On this day — 1st September 1914, St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd.
106 years ago today, Emperor Nicholas II signed a manifesto on renaming Sankt Peterburg / St. Petersburg to Petrograd, meaning «Peter’s City», to remove the *German sounding words “Sankt” and “Burg”. [* «Sankt-Peterburg,» was actually the Dutch-influenced name that Peter the Great gave the city in 1703 — PG]
On September 1, 1914, the Highest Order of Emperor Nicholas II to the Governing Senate was published on renaming St. Petersburg to Petrograd. The decision to change the name of the capital of the Russian Empire was made by the Emperor the day before — on 31 (O.S. 18) August.
This was the first, but by no means the last change in the name of the great Russian city.
On 26 January 1924, five days after Lenin’s death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. a name which the city retained for nearly 70 years. On 12 June 1991, simultaneously with the first Russian presidential elections, the city authorities arranged for the mayoral elections and a referendum upon the name of the city. A majority favoured restoring the city’s pre-World War One name St. Petersburg again.
It should also be noted the surrounding administrative region still retains the name “Leningradskaya Oblast”
