ABSTRACT
St. Petersburg, traditionally considered the most western of Russian cities, was founded by Peter the Great in 1703. Built at enormous cost in the marshes of the Finnish Gulf with its port linking it to Europe and its palaces and streets designed by western architects, the new imperial capital was intended to wrench Russia westward, away from the conservatism of old Russia that emanated from Moscow. Although lacking a natural resource base, the city became the country’s leading industrial center and, by virtue of being the capital, the center of culture and science. In 1917 its citizens led the way, first in bringing down the tsar, and then in bringing the Bolsheviks to power. With the move of the capital to Moscow in 1918, St. Petersburg’s preeminence was ended. Nevertheless, throughout the Soviet period and despite the devastating impact of the siege of Leningrad in World War II, the city retained its importance as Russia’s “northern capital,” an industrial and cultural magnet that drew people and resources from all over the Union. Because of its potential as a political rival, Leningrad’s relationship with the central authorities has always been uneasy. The Brezhnev period witnessed the expansion of its huge industrial plants and network of research institutes, ever more closely tied to the defense sector (which employed, depending on definition, one-half to two-thirds of the labor force), but a shrinking of the central allocation of investment for the municipal economy. Leningrad politicians were not appointed to leading central posts, and as a result there was little turnover of the party and soviet elite. Meanwhile the cultural and educational institutions continued to replenish the ranks of the city’s professional intelligentsia.
