The history of St. Petersburg is unique and unrepeatable, it was from here that Peter's innovations spread throughout Russia, and it was here that the fire of three revolutions flared up. It was the city on the Neva that was able to compete with Mother Moscow, and even temporarily deprive her of the status of the Russian capital. An interesting fact - this famous Russian city has never seen the invaders, since the inhabitants have always rebuffed the enemy.
City of Petra
Historians calmly and confidently call the date of the formation of the city - May 16 (according to the new style, May 27), 1703, and the name of its founder Peter I. In 1712, beautiful St. Petersburg received capital status and parted with it only in 1918. It is clear that before Peter I there were human settlements, representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples lived here, after them in the VIII-IX centuries. Eastern Slavs appeared. This time was characterized by the development of crafts, trade, constant wars with the Swedes.
After another victory over the neighbors, the territories were finally annexed to the Russian Empire, and at the mouth of the Neva there was a city named after the founder - St. Petersburg. The first complex of buildings laid by the tsar was the Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island. In subsequent years, there was an active construction of residential and office buildings, industrial enterprises, the first of which was the Admiralty shipyard.
By 1725, Smolny, the palaces of Peterhof, the Liteiny Dvor, factories for the production of bricks, gunpowder, trellises, and leather appeared in St. Petersburg. Not only the practical part is developing, in the same year the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was born.
After Peter I
It is impossible to briefly retell the history of St. Petersburg, since it is difficult to single out which events are the main ones. At the end of the 18th century, the city surpassed Moscow in terms of the number of inhabitants; it was also ahead of it both in beauty and in the thoughtfulness of urban development. An important problem faced by the townspeople is the annual floods, the largest in history happened in 1824.
Throughout the 19th century, St. Petersburg played a special role in the life of the Russian state and society. The rapid development of industry and shipping continued, factories and plants appeared, in 1836 the construction of a railway began.
City of revolutions
All the bright and tragic world-class political events that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, one way or another, were associated with St. Petersburg. Many townspeople took part in the hostilities of the First World War, in the February and October revolutions.
In 1918, the Lenin government moved to Moscow, in connection with which St. Petersburg lost the status of the capital, but this did not diminish the role of the city and its inhabitants in politics, economy, culture of Russia and the world.
