Как насчет Санкт-Петербурга? =) Saint Petersburg (population nearly 5 million) , formerly Leningrad, is Russia's second largest city. Only Moscow, the capital, has more people. St. Petersburg is a major Russian port and one of the world's leading industrial and cultural centres. The city lies in north-western Russia, at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea.St. Petersburg was the first Russian city built in imitation of western European cities. Its magnificent palaces, handsome public buildings, and wide public squares resemble those of such cities as London, Paris, and Vienna. In the early 1800 s, a commission that included noted Italian architect Carlo Rossi established a design for the centre of the city that includes a series of squares.The city has had three names. Czar Peter I (the Great) founded it in 1703 as St. Petersburg. After Russia went to war against Germany in 1914, at the start of World War I, the name was changed to Petrograd. The country's officials chose this name, which means Peter's City in Russian, to get rid of the German ending burg.In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed under the leadership of Russia. In 1924, the Soviet Unions Communist government renamed the city in honour of V. I. Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Communist Party. In 1991 — as Communist influence in the Soviet Union declined — the people of the city voted in a nonbinding referendum to restore the name St. Petersburg. In September 1991, the Soviet government officially approved the name change. In December 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and Russia became an independent nation.The city lies on a marshy lowland where the Neva River empties into the Gulf of Finland, at about 60° north latitude. Because of its far northern location, St. Petersburg has very short periods of daylight in winter. For about three weeks in June, it has "white nights" during which the sky is never completely dark.The centre of St. Petersburg is on the southern bank of the Neva. This area includes the main business district and most of St. Petersburg's famous buildings. Many fine examples of baroque and neo-classical architecture have been preserved in the area, and few modern structures have been built there. The city has about 900 small rivers and canals and about 400 bridges.Several luxurious palaces built in the 1700 s still stand in three suburbs of St. Petersburg—Pavlovsk, Petrodvorets, and Pushkin. These palaces, famed for their architectural excellence, were summer homes of the czars. Today, they are popular resorts and tourist attractions.
