EMPRESS MARIE GRAND Duchessa Russia Signed Autograph Fantastic Romanov $249.98
EMPRESS MARIE GRAND Duchessa Russia Signed Autograph Fantastic Romanov - $249.98. FOR SALE! Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia A PRINCESS IN EXILEーFURTHER MEMOIRS BY MARIE GRAND DUCHESS OF RUSSIA [SIGNED] New York: The Viking Press, 1932. First Edition. Octavo, xii, 306 pages. Maroon cloth on boards with oval title medallion, crown and titling all in bright gilt on front and titling to spine. 176457379187
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Empress Marie Grand Duchessa Russia Signed Autograph Fantastic Romanov

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Seller: memorabilia111 (819) 97.6%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176457379187 EMPRESS MARIE GRAND DUCHESSA RUSSIA SIGNED AUTOGRAPH FANTASTIC ROMANOV. Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia A PRINCESS IN EXILEーFURTHER MEMOIRS BY MARIE GRAND DUCHESS OF RUSSIA [SIGNED] New York: The Viking Press, 1932. First Edition. Octavo, xii, 306 pages. Maroon cloth on boards with oval title medallion, crown and titling all in bright gilt on front and titling to spine. Good minus condition. Spine is red with gilt lettering. Boards have minor rubbing and sunning along the spine edges. Text block has minor pen writing on the half-title page, and some foxing on the pages. EX-LIBRIS CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY STAMP IN BOOK Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (Russian: Великая Княгиня Мария Павловна; 18 April [O.S. 6 April] 1890 – 13 December 1958), known as Maria Pavlovna the Younger, was a granddaughter of Alexander II of Russia. She was a paternal first cousin of Nicholas II (Russia's last Tsar) and maternal first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (consort of Elizabeth II). She was also both the first grandchild of George I of Greece and the first great-grandchild of his father Christian IX of Denmark. Her early life was marked by the death of her mother and her father's banishment from Russia when he remarried a commoner in 1902. Grand Duchess Maria and her younger brother Dmitri, to whom she remained very close throughout her life, were raised in Moscow by their paternal uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. In 1908, Maria Pavlovna married Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland. The couple had one son, Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland, later Count Bernadotte af Wisborg. The marriage was unhappy and ended in divorce in 1914. During World War I, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna served as a nurse until the fall of the Russian monarchy in February 1917. In September 1917, during the period of the Russian Provisional Government, she married Prince Sergei Putyatin. They had one son, Prince Roman Sergeievich Putyatin, who died in infancy. The couple escaped revolutionary Russia through Ukraine in July 1918. In exile, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna lived briefly in Bucharest and London, then she settled in Paris in 1920. In the 1920s, she opened Kitmir, an embroidering fashion atelier that achieved some level of success. In 1923, she divorced her second husband, and after selling Kitmir in 1928, she emigrated to the United States. While living in New York City, she published two books of memoirs: The Education of a Princess (1930), and A Princess in Exile (1932). In 1942, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna moved to Argentina where she spent the years of World War II. She returned permanently to Europe in 1949. She died in Konstanz, Germany in 1958. Early life The infant Maria Pavlovna with her mother Alexandra Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was born 18 April [O.S. 6 April] 1890 in Saint Petersburg. She was the first child and only daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark.[1] The baby was named after her late paternal grandmother, the Empress Maria Alexandrovna, and her paternal aunt, maternal grandaunt, and godmother, the Empress Maria Feodorovna.[2] Maria was not yet two years old when her mother died from complications after giving birth to Maria's younger brother, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia in 1891.[3] Grand Duke Paul was so distraught by the unexpected death of his young wife that he neglected his two small children, who were left in the care of his elder brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who had no children of his own. Once he recovered emotionally, Grand Duke Paul took the two children away with him. A commander of the Imperial horse Guards, Grand Duke Paul loved his children, but as was customary at the time, he refrained from showing them spontaneous affection.[4] Maria and her brother were raised by governesses and tutors, but they adored their father who visited them twice a day.[4] The children spent Christmases and later some summer holidays with Grand Duke Sergei and his wife Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna.[5] The couple set aside a playroom and bedrooms for the youngsters at their country home Ilinskoe.[6] Maria Pavlovna's childhood was spent in splendor. Her early memories were of magnificent palaces and lazy country estates populated by armies of servants. Until she was age 6, Maria spoke Russian badly as all of her governesses and the immediate family spoke English.[3] Later she had another governess, Mademoiselle Hélène who taught her French and stayed with her until her marriage. At age 7, she traveled in her personal railway car accompanied by her governess to visit Germany and France. On Sundays, she and her brother were allowed to play with children from aristocratic families.[3] Growing up without a mother and with a frequently absent father, Grand Duchess Maria and her brother Dimitri became very close, relying on each other for affection and companionship.[7] Education Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her brother Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich In 1895, Grand Duke Paul began an affair with Olga Valerianova von Pistolkors, a married woman.[7] He was able to obtain a divorce for her, and he eventually married Olga in 1902 while the couple was staying abroad. As they had married by defying Nicholas II's opposition, the tsar forbade them to return to Russia.[7][8] Left fatherless, 12-year-old Maria and 11-year-old Dmitri moved to Moscow placed under the custody of their uncle Grand Duke Sergei and his wife Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, a sister of the Tsarina Alexandra.[7] Maria and Dimitri resented their aunt and uncle, blaming them for the forced separation from their real father, who had abandoned them. Grand Duke Sergei was strict and demanding, but devoted and affectionate toward the children. Marie wrote in her memoirs: "In his fashion he loved us deeply. He liked to have us near him, and gave us a good deal of his time. But he was always jealous of us. If he had known the full extent of our devotion to our father it would have maddened him."[9] Maria Pavlovna also commented that she could not entirely disagree with those who thought Grand Duke Sergei heartless, self-centered and cruel.[10] Maria had a somewhat strained relationship with her aunt. Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna found difficult to relate to the children, and she was cold and distant toward them.[11] The teenage Maria was described by her maternal aunt Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia as "full of life and very jolly, but inclined to be self-willed and selfish, and rather difficult to deal with."[12] Grand Duke Sergei, who served as Governor General of Moscow, was a polarizing figure. Targeted by the SR Combat Organization, he was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin in February 1905.[10] The bomber had refrained from an earlier attack because he saw that Grand Duchess Elisabeth, 15-year-old Maria, and her younger brother Dmitri were in the carriage, and he did not want to kill women and children.[13] After the assassination of their uncle, both children were emotionally distraught, particularly Dmitri. Grand Duke Paul claimed the custody of his children, but the tsar made Elisabeth their guardian.[14] Grand Duke Paul was allowed to visit them, but not to return to Russia permanently. After her husband's assassination, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna regretted treating the children poorly, and she became closer to them. First marriage Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna wearing the traditional dress of ladies of the Russian Imperial court Maria Pavlovna and prince Wilhelm at the time of their marriage in 1908. During the next two years, Maria's aunt turned toward religion and charity work. Planning to retire from court and to form a religious order, Grand Duchess Elisabeth decided to find a husband for her niece. Shortly after Easter 1907, Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland, the second son of King Gustav V of Sweden and Victoria of Baden, visited St Petersburg, and he was introduced to the 16-year-old Maria Pavlovna. She was plump, mischievous and proud. The prince was tall, thin, dark and distinguished looking "with beautiful grey eyes", Maria recalled.[14] He stayed for dinner, and the following day, Maria was told that he wished to marry her. Pressed by her aunt to give a speedy answer, Maria agreed to the prince's proposal and found herself engaged to a man she had known for only few hours. The official betrothal was announced in June 1907 at Peterhof palace.[14] Maria Pavlovna wrote later that she felt her aunt had rushed her into the marriage.[14] However, at the time, she enjoyed the attention, and she was eager to escape from the nursery. "Then we will be able to travel together," she wrote to Wilhelm after their engagement. "And to live just as we wish and to suit ourselves. I'm looking forward to a wonderful life – a life full of love and happiness, just as you described to me in your last letters."[12] The marriage had positive political and diplomatic implications for both Russia and Sweden, and Tsar Nicholas II gave his consent. Grand Duke Paul was not consulted.[3] From Peterhof, Maria Pavlovna went to Grand Duchess Elisabeth's rural estate Ilinskoe, near Moscow, where Wilhelm joined them for a month before he left on a cruise to the United States.[14] The young couple maintained their intimacy through letters.[14] Maria imagined herself in love: "It’s lovely to have somebody, even far away, who love you more than anything and whom you love more than everybody on earth“, she wrote to him.[15] In October, Wilhelm returned to Russia joining Grand Duchess Maria and her brother Dimitri who introduced the Swedish prince to their father, Grand Duke Paul, who was permitted to come back to Russia for his daughter's wedding set to take place after she turned age 18 the next April.[16] At Wilhelm's departure, Maria wrote to him: " I love you, so much with every day, every hour more and more. I wish it were April now, how lovely it would be".[16] In her book of memoirs, written more than 20 years later, the grand duchess made different claims: "I was using Wilhelm, in a sense, only to obtain my freedom".[17] As the wedding day approached, she began to have doubts and wished to break off the engagement, but Princess Irene of Hesse, who was visiting her sister Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, persuaded her otherwise.[18] Soon Maria Pavlovna was again looking forward with enthusiasm to a new life. The wedding took place at Tsarskoye Selo on 3 May [O.S. 20 April] 1908.[18] Swedish princess The Duke and Duchess of Södermanland. Maria Pavlovna is wearing a traditional Swedish dress. After a honeymoon in Germany, Italy and France, the newlyweds went to Sweden, where an official ceremonial reception awaited them with the state flags of Russia and Sweden waving in Stockholm.[3] In the beginning, the marriage looked successful. The couple set up their home in the Swedish countryside in the province of Södermanland.[19] They spent the summer there, returning in October to Stockholm.[19] Maria added Swedish to the other five languages she spoke, and she became popular in her new country. The Swedes felt she worked harder than her husband did. She was well liked by her father-in-law Gustaf V, who appreciated her "effervescence, charm, and unconventionality."[20] Maria Pavlovna, known in Sweden as the Duchess of Södermanland, was pregnant by the fall, but she quickly realized that she had little in common with her husband. Their relationship was cold. She had little interest in him and he in her. The couple's only child was born on 8 May 1909.[21] He was Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland, later Count of Wisborg (1909–2004) In the autumn of 1910, Maria Pavlovna moved with her husband and their son to Oak Hill, a house she had built for herself outside Stockholm.[22] Maria went hunting, attended horse races, practiced winter sports and even played field hockey on her sister-in-law, Crown Princess Margaret's team. She enrolled at the art school and took painting and singing lessons.[22] Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna with her infant son Lennart, her grandmother Queen Olga of Greece and great-grandmother Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia and a portrait of her dead mother Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna in 1909 Maria occasionally played with her son, who remembered sitting on her lap when they slid down a flight of steps on a large silver tray. She also wrote an illustrated alphabet book for Lennart that was published in 1912.[23] However, life at the Swedish court had as many restrictions on Maria Pavlovna as she had had in Russia. Her husband Wilhelm, as a naval officer, had little time to spend with her.[12] She found him "cold, shy, and neglectful", and when she tried to approach him, he walked away from her in tears.[12] At the end of October 1911, the young couple was sent on a five-month trip to Southeast Asia as representatives to the coronation of the King of Siam. Maria had an opportunity to meet other men. King Vajiravudh and the Duke of Montpensier began to court her, and she enjoyed the flirtation.[23] Relations between the couple cooled even more.[24] She told her husband she wanted a divorce.[25] He was devastated by her decision, begging her to give their marriage another chance, "but since he blamed most of our failure on me, we did not make any progress" Maria wrote.[23] Maria Pavlovna, Prince Wilhelm, and son Lennart in 1911 In the spring of 1912, she received her brother Dimitri, who came to Sweden to take part in the Olympic games.[23] In 1913, they were reunited when she went to Russia to attend the celebrations for the 300-year anniversary of the Romanov family.[26] At a court ball in Moscow, the two danced seven dances in a row and the Tsar sent an equerry to separate them.[26] When she returned to Stockholm, doctors alleged (falsely as it turned out) that Maria Pavlovna had a serious kidney ailment, and she was sent to Capri to recuperate in the winter 1913–1914. She had been there the previous winter as a companion of her ill mother in-law, the Queen of Sweden.[23] She later claimed that the queen's personal physician Axel Munthe made sexual advances to her, so she decided not to return to Capri.[26][27] Instead, she stopped in Berlin, where her brother joined her.[26] They continued for Paris. She wanted her father's help to obtain a divorce.[28] Decades later, she described the horror she had felt toward the Swedish royal family because of their unlimited support of Munthe as the main reason she fled them and filed for divorce from Prince Wilhelm.[29] At age 22, she felt the future looked hopeless and noted that in her diary:[30] "A terrifying thought – year after year with this young geezer and surrounded by that idiotic family! My God!" Relatives in both Russia and Sweden viewed a divorce as unavoidable, and on 13 March 1914, her marriage officially was issolved, an action then confirmed by an edict issued by Nicholas II on 15 July 1914.[28][31][32] Maria left her son behind in Sweden under his father's custody. He was raised primarily by his paternal grandmother, and he saw his mother rarely in the years thereafter.[32] In an interview as an adult, Lennart said his relationship with his mother was distant.[33] In Paris, Grand Duchess Maria re-established ties with her father, who had provided her with three half-siblings. Maria Pavlovna studied at a painting school, and then traveled to Italy and Greece.[28] In the spring 1914, age 24, Maria Pavlovna returned to Russia.[34] She lived near her younger brother Dmitri, to whom she was intensely attached. Troubled by her strong need for him, Dmitri distanced himself somewhat from his sister, hurting her terribly.[25] A few months later, World War I began. World War I, revolution and second marriage Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna with their father Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, Paris 1914 At the outbreak of the war, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna trained as a nurse. With Princess Helen of Serbia, the grand duchess was sent to the northern front, at Instenburg in East Prussia, under command of General Paul von Rennenkampf. For bravery under airplane fire, she was awarded the St George medal.[34] In 1915, after the Russian withdrawal from East Prussia, she took over a hospital at Pskov, where she worked as a nurse. For two and a half years, she treated and bandaged wounded soldiers and officers, even performing simple surgery herself.[32] During the war, her relationship with her aunt improved, and she visited her regularly at the convent Elizabeth had established.[35] Maria Pavlovna was at Pskov when she learned that Dmitri had participated in the murder of Grigori Rasputin on 17 December 1916; she was stunned. "For the first time in my life," she wrote, "my brother appeared to me an individual standing apart from me, and this feeling of unaccustomed estrangement made me shiver."[36] Maria signed a letter along with other members of the Imperial family, begging Nicholas II to reverse his decision to exile Dmitri to the Persian front.[37] Two months later, the February Revolution erupted, and Tsar Nicholas II, Maria's first cousin, abdicated. Maria Pavlovna left Pskov for Petrograd joining her father and his family at Tsarkoe Selo. Earlier in the war, she had been reacquainted with Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Putyatin (1893–1966), the son of the palace commandant at Tsarkoe Selo, the tsar's country residence.[34] They had met as children, and in the spring 1917, a happy affair began between them.[32][34] In the summer, they became engaged, and in love for the first time, Maria Pavlovna married Putyatin in the Pavlovsk Palace on 19 September [O.S. 6 September] 1917.[34] The couple spent the early months of their married life in Petrograd, living at first in Dmitri's palace. When the palace was sold, they moved to a small apartment with Sergei's parents.[34] Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Putyatin, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna's second husband. He graduated from the Page Corps and joined the Life Guards 4th Infantry Regiment. 1914 The successful Bolshevik coup of November 1917 surprised Maria Pavlovna and her husband in Moscow, where they had traveled to remove some of Maria's jewels from the state bank.[38] They returned to Petrograd with their lives, but without the jewels.[38] Later, Serge's parents retrieved Maria's diamonds.[38] In the spring 1918, the couple moved to a cottage in Tsarkoe Selo to be closer to Grand Duke Paul, who was under house arrest. There, the grand duchess tended a vegetable garden and kept a goat.[34] On 8 July 1918, she gave birth to a son, Prince Roman Sergeievich Putyatin. The same day of Prince Roman's baptism on 18 July 1918, but they did not know it, Maria's half-brother Prince Vladimir Paley and her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth were murdered by the Bolsheviks.[39] With the situation quickly deteriorating in Russia for the Romanovs under the Bolshevik regime, Maria Pavlovna decided to leave for exile, leaving her baby under the care of her in-laws.[39] With her husband and her brother-in-law Alexander Putyatin, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna left Tsarkoie Selo in late July.[38][39] Without traveling documents and fearing to be arrested at any stop, Maria Pavlovna, her husband and brother-in-law made their way by train during two nights and a day. On 4 August, they reached Orsha, in today's Belarus, joining many other refugees in similar situations.[40] From the train station, they went to the frontier with German-occupied Ukraine. She had concealed, inside a bar of soap, a Swedish document identifying her as a former royal princess of that country.[40] This document allowed her to enter Ukraine.[41] From there, they continued south until reaching Kiev, where new adventures followed. In November, the fugitives made their way to Odessa.[38][42] After reaching Kishinev, Moldavia, they received an invitation from Queen Marie of Romania, Maria's first cousin, who had used Joseph W. Boyle to track them and bring them to safety.[43] Ill with influenza, the grand duchess arrived in Romania, beginning her life in exile.[44] Exile Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in exile. 1920s In December 1918, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her second husband arrived in Bucharest staying at a local hotel.[39] In January 1919, they were given private apartments at the Cotroceni Palace as guests of the Romanian Queen Maria.[39] Tragic news came from Russia. The following month, Maria Pavlovna learned that her father Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich had been assassinated by the Bolsheviks along with three of his cousins.[45] A couple of weeks later, she received the news that her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and half-brother Prince Vladimir Paley had been murdered with several other Romanov relatives in the summer 1918.[45] Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family had been killed a day earlier.[46] Maria Pavlovna's parents-in-law arrived in Bucharest with her son Roman, but once she obtained a traveling visa, Maria Pavlovna left with Putyatin for Paris, finding a house in Passy.[39][46] For the first time in her life, the 28-year-old grand duchess was forced to face everyday problems. "I had never before carried cash with me, nor had I ever written a check. I knew the approximate price of jewels and dresses, but did not have the vaguest idea how much bread, meat and milk cost", she recalled in her book of memoirs. Her first years of exile were financed by the sale of the jewels she had had smuggled to Sweden before escaping Russia.[47] While in Paris in 1919, the grand duchess received a letter from her husband's parents telling her that one-year-old Roman had died of an intestinal disorder on 29 July.[47] Her guilt that she had left him behind prevented her from telling her friends of the baby's existence.[48] Maria Pavlovna was reunited with her brother Dmitri in London. She rented a small apartment with her husband to be close to her brother, but relations between Dmitri and Putyatin soon soured.[47] Determined to find an occupation that would allow her to make a living, she began knitting sweaters and dresses selling them to a London shop.[49] In the spring 1920, Maria Pavlovna returned to Paris to meet with her stepmother Princess Olga Paley and Maria's two half-sisters. She decided to stay in the French capital in order to be close to them.[49] Her brother Dmitri followed her to Paris.[49] From 1921, she devoted a great deal of her time to the Russian Red Cross and philanthropic work.[49] Missing her son Lennart, who had been left in Sweden, Maria and Dimitri went to meet him in Copenhagen in the early summer of 1921.[50] Lennart was age 12 and taller than his mother. Two years later, they were reunited for a brief holiday in Germany.[51] They saw each other again in the autumn of 1927 in Brussels when Lennart was age 18. He always harbored a resentment toward his mother, who had abandoned him, and their relationship remained strained.[51][52] In Paris, Grand Duchess Maria opened a quality embroidering and sewing textile shop named Kitmir. Through her brother, Maria Pavlovna met Coco Chanel in the autumn 1921.[53] Chanel became her main patron buying Kitmir's embroideries for her fashion house.[54] For a time, Kitmir was a success in the Parisian fashion industry.[55] The grand duchess was helped by her mother-in-law Princess Sophia Putyatina, and she employed Russians refugees in order to help them.[56] However, Kitmir was plagued by organizational problems, resulting in the dissipation of Maria's money from the sale of her jewels and leaving her heavily in debt.[57] While she devoted all her energies to her work, Putyatin preferred to spend his time in the company of Russian officers, fast living and squandering money. Disillusioned with her husband, she divorced him in 1923 "over a fundamental difference in attitude," but she continued to offer Putyatin and his relatives financial assistance.[58] After her divorce, Maria Pavlovna continued to work in Paris, but she moved to Boulogne, the south west suburb of Paris, where many Russians had taken residence. She began an affair with the famous fashion designer Jean Patou, who was 10 years older than her and who had with a large fortune.[59] They lived with great luxury, appearing together in Parisian society events and spending time in Biarritz, Deauville and the French Riviera.[59] Rumors of a possible marriage between them spread in 1925, but Patou, a confirmed bachelor, was reluctant to change his lifestyle.[59] In 1926, Kitmir's business began to decline. In 1928, as embroidery began to be out of fashion, Maria Pavlovva sold her workshop to Maison Hurel.[60] Having suffered a defeat, but not surrendering, the grand duchess moved to London in the spring 1928 where she started selling Prince Igor, her own perfume, following in the footsteps of Chanel No. 5 and Patou's perfume Joy.[61][62] Failings in advertising and distribution made that Prince Igor was not a success.[61][62] Undeterred, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna emigrated to the United States hoping for a new start.[62] On 8 December 1928, she set sail for America from Le Havre.[61] In the United States Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna's arrival in New York City was greeted by the press with great enthusiasm and curiosity.[60] She was photographed and interviewed a great deal.[60] Accompanied by an American friend, she went as far as California, spending three weeks in a ranch.[63] In January 1929, while recuperating from an ankle injury, she worked on her memoirs which she had been writing for many years. She sent the manuscript to a number of publishers, and on 18 April 1929, it was accepted for publication.[62] In May 1929, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna started working for the New York department store Bergdorf Goodman.[62] She served as a consultant, purchasing fashionable clothing from France.[62] She then returned to Paris, sold her house in Boulogne, bade farewell to her stepmother and half-sisters, and in August 1929, sailed from Marseilles to the United States. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlona in Los Angeles, 1932 She arrived back in New York with $300, a portable typewriter, and a Russian guitar.[64] She prepared her memoirs for publication, and gave lectures at universities. The Hearst Corporation invited her to write fashion articles and reviews.[62] Her book of memoirs was translated from Russian to English and published in two volumes: the first was titled The Education of a Princess, and the second was A Princess in Exile. They appeared in 1930 and 1932. Both became bestsellers in the United States and in Europe, where they were translated to French and Spanish. The success of her books improved Maria Pavlovna's finances. She also became a popular figure in the lecture circuit. She earned well, but spent freely.[50] Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna always had an interest in photography, and in 1935, she was sent by Hearst to Germany as a photojournalist.[62][64] Part of her job was to take photographs in luxury cruise lines between Europe and New York reporting on the events of first-class, deck society.[64] While living in New York, Maria Pavlovna collected Russian books and surrounded herself with a group of friends that included her half-sister Princess Natalia Paley, the photographer Horst P. Horst, Valentina Sanina, founder of the fashion house Valentina, and Sanina's husband George Schlee.[62] In 1937, Maria Pavlovna visited her son Lennart and his family in Mainau.[52] They bonded over their shared interest in photography, and she got along with his wife, even though the grand duchess had been disappointed when her son renounced his royal status in order to marry a commoner in 1932.[52] Maria Pavlovna, who had little maternal feelings, took no interest in her two grand daughters: Birgitta, then age 4, and Marie Louise, age two.[52] She asked Lennart to call her by her name as she felt embarrassed to have such a grown-up son. Because of Lennart, the King of Sweden, who sympathized with Maria Pavlovna, arranged a Swedish diplomatic passport for her to replace her old Nansen passport. This document gave her a broader freedom of movement.[52][62] In this period, her articles appeared frequently in different publications including Vogue.[62] At Bergdorf Goodman, she created a hat collection.[62] On 15 May 1939, she was interviewed live on the radio during The Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of Tovarich.[65][66] In 1941, the United States entered World War II as an ally of the Soviet Union. The friendly alliance of the U.S. toward the Communist country repulsed her.[62] After 12 years living in the United States, she moved to Argentina with the intention of creating a line of cosmetics with friend Countess Elisabeth de Brunière, née Saroukhanoff, a Russian émigré who worked for Elizabeth Arden in Buenos Aires.[61][67][68] Last years In Argentina, Maria Pavlovna rented a small house with a garden in the Barrio Norte in Buenos Aires and devoted her spare time to painting, even managing to sell several of her works. Argentinian newspapers published her articles about interior design, fashion, and art. The cosmetic line did not take off, but Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna remained in South America. There was a large Russian émigré community in Buenos Aires, and she became close friends with the family of Prince Mestchersky, Prince Michel Aleksandrovich Gortschakov and his wife Princess Olga, née Orlov-Davydow. During weekends, she went to Los Leones, a huge property owned by Prince Karl von Auersperg and his wife Archduchess Elisabeth von Habsburg. In 1942, she received news of the death of her brother Dmitri in Davos, Switzerland. She grieved over his death. He was the only person she had loved.[69] In 1947, Maria Pavlovna's son Lennart came from Germany on a business visit that lasted several months. For the first time, they genuinely got to know each other. Maria told Lennart that she had felt lonely all of her life due to her rootless childhood. She spent much of her adulthood looking for love, having affairs, and finding it hard to fill the empty spaces inside of her.[70] Two years later, Maria Pavlovna returned to Europe, where, at the home of her son on the island of Mainau in Germany, she re-encountered her first husband Prince Wilhelm of Sweden for the first time in many years. They departed as good friends. During the 1950s, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna stayed with friends or appeared unexpectedly in Mainau in the house of her son Lennart with her camera, easel and paints. She died from pneumonia, at age 68, on 13 December 1958 in Konstanz, West Germany. She is buried in a side altar of the palace church in Mainau, next to her brother Grand Duke Dmitri. Saint Petersburg,[a] formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991; see below), is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of roughly 5.6 million residents as of 2021.[4] Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As Russia's Imperial capital, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after the apostle Saint Peter.[9] In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power.[10] It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia, and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730).[11] After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.[12] The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. In June 1991, only a few months before the Belovezha Accords and the dissolution of the USSR, voters supported restoring the city's original appellation in a city-wide referendum.[13] As Russia's cultural centre,[14] Saint Petersburg received over 15 million tourists in 2018.[15][16] It is considered an important economic, scientific, and tourism centre of Russia and Europe. In modern times, the city has the nickname of being "the Northern Capital of Russia" and is home to notable federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation. It is also a seat for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia, as well as the home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy, and the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020. Toponymy While not originally named for Tsar Peter the Great, during World War I the city was changed from the Germanic "Petersburg" to "Petrograd" in his honour. The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Russian Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great gave the site a new name after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург.[17][18][19] A proponent of westernising Russia, Peter the Great, the then Tsar, who established the city, originally named it Sankt-Pieter-Burch (Сан(к)т-Питер-Бурхъ) in Dutch manner and later its spelling was standardised as Sankt-Peterburg (Санкт-Петербургъ[b]) under German influence.[20] A former spelling of the city's name in English was Saint Petersburgh, under the influence of burgh. This spelling survives in the name of a street in the Bayswater district of London, near St Sophia's Cathedral, named after a visit by the Tsar to London in 1814.[21] A 14- to 15-letter-long name, composed of the three roots, proved too cumbersome, and many shortened versions were used. The first General Governor of the city Menshikov is maybe also the author of the first nickname of Petersburg which he called Петри (Petri). It took some years until the known Russian spelling of this name finally settled. In 1740s Mikhail Lomonosov uses a derivative of Greek: Πετρόπολις (Петрополис, Petropolis) in a Russified form Petropol' (Петрополь). A combo Piterpol (Питерпол) also appears at this time.[22] In any case, eventually the usage of prefix "Sankt-" ceased except for the formal official documents, where a three-letter abbreviation "СПб" (SPb) was very widely used as well. From 1924 to 1991 the city was known as 'Leningrad'. This is a picture of the Saint Petersburg port entrance with an old 'Ленинград' (Leningrad) sign. In the 1830s Alexander Pushkin translated the "foreign" city name of "Saint Petersburg" to the more Russian Petrograd (Russian: Петроград[b], IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat]) in one of his poems. However, it was only on 31 August [O.S. 18 August] 1914, after the war with Germany had begun, that Tsar Nicholas II renamed the city Petrograd in order to expunge the German words Sankt and Burg.[23] Since the prefix "Saint" was omitted,[24] this act also changed the eponym and the "patron" of the city from Saint Peter to Peter the Great, its founder.[19] On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград, IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]), meaning 'Lenin's City'. On 6 September 1991, the original name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as Saint Petersburg. Local residents often refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter (Russian: Питер, IPA: [ˈpʲitʲɪr]). Embankment of the Neva at 23:11, 22 June 2013 After the October Revolution the name Red Petrograd (Красный Петроград, Krasny Petrograd) was often used in newspapers and other prints until the city was renamed Leningrad in January 1924. A referendum on restoring the historic name was held on 12 June 1991, with 55% of voters supporting "Saint Petersburg" and 43% supporting "Leningrad".[13] The turnout was 65%[citation needed]. Renaming the city Petrograd was not an option. This change officially took effect on 6 September 1991.[25] Meanwhile, the oblast whose administrative center is also in Saint Petersburg is still named Leningrad. Having passed the role of capital to Petersburg, Moscow never relinquished the title of "capital", being called pervoprestolnaya ('first-throned') for 200 years. An equivalent name for Petersburg, the "Northern Capital", has re-entered usage today since several federal institutions were recently moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Solemn descriptive names like "the city of three revolutions" and "the cradle of the October revolution" used in the Soviet era are reminders of the pivotal events in national history that occurred here. Petropolis is a translation of a city name to Greek, and is also a kind of descriptive name: Πέτρ- is a Greek root for 'stone', so the "city from stone" emphasizes the material that had been forcibly made obligatory for construction from the first years of the city[22] (a modern Greek translation is Αγία Πετρούπολη, Agia Petroupoli).[26][failed verification] Saint Petersburg has been traditionally called the "Window to Europe" and the "Window to the West" by the Russians.[27][28] The city is the northernmost metropolis in the world, and is also often described as the "Venice of the North" or the "Russian Venice" due to its many water corridors, as the city is built on swamp and water. Furthermore, it has strongly Western European-inspired architecture and culture, which is combined with the city's Russian heritage.[29][30][31] Another nickname of Saint Petersburg is "The City of the White Nights" because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to the polar region and ensures that in summer the night skies of the city do not get completely dark for a month.[32][33] The city is also often called the "Northern Palmyra", due to its extravagant architecture.[34] History Main article: History of Saint Petersburg For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Saint Petersburg. Imperial era (1703–1917) Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, which was later called Ingermanland. This area was inhabited by a Finnic tribe of Ingrians. The small town of Nyen grew up around the fort. The Bronze Horseman, monument to Peter the Great At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great, who was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, wanted Russia to gain a seaport to trade with the rest of Europe.[35] He needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the time, Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter. Map of fortifications, Sankt Petersburg, 1722 Map of Saint Petersburg, 1744 On 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans and soon replaced the fortress.[36] On 27 May [O.S. 16 May] 1703,[37] closer to the estuary (5 km (3 mi) inland from the gulf), on Zayachy (Hare) Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city.[38] The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia; in some years several Swedish prisoners of war were also involved under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov.[39] Tens of thousands of serfs died while building the city.[40] Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, nine years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. He referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital (or seat of government) as early as 1704.[35] While the city was being built, Peter lived in a three-room log cabin with his wife Catherine and their children.[citation needed] Nevsky Prospekt from restaurant Lejeune in the late 19th century During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan. By 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed but is evident in the layout of the streets. In 1716, Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg.[41] The style of Petrine Baroque, developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace, Kunstkamera, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Twelve Collegia, became prominent in the city architecture of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. His endeavors to modernize Russia had been opposed by the Russian nobility. There were several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son.[42] In 1728, Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia, Saint Petersburg was again designated as the capital of the Russian Empire. It remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of the Russian tsars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917. In 1736–1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned a new plan in 1737. The city was divided into five boroughs, and the city centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka. Palace Square backed by the General staff arch and building. As the main square of the Russian Empire, it was the setting of many events of historic significance. It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty building and are now known as Nevsky Prospect (which is considered the main street of the city), Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue. Baroque architecture became dominant in the city during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace. In the 1760s, Baroque architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture. Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled that no structure in the city could be higher than the Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign of Catherine the Great in the 1760s–1780s, the banks of the Neva were lined with granite embankments. However, it was not until 1850 that the first permanent bridge across the Neva, Annunciation Bridge, was allowed to open. Before that, only pontoon bridges were allowed. Obvodny Canal (dug in 1769–1833) became the southern limit of the city. The most prominent neoclassical and Empire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included: Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe (Imperial Academy of Arts, Small Hermitage, Gostiny Dvor, New Holland Arch, Catholic Church of St. Catherine) Antonio Rinaldi (Marble Palace) Yury Felten (Old Hermitage, Chesme Church) Giacomo Quarenghi (Academy of Sciences, Hermitage Theatre, Yusupov Palace) Andrey Voronikhin (Mining Institute, Kazan Cathedral) Andreyan Zakharov (Admiralty building) Jean-François Thomas de Thomon (Spit of Vasilievsky Island) Carlo Rossi (Yelagin Palace, Mikhailovsky Palace, Alexandrine Theatre, Senate and Synod Buildings, General staff Building, design of many streets and squares) Vasily Stasov (Moscow Triumphal Gate, Trinity Cathedral) Auguste de Montferrand (Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Alexander Column) Decembrist revolt at the Senate Square, 26 December 1825 In 1810, Alexander I established the first engineering higher education, the Saint Petersburg Main military engineering School in Saint Petersburg. Many monuments commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleonic France in the Patriotic War of 1812, including the Alexander Column by Montferrand, erected in 1834, and the Narva Triumphal Arch. In 1825, the suppressed Decembrist revolt against Nicholas I took place on the Senate Square in the city, a day after Nicholas assumed the throne. By the 1840s, neoclassical architecture had given way to various romanticist styles, which dominated until the 1890s, represented by such architects as Andrei Stackenschneider (Mariinsky Palace, Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Nicholas Palace, New Michael Palace) and Konstantin Thon (Moskovsky railway station). With the emancipation of the serfs undertaken by Alexander II in 1861 and an Industrial Revolution, the influx of former peasants into the capital increased greatly. Poor boroughs spontaneously developed on the outskirts of the city. Saint Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth; it became one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (in Kronstadt), the Neva River, and a seaport on the Baltic. The names of Saints Peter and Paul, bestowed upon the original city's citadel and its cathedral (from 1725—a burial vault of Russian emperors) coincidentally were the names of the first two assassinated Russian emperors, Peter III (1762, supposedly killed in a conspiracy led by his wife, Catherine the Great) and Paul I (1801, Nikolay Alexandrovich Zubov and other conspirators who brought to power Alexander I, the son of their victim). The third emperor's assassination took place in Saint Petersburg in 1881 when Alexander II was murdered by terrorists (see the Church of the Savior on Blood). The Revolution of 1905 began in Saint Petersburg and spread rapidly into the provinces. On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd,[23] meaning "Peter's City", to remove the German words Sankt and Burg. Revolution and Soviet era (1917–1941) In March 1917, during the February Revolution Nicholas II abdicated for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years of Romanov dynastic rule. Bolsheviks celebrating 1 May near the Winter Palace half a year after taking power, 1918 On 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as the October Revolution, which led to the end of the social-democratic provisional government, the transfer of all political power to the Soviets, and the rise of the Communist Party.[43] After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions",[44] referring to the three major developments in the political history of Russia of the early 20th century. In September and October 1917, German troops invaded the West Estonian archipelago and threatened Petrograd with bombardment and invasion. On 12 March 1918, Lenin transferred the government of Soviet Russia to Moscow, to keep it away from the state border. During the Russian Civil War, in mid-1919 Russian anti-communist forces with the help of Estonians attempted to capture the city, but Leon Trotsky mobilized the army and forced them to retreat back to Estonia. Leningrad in 1935 On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. Later many streets and other toponyms were renamed accordingly, with names in honour of communist figures replacing historic names given centuries before. The city has over 230 places associated with the life and activities of Lenin. Some of them were turned into museums,[45] including the cruiser Aurora—a symbol of the October Revolution and the oldest ship in the Russian Navy. In the 1920s and 1930s, the poor outskirts were reconstructed into regularly planned boroughs. Constructivist architecture flourished around that time. Housing became a government-provided amenity; many "bourgeois" apartments were so large that numerous families were assigned to what were called "communal" apartments (kommunalkas). By the 1930s, 68% of the population lived in such housing under very poor conditions. In 1935, a new general plan was outlined, whereby the city should expand to the south. Constructivism was rejected in favour of a more pompous Stalinist architecture. Moving the city centre further from the border with Finland, Stalin adopted a plan to build a new city hall with a huge adjacent square at the southern end of Moskovsky Prospekt, designated as the new main street of Leningrad. After the Winter (Soviet-Finnish) war in 1939–1940, the Soviet–Finnish border moved northwards. Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Square maintained the functions and the role of a city centre. In December 1931, Leningrad was administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast. At that time it included the Leningrad Suburban District, some parts of which were transferred back to Leningrad Oblast in 1936 and turned into Vsevolozhsky District, Krasnoselsky District, Pargolovsky District and Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944).[46] The Saviour Church on Sennaya Square (pre-1917 photo) in Leningrad was one of many notable church buildings destroyed during The Thaw During the Soviet era, many historic architectural monuments of the previous centuries were destroyed by the new regime for ideological reasons. While that mainly concerned churches and cathedrals, some other buildings were also demolished.[47][48][49] On 1 December 1934, Sergey Kirov, the Bolshevik leader of Leningrad, was assassinated under suspicious circumstances, which became the pretext for the Great Purge.[50] In Leningrad, approximately 40,000 were executed during Stalin's purges.[51] World War II (1941–1945) Main article: Siege of Leningrad Citizens of Leningrad during the 872-day siege, in which more than one million civilians died, mostly from starvation, Nevsky Prospect (then known as the 25th October Prospekt). During World War II, German forces besieged Leningrad following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.[52] The siege lasted 872 days, or almost two and a half years,[52] from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944.[53] The Siege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history. It isolated the city from food supplies except those provided through the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga, which could not make it through until the lake froze. More than one million civilians were killed, mainly from starvation. There were incidents of cannibalism, with around 2,000 residents arrested for eating other people.[54] Many others escaped or were evacuated, so the city became largely depopulated. On 1 May 1945 Joseph Stalin, in his Supreme Commander Order No. 20, named Leningrad, alongside Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and Odesa, hero cities of the war. A law acknowledging the honorary title of "Hero City" passed on 8 May 1965 (the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War), during the Brezhnev era. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Leningrad as a Hero City the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "for the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Siege". The Hero-City Obelisk bearing the Gold Star sign was installed in April 1985. Post-war Soviet era (1945–1991) View of Lermontovski Prospekt, Egyptian Bridge and the Fontanka River, 1972 In October 1946 some territories along the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland, which had been annexed into the USSR from Finland in 1940 under the peace treaty following the Winter War, were transferred from Leningrad Oblast to Leningrad and divided into Sestroretsky District and Kurortny District. These included the town of Terijoki (renamed Zelenogorsk in 1948).[46] Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the post-war decades, partially according to pre-war plans. The 1948 general plan for Leningrad featured radial urban development in the north as well as in the south. In 1953, Pavlovsky District in Leningrad Oblast was abolished, and parts of its territory, including Pavlovsk, merged with Leningrad. In 1954, the settlements Levashovo, Pargolovo and Pesochny merged with Leningrad.[46] Griboedov Canal and the Church of the Saviour on Blood, 1991 Leningrad gave its name to the Leningrad Affair (1949–1952), a notable event in the postwar political struggle in the USSR. It was a product of rivalry between Stalin's potential successors where one side was represented by the leaders of the city Communist Party organization—the second most significant one in the country after Moscow. The entire elite leadership of Leningrad was destroyed, including the former mayor Kuznetsov, the acting mayor Pyotr Sergeevich Popkov, and all their deputies; overall 23 leaders were sentenced to the death penalty, 181 to prison or exile (rehabilitated in 1954). About 2,000 ranking officials across the USSR were expelled from the party and the Komsomol and removed from leadership positions.[55] The Leningrad Metro underground rapid transit system, designed before the war, opened in 1955 with its first eight stations decorated with marble and bronze. However, after Stalin's death in 1953, the perceived ornamental excesses of the Stalinist architecture were abandoned. From the 1960s to the 1980s many new residential boroughs were built on the outskirts; while the functionalist apartment blocks were nearly identical to each other, many families moved there from kommunalkas in the city centre to live in separate apartments. Contemporary era (1991–present) View of the city from the Saint Isaac's Cathedral On 12 June 1991, simultaneously with the first Russian SFSR presidential elections, the city authorities arranged for the mayoral elections and a referendum upon the city's name, when the original name Saint Petersburg was restored. The turnout was 65%; 66.13% of the total count of votes went to Anatoly Sobchak, who became the first directly elected mayor of the city. Meanwhile, economic conditions started to deteriorate as the country tried to adapt to major changes. For the first time since the 1940s, food rationing was introduced, and the city received humanitarian food aid from abroad.[25] This dramatic time was depicted in photographic series of Russian photographer Alexey Titarenko.[56][57] Economic conditions began to improve only at the beginning of the 21st century.[58] In 1995, a northern section of the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro was cut off by underground flooding, creating a major obstacle to the city development for almost ten years. On 13 June 1996, Saint Petersburg, alongside Leningrad Oblast and Tver Oblast, signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.[59] This agreement was abolished on 4 April 2002.[60] In 1996, Vladimir Yakovlev defeated Anatoly Sobchak in the elections for the head of the city administration. The title of the city head was changed from "mayor" to "governor". In 2000, Yakovlev won re-election. His second term expired in 2004; the long-awaited restoration of the broken subway connection was expected to finish by that time. But in 2003 Yakovlev suddenly resigned, leaving the governor's office to Valentina Matviyenko. Moyka River, flowing through Central Saint Petersburg The Trinity Bridge is a landmark of Art Nouveau design. People walking on the main street of Saint Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt The law on election of the City Governor was changed, breaking the tradition of democratic election by universal suffrage that started in 1991. In 2006, the city legislature re-approved Matviyenko as governor. Residential building had intensified again; real-estate prices inflated greatly, which caused many new problems for the preservation of the historical part of the city. Although the central part of the city has a UNESCO designation (there are about 8,000 architectural monuments in Petersburg), the preservation of its historical and architectural environment became controversial.[61] After 2005, the demolition of older buildings in the historical centre was permitted.[62] In 2006, Gazprom announced an ambitious project to erect a 403 m (1,322 ft) skyscraper (the Okhta Center) opposite to Smolny, which[according to whom?] could result in the loss of the unique line of Petersburg landscape.[citation needed] Urgent protests by citizens and prominent public figures of Russia against this project were not considered by Governor Valentina Matviyenko and the city authorities until December 2010, when after the statement of President Dmitry Medvedev, the city decided to find a more appropriate location for this project. In the same year, the new location for the project was relocated to Lakhta, a historical area northwest of the city centre, and the new project would be named Lakhta Center. Construction was approved by Gazprom and the city administration and commenced in 2012. The 462 m (1,516 ft) high Lakhta Center has become the first tallest skyscraper in Russia and Europe outside of Moscow. Geography Main article: Geography of Saint Petersburg The Neva River flows through much of the centre of the city. Left – the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, center – River Neva, Peter and Paul Fortress and Trinity Bridge, right – Palace Embankment with the Winter Palace. Satellite image of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km2 (233.9 square miles). The area of the federal subject is 1,439 km2 (556 sq mi), which contains Saint Petersburg proper (consisting of eighty-one municipal okrugs), nine municipal towns – (Kolpino, Krasnoye Selo, Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Pavlovsk, Petergof, Pushkin, Sestroretsk, Zelenogorsk) – and twenty-one municipal settlements. Petersburg is on the middle taiga lowlands along the shores of the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, and islands of the river delta. The largest are Vasilyevsky Island (besides the artificial island between Obvodny canal and Fontanka, and Kotlin in the Neva Bay), Petrogradsky, Dekabristov and Krestovsky. The latter together with Yelagin and Kamenny Island are covered mostly by parks. The Karelian Isthmus, North of the city, is a popular resort area. In the south, Saint Petersburg crosses the Baltic-Ladoga Klint and meets the Izhora Plateau. The elevation of Saint Petersburg ranges from the sea level to its highest point of 175.9 m (577 ft) at the Orekhovaya Hill in the Duderhof Heights in the south. Part of the city's territory west of Liteyny Prospekt is no higher than 4 m (13 ft) above sea level, and has suffered from numerous floods. Floods in Saint Petersburg are triggered by a long wave in the Baltic Sea, caused by meteorological conditions, winds and shallowness of the Neva Bay. The five most disastrous floods occurred in 1824 (4.21 m or 13 ft 10 in above sea level, during which over 300 buildings were destroyed[c]); 1924 (3.8 m, 12 ft 6 in); 1777 (3.21 m, 10 ft 6 in); 1955 (2.93 m, 9 ft 7 in); and 1975 (2.81 m, 9 ft 3 in). To prevent floods, the Saint Petersburg Dam has been constructed.[63] Since the 18th century, the city's terrain has been raised artificially, at some places by more than 4 m (13 ft), making mergers of several islands, and changing the hydrology of the city. Besides the Neva and its tributaries, other important rivers of the federal subject of Saint Petersburg are Sestra, Okhta and Izhora. The largest lake is Sestroretsky Razliv in the north, followed by Lakhtinsky Razliv, Suzdal Lakes, and other smaller lakes. Due to its northerly location at c. 60° N latitude the day length in Petersburg varies across seasons, ranging from 5 hours 53 minutes to 18 hours 50 minutes. A period from mid-May to mid-July during which twilight may last all night is called the white nights. Saint Petersburg is about 165 km (103 miles) from the border with Finland, connected to it via the M10 highway (E18), along which there is also a connection to the historic city of Vyborg. Climate Main article: Climate of Saint Petersburg Under the Köppen climate classification, Saint Petersburg is classified as Dfb, a humid continental climate. The distinct moderating influence of Baltic Sea cyclones results in warm, humid, and short summers and long, moderately cold wet winters. The climate of Saint Petersburg is close to that of Helsinki, although slightly more continental (i.e. colder in winter and warmer in summer) because of its more eastern location, while slightly less continental than that of Moscow. The average maximum temperature in July is 23 °C (73 °F), and the average minimum temperature in February is −8.5 °C (16.7 °F); an extreme temperature of 37.1 °C (98.8 °F) occurred during the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat wave. A winter minimum of −35.9 °C (−32.6 °F) was recorded in 1883. The average annual temperature is 5.8 °C (42.4 °F). The Neva River within the city limits usually freezes up in November–December and break-up occurs in April. From December to March there are 118 days on average with snow cover, which reaches an average snow depth of 19 cm (7.5 in) by February.[64] The frost-free period in the city lasts on average for about 135 days. Despite St. Petersburg's northern location, its winters are warmer than Moscow's due to the Gulf of Finland and some Gulf Stream influence from Scandinavian winds that can bring temperature slightly above freezing. The city also has a slightly warmer climate than its suburbs. Weather conditions are quite variable all year round.[65][66] Average annual precipitation varies across the city, averaging 660 mm (26 in) per year and reaching maximum in late summer. Due to the cool climate, soil moisture is almost always high because of lower evapotranspiration. Air humidity is 78% on average, and there are, on average, 165 overcast days per year. Climate data for Saint Petersburg (1991–2020, extremes 1743–present) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 8.7 (47.7) 10.2 (50.4) 15.3 (59.5) 25.3 (77.5) 33.0 (91.4) 35.9 (96.6) 35.3 (95.5) 37.1 (98.8) 30.4 (86.7) 21.0 (69.8) 12.3 (54.1) 10.9 (51.6) 37.1 (98.8) Average high °C (°F) −2.5 (27.5) −2.4 (27.7) 2.3 (36.1) 9.5 (49.1) 16.3 (61.3) 20.5 (68.9) 23.3 (73.9) 21.4 (70.5) 15.9 (60.6) 8.7 (47.7) 2.8 (37.0) −0.5 (31.1) 9.6 (49.3) Daily mean °C (°F) −4.8 (23.4) −5.0 (23.0) −1.0 (30.2) 5.2 (41.4) 11.5 (52.7) 16.1 (61.0) 19.1 (66.4) 17.4 (63.3) 12.4 (54.3) 6.2 (43.2) 0.9 (33.6) −2.5 (27.5) 6.3 (43.3) Average low °C (°F) −7.2 (19.0) −7.6 (18.3) −4.0 (24.8) 1.7 (35.1) 7.2 (45.0) 12.2 (54.0) 15.3 (59.5) 13.9 (57.0) 9.4 (48.9) 4.1 (39.4) −0.9 (30.4) −4.5 (23.9) 3.3 (37.9) Record low °C (°F) −35.9 (−32.6) −35.2 (−31.4) −29.9 (−21.8) −21.8 (−7.2) −6.6 (20.1) 0.1 (32.2) 4.9 (40.8) 1.3 (34.3) −3.1 (26.4) −12.9 (8.8) −22.2 (−8.0) −34.4 (−29.9) −35.9 (−32.6) Average precipitation mm (inches) 46 (1.8) 36 (1.4) 36 (1.4) 37 (1.5) 47 (1.9) 69 (2.7) 84 (3.3) 87 (3.4) 57 (2.2) 64 (2.5) 56 (2.2) 51 (2.0) 670 (26.4) Average extreme snow depth cm (inches) 15 (5.9) 19 (7.5) 14 (5.5) 1 (0.4) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 3 (1.2) 9 (3.5) 19 (7.5) Average rainy days 9 7 10 13 16 18 17 17 20 20 16 10 173 Average snowy days 25 23 16 8 1 0.1 0 0 0.1 5 16 23 117 Average relative humidity (%) 86 84 79 69 65 69 71 76 80 83 86 87 78 Mean monthly sunshine hours 18.9 45.5 120.5 177.9 255.6 254.3 267.7 228.1 134.8 61.8 23.0 8.1 1,596.2 Source 1: Pogoda.ru.net[64] Source 2: NOAA [67] Demographics Main article: Demographics of Saint Petersburg Population pyramid of St. Petersburg in the 2021 Russian Census Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. As of the 2021 Census,[4] the federal subject's population is 5,601,911 or 3.9% of the total population of Russia; up from 4,879,566 (3.4%) recorded in the 2010 Census,[68] and up from 5,023,506 recorded in the 1989 Census.[69] Historical population Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1897 1,264,920 — 1926 1,590,770 +0.79% 1939 3,191,304 +5.50% 1959 3,321,196 +0.20% 1970 3,949,501 +1.59% 1979 4,588,183 +1.68% 1989 5,023,506 +0.91% 2002 4,661,219 −0.57% 2010 4,879,566 +0.57% 2021 5,601,911 +1.26% Source: Census data Vital statistics for 2022:[70][71] Births: 50,663 (9.4 per 1,000) Deaths: 65,137 (12.1 per 1,000) Total fertility rate (2022):[72] 1.28 children per woman Life expectancy (2021):[73] Total — 72.51 years (male — 68.23, female — 76.30) Life expectancy at birth in Saint Petersburg Ethnic composition of Saint Petersburg Ethnicity Year 1939[74] 1959[75] 1970[76] 1979[77] 1989[78] 2002[79] 2010[79] 2021[80] Population % Population % Population % Population % Population % Population % Population % Population1 % Russians 2,775,979 86.9 2,951,254 88.9 3,514,296 89.0 4,097,629 89.7 4,448,884 89.1 3,949,623 92.0 3,908,753 92.5 4,275,058 90.6 Ukrainians 54,660 1.7 68,308 2.1 97,109 2.5 117,412 2.6 150,982 3.0 87,119 2.0 64,446 1.5 29,353 0.6 Tatars 31,506 1.0 27,178 0.8 32,851 0.8 39,403 0.9 43,997 0.9 35,553 0.8 30,857 0.7 20,286 0.4 Azerbaijanis 385 - 855 - 1,576 - 3,171 0.1 11,804 0.2 16,613 0.4 17,717 0.4 16,406 0.3 Belarusians 32,353 1.0 47,004 1.4 63,799 1.6 81,575 1.8 93,564 1.9 54,484 1.3 38,136 0.9 15,545 0.3 Armenians 4,615 0.1 4,897 0.1 6,628 0.2 7,995 0.2 12,070 0.2 19,164 0.4 19,971 0.5 14,737 0.3 Uzbeks 238 - - - 1,678 - 1,883 - 7,927 0.2 2,987 0.1 20,345 0.5 12,181 0.3 Tajiks 61 - - - 361 - 473 - 1,917 - 2,449 0.1 12,072 0.3 9,573 0.2 Jews 201,542 6.3 168,641 5.1 162,525 4.1 142,779 3.1 106,469 2.1 36,570 0.9 24,132 0.6 9,205 0.2 Others 89,965 2.8 53,059 1.6 68,678 1.7 76,228 1.7 113,135 2.3 88,661 2.1 90,310 2.1 277,297 6.7 Total 3,191,304 100 3,321,196 100 3,949,501 100 4,588,183 100 5,023,506 100 4,661,219 100 4,879,566 100 5,601,911 100 1884,678 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. During the 20th century, the city experienced dramatic population changes. From 2.4 million residents in 1916, its population dropped to less than 740,000 by 1920 during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War. The minorities of Germans, Poles, Finns, Estonians and Latvians were almost completely transferred from Leningrad during the 1930s.[81] From 1941 to the end of 1943, population dropped from 3 million to less than 600,000, as people died in battles, starved to death or were evacuated during the Siege of Leningrad. Some evacuees returned after the siege, but most influx was due to migration from other parts of the Soviet Union. The city absorbed about 3 million people in the 1950s and grew to over 5 million in the 1980s. From 1991 to 2006 the city's population decreased to 4.6 million, while the suburban population increased due to privatization of land and massive move to suburbs. Based on the 2010 census results the population is over 4.8 million.[82][83] For the first half of 2007, the birth rate was 9.1 per 1000[84] and remained lower than the death rate (until 2012[85]); people over 65 constitute more than twenty percent of the population; and the median age is about 40 years.[86] Since 2012 the birth rate became higher than the death rate.[85] But in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused a drop in birth rate, and the city population decreased to 5,395,000 people.[87] Religion Clockwise from left: Kronstadt: the Naval Cathedral on Yakornaya Square, the Church of St. Catherine, the Saint Petersburg Mosque, and the Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg According to various opinion polls, more than half of the residents of Saint Petersburg "believe in God" (up to 67% according to VTsIOM data for 2002). Among the believers, the overwhelming majority of the residents of the city are Orthodox (57.5%), followed by small minority communities of Muslims (0.7%), Protestants (0.6%), and Catholics (0.5%), and Buddhists (0.1%).[88] In total, roughly 59% of the population of the city is Christian, of which over 90% are Orthodox.[88] Non-Abrahamic religions and other faiths are represented by only 1.2% of the total population.[88] Religion in Saint Petersburg as of 2012 (Sreda Arena Atlas)[89][90] Russian Orthodoxy 50.3% Other Orthodox 1.4% Other Christians 3.2% Islam 1.1% Spiritual but not religious 20.5% Atheism and irreligion 15.4% Other and undeclared 7.6% There are 268 communities of confessions and religious associations in the city: the Russian Orthodox Church (130 associations), Pentecostalism (23 associations), the Lutheranism (19 associations), Baptism (13 associations), as well as Old Believers, Roman Catholic Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Georgian Orthodox Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Judaism, Buddhist, Muslim, Bahá'í and others.[88] 229 religious buildings in the city are owned or run by religious associations. Among them are architectural monuments of federal significance. The oldest cathedral in the city is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, built between 1712 and 1733, and the largest is the Kazan Cathedral, completed in 1811. Government Further information: Politics of Saint Petersburg The city assembly meets in the Mariinsky Palace. Saint Petersburg is a federal subject of Russia (a federal city).[91] The political life of Saint Petersburg is regulated by the Charter of Saint Petersburg adopted by the city legislature in 1998.[92] The superior executive body is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by the city governor (mayor before 1996). Saint Petersburg has a single-chamber legislature, the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly, which is the city's regional parliament. The Smolny Institute, seat of the governor According to the federal law passed in 2004, heads of federal subjects, including the governor of Saint Petersburg, were nominated by the President of Russia and approved by local legislatures. Should the legislature disapprove the nominee, the President could dissolve it. The former governor, Valentina Matviyenko, was approved according to the new system in December 2006. She was the only woman governor in the whole of Russia until her resignation on 22 August 2011. Matviyenko stood for elections as member of the Regional Council of Saint Petersburg and won comprehensively with allegations of rigging and ballot stuffing by the opposition. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has already backed her for the position of Speaker to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and her election qualifies her for that job. After her resignation, Georgy Poltavchenko was appointed as the new acting governor the same day. In 2012, following passage of a new federal law,[93] restoring direct elections of heads of federal subjects, the city charter was again amended to provide for direct elections of governor.[94] On 3 October 2018, Poltavchenko resigned, and Alexander Beglov was appointed acting governor.[95] Saint Petersburg is also the unofficial but de facto administrative centre of Leningrad Oblast, and of the Northwestern Federal District.[96] The Constitutional Court of Russia moved to Saint Petersburg from Moscow in May 2008. Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, being two different federal subjects, share a number of local departments of federal executive agencies and courts, such as court of arbitration, police, FSB, postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services. Administrative divisions Main article: Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg is divided into 18 administrative districts: Administrative divisions of the city of Saint Petersburg Аdmiralteysky Vasileostrovsky Vyborgsky Kalininsky Кirovsky Kolpinsky Krasnogvardeysky Кrasnoselsky Kronshtadtsky Kurortny Moskovsky Nevsky Petrogradsky Petrodvortsovy Primorsky Pushkinsky Frunzensky Tsentralny Within the boundaries of the districts, there are 111 intra-city municipalities, 81 municipal districts, and 9 cities: (Zelenogorsk, Kolpino, Krasnoe Selo, Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Pavlovsk, Petergof, Pushkin, and Sestroretsk), as well as 21 villages.[97] Economy Main article: Economy of Saint Petersburg The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum is a major Russian investment forum. Saint Petersburg is a major trade gateway, serving as the financial and industrial centre of Russia, with specializations in oil and gas trade; shipbuilding yards; aerospace industry; technology, including radio, electronics, software, and computers; machine building, heavy machinery and transport, including tanks and other military equipment; mining; instrument manufacture; ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy (production of aluminium alloys); chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment; publishing and printing; food and catering; wholesale and retail; textile and apparel industries; and many other businesses. It was also home to Lessner, one of Russia's two pioneering automobile manufacturers (along with Russo-Baltic); it was founded by machine tool and boilermaker G.A. Lessner in 1904, with designs by Boris Loutsky, and it survived until 1910.[98] Admiralty Shipyard Power Machines plant building on Sverdlovskaya embankment in Saint Petersburg Ten per cent of the world's power turbines are made there at the LMZ, which built over two thousand turbines for power plants across the world. Major local industries are Admiralty Shipyard, Baltic Shipyard, LOMO, Kirov Plant, Elektrosila, Izhorskiye Zavody; also registered in Saint Petersburg are Sovkomflot, Petersburg Fuel Company and SIBUR among other major Russian and international companies. The Port of Saint Petersburg has three large cargo terminals, Bolshoi Port Saint Petersburg, Kronstadt, and Lomonosov terminal.[citation needed] International cruise liners have been served at the passenger port at Morskoy Vokzal on the south-west of Vasilyevsky Island. In 2008 the first two berths opened at the New Passenger Port on the west of the island.[99] The new passenger terminal is part of the city's "Marine Facade" development project[100] and was due to have seven berths in operation by 2010.[needs update] A complex system of riverports on both banks of the Neva River are interconnected with the system of seaports, thus making Saint Petersburg the main link between the Baltic Sea and the rest of Russia through the Volga–Baltic Waterway. The Saint Petersburg Mint (Monetny Dvor), founded in 1724, is one of the largest mints in the world, it mints Russian coins, medals and badges. Saint Petersburg is also home to the oldest and largest Russian foundry, Monumentskulptura, which made thousands of sculptures and statues that now grace the public parks of Saint Petersburg and many other cities. Monuments and bronze statues of the Tsars, as well as other important historic figures and dignitaries, and other world-famous monuments, such as the sculptures by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, Paolo Troubetzkoy, Mark Antokolsky, and others, were made there. In 2007, Toyota opened a Camry plant after investing 5 billion roubles (approx. 200 mln dollars) in Shushary, one of the southern suburbs of Saint Petersburg. Opel, Hyundai and Nissan have also signed deals with the Russian government to build their automotive plants in Saint Petersburg. The automotive and auto-parts industry is on the rise there during the last decade. Saint Petersburg has a large brewery and distillery industry. Known as Russia's "beer capital" due to the supply and quality of local water, its five large breweries account for over 30% of the country's domestic beer production. They include Europe's second-largest brewery Baltika, Vena (both operated by BBH), Heineken Brewery, Stepan Razin (both by Heineken) and Tinkoff brewery (SUN-InBev). The city's many local distilleries produce a broad range of vodka brands. The oldest ones is LIVIZ (founded in 1897). Among the youngest is Russian Standard Vodka introduced in Moscow in 1998, which opened in 2006 a new $60 million distillery in Petersburg (an area of 30,000 m2 (320,000 sq ft), production rate of 22,500 bottles per hour). In 2007, this brand was exported to over 70 countries.[101] Saint Petersburg has the second-largest construction industry in Russia, including commercial, housing, and road construction. In 2006, Saint Petersburg's city budget was 180 billion rubles (about 7 billion US$ at 2006 exchange rates),.[102] The federal subject's Gross Regional Product as of 2016 was 3.7 trillion Russian rubles (or around US$70 billion), ranked 2nd in Russia, after Moscow[103] and per capita of US$13,000, ranked 12th among Russia's federal subjects,[104] contributed mostly by wholesale and retail trade and repair services (24.7%) as well as processing industry (20.9%) and transportation and telecommunications (15.1%).[105] Budget revenues of the city in 2009 amounted to 294.3 billion rubles (about 10.044 billion US$ at 2009 exchange rates), expenses – 336.3 billion rubles (about 11.477 billion US$ at 2009 exchange rates). The budget deficit amounted to about 42 billion rubles.[106] (about 1.433 billion US$ at 2009 exchange rates) In 2015, St. Petersburg was ranked in 4th place economically amongst all federal subjects of the Russian Federation, surpassed only by Moscow, the Tyumen and Moscow Region.[107] Cityscape Main articles: Landmarks of Saint Petersburg and Kronstadt Lakhta Center, the tallest building in Europe The Admiralty building in St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg has three skyscrapers: Leader Tower (140 m), Alexander Nevsky (124 m) and Atlantic City (105 m) all far from the historical centre. Regulations forbid the construction of tall buildings in the city centre. The 310-meter (1,020 ft) tall Saint Petersburg TV Tower is the tallest completed structure in the city. However, there was a controversial project endorsed by the city authorities, and known as the Okhta Center, to build a 396 meters (1,299 ft) supertall skyscraper. In 2008, the World Monuments Fund included the Saint Petersburg historic skyline on the watch list of the 100 most endangered sites due to the expected construction, which threatens to alter it drastically.[108] The Okhta Center project was cancelled at the end of 2010 and the Lakhta Center project began in the city's outskirts. The complex includes 463-metre-tall (1,519-foot) office skyscraper and several low rise mixed-use buildings. The Lakhta Center project has caused much less controversy. Unlike the previous unbuilt project, it is not seen by UNESCO as a potential threat to the city's cultural heritage because it is far from the historical centre. The skyscraper was completed in 2019, and at 462.5 metres, it is currently the tallest in Russia and Europe. Kazan Cathedral, an example of Neoclassical architecture Saint Isaac's Square Unlike in Moscow, the historic architecture of Saint Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years.[citation needed] The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The ensemble of Peter and Paul Fortress with the Peter and Paul Cathedral takes a dominant position on Zayachy Island along the right bank of the Neva River. Each noon a cannon fires a blank shot from the fortress. The Saint Petersburg Mosque, the largest mosque in Europe when opened in 1913, is on the right bank nearby. The Spit of Vasilievsky Island, which splits the river into two largest armlets, the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva, is connected to the northern bank (Petrogradsky Island) via the Exchange Bridge and occupied by the Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns. The southern coast of Vasilyevsky Island along the Bolshaya Neva features some of the city's oldest buildings, dating from the 18th century, including the Kunstkamera, Twelve Collegia, Menshikov Palace and Imperial Academy of Arts. It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University. On the southern, left bank of the Neva, connected to the spit of Vasilyevsky Island via the Palace Bridge, lie the Admiralty building, the vast Hermitage Museum complex stretching along the Palace Embankment, which includes the Baroque Winter Palace, former official residence of Russian emperors, as well as the neoclassical Marble Palace. The Winter Palace faces Palace Square, the city's main square with the Alexander Column. Aerial view of Peter and Paul Fortress The Field of Mars Nevsky Prospekt, also on the left bank of the Neva, is the city's main avenue. It starts at the Admiralty and runs eastwards next to Palace Square. Nevsky Prospekt crosses the Moika (Green Bridge), Griboyedov Canal (Kazansky Bridge), Garden Street, the Fontanka (Anichkov Bridge), meets Liteyny Prospekt and proceeds to Uprising Square near the Moskovsky railway station, where it meets Ligovsky Prospekt and turns to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The Passage, Catholic Church of St. Catherine, Book House (former Singer Manufacturing Company Building in the Art Nouveau style), Grand Hotel Europe, Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Great Gostiny Dvor, Russian National Library, Alexandrine Theatre behind Mikeshin's statue of Catherine the Great, Kazan Cathedral, Stroganov Palace, Anichkov Palace and Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace are all along that avenue. Nevsky Prospekt Palace Square during Christmas The Alexander Nevsky Lavra, intended to house the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky, is an important centre of Christian education in Russia. It also contains the Tikhvin Cemetery with graves of many notable Petersburgers. On the territory between the Neva and Nevsky Prospekt the Church of the Savior on Blood, Mikhailovsky Palace housing the Russian Museum, Field of Mars, St. Michael's Castle, Summer Garden, Tauride Palace, Smolny Institute and Smolny Convent are located. Church of the Savior on Blood, seen from Griboyedov Canal Smolny Convent, an example of Baroque architecture Many notable landmarks are to the west and south of the Admiralty Building, including the Trinity Cathedral, Mariinsky Palace, Hotel Astoria, famous Mariinsky Theatre, New Holland Island, Saint Isaac's Cathedral, the largest in the city, and Senate Square, with the Bronze Horseman, 18th-century equestrian monument to Peter the Great, which is considered among the city's most recognisable symbols. Other symbols of Saint Petersburg include the weather vane in the shape of a small ship on top of the Admiralty's golden spire and the golden angel on top of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Palace Bridge drawn at night is yet another symbol of the city. From April to November, 22 bridges across the Neva and main canals are drawn to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea according to a schedule.[109] It was not until 2004 that the first high bridge across the Neva, which does not need to be drawn, Big Obukhovsky Bridge, was opened. The most remarkable bridges of our days are Korabelny and Petrovsky cable-stayed bridges, which form the most spectacular part of the city toll road, Western High-Speed Diameter. There are hundreds of smaller bridges in Saint Petersburg spanning numerous canals and distributaries of the Neva, some of the most important of which are the Moika, Fontanka, Griboyedov Canal, Obvodny Canal, Karpovka and Smolenka. Due to the intricate web of canals, Saint Petersburg is often called Venice of the North. The rivers and canals in the city centre are lined with granite embankments. The embankments and bridges are separated from rivers and canals by granite or cast iron parapets. Aerial view of Peterhof Palace Southern suburbs of the city feature former imperial residences, including Petergof, with majestic fountain cascades and parks, Tsarskoe Selo, with the baroque Catherine Palace and the neoclassical Alexander Palace, and Pavlovsk, which has a domed palace of Emperor Paul and one of Europe's largest English-style parks. Some other residences nearby and making part of the world heritage site, including a castle and park in Gatchina, actually belong to Leningrad Oblast rather than Saint Petersburg. Another notable suburb is Kronstadt with its 19th-century fortifications and naval monuments, occupying the Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland. Since around the end of the 20th century a great deal of active building and restoration works have been carried out in a number of the city's older districts. The authorities have recently been compelled to transfer the ownership of state-owned private residences in the city centre to private lessors. Many older buildings have been reconstructed to allow their use as apartments and penthouses. Some of these structures, such as the Saint Petersburg Commodity and Stock Exchange have been recognised as town-planning errors.[110] Parks The "Temple of Friendship" in Pavlovsk Park Saint Petersburg is home to many parks and gardens. Some of the most well-known are in the southern suburbs, including Pavlovsk, one of Europe's largest English gardens. Sosnovka is the largest park within the city limits, occupying 240 ha. The Summer Garden is the oldest, dating back to the early 18th century and designed in the regular style. It is on the Neva's southern bank at the head of the Fontanka and is famous for its cast iron railing and marble sculptures. Among other notable parks are the Maritime Victory Park on Krestovsky Island and the Moscow Victory Park in the south, both commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, as well as the Central Park of Culture and Leisure occupying Yelagin Island and the Tauride Garden around the Tauride Palace. The most common trees grown in the parks are the English oak, Norway maple, green ash, silver birch, Siberian Larch, blue spruce, crack willow, limes, and poplars. Important dendrological collections dating back to the 19th century are hosted by the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden and the Park of the Forestry Academy. In order to commemorate 300 years anniversary of Saint Petersburg a new park was laid out. The park is in the northwestern part of the city. The construction was started in 1995. It is planned to connect the park with the pedestrian bridge to the territory of Lakhta Center's recreation areas. In the park 300 trees of valuable sorts, 300 decorative apple trees, 70 limes. 300 other trees and bushes were planted. These trees were presented to Saint Petersburg by non-commercial and educational organizations of the city, its sister-cities, the city of Helsinki, heads of other regions of Russia, German Savings Bank and other people and organizations.[111] Cameron gallery in Catherine park of Tsarskoe Selo Grotto pavilion in Catherine park of Tsarskoe Selo The Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo Grand Menshikov Palace Tourism This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Needs discussion on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected tourism. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2023) Saint Petersburg UNESCO World Heritage Site Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo Official name Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments Criteria Cultural: (i), (ii), (iv), (vi) Reference 540bis Inscription 1990 (14th Session) Extensions 2013 Area 3,934.1 ha (15.190 sq mi) Saint Petersburg has a significant historical and cultural heritage.[112][113][114][115][116][117][118] The city's 18th and 19th-century architectural ensemble and its environs is preserved in virtually unchanged form. For various reasons (including large-scale destruction during World War II and construction of modern buildings during the postwar period in the largest historical centres of Europe), Saint Petersburg has become a unique reserve of European architectural styles of the past three centuries. Saint Petersburg's loss of capital city status helped it retain many of its pre-revolutionary buildings, as modern architectural 'prestige projects' tended to be built in Moscow; this largely prevented the rise of mid-to-late-20th century architecture and helped maintain the architectural appearance of the historic city centre. The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace Saint Petersburg is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as an area with 36 historical architectural complexes and around 4000 outstanding individual monuments of architecture, history and culture. New tourist programs and sightseeing tours have been developed for those wishing to see Saint Petersburg's cultural heritage. The city has 221 museums, 2,000 libraries, more than 80 theatres, 100 concert organizations, 45 galleries and exhibition halls, 62 cinemas, and 80 other cultural establishments. Every year the city hosts around 100 festivals and various competitions of art and culture, including more than 50 international ones.[citation needed] Grand Peterhof Palace and the Grand Cascade Despite the economic instability of the 1990s, not a single major theatre or museum was closed in Saint Petersburg; on the contrary many new ones opened, for example a private museum of puppets (opened in 1999) is the third museum of its kind in Russia, where collections of more than 2000 dolls are presented including 'The multinational Saint Petersburg' and Pushkin's Petersburg. The museum world of Saint Petersburg is incredibly diverse. The city is not only home to the world-famous Hermitage Museum and the Russian Museum with its rich collection of Russian art, but also the palaces of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs, so-called small-town museums and others like the museum of famous Russian writer Dostoyevsky; Museum of Musical Instruments, the museum of decorative arts and the museum of professional orientation. The Bolshoi Zal (Grand Hall) of Saint Petersburg Philharmonia Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns The musical life of Saint Petersburg is rich and diverse, with the city now playing host to a number of annual carnivals. Ballet performances occupy a special place in the cultural life of Saint Petersburg. The Petersburg School of Ballet is named as one of the best in the world. Traditions of the Russian classical school have been passed down from generation to generation among outstanding educators. The art of famous and prominent Saint Petersburg dancers like Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Baryshnikov was, and is, admired throughout the world. Contemporary Petersburg ballet is made up not only of traditional Russian classical school but also ballets by those like Boris Eifman, who expanded the scope of strict classical Russian ballet to almost unimaginable limits. Remaining faithful to the classical basis (he was a choreographer at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet), he combined classical ballet with the avant-garde style, and then, in turn, with acrobatics, rhythmic gymnastics, dramatic expressiveness, cinema, color, light, and finally with spoken word. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has impacted on tourism. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises against travelling to Russia, including Saint Petersburg, noting there have been reports of fires and explosions in areas close to the city.[119] Media and communications All major Russian newspapers are active in Saint Petersburg. The city has a developed telecommunications system. In 2014, Rostelecom, the national operator, announced the beginning of a major modernization of the fixed-line network in the city.[120] Culture Main article: Society and culture in Saint Petersburg Museums Further information: List of museums in Saint Petersburg The State Hermitage Museum (Hermitage Theatre, Old Hermitage, Small Hermitage and Winter Palace, all part of the current museum complex) Saint Petersburg is home to more than two hundred museums, many of them in historic buildings. The largest is the Hermitage Museum that features the interiors of the former imperial residence and a vast collection of art. The Russian Museum is a large museum devoted to Russian fine art. The apartments of some famous Petersburgers, including Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Feodor Chaliapin, Alexander Blok, Vladimir Nabokov, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Joseph Brodsky, as well as some palace and park ensembles of the southern suburbs and notable architectural monuments such as St. Isaac's Cathedral, have also been turned into public museums. The Kunstkamera, with its collection established in 1714 by Peter the Great to collect curiosities from all over the world, is sometimes considered the first museum in Russia, which has evolved into the present-day Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. The Russian Ethnography Museum, which has been split from the Russian Museum, is devoted to the cultures of the people of Russia, the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire. The State Hermitage Museum is the largest art museum in the world by gallery space.[121] The State Russian Museum is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. The Russian Museum of Ethnography is one of the largest ethnographic museums in the world.[122] A number of museums provide insight into the Soviet history of Saint Petersburg, including the Museum of the Blockade, which describes the Siege of Leningrad and the Museum of Political History, which explains many authoritarian features of the USSR. Other notable museums include the Central Naval Museum, and Zoological Museum, Central Soil Museum, the Russian Railway Museum, Suvorov Museum, Museum of the Siege of Leningrad, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, the largest non-governmental museum of contemporary art in Russia, Saint Petersburg Museum of History in the Peter and Paul Fortress and Artillery Museum, which includes not only artillery items, but also a huge collection of other military equipment, uniforms, and decorations. Amongst others, Saint Petersburg also hosts State Museum of the History of Religion, one of the eldest museums in Russia about religion depicting cultural representations from various parts of the globe.[123] Music The main auditorium of the Mariinsky Theatre Panorama of stalls and boxes at the Main Mariinsky Theatre Among the city's more than fifty theatres is the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly known as the Kirov Theatre), home to the Mariinsky Ballet company and opera. Leading ballet dancers, such as Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Galina Ulanova and Natalia Makarova, were principal stars of the Mariinsky ballet. The first music school, the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. The school alumni have included such notable composers as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Artur Kapp, Rudolf Tobias and Dmitri Shostakovich, who taught at the conservatory during the 1960s, bringing it additional fame. The renowned Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also taught at the conservatory from 1871 to 1905. Among his students were Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Glazounov, Anatoly Liadov and others. The former St. Petersburg apartment of Rimsky-Korsakov has been faithfully preserved as the composer's only museum. Scarlet Sails celebration on the Neva River Dmitri Shostakovich, who was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, dedicated his Seventh Symphony to the city, calling it the "Leningrad Symphony". He wrote the symphony while based in the city during the siege of Leningrad. It was premiered in Samara in March 1942; a few months later, it received its first performance in the besieged Leningrad at the Bolshoy Philharmonic Hall under the baton of conductor Karl Eliasberg. It was heard over the radio and was said to have lifted the spirits of the surviving population.[124] In 1992, the 7th Symphony was performed by the 14 surviving orchestral players of the Leningrad premiere in the same hall as half a century before.[125] The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra remained one of the best known symphony orchestras in the world under the leadership of conductors Yevgeny Mravinsky and Yuri Temirkanov. Mravinsky's term as artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic—a term that is possibly the longest of any conductor with any orchestra in modern times—led the orchestra from a little-known provincial ensemble to one of the world's most highly regarded orchestras, especially for the performance of Russian music. The Imperial Choral Capella was founded and modelled after the royal courts of other European capitals. The Alexandrinsky Theatre Saint Petersburg has been home to the newest movements in popular music in the country. The early Soviet jazz bands founded here included Leopold Teplitsky's First Concert Jazz Band (1927,) Leonid Utyosov 's TheaJazz (1928, under the patronage of composer Isaak Dunayevsky) and Georgy Landsberg's Jazz Cappella (1929). The first jazz appreciation society in the Soviet Union was founded here in 1958 as J58, and later named jazz club Kvadrat. In 1956 the popular ensemble Druzhba was founded by Aleksandr Bronevitsky and Edita Piekha to become the first popular band in the USSR during the 1950s. In the 1960s student rock-groups Argonavty, Kochevniki and others pioneered a series of unofficial and underground rock concerts and festivals. In 1972 Boris Grebenshchikov founded the band Aquarium, which later grew to huge popularity. Since then "Peter's rock" music style was formed. In the 1970s many bands came out from the "underground" scene and eventually founded the Leningrad Rock Club, which provided a stage to bands such as DDT, Kino, Alisa, Zemlyane, Zoopark, Piknik, and Secret. The first Russian-style happening show Pop Mekhanika, mixing over 300 people and animals on stage, was directed by the multi-talented Sergey Kuryokhin in the 1980s. The Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) is named after him. In 2004 the Kuryokhin Center was founded, where the SKIF and the Electro-Mechanica and Ethnomechanica festivals take place. SKIF focuses on experimental pop music and avant-garde music, 