A St Petersburg Timeline Trivia Quiz

Peter the Great became monarch of the Tsardom of Russia from 1689 (ruling jointly with his half-brother Ivan until 1696), and when he established the Russian Empire in 1721, he became its first emperor. He is generally considered to be the one most responsible for transforming Russia into a modern European nation, and managed to expand its territory significantly. On 27 May 1703 he started to rebuild a captured Swedish fortress at the mouth of the Neva River, with the Peter and Paul Fortress as its first citadel.

He first named it Sankt-Pieter-Burch, using Dutch nomenclature; this then became Germanised to Sankt-Peterburg.

It took some time to build the city, so although Peter referred to it as his capital from the start, it was not until 1712 that there were sufficient buildings in place to make it feasible to move the national capital from Moscow to St Petersburg.

Actually, there have been a number of buildings with this designation. The first royal residence in St Petersburg was a log cabin, used from 1704 to 1711. Then the same site was used for a larger house, now known as the First Winter Palace; Peter decided something more impressive was required, and the Second Winter Palace was constructed in 1721. It was in that building that Peter I died in 1725.

In 1727 the Third Winter Palace was constructed, an enlargement of the second, which became a mere pavilion of the new building. In 1728 the capital was moved back to Moscow, before Empress Anna Ivanovna returned the capital to St Petersburg, and built yet another Winter Palace. It is this grand structure that was declared the Imperial Residence in 1732, and is the one usually meant when people talk about the Winter Palace. Of course, subsequent monarchs made many additions and extensions. It appears again in significant events of the city.

Empress Catherine the Great established the museum to house a collection of paintings she purchased in 1764. That extension to the Winter Palace is now known as the Small Hermitage. It was completely private until 1852, when it was first opened to the public (but with only a small part of the collection available for viewing).

As the state art treasures have increased, the museum has expanded. It now occupies a complex of six historic buildings, of which five are open to the public: the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre.

Other buildings, both in the city and elsewhere, are used for storage. In the 21st century, a number of international branches were established.

For well over a century, St Petersburg thrived, with lots of activity but nothing much dramatic to report, as the Russian Empire went on its way. That all started to change on 22 January 1905, when soldiers fired on unarmed demonstrators trying to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II in the Winter Palace. The petition was seeking better working conditions for the urban workers, and was a traditional means of seeking assistance from the tsar.

This massacre, because of the outrage it caused, is considered to be one of the pivotal events in the Revolution of 1905, which led to constitutional reform and the establishment of the State Duma. It is also often seen as a critical moment in the developments that ultimately led to the Revolution of 1917, which was the end of the Russian monarchy.

If you recall the earlier information about the city's name, it was the Germanic form of Sankt-Peterburg that Peter the Great settled on. With the outbreak of World War I, it no longer seemed appropriate to use that name, so it was renamed Petrograd, meaning Peter's City. Official name changes are all well and good, but the city's nickname as Russia's Venice, a reference to the many waterways in the city, hasn't changed since early days.

It is also sometimes called the Window to the West, both because of its location and because of the longtime intent to build the city with a European style of architecture.

Early in 1917, the tsar was forced to abdicate, ending the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire. This series of events is referred to as the February Revolution or the March Revolution, depending on whether you use the Old Style dates or those of the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted in 1981. On 10 October (OS) the Petrograd Soviet voted to undertake a military uprising. Understandably, the government responded by attempting to close things down.

The arrival of a fleet of sailors who supported the Bolsheviks led to them managing to occupy a number of government buildings, culminating in the storming of the Winter Palace, and the start of the Russian Civil War, which would last until 1923. And the city got a new nickname: City of Three Revolutions (1905, February 1917, October 1917).

The death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924 meant the start of a significant amount of renaming in his honour. On 26 January, a few days after his death, Petrograd became officially known as Leningrad. There are over 200 sites in the city that have special association with Lenin, so visitors can see plaques designating points of interest, museums, and streets named after him. Lenin has long been viewed by his supporters as a fighter for the rights of the working class, and the establishment of socialism.

His critics focus more on the means by which he sought to achieve this, which included establishing a totalitarian dictatorship.

The invasion of Russia in 1941 led to the siege of Leningrad, which lasted from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944, well over two years. The blockade meant no supplies could get to the city (except for what could be ferried across Lake Ladoga and carried through a thin corridor connecting it to the city that was established in 1943), and over a million people died. The capture of Leningrad was one of the main German focuses, both because of its symbolic importance as the seat of the Russian Revolution and because of its strategic importance as the seat of the Baltic Fleet of the Soviet Union. The plan was to destroy the city, and give the territory to the Finns, who provided military support for the siege.

The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square (Saint Petersburg) was officially opened on 9 May 1975 in Victory Square. It is orientated to indicate the point where the Soviet forces finally broke through to end the blockade.

12 June 1991 saw the first Russian presidential elections following the end of the USSR. City leaders of Leningrad chose the same day both to hold a mayoral election and to have a referendum on the city's name. As a result, the city name was changed on 6 September 1991 to its original name, Sankt-Peterburg (Anglicised to St Petersburg). It is still the City of White Nights - a nickname that refers to the fact that for about a month each year it is never completely dark, due to the city's northerly location (nearly 60 degrees N).