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St Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad

Peter the Great’s city has had three names in one century. A German-sounding name was Russified to Petrograd at the start of the First World War; it became Leningrad when Lenin died in 1924; and in 1991, as the Soviet Union came apart, its people voted to call it St Petersburg again.

Written from cited sourcesLast checked 28 September 2026Suggest a correction

  1. St Petersburg1703–1914
  2. Petrograd1914–1924
  3. Leningrad1924–1991
  4. St Petersburg1991–

Peter’s city

Peter I founded St Petersburg in May 1703, after capturing a Swedish fortress on the lower Neva River. It was the capital of the Russian Empire for two centuries, from 1712 to 1918.[1]

Petrograd and Leningrad

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a wave of patriotic feeling, and the Germanic form of the city’s name was changed to a Russian one: Petrograd.[2] It was under that name that the city led the revolution of 1917; Lenin returned to Petrograd that April.[2]

In 1924, after Lenin’s death, the city was renamed Leningrad, and it kept the name through the long siege of the Second World War.[3]

Voting the name back

In 1990 reformers won a majority on the city council, and in a referendum in June 1991, as the city moved away from its Communist past, voters chose to restore the name St Petersburg.[3] About 54% of those voting on 12 June backed it.[4]

On 6 September 1991, a few months before the Soviet Union ended, the presidium of the Russian parliament unanimously issued a decree restoring the name Peter the Great had given the city, moving the change a step closer to becoming formal.[4]

“The vote was unanimous, though there was not a full gathering of the presidium”[4]

Sergey Orbukhov, press office of the Russian presidium, 6 September 1991

Timeline

  1. 170327 May 1703

    Founded

    Peter the Great founds St Petersburg on the Neva (16 May, Old Style).[1]

  2. 1914

    Petrograd

    The German-sounding name is Russified at the start of the war.[2]

  3. 1924

    Leningrad

    The city is renamed after Lenin’s death.[3]

  4. 199112 June 1991

    Referendum

    Voters choose to restore the name St Petersburg.[4][3]

  5. 19916 September 1991

    St Petersburg again

    Russia’s parliamentary presidium decrees the old name restored.[4]

More name changes

Sources

  1. [1]
    St. Petersburg · Encyclopaedia Britannica
  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    St. Petersburg: The Soviet period · Encyclopaedia Britannica
  4. [4]
    Leningrad renaming moves closer · UPI · 6 September 1991

Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.

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