In 1703, on the land reclaimed from the Swedes, Tsar Peter I tore out two pieces of turf and folded them with a cross, thereby initiating the glorious history of the northern capital.
St. Peter Burch and co
The built city with access to northern waters was supposed to become, according to Peter's plans, a strong military fort post of the Russian state. Did Peter need a peaceful city? Needed, but only around the military fortress - the place for the Peter and Paul Fortress, the future emperor and marked with a cross from improvised natural resources. Peter cherished the dream of a military fortress for a long time, he saw the fortress in Azov, but the military campaign ended unsuccessfully. Hare Island became Peter's lucky ticket to an equally happy future. The military fortress was founded, a loud name was given to it, city buildings were erected around it, people settled - it was necessary to think about the name of the city under construction. However, there was no act with a special name for the city. Peter's foreign comrades-in-arms, Russian subjects - polyglots called the city of St. Peter each in their own way,improvising with all the parts of the long title: Sant, Saint, San; Peter, Peter; burg, burkh, burk. Peter himself in his letters diligently deduced both St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg, and St. Petersburg. The search for euphony continued until 1724, and only after the death of the emperor in 1725, the city received its final name: St. Petersburg.
Petropolis
The legend that Peter dreamed of naming a new city after himself is just a legend. Peter dreamed of dedicating the city to his patron the Apostle Peter. Peter played with the name of the Apostle until his death, the initial idea to name the city on the Neva - Petropolis, did not gain popularity. Petropolis (Petropolis, Petropolis) - a stone city, became St. Petersburg, leaving only an engraving depicting the city with the signature "Petropolis" as a reminder of its short existence. Why did not the name with Greco-Italic motives survive for the glorious city? Peter worked, Peter called, but he could not replay the history of Ancient Greece. Polis, a city praised by Aristotle and Socrates, existed for people to live well. Did Peter strive to improve the life of the urban population? Sure,but the military capabilities of the new capital and its population were a priority, and the western cities stood nearby, Peter looked towards the native Dutch "Burgs".
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Petrograd
The established name "St. Petersburg" successfully existed outside the city until 1914. In the summer of 1914, the Russian Empire entered the First World War. Nobody knew that the war would drag on for more than three years. Emperor Nicholas II, who entered the war as the patron saint of fraternal Slavic peoples, for the first time felt the long-awaited unity with the people - everyone was inspired. The Russian Empire was everywhere seized by an anti-German mood - the townspeople burned down German shops and stores, rioted at the German embassy, and the emperor himself, not without sin, (the wife of Nicholas II Alexandra Feodorovna, a former German princess) abandoned St. Petersburg in favor of Petrograd. The innovation was greeted by the public negatively, the politician of Nicholas II did not find support in government circles: “The Tsar is doing well. Many attack him for Petrograd. Rukhlov supposedly said: what is it you, your majesty, - to correct Peter the Great! - And do you know how the Emperor answered? He did not get angry, but laughed it off: “Well! Tsar Peter demanded from his generals reports on victories, and I would be glad to hear of victories. The Russian sound is dearer to the heart …”. The history of the new Russian city of Petrograd was short, but eventful; the city with the new name stood on the Neva until 1924.the city with a new name stood on the Neva until 1924.the city with a new name stood on the Neva until 1924.
Lenin city
In January 1924, at the Second Congress of Soviets, in memory of the untimely departed Vladimir Lenin, Petrograd was named Leningrad. The city, which existed for two centuries under the auspices of the name of the first emperor Peter the Great, was named based on the pseudonym of Vladimir Ulyanov. Leningrad disappeared in the nineties of the XX century.
Saint Petersburg blockade
One of the heroic deeds of the inhabitants of the northern capital with the revolutionary name "Leningrad" was the resistance to the fascist blockade. Leningrad defended not only itself, but also its name. The Germans did not intend to rename the city to St. Petersburg out of love for Russian history, of course. Dreams of a new Reich on the territory of the USSR obliged to give Russian cities German names. The plans of the Nazis were not a secret for their contemporaries - the Germans placed road signs "Petersburg" and "St. Petersburg" on the Volkhov and Leningrad directions.
Solzhenitsyn's grad
On April 28, 1991, Alexander Solzhenitsyn made an appeal "To the residents of the city on the Neva", Solzhenitsyn did not want to return the name of St. Petersburg to the city, which he wrote about. Solzhenitsyn did not like the foreign preferences of the imperial power - so it was with St. Petersburg, and also affected Yekaterinburg. Agreeing with the undertakings of Emperor Nicholas II, Solzhenitsyn proposed to his contemporaries to name the city - Svyato-Petrograd. This name combined the primordial Russian roots and a tribute to the Apostle Paul. Solzhenitsyn had an idea to name the city and Nevograd. This option became a compromise between Petrograd and St. Petersburg. As a result of the referendum, the city turned to the original source - in 1991 St. Petersburg was restored, and Solzhenitsyn's initiatives, who dedicated many pages to the city on the Neva, did not receive support. This is how Petersburgers live in St. Petersburg.
Nien
Many people thought about the name of the northern capital. The heirs of the peoples who lived on the territory of the city built by Peter, and to our time, call Petersburg nothing but Nyen, Nevograd, Nevaborg. The Ingermanland city of Nyen, according to the separatists, began from the Swedish fortress of Nuenskansk, and Peter's hand did not create it. This kind of interpretation of the name is not uncommon. It is worth pondering what the Slavophils would call the northern city? Finns neighboring in significant proximity? Suggest options, the northern city has tried a lot of them, it is no stranger to it.