Russia changed the name of St. Petersburg three times in a century: Here’s why
Moscow maybe the capital of Russia, but it is St. Petersburg that steals the show. With over five million population, this Russian city has it all: Historical connect, modern glamour, geographical landmarks and more. Not to forget, it has 19 hours of daylight during summer, thanks to its location that’s so far north (it’s the northernmost metropolis in the world). From the famous Winter Palace to a plethora of canals and tributaries along the Neva, Fontanka and Moyka Rivers to a series of churches and cathedrals, St. Petersburg (or the Window to Europe) has always been the reason behind Russia’s fame and glory.
But did you know St. Petersburg has had different names over the course of history? Although popularly known as Sankt-Petersburg (in Russian) or simply Petersburg or even Peter in short; it has also been known as Petrograd and Leningrad in the 20th century. Here’s why a single city had more than one alias.
St. Petersburg in 1703
Peter the Great was a Russian tsar (monarch) who ruled from 1682 to 1725 until his demise. He was the pioneer of westernising Russia and in 1703 chanced upon the port city of St. Petersburg on the western side of Russia, along a marshy floodplain. His goal was simple, to make the new city located on the Baltic Sea (suitable for trade and commerce) mirror the legendary western cities of Europe. In fact, he was greatly influenced by Dutch and German culture where he spent a lot of time studying in his youth. Maybe that’s why when he needed to name the city of his finding, he chose the Dutch name Sankt-Pieter-Burch. The spelling was later standardised and simplified into Sankt-Petersburg (under German influence) and finally into the English St. or Saint Petersburg.
Petrograd during World War I
Until the years leading to the Frist World War, St. Petersburg retained its original name. However, in 1914, when the war broke out, the Russians realised that the name sounded too German for their liking. This is when they decided to give it a more Russian-sounding name, and hence came up with Petrograd. It’s a combination of two words, ‘Petro’ honouring Peter the Great and ‘Grad’ a common suffix meaning ‘city.’
Leningrad after Lenin’s demise
The name Petrograd survived for almost a decade. However, in 1917, as part of the Russian Revolution, the monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the communists or the ‘Bolsheviks’ under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In fact, in 1922, Russia became the Soviet Union (USSR) and the world met the first communist government. But following Lenin’s death in January 1924, Petrograd was renamed as Leningrad (Lenin’s City) to honour the country’s first communist leader.
Back to St. Petersburg in 1991
For nearly seven decades, Leningrad stayed on. However, in 1991, with the fall of the USSR and the communist government, the nation changed its name back to Russia while Leningrad once again became St. Petersburg. However, this name change met with a lot of criticism. While Lenin’s followers deemed it as an insult to the communist leader, others considered it a disregard of the years of socio-political turmoil under the communist rule. Regardless, the original name has survived till date.