Understand

The full story

Founded by Peter the Great the former home of the Czars and the center of Russian culture Saint Petersburg was known as The Venice of the North in its heyday Rechristened Petrograd during the first World War the city was renamed Leningrad in 1924 in honor of the communist revolutionary V I Lenin Bombed blockaded and starved during World War II the city took a back seat to Moscow during the Soviet era Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the city has been rapidly making up for lost time and is by far the most cosmopolitan of Russia's cities Renamed once more in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union most Russians know it as Piter Питер a familiar diminutive of Saint Petersburg.