The population of St. Petersburg today is more than 5 million. And how many of them can call themselves native Petersburgers?
Where did the Petersburgers come from?
Initially, the population of Petda attracted up to 24 thousand working people annually, mostly peasants. However, after working on construction in difficult conditions for two or three months, they returned to their villages. Who was it to populate the new capital? In the 1710s, a number of new decrees were issued, according to which thousands of representatives of the handicraft, merchant and even noble class moved to St. Petersburg "for eternal life" from Moscow, Kiev, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and other cities. Although foreign specialists also arrived there (mainly from Germany). In the period from 1869 to 1910, when city censuses were regularly carried out, the share of the Russian population in St. Petersburg was stable at 82-83%. In addition to Russians, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a significant part of the ethnic population of the northern capital was made up of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Jews, Estonians, Latvians, Finns, and Germans. For example, the 1897 census counted as many as 60 ethnic groups here.
Destruction of "Europe in miniature"
Meanwhile, an expert on ethnodemography and genealogy I. V. Sakharov argues that "the indigenous population of the city as a whole, hereditary Petersburgers, no matter what ethnic groups or religious communities they belonged to, were inherent in a special St. Petersburg spirit, a peculiar Petersburg mentality, a specific attitude" … Alas, the researcher believes, after the revolution, “the world of“Europe in miniature”that had developed here was mercilessly destroyed, the common European spirit was broken, and only the outer architectural shell began to remind of them, and the few native Petersburgers who survived the revolution, mass repressions and blockade - the surviving carriers of good old cultural traditions ".
In the twentieth century, there were three largest declines in the population of Petrograd - Leningrad - St. Petersburg. So, during the years of the Civil War, from 1917 to 1920, the number of inhabitants of the city fell from 2.5 million to 720 thousand people. During the period of the Leningrad blockade - from 3.4 million to 560 thousand. And finally, the population of St. Petersburg declined significantly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, although not on such a scale: from 5 million in 1990 to 4.8 million in 1996. Someone emigrated abroad, someone left to look for a better life in other regions of the country. Each time, the population was restored at the expense of migrants.
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According to the work of the researcher N. I. Gaidukova, by the beginning of the 90s of the last century, the composition of the population of Leningrad was as follows: 52% of the inhabitants were born in the city, 4% arrived there before the war, and 44% after the war. As for the indigenous people in the full sense of the word, that is, those whose mother and father were born in this city, at that time there were no more than 10% of them.
So, modern Petersburgers are mainly migrants or descendants of migrants. However, there is still a small percentage of those who had several generations of ancestors born and raised in St. Petersburg.
How to calculate the "native Petersburgers"?
Many believe that they have the following traits.
They are polite, respect other people's borders, in transport, for example, they will definitely move to make room.
They never use the words: "Peter" or "Petersburgers", only "St. Petersburg", "Petersburgers" or even "Leningrad" and "Leningraders".
They dress modestly, but very clean and tidy. It is not considered shameful here to wear clothes bought from second-hand. If you meet on the street a man dressed to smithereens, it is most likely a newcomer.
They prefer to buy rye bread and city salty loaves. At the same time, a native Petersburger will never say “white bread” or “loaf”, but only “roll” or “loaf of bread”.
Most native Petersburgers prefer dogs to cats. They are kept at home and fed in yards. A Petersburger may even stop communicating with a person who does not love these four-legged animals.
A native Petersburger would rather turn to a female person as "lady" or "young lady", and not "woman", "girl" or "madam".
There are practically no “tough” businessmen and oligarchs among the “real” Petersburgers. As a rule, all local representatives of this class are not indigenous to the city. Native Petersburgers are not fussy and rarely strive for a high material and social status, even if their ancestors were aristocrats.