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Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg (Санкт-Петербу́рг
Sankt-Peterburg; [1]) is Russia's second largest city, with a
population of 4.7 million perched at the eastern tip of of the
Baltic Sea and the Neva River. The city was formerly known as
Petrograd (Петроград), and later Leningrad (Ленинград).
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. Renamed Petrograd in 1914, the city was
renamed again as Leningrad in 1924 after Lenin's death. Bombed,
besieged and starved during World War II, during the Communist era
the city took a back seat to capital Moscow.
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. Now formally known by its original name again, most
Russians call it what they always have, the friendly diminutive
Piter (Питер).
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