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99-521: Choosing a suitable location for the upcoming bridge has been a challenging endeavor. Initially, the intention was for the railroad to go through Tomsk , resulting in the bridge being built about 55 km to the west of the town where the Ob river frequently flooded during the springtime due to melting snow. It was considered unsuitable for building, requiring the search for a different location. The task of finding an alternative fell upon Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky ,

198-591: A European great power . It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia , and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1712 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow. The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. It was the site of the siege of Leningrad during

297-532: A fortress at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, which was later called Ingermanland . The small town of Nyen grew up around the fort. Before the 17th century, this area was inhabited by Finnic Izhorians and Votians . The Ingrian Finns moved to the region from the provinces of Karelia and Savonia during the Swedish rule. There was also some Estonian , Karelian , Russian and German population in

396-400: A naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк ( Sanktpetersburk ), emulating German Sankt Petersburg , and Сантпитербурх ( Santpiterburkh ), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh , as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург. A former spelling of

495-496: A new general plan was outlined, whereby the city should expand to the south. Constructivism was rejected in favour of a more pompous Stalinist architecture . Moving the city centre further from the border with Finland, Stalin adopted a plan to build a new city hall with a huge adjacent square at the southern end of Moskovsky Prospekt , designated as the new main street of Leningrad. After the Winter (Soviet-Finnish) war in 1939–1940,

594-591: A new plan in 1737. The city was divided into five boroughs, and the city centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka . It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty building and are now known as Nevsky Prospect (which is considered the main street of the city), Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue . Baroque architecture became dominant in

693-413: A new truss superstructure on the piers of the existing bridge. This separated it from the original rail track. This impressive engineering accomplishment required assembling an astonishing 15.7 thousand steelwork elements, which together weighed a massive 4.5 thousand tons. The ambitious reconstruction project had begun ten years earlier in 1974. To make the construction process easier, a significant approach

792-569: A rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed but is evident in the layout of the streets. In 1716, Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. The style of Petrine Baroque , developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace , Kunstkamera , Peter and Paul Cathedral , Twelve Collegia , became prominent in

891-577: A renowned civil engineer and writer. Following extensive investigation, Garin-Mikhailovsky proposed a narrow section with rocky formations approximately 200 km southwest of Tomsk, now recognized as the city of Novosibirsk, just beyond the north end of the Salair Ridge . In late August of 1891, a plenary meeting was held in the village of Big Krivoschekovo, with the attendance of three high-ranking state officials: Konstantin Mikhailovsky , Head of

990-656: Is Ivan Klyayn , a member of The United Russia party. Of the 33 members, 16 are elected from the eight double mandate districts while 17 are chosen from party lists . In the October 2005 local elections, United Russia was expected to cruise to a solid victory; however, the Pensioners Party put up a strong showing. The final count was (proportional representation): In 2020, supporters of Alexei Navalny won at least 16 seats in Tomsk's 37-seat city council while

1089-592: Is a commercial and passenger port on the Tom River . Tomsk has many local cultural institutions including several drama theaters, as well as a children's theater and a puppet theater. Major concert venues in the city include the Conservatory Concert hall and the Tomsk Palace of Sport. The city also boasts cultural centers dedicated to German , Polish and Tatar languages and culture. One of

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1188-468: Is between −21 °C (−6 °F) and −13 °C (9 °F). The average temperature in July is +18.8 °C (65.8 °F). The total annual rainfall is 587 millimeters (23.1 in). In 2006, Tomsk experienced what might have been its first recorded winds of hurricane force, which toppled trees and damaged houses. Tomsk is governed by a mayor and a 33-member Duma . The current mayor, appointed in 2013,

1287-498: Is combined with the city's Russian heritage. Another nickname of Saint Petersburg is "The City of the White Nights" because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to the polar region and ensures that in summer the night skies of the city do not get completely dark for a month. The city is also often called the "Northern Palmyra ", due to its extravagant architecture. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans ,

1386-487: Is divided into four city districts: Kirovsky, Leninsky, Oktyabrsky, and Sovetsky. Tomsk has a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ) barely escaping a subarctic classification. The annual average temperature is +1.2 °C (34.2 °F). Winters are severe and lengthy, and the lowest recorded temperature was −55 °C (−67 °F) in January 1931. However, the average temperature in January

1485-618: Is one of the oldest cities in Siberia . It has six universities, with over 100,000 students, including Tomsk State University , the oldest university in Siberia. Tomsk originated with a decree by Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604 after Toian  [ ru ] , the Tatar duke of Eushta  [ ru ] , asked for the Tsar's protection against Kyrgyz . The Tsar sent 200 Cossacks under

1584-684: Is situated on the River Neva , at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea . The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area . Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As

1683-448: Is still named Leningrad . Having passed the role of capital to Petersburg, Moscow never relinquished the title of "capital", being called pervoprestolnaya ('first throned') for 200 years. An equivalent name for Petersburg, the "Northern Capital", has re-entered usage today since several federal institutions were recently moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Solemn descriptive names like "the city of three revolutions" and "the cradle of

1782-514: Is well known for its intricate "gingerbread" decoration of traditional wooden houses in the area. However, the number of old homes in this style is decreasing due to redevelopment or some of them catching fire, as the structures have little to no fire protection. Trud (Labor) Stadium , in central Tomsk was the base for matches with the FC Tom Tomsk , the city's professional football club, before dissolving in 2022. The team's 2004 promotion to

1881-652: Is Αγία Πετρούπολη, Agia Petroupoli ). Saint Petersburg has been traditionally called the "Window to Europe" and the "Window to the West" by the Russians. The city is the northernmost metropolis with more than 1 million people in the world, and is also often described as the " Venice of the North" or the "Russian Venice" due to its many water corridors, as the city is built on swamp and water. Furthermore, it has strongly Western European-inspired architecture and culture, which

1980-705: The Gold Star sign was installed in April 1985. In October 1946 some territories along the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland , which had been annexed into the USSR from Finland in 1940 under the peace treaty following the Winter War , were transferred from Leningrad Oblast to Leningrad and divided into Sestroretsky District and Kurortny District . These included the town of Terijoki (renamed Zelenogorsk in 1948). Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over

2079-618: The Great Northern War , Peter the Great captured Nyenskans and soon replaced the fortress. On 27 May [ O.S. 16 May] 1703, closer to the estuary (5 km (3 mi) inland from the gulf ), on Zayachy (Hare) Island , he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress , which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia; in some years several Swedish prisoners of war were also involved under

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2178-530: The Leningrad Affair (1949–1952), a notable event in the postwar political struggle in the USSR . It was a product of rivalry between Stalin's potential successors where one side was represented by the leaders of the city Communist Party organization – the second most significant one in the country after Moscow. The entire elite leadership of Leningrad was destroyed, including the former mayor Kuznetsov ,

2277-796: The Leningrad Military District of the Russian Armed Forces . The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage , one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center , the tallest skyscraper in Europe , and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020 . The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when

2376-705: The Narva Triumphal Arch . In 1825, the suppressed Decembrist revolt against Nicholas I took place on the Senate Square in the city, a day after Nicholas assumed the throne. By the 1840s, neoclassical architecture had given way to various romanticist styles, which dominated until the 1890s, represented by such architects as Andrei Stackenschneider ( Mariinsky Palace , Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace , Nicholas Palace , New Michael Palace ) and Konstantin Thon ( Moskovsky railway station ). With

2475-577: The October Revolution of 1917, the city became a notable center of the White movement , led by Anatoly Pepelyayev and Maria Bochkareva , among others. After the victory of the Red Army in the 1920s, Soviet authorities incorporated Tomsk into the West Siberian Krai and later into Novosibirsk Oblast . Like many Siberian cities, Tomsk became the new home for many factories relocated out of

2574-556: The October Revolution , which led to the end of the social-democratic provisional government , the transfer of all political power to the Soviets , and the rise of the Communist Party . After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions", referring to the three major developments in the political history of Russia of the early 20th century. In September and October 1917, German troops invaded

2673-530: The October revolution " used in the Soviet era are reminders of the pivotal events in national history that occurred here. Petropolis is a translation of a city name to Greek, and is also a kind of descriptive name: Πέτρ- is a Greek root for 'stone', so the "city from stone" emphasizes the material that had been forcibly made obligatory for construction from the first years of the city (a modern Greek translation

2772-553: The Russian Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul . The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress , while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue

2871-653: The Russian Premier League gave local fans a chance to see some of the nation's best teams play at the city's own stadium. Tomsk has many local media outlets including the TV2 (Tomsk)  [ ru ] television station, shut down by the authorities and turned into an internet TV medium, the radio stations Radio Siberia and Echo of Moscow in Tomsk along with several newspapers ( Tomskaya Nedelya , Krasnoye Znamya and Vechernii Tomsk ). In April 2006 Tomsk received international media attention as

2970-587: The Second World War , the most lethal siege in history. In June 1991, only a few months before the Belovezha Accords and the dissolution of the USSR , voters supported restoring the city's original appellation in a city-wide referendum . As Russia's cultural centre, Saint Petersburg received over 15 million tourists in 2018. It is considered an important economic, scientific, and tourism centre of Russia and Europe. In modern times,

3069-595: The Tayga — Bely Yar line ( Tomsk branch ) of the Trans-Siberian Railway . The main line of the Trans-Siberian railway, built in 1896, passes 50 km (31 mi) south of Tomsk and bypasses Tomsk. Access from Tomsk to the Trans-Siberian railway is available via the town of Tayga. A regional rail line links Tomsk with Tayga. The Tomsk Railway existed as an independent entity until 1961. At

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3168-619: The West Estonian archipelago and threatened Petrograd with bombardment and invasion. On 12 March 1918, Lenin transferred the government of Soviet Russia to Moscow, to keep it away from the state border. During the Russian Civil War , in mid-1919 Russian anti-communist forces with the help of Estonians attempted to capture the city, but Leon Trotsky mobilized the army and forced them to retreat back to Estonia . On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd

3267-466: The emancipation of the serfs undertaken by Alexander II in 1861 and an Industrial Revolution , the influx of former peasants into the capital increased greatly. Poor boroughs spontaneously developed on the outskirts of the city. Saint Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth; it became one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (in Kronstadt ),

3366-454: The "Russian type of structural support". The bridge was built entirely of open-hearth steel, a newly developed material at the time of its construction. Steelwork elements used in the bridge superstructure weighted 4423 tons and were fabricated at the famous Votkinsk ironworks in Udmurtia under the supervision of the prolific contractor General V.I. Berezin. The height above low water-mark

3465-435: The 1920s and 1930s, the poor outskirts were reconstructed into regularly planned boroughs . Constructivist architecture flourished around that time. Housing became a government-provided amenity ; many "bourgeois" apartments were so large that numerous families were assigned to what were called "communal" apartments ( kommunalkas ). By the 1930s, 68% of the population lived in such housing under very poor conditions. In 1935,

3564-600: The Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The siege lasted 872 days, or almost two and a half years, from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944. The Siege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history . It isolated the city from food supplies except those provided through the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga , which could not make it through until

3663-561: The Department of Railway Construction, Vladimir Berezin, State Counsellor who would later become the contractor, and Vikenty Ignatievich Roetsky, Commander of the Exploration Group. They carefully reviewed the hydrographic data provided by Royetski and ultimately chose a location for the bridge crossing near a cattle wade. This decision finalized the selection of the building site for the future bridge. The first railway bridge

3762-656: The German words Sankt and Burg . In March 1917, during the February Revolution Nicholas II abdicated for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years of Romanov dynastic rule . On 7 November [ O.S. 25 October] 1917, the Bolsheviks , led by Vladimir Lenin , stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as

3861-608: The Neva River, and a seaport on the Baltic. The names of Saints Peter and Paul , bestowed upon the original city's citadel and its cathedral (from 1725 – a burial vault of Russian emperors) coincidentally were the names of the first two assassinated Russian emperors, Peter III (1762, supposedly killed in a conspiracy led by his wife, Catherine the Great ) and Paul I (1801, Nikolay Alexandrovich Zubov and other conspirators who brought to power Alexander I ,

3960-665: The Soviet era, many historic architectural monuments of the previous centuries were destroyed by the new regime for ideological reasons. While that mainly concerned churches and cathedrals, some other buildings were also demolished. On 1 December 1934, Sergey Kirov , the Bolshevik leader of Leningrad, was assassinated under suspicious circumstances, which became the pretext for the Great Purge . In Leningrad, approximately 40,000 were executed during Stalin's purges. During World War II, German forces besieged Leningrad following

4059-642: The Soviet–Finnish border moved northwards. Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Square maintained the functions and the role of a city centre. In December 1931, Leningrad was administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast . At that time it included the Leningrad Suburban District, some parts of which were transferred back to Leningrad Oblast in 1936 and turned into Vsevolozhsky District , Krasnoselsky District , Pargolovsky District and Slutsky District (renamed Pavlovsky District in 1944). During

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4158-463: The Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign of Catherine the Great in the 1760s–1780s, the banks of the Neva were lined with granite embankments. However, it was not until 1850 that the first permanent bridge across the Neva, Annunciation Bridge , was allowed to open. Before that, only pontoon bridges were allowed. Obvodny Canal (dug in 1769–1833) became

4257-564: The acting mayor Pyotr Sergeevich Popkov, and all their deputies; overall 23 leaders were sentenced to the death penalty, 181 to prison or exile (rehabilitated in 1954). About 2,000 ranking officials across the USSR were expelled from the party and the Komsomol and removed from leadership positions. The Leningrad Metro underground rapid transit system , designed before the war, opened in 1955 with its first eight stations decorated with marble and bronze . However, after Stalin's death in 1953,

4356-418: The administrative center of Tomsky District , even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is, together with seven rural localities , incorporated separately as Tomsk City Under Oblast Jurisdiction —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . As a municipal division , Tomsk City Under Oblast Jurisdiction is incorporated as Tomsk Urban Okrug . Tomsk

4455-468: The area. At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great, who was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, wanted Russia to gain a seaport to trade with the rest of Europe. He needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the time, Arkhangelsk , which was on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter. On 12 May [ O.S. 1 May] 1703, during

4554-440: The author of the first nickname of Petersburg which he called Петри ( Petri ). It took some years until the known Russian spelling of this name finally settled. In 1740s Mikhail Lomonosov uses a derivative of Greek: Πετρόπολις (Петрополис, Petropolis ) in a Russified form Petropol ' (Петрополь). A combo Piterpol (Питерпол) also appears at this time. In any case, eventually the usage of prefix " Sankt- " ceased except for

4653-637: The bridge to accommodate double tracks in the future. Furthermore, one section of the former superstructure is still visible along the riverside promenade of the city, acting as an intriguing display. Tomsk Tomsk ( Russian : Томск , IPA: [tomsk] ; Siberian Tatar : Түң-тора ) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia , on the Tom River . Population: 556,478 ( 2021 Census ) ; 524,669 ( 2010 Census ) ; 487,838 ( 2002 Census ) ; 501,963 ( 1989 Soviet census ) . Founded in 1604, Tomsk

4752-455: The bridge underwent load tests to ensure its stability. To demonstrate its readiness for public use, a solemn inauguration took place on March 31, 1897, with four steam locomotives triumphantly crossing over the newly built bridge. In addition to accommodating train traffic, a pedestrian path was also established on the bridge. To ensure the safety of pedestrians, wooden sidewalks were crafted. Subsequently, pedestrians were prohibited from moving on

4851-419: The bridge, making the pedestrian path pointless. The construction process was overseen by civil engineer G.M. Budagov, who expressed deep gratitude for working with Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky on developing railway sections, bridges, and stations. Budagov fondly remembered their partnership, praising him as a resourceful, talented, and intelligent colleague who brought energy and joy to the daily lives and work of

4950-513: The builders. In the 1930s, the importance of the original bridge decreased with the construction of the double-track Komsomolsky (Kimovsky) railway bridge and the creation of a new freight train bypass. Consequently, the primary function of the original bridge changed to mainly serving passenger trains passing through the city center. In April 1984, the construction train number 429 of the West Siberian Railway successfully mounted

5049-689: The city architecture of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences , University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. His endeavors to modernize Russia had been opposed by the Russian nobility . There were several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son. In 1728, Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia , Saint Petersburg

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5148-400: The city authorities arranged for the mayoral elections and a referendum upon the city's name, when the original name Saint Petersburg was restored. The turnout was 65%; 66.13% of the total count of votes went to Anatoly Sobchak , who became the first directly elected mayor of the city . Meanwhile, economic conditions started to deteriorate as the country tried to adapt to major changes. For

5247-496: The city authorities until December 2010, when after the statement of President Dmitry Medvedev , the city decided to find a more appropriate location for this project. In the same year, the new location for the project was relocated to Lakhta , a historical area northwest of the city centre, and the new project would be named Lakhta Center . Construction was approved by Gazprom and the city administration and commenced in 2012. The 462 m (1,516 ft) high Lakhta Center has become

5346-537: The city during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace . In the 1760s, Baroque architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture . Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled that no structure in the city could be higher than

5445-538: The city has eleven proper bus routes, eight trolleybus lines (built in 1967), and five tram lines (constructed in 1949). Private taxis are also readily available. The city is served by Bogashevo Airport , which offers both domestic and international flights. Located 20 kilometers from the city center, the airport was renovated in 2013. The airport is home to offices for S7 Airlines , Aeroflot , Ural Airlines , Turukhan Airlines , NordStar Airlines , RusLine , Red Wings Airlines , ALROSA , and UTair Aviation . There

5544-932: The city has the nickname of being "the Northern Capital of Russia" and is home to notable federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation . It is also a seat for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia , as well as the home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy , and

5643-400: The city have contributed to making Tomsk a major center for Russia's IT industry. Tomsk was one of the first cities in Russia to gain access to the Internet, which became available in the early 1990s owing to grants received by universities and scientific cooperation. Tomsk has a number of prominent institutions of higher education, including: Tomsk is a small railway center that is situated on

5742-415: The city was renamed Leningrad in January 1924. The referendum on restoring the historic name was held on 12 June 1991, with 55% of voters supporting " Saint Petersburg " and 43% supporting " Leningrad ". The turnout was 65% . Renaming the city Petrograd was not an option. This change officially took effect on 6 September 1991. Meanwhile, the oblast whose administrative center is also in Saint Petersburg

5841-410: The city's name in English was Saint Petersburgh . This spelling survives in the name of a street in the Bayswater district of London, near St Sophia's Cathedral , named after a visit by the Tsar to London in 1814. A 14 to 15-letter-long name, composed of the three roots , proved too cumbersome, and many shortened versions were used. The first General Governor of the city Menshikov is maybe also

5940-411: The city's prominent theaters was destroyed in an act of terrorism in 1905. The Korolevsky Theater (built in 1884–85) was being used by a group of communist revolutionaries when the theater was attacked and set on fire by members of the Black Hundred , a hard-line nationalist organization. Those who escaped the flames were gunned down by Black Hundred members waiting outside the theater. Estimates put

6039-451: The command of Vasily Fomich Tyrkov  [ ru ] and Gavriil Ivanovich Pisemsky to construct a fortress on the bank of the Tom River , overlooking what would become the city of Tomsk. Toian ceded the land for the fortress to the Tsar. In 1804, the Imperial Russian government selected Tomsk as the seat of the new Tomsk Governorate , which would include the modern cities of Novosibirsk , Kemerovo , and Krasnoyarsk , as well as

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6138-401: The country's extensive railway network. During the design process of the bridge's spans, Belelubski introduced a ground-breaking method called the "free carriageway" that transformed traditional bridge design. This innovative technique involved integrating articulated support for the cross beams of the travel surface directly into the lower chords of trusses within the bridge spans. By doing so,

6237-400: The first time since the 1940s, food rationing was introduced, and the city received humanitarian food aid from abroad. This dramatic time was depicted in photographic series of Russian photographer Alexey Titarenko . Economic conditions began to improve only at the beginning of the 21st century. In 1995, a northern section of the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro

6336-400: The formal official documents, where a three-letter abbreviation "СПб" ( SPb ) was very widely used as well. In the 1830s Alexander Pushkin translated the "foreign" city name of "Saint Petersburg" to the more Russian Petrograd (Russian: Петроград , IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat] ) in one of his poems. However, it was only on 31 August [ O.S. 18 August] 1914, after

6435-425: The former Soviet Union , the revolutionary government destroyed a number of old churches in the city including two that had existed since the 17th century. However, Tomsk managed to save some of its churches by transforming them into machine shops, warehouses, archives, and even residential buildings. Since the end of the communist era some of the churches have been renovated and returned to their congregations. Tomsk

6534-426: The former capital of Imperial Russia , and a historically strategic port , it is governed as a federal city . The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress , and was named after the apostle Saint Peter . In Russia , Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as

6633-411: The head of the city administration . The title of the city head was changed from "mayor" to "governor". In 2000, Yakovlev won re-election. His second term expired in 2004; the long-awaited restoration of the broken subway connection was expected to finish by that time. But in 2003 Yakovlev suddenly resigned, leaving the governor's office to Valentina Matviyenko . The law on election of the City Governor

6732-420: The lake froze. More than one million civilians were killed, mainly from starvation. There were incidents of cannibalism, with around 2,000 residents arrested for eating other people. Many others escaped or were evacuated, so the city became largely depopulated. On 1 May 1945 Joseph Stalin , in his Supreme Commander Order No. 20, named Leningrad, alongside Stalingrad , Sevastopol , and Odesa , hero cities of

6831-413: The masonry elements and their foundations. After careful examination, the experts concluded that it would be possible to install new spans on the existing piers. The Ministry of Railways of the USSR made the decision to install the new superstructure and subsequently dismantle the old one, as it was originally designed for smaller engines and lighter railcars. Since the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power plant

6930-423: The mid-19th century one fifth of the city's residents were exiles . However, within a few years, the city reinvented itself as the educational center of Siberia with the establishment of Tomsk State University , founded in 1880, and Tomsk Polytechnic University , founded in 1896. By World War II , every twelfth resident of the city was a student, giving rise to the city's nickname, the Siberian Athens . After

7029-403: The new settlement became the home of the Tomsk Nuclear Plant (subsequently renamed the Sibirskaya Nuclear Power Plant), the Soviet Union 's first industrial-scale nuclear-power station. Tomsk-7 received municipal status in 1956 and was renamed Seversk in 1992. Tomsk serves as the administrative center of the oblast and, within the framework of administrative divisions , it also serves as

7128-472: The new spans were stronger and larger, they lacked the aesthetic charm of the time-honored openwork trusses that had served the Trans-Siberian Way for almost 100 years. Currently, all the old trusses have been removed and the bridge has been converted into a single-track structure. However, the piers and abutments from the previous bridge are still in place, allowing for the potential expansion of

7227-428: The number of casualties between 200 and 1000. There are a number of museums in Tomsk devoted to various subjects, most notably art, local history and wood carving. There is also a Museum of Oppression, housed in a former KGB dungeon. Tomsk State University has a number of small museums with exhibits on archaeology , paleontology , zoology , as well as a herbarium and a botanical garden As in many other cities in

7326-471: The original name, Sankt-Peterburg , was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as Saint Petersburg . Local residents often refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter (Russian: Питер , IPA: [ˈpʲitʲɪr] ). After the October Revolution the name Red Petrograd (Красный Петроград, Krasny Petrograd ) was often used in newspapers and other prints until

7425-489: The perceived ornamental excesses of the Stalinist architecture were abandoned. From the 1960s to the 1980s many new residential boroughs were built on the outskirts; while the functionalist apartment blocks were nearly identical to each other, many families moved there from kommunalkas in the city centre to live in separate apartments. On 12 June 1991 , simultaneously with the first Russian SFSR presidential elections ,

7524-488: The post-war decades, partially according to pre-war plans. The 1948 general plan for Leningrad featured radial urban development in the north as well as in the south. In 1953, Pavlovsky District in Leningrad Oblast was abolished, and parts of its territory, including Pavlovsk, merged with Leningrad. In 1954, the settlements Levashovo , Pargolovo and Pesochny merged with Leningrad. Leningrad gave its name to

7623-499: The present time, the Tomsk line belongs to the West-Siberian Railway , branch of Russian Railways Corp. Trains link Tomsk to Anapa , Asino , Barnaul , Bely Yar, Moscow , Novokuznetsk , Novosibirsk , Sochi , and Tayga. The majority of inner-city and suburban transportation is provided by marshrutkas (routed taxis) and minibuses (mostly manufactured by PAZ , and serving about forty routes). Additionally,

7722-600: The preservation of its historical and architectural environment became controversial. After 2005, the demolition of older buildings in the historical centre was permitted. In 2006, Gazprom announced an ambitious project to erect a 403 m (1,322 ft) skyscraper (the Okhta Center ) opposite to Smolny , which could result in the loss of the unique line of Petersburg landscape. Urgent protests by citizens and prominent public figures of Russia against this project were not considered by Governor Valentina Matviyenko and

7821-609: The pro-Putin United Russia party secured no more than 11 seats. Tomsk has the oldest electrical grid in Siberia . There are three power stations in the city: Tomsk consumes more electric energy than it produces. The bulk of the city's electric and thermal energy is produced by the GRES-2 (281 MWt) and TEC-3 (140 MWt) powerplants, belonging to Tomskenergo Inc. Tomsk supplements its energy needs with electricity generated at Seversk . A large number of educational institutions in

7920-603: The son of their victim). The third emperor's assassination took place in Saint Petersburg in 1881 when Alexander II was murdered by terrorists (see the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood ). The Revolution of 1905 began in Saint Petersburg and spread rapidly into the provinces. On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd , meaning "Peter's City", to remove

8019-655: The southern limit of the city. The most prominent neoclassical and Empire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included: In 1810, Alexander I established the first engineering higher education , the Saint Petersburg Main military engineering School in Saint Petersburg. Many monuments commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleonic France in the Patriotic War of 1812 , including the Alexander Column by Montferrand, erected in 1834, and

8118-471: The structural integrity and operational efficiency of the bridge were greatly improved, as it effectively lessened the pressure on the truss components. The success and recognition of this design were solidified when it was awarded the prestigious Gold medal at the Edinburg Exposition in 1890. The system's functional features captured immediate attention, eventually earning global recognition as

8217-541: The supervision of Alexander Menshikov . Tens of thousands of serfs died while building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate . Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, nine years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. He referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital (or seat of government) as early as 1704. While the city

8316-524: The territories now in Eastern Kazakhstan . The new status brought development and the city grew quickly. The discovery of gold in 1830 brought further development to Tomsk in the 19th century; however, when in the 1890s the Trans-Siberian Railway bypassed the city in favor of the village of Novonikolayevsk (Novosibirsk), development began to move south to connect with the railway. In time, Novosibirsk would surpass Tomsk in importance. In

8415-508: The top and floor elements, known as cords, as well as the inter-cord elements, which are the web elements. These elements were all manufactured using open-hearth steel and were produced at the renowned Votkinsk ironworks, which is now known as the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant located in Udmurtia . This ironworks had been utilizing open hearth furnaces since 1871, which allowed them to produce railway rails for

8514-417: The top and inside of the trusses, following the balanced cantilever method from pier to pier. In 1991, the original bridge was closed to all traffic, beginning the process of its dismantling that lasted over ten years and started in 2000. The new trusses were constructed using advanced high-strength bolts, allowing for quick installation without the use of traditional scaffolding or floating equipment. Although

8613-536: The venue of a major summit on economic cooperation, held in the city between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel . Tomsk is the only non-capital member of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 . Tomsk is twinned with: Leningrad Saint Petersburg , formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad , is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow . It

8712-558: The war with Germany had begun, that Tsar Nicholas II renamed the city Petrograd in order to expunge the German words Sankt and Burg . Since the prefix "Saint" was omitted, this act also changed the eponym and the "patron" of the city from Saint Peter to Peter the Great, its founder. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin , it was renamed to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград , IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat] ), meaning 'Lenin City'. On 6 September 1991,

8811-546: The war zone from 1941. The resulting growth of the city led the Soviet government to establish the new Tomsk Oblast, with Tomsk serving as the administrative center. During the Cold War , Tomsk became one of many designated closed cities , which outsiders and, in particular, foreigners, could not visit. In 1949 matters went a stage further with the establishment of a secret city, known as "Tomsk-7 " (or sometimes simply as "Postbox 5") 15 kilometres (9 miles) north-west of Tomsk;

8910-715: The war. A law acknowledging the honorary title of "Hero City" passed on 8 May 1965 (the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War), during the Brezhnev era . The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Leningrad as a Hero City the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "for the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the Siege". The Hero-City Obelisk bearing

9009-447: Was 17 metres (56 ft). The truss superstructure was set on masonry piers that were reinforced upstream with triangular buttresses (cutwaters) to break up ice that floats downstream in spring. The clear head room was 17 metres (56 ft.) above mean high water. Constructing the bridge was a long and expensive project, requiring four years of dedicated work and an investment of approximately 2 million rubles. After its completion in 1896,

9108-600: Was again designated as the capital of the Russian Empire . It remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of the Russian tsars , as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917 . In 1736–1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned

9207-593: Was being built, Peter lived in a three-room log cabin with his wife Catherine and their children. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan. By 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by

9306-530: Was changed, breaking the tradition of democratic election by universal suffrage that started in 1991. In 2006, the city legislature re-approved Matviyenko as governor. Residential building had intensified again; real-estate prices inflated greatly, which caused many new problems for the preservation of the historical part of the city. Although the central part of the city has a UNESCO designation (there are about 8,000 architectural monuments in Petersburg),

9405-500: Was created by carefully placing around 78,000 cubic meters of soil. This approach was used as a basis for building a road on the left bank abutment, which allowed for the efficient transportation of necessary construction materials, such as metal and concrete, to the designated construction site. In order to assess the current condition of the existing piers, a team of experts from Leningrad thoroughly examined them by conducting visual inspections, collecting samples, and performing tests on

9504-400: Was cut off by underground flooding, creating a major obstacle to the city development for almost ten years. On 13 June 1996, Saint Petersburg, alongside Leningrad Oblast and Tver Oblast , signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement was abolished on 4 April 2002. In 1996, Vladimir Yakovlev defeated Anatoly Sobchak in the elections for

9603-514: Was designed by the brilliant civil engineer Prof. Nikolai Belelubsky, a well-known Russian scientist in the field of structural mechanics and engineering who developed several bridge projects in the Russian Empire. Originally, the bridge superstructure was made up of nine bowstring arch through truss spans over the river channel with double lattice girders that measured 109-meter (358 ft.) in length. The design required meticulous alignment of

9702-439: Was introduced, the ice drifts that used to be strong during the spring season have sufficiently decreased in and around the city. As a result, the need for the cutwaters to serve their original purpose was no longer necessary. Furthermore, they constructed two new abutments to improve the stability and functionality of the bridge. The trusses, which are 100 meters long, were installed between the piers using cranes that passed through

9801-486: Was renamed Leningrad . Later many streets and other toponyms were renamed accordingly, with names in honour of communist figures replacing historic names given centuries before. The city has over 230 places associated with the life and activities of Lenin. Some of them were turned into museums, including the cruiser Aurora – a symbol of the October Revolution and the oldest ship in the Russian Navy . In

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