Although the Russian settlement of Saint Petersburg began hundreds of years earlier, May 16, 1703 is considered the official founding date of the city. Peter the Great, future Tsar and Emperor of all Russia, captured the city during the second Northern War, and made it the capital of Russia in 1712. By 1726, after a harbor was constructed, Saint Petersburg managed 90 percent of Russia's foreign trade. During the next decades, industry grew rapidly, as did the population, which reached over 220,000 by the century's end.
The city flourished under the wealthy court's patronage, and literature, science, music and ballet thrived as educational and cultural institutions were created. However, the number of working class factory workers exploded during the industrial revolution of the 19th century, and under the ostentatious Tsarist reign, the proletariat began to organize in the overcrowded city.
The first major Russian revolution of the 20th century took place in 1905 on what became known as Bloody Sunday. One hundred fifty thousand striking workers marched on the Winter Palace, and when military troops fired on the peaceful protesters, over a hundred people were killed, with hundreds more wounded. Although the revolution was ultimately suppressed, the event set the stage for the upcoming Bolshevik Revolution.
In 1917, the city's name was changed to Petrograd as a nationalist reaction to World War I, but economic and social unrest continued. After riots and demonstrations in the streets, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of a provisional government. However, the Bolshevik party did not support the new government, and in October, Soviet leader Nikolai Lenin convinced the party to make their move. On October 25th, the Bolsheviks staged a coup, storming the Winter Palace and officially overturning the provisional government. Under Lenin's rule, a nearly three-year civil war followed, further decimating the economy. The Bolsheviks were able to fend off opposition from within and without Russia, and recovery began soon after the war ended.
Renamed Leningrad following Lenin 's death in 1924, the city began its recovery under the iron hand of Joseph Stalin, but again was struck by difficulties when the Germans invaded in 1941. Although those who remained in the city after evacuation put up a valiant resistance, air strikes, freezing temperatures, starvation and scurvy killed more than half a million residents. When the Germans were finally driven out in 1944, the retreating troops destroyed historic monuments and palaces in their wake.
By the 1980s, the Soviet government had begun to foster a period of openness, and a reformation of the political process (including the introduction of other parties) gave the Communists a minority share in the council of Leningrad. The city voted to change its name back to Saint Petersburg shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since the Cold War ended, Saint Petersburg has been the host of the Good Will Games, and in 2003 it celebrated its 300th anniversary with a series of cultural events and summits.
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