St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. From 1914-1924, it was called Petrograd, and from 1924-1991, it was called Leningrad. The name was restored to St. Petersburg after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Founded by Tsar Peter I of Russia on May 27, 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1713–1728, 1732–1918). Saint Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, when the capital was moved to Moscow.

St. Petersburg in The Hot War
Leningrad was still regarded as a hero city by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of World War III. Leningrad was one of several cities in the sphere of influence the United States bombed with ordinary explosives on the night of February 24, 1951. Yuri Levitan of Radio Moscow claimed that the attack claimed the lives of innocent children playing in a park, even though the attack came at night.

St. Petersburg in Joe Steele
Leningrad was besieged by German forces in 1941.

St. Petersburg in Southern Victory
Petrograd, called St. Petersburg until 1914, was the capital of Russia from 1713 to 1728, and from 1732 to 1944, when it was destroyed during the Second Great War by the first German superbomb, becoming the first city in the world to fall victim to the bomb. After the bombing, the capital was relocated to Moscow.