A Stroll Around St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, known affectionately as Piter, is the second largest city in Russia with a population of about 5.2 million people.



Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian empire for more than 200 years before the revolutionary Bolshevik party moved the central government to Moscow in 1918.



The city has undergone a number of name changes in its history. From 1914, the city was known as Petrograd before its name was changed to Leningrad in 1924. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city reverted back to its original name: St. Petersburg.



See our previous Photo Gallery:

A Year Under Russian Rule: Crimea's Annexation in Pictures