one of the first buildings erected on the island and today it functions as a museum, overflowing with period furnishings and fittings.
Nevsky Prospect
St Petersburg's `Champs Elysées' is the famous Nevsky prospekt, which runs west from the Admiralty 4km (2mi) to the Alexandr Nevsky Monastery on the banks of the Neva. It's lined with fine buildings and thronged with people - a good place to feel the city's pulse, particularly during the midsummer White Nights. The list of former residents who lived on and around the famous thoroughfare reads like a veritable Who's Who: Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, Nijinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Dostoevsky. While strolling, don't forget to look up and around at the wealth of architectural details. Sights you'll pass include the many-columned Kazan Cathedral (home to the Museum of Religion), the Art Nouveau former premises of the Singer sewing-machine company (now a bookshop), the arcaded Gostiny Dvor department store and the huge square dominated by the statue of Catherine the Great surrounded by her numerous lovers. Many of the shops are worth browsing for their interiors alone. They range from 19th-century palaces of merchandise to amazingly opulent Art Nouveau and Art Deco extravaganzas.
Literary Connections
Pushkin launched Russia's impressive literary pedigree and described St Petersburg's decadence particularly well in Eugene Onegin. His poem The Bronze Horseman brings the famous statue that graces the Neva's embankment to life. Tolstoy also had a go at the nobs in War and Peace and Anna Karenina, comparing simple Moscow life with superficial and sophisticated St Petersburg. Dostoevsky on the other hand targeted the life of the poor in Crime and Punishment. Pushkin's last home, on one of the prettiest curves of the Moyka River, is now a museum, complete with stopped clock and replicated library. The writer expired here after fighting a duel to defend the tarnished reputation of his wife. Dostoevsky's home has also been turned into a faithfully reconstructed museum. He died here of a throat hemorrhage while writing up his diary.
 Off the Beaten Track
Radio-Tele Antennae
The Leningrad Radio-Tele Broadcasting Centre's antenna is open to visitors. The 50,000-watt, 310m (1020ft) transmitter tower offers excellent views of the city and its environs, and there's a bar-café 200m (660ft) up the structure. The tower sways on windy days, and you can feel it! The construction of the tower was supervised by an all-female crew.
Petrodvorets
Most European rulers had at least one Versailles, and Peter the Great was no exception. He built a series of palaces on a beautiful site 30km (20mi) west of St Petersburg, the combined ensemble known as Petrodvorets. This legacy of tsarist overindulgence was virtually destroyed by the occupying Germans in WW II, and what you see today is a faithful reconstruction that stands as a symbol of the nation's postwar recovery.
Fountains play a very large part in explaining Petrodvorets' impressive charm. The Grand Cascade & Water Avenue is a symphony of fountains and canals partly engineered by Peter himself. Petrodvorets' other components include the Grand Palace, enlarged by Rastrelli for Empress Elizabeth and later remodelled by Catherine the Great. The pendulous chandeliers and paintings are originals; fortunately they were removed before the Germans arrived. Peter's original villa, Monplaisir, has bright and airy galleries facing the sea - it's easy to see why it was his favourite place to doss. The gardens are dotted with the ubiquitous fountains, charming pavilions and summer houses, including the ultimate in private dining rooms, the self-contained and moated Hermitage.
Kirovsky Islands
The outer delta islands, lying to the north of the centre, are collectively called the Kirovsky Islands, and include Kamenny, Yelagin and Krestovsky. The islands were granted to court favourites and developed into elegant playgrounds. Today they're mostly leafy venues for picnics and cavorting. Summerhouses, gingerbread mansions, palaces, boating channels, cycle paths and a seaside park mingle with the houses of St Petersburg's very rich.
Pushkin
Evocative of the rosy days and the grey days of the Romanovs, the summer palaces at Tsarskoe Selo (renamed Pushkin in 1937 to commemorate the centenary of his death) were created for Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. They lie 25km (15mi) south of St Petersburg. The baroque Catherine Palace was left in ruins by the Germans at the end of WW II but today is a masterpiece of restoration. The facade features golden domes and blue and white detailing, while the interior positively gleams and glitters with mirrors, chandeliers and tumescent cherubs. Don't miss the Fabergé exhibition. Just north of the Catherine Palace is the lemon-coloured Alexander Palace. Favourite haunt of Nicholas and Alexandra, it ironically became their prison when they were put under house arrest before being shunted off to Yekaterinburg. It's the least touristed palace, so in some ways the most pleasant, and now open after an eons-long renovation.
 Activities
In summer, a lovely way to while away a day is paddling through the canals and lakes around the Kirovsky Islands. There are also rowing boat rentals at the northern end of the moat around the Peter & Paul Fortress. If that's too much effort, the 100,000-seat Kirov Stadium on Krestovsky Island is a bracing place to watch some woeful soccer - the local team is unfortunately rather skill-challenged.
 Events
During the last 10 days of June, when night never falls, many St Petersburgers stay out celebrating White Nights all night, particularly at weekends. There's a White Nights Dance Festival with events ranging from folk to ballet, but the main Kirov company doesn't always take part, more often its students do.
Festivities during the Russian Winter Festival, 25 December to 5 January, and Goodbye Russian Winter, late February to early March, centre outside the city, with troyka (horse-drawn sleigh) rides, folk shows and performing bears. Less known are the Christmas Musical Meetings in Northern Palmyra, a classical musical festival held during the week before Christmas. The St Petersburg Music Spring, an international classical music festival held in April or May, and the mid-November international jazz festival, Osenie Ritmy (Autumn Rhythms), are built around St Petersburg's jazz clubs.
St Petersburg has direct air links with most major European capitals and airlines, many offering several connections each week. There's a departure tax of about US$11. Domestically, you can fly just about anywhere you want, but only a few times a week in some cases. Air service is best between St Petersburg and Moscow.
St Petersburg has two long distance bus stations - one serving northern destinations; the other serving destinations to the south and east. There are three bus companies offering shuttle services between Helsinki and St Petersburg.
The main international rail gateways to St Petersburg are Helsinki, Tallinn, Warsaw and Berlin. The city has four stations, all south of the Neva River, except the Finland Station, which serves trains on the Helsinki railway line. Moscow Station handles trains to and from Moscow, the far north, Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia and Central Asia; Vitebsk Station deals with Smolensk, Belarus, Kiev, Odessa and Moldova; and Warsaw Station covers the Baltic republics and Eastern Europe. Baltic Station, just along the road from the Warsaw Station, is mainly for suburban trains.
Foreigners can legally drive on almost all of Russia's highways and can even ride motorcycles. You'll need to be 18 years old and have a drivers' licence, along with an International Driving Permit. On the down side, driving in Russia is truly an unfiltered Russian experience. Poor roads, inadequate signposting (except in St Petersburg's centre), low-quality petrol and keen highway patrollers can lead to frustration and dismay. Motorbikes will undergo vigourous scrutiny by border officials and highway police.
Pulkova-1 and -2, respectively the domestic and international airports that serve St Petersburg, are 17km (10mi) south of the city centre, about a half-hour taxi ride and about an hour by public transport (metro plus bus).
Though less majestic than Moscow's, the St Petersburg metro leaves most of the world's other undergrounds for dead. You'll rarely wait more than three minutes for a train, and the clock at the end of the platform shows time elapsed since the last train departed. Taking the metro is the quickest and cheapest way around the wider city.
The best way of getting around the city by road is by bus, trolleybus (an electric bus) or tram. Each require payment of an inexpensive talony (ticket), which are sold in kiosks at major interchanges, by hawkers at the train stations, and often in strips of 10 by drivers. Driving a car or motorcycle is definitely not wise - roads are gnarled, road rules are strange, and the traffic cops are empowered to stop you and fine you on the spot. Oh yeah, they can also shoot at your vehicle if you don't heed their command to pull over.
- For a quick coverage, A Traveller's History of the USSR and Russia by Peter Neville is quite a good read, and it's good on pre-Gorbachev Russia. An excellent history of the Soviet period from start to finish is in Robert Service's A History of Twentieth-Century Russia.
- Robert K Massie's Peter the Great: His Life and World is a great book on the history of St Petersburg's founder.
- Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of a Thousand Years of Artistic Life in Russia by W Bruce Lincoln is a fascinating in-depth history of arts and artists in Russia, ranging from religious icons to Soviet film makers. Its author also wrote Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias, a complete history of the Romanov dynasty.
- Women's Glasnost vs Naglost by Tatyana Mamonova combines essays by this leader of the Russian women's movement with interviews with a cross-section of women in a country where wife-beating and abortion have reached horrific levels.
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