by Courtney Kelly

Created on: October 09, 2008   Last Updated: October 21, 2008

-A Brief Introduction-

Dostroyevsky called it "the most abstract and intentional city in the world". Saint Petersburg: often the backdrop for mythical and surreal novels written by the most accomplished Russian authors; this is a city unlike any other in Russia. Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg with one goal in mind: to westernize Russia and bring it into the modern age. His new city would be heavily influenced by the Dutch, which he had a particular fondness for, and Peter would even force his city officials to adopt western clothing styles and to shave their beards. Peter even went so far as to tax any Russian man who wore a beard in an attempt to quite literally change the face of Russia.

It is commonly thought that Saint Petersburg is named after its founder; however Peter actually named the city after the Apostle. Peter the Great added "burg" in order to sound more Dutch. The name changed to Petrograd in 1941 during the First World War. The name was just too German for contemporary Russians, who were fighting them at the time. The name changed once again during the revolution of 1917 to Leningrad in honor of Vladimir Lenin, the famous Russian revolutionary who gave birth to the Soviet Union. Saint Petersburg was reunited with its original namesake in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia held a referendum that year which saw just over fifty percent of Russians in agreement to change Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg.

Saint Petersburg was built on a series of islands on the Neva River, which is why some observers call it "The City on 101 Islands". Other such nicknames are "The Venice of the North", "The Palmyra of the North" or "The Northern Capital of Russia". In fact, Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia for over two hundred years, off and on. Peter the Great, shortly after founding the city, moved his throne there in 1713 and it remained the capital until 1728. Not five years later, Saint Petersburg became the capital again and remained so until the Soviet revolution in 1917.

Saint Petersburg is considered the most Western European styled city of Russia, a fact Peter the Great would be deeply proud of. His idea was to bring European style and ideology to Russia in order to modernize the traditionally closed society of the times. Peter's architects for the city were heavily influenced from modest Dutch, Danish and Swedish architecture. The baroque style, from Petrine to its conclusion in Elizabethan Baroque, dominated the city

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