History of Saint Petersburg
Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703. It became capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years (1712–1728, 1732–1918). St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Saint Petersburg
In the 1830s Alexander Pushkin translated the "foreign" city name of "Saint Petersburg" to the more Russian "Petrograd" in one of his poems. However, it was only on , after the war with Germany had begun, that tsar Nicholas II renamed the capital to Petrograd. Since the prefix 'Saint' was omitted, this act also changed the eponym and the "patron" of the city, from Apostle Peter to Peter the Great, its founder.
After the October Revolution the name "Red Petrograd" ("Красный Петроград") was often used in newspapers and other prints until the city was renamed "Leningrad" in January 1924.