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The new capital was build in a swamp! The Neva delta consists of many river arms . Between them are low islands built up by river sediment. In order to create a healthier environment many canals were dug, helping to drain. St Petersburg became a town at the waterfront, thus called "the Venice of the north". St Petersburg would show that Russia had became a modern, major European power. In the 18th century this was down by using overwhelming architecture. The imperial state and the families of the aristocracy was competing in order to supply the the city with innumerable palaces. Biggest of them all is the imperial palace, the Winter palace. Today it is one o the worlds biggest art museums. The October revolutionAt the time of the outbreak of the first world war, the Tsar thought that St Petersburg sounded too German. The town was renamed to Petrograd, meaning "Peter's town".
 In Soviet times,the memories from the revolution were cossetted as national sanctuaries. A lot of it are still left in place. At the Neva shore, the battlecruiser Aurora is berthed. It was from this ship the guns was fired against the Winter Palace. The siege of Leningrad
After the war, the town got the Lenin order, and the emblem still adorns the city hall building. At the Moscow station square the one remaining communist propaganda sign is visible on a building roof. The text reads "Leningrad - the hero town". St Petersburg todayAfter the fall of Soviet union, it was time to rename the town once again. The name St Petersburg was retaken. But outside the city border was decided to keep the old name. Thus St Petersburg town is surrounded by the county (oblast) of Leningrad. St Petersburg of today is the biggest city of the Baltic Sea and one of the great European culture cities. If you like history, art and music, this is an obvious place to go. St Petersburg (and Moscow) has better living standard than the rest o Russia. but the huge social gaps are evident. On the parade avenues you find prices that could deter even a tourist prepared to spend money. In the suburbs people are surviving on nearly nothing. Big resources had been spent on overhauls of the old palaces of the nobility. Classic St Petersburg is shimmering like never before ApproachingThe land is low, and through history, it has experienced submersions. To protect the city against the regular submersions, a huge wall was constructed from Island Kotlin (Kronstadt) to the northern shore of the mainland. Excluding the fareway south of Kotlin, the innermost part of Gulf of Finland is now kept behind the walls. One problem was solved, but new came instead. The Russians did not only kept out the sea, they also kept in the all the dirt from the city drain. It's not only the sea water you have to look up for. The freshwater in town has a strange bacteria flora, definitely not healthy for most foreigners. A voyage to the yacht clubs inside St Petersburg is not done because of the water, but to get close to the fantastic city. The innermost part of the Gulf is very shallow and you can only sail in the fairways. From Kronstadt it is a day's sailing into the city. Morskoy Vokzal You have to call the ferry terminal "Morskoy Vaksal" for clearence. The Morskoy Voksal terminal is situated on SW side of the Vasilevskey isl. Look aware of the huge sandbanks in the Neva delta, especially SW and W of Vasilevskey island. Yacht clubs
There are several yacht clubs in St Petersburg. To get a visa to St Petersburg, you need a letter of invitation from one of them. We recommend the River Yacht Club. 
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Leningrad faced a new and dramatic destiny.During the WWII (in Russia called "the great patriotic war"), the city was besieged by Finnish and German forces. Tho sole contact with the outer world went on the winter ice of lake Ladoga. Much of the population starved to death, but the city never gave up. The factories continued making defence materials, and the people manned the desperate defence. The fight for the survival of Leningrad went to history as one of the most epic feats of all times.
