Russian Sankt-Peterburg formerly (191424) Petrograd or (192491) Leningrad
City (pop., 2001 est.: metro. area, 4,627,800) and port, northwestern Russia.
Located on the delta of the Neva River where it enters the Gulf of Finland, it is Russia's second largest city after Moscow . Founded by Peter I (the Great) in 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire from 1712 to 1917. It was the scene of the Decembrist revolt in 1825 and the Bloody Sunday attack on workers in the Russian Revolution of 1905 . The original centre of the Bolshevik revolution (see Russian Revolution of 1917 ), it lost its capital status to Moscow in 1918. In World War II it underwent a seige by German forces (September 1941January 1944), during which as many as one million people died (see Siege of Leningrad ). From 1990 a reformist city council and mayor helped swing the country from the control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . St. Petersburg is a cultural, educational, and industrial centre and Russia's largest seaport. Industries include engineering, printing, manufacturing, and shipbuilding. One of Europe's most beautiful cities, it is intersected by many canals and crossed by more than 600 bridges; it is the site of many palaces, cathedrals, museums (see Hermitage ), and historical monuments.