PETROORAO 



PETROLEUM 



Petrograd (Leningrad). Plan of the capital of the former Russian empire 



Petrograd. Former capital of 

 the Russian empire, known until 

 1915 as St. Petersburg, and since 

 1924 as Leningrad. Situated 

 on a swamp of the River Neva 

 and the Gulf of Finland, its main 



part lies on the 



left side of the 

 river, S. of the 

 fortress of Peter 

 and Paul, on an 

 islet, which was 

 the original site of 

 thecitv. It covers 



Petrograd arms an are ) . of ,. 35 . ,* 

 under the Empire m -> and 1S divided 

 into 13 districts. 



The Neva, 40 m. long, flows from 

 Lake Ladoga past the city. Beyond 

 the Alexander Bridge it divides 

 into three distributaries, and falls 

 into the Gulf of Finland at the 

 Islands. The channels are spanned 

 by numerous bridges, the most im- 

 portant of which are the Troitsky, 

 Alexander, and Nicholas. The city 

 is drained by four canals, Moika, 

 Catherine, Fontanka, and Obvodni. 

 During the rainy season floods are 

 frequent. From Nov. to April the 

 river is ice-bound 



Petrograd has more claim to be 

 a European city than any other 

 city in Russia. The Nevski 

 Prospekt, which intersects the 

 city practically in a straight line 

 from the Admiralty to the Alex- 

 ander Nevski monastery, turning 

 abruptly at the Nicholas rly. sta- 

 tion, contains the Kazan Cathe- 

 dral, modelled on S. Peter's at 



Rome, Anichkov palace, the City 

 Hall or Duma, and the Gostini 

 Dvor, a once-noted shopping centre. 

 Other notable buildings are the 

 winter palace, a residence of the 

 tsars, the Taurida palace, S. Isaac's 

 Cathedral, and the Hermitage, once 

 one of the finest picture galleries 

 in Europe. The Lyetniyi Sad or 

 Summer Garden, on the left bank 

 of the Neva, may be called the 

 Hyde Park of Petrograd. Adja- 

 cent is the Field of Mars, where the 

 victims of the Revolution of 1917 

 were buried. Across the river is 

 the fortress of Peter and Paul, 

 containing the state prison, the 

 mint, and the arsenal. In the 

 vaults of the cathedral of SS. 

 Peter and Paul are buried the 

 emperors of the house of Romanov 

 with the exception of Peter II and 

 Nicholas II. 



The islands which form the delta 

 of the Neva number about 100. 

 The most important is Aptekarski 

 or Apothecary Island. It contains 

 the Imperial Botanical Gardens 

 laid out by Peter the Great in 

 1713. 



Petrograd possesses many schools 

 and learned institutes. The most 

 noted of these are the univer- 

 sity, founded by Alexander I 

 in 1819, technological institute, 

 the naval and military academies 

 of law and medicine, besides schools 

 of forestry, mining and engineer- 

 ing, and the conservatory of music 

 where Rubinstein taught. There 

 were also progressive schools for 



the higher education of women. 

 Many of these buildings were used 

 by the Soviet government for 

 administrative purposes. Before 

 the establishment of th Soviet 

 government there was a large 

 trade in textiles, metals, rubber, 

 tobacco, and chemicals. 



Petrograd formed part of the 

 ancient territory known as Inger- 

 manland or Ingria. It belonged to 

 Novgorod and Moscow ; then to 

 Sweden ; and was reconquered by 

 Peter the Great in 1702. With the 

 object of bringing Russia closer to 

 W. Europe, he determined to build 

 a new capital at the mouth of the 

 Neva which was to be a " window 

 to look out into Europe." The 

 first stone was laid in 1703, on the 

 site of what is now the fortress. 

 Fifty years later the city numbered 

 80,000 inhabitants. After the de- 

 feat of the Swedes at Poltava. 

 1709, Petrograd became the capital. 

 The first rly. line to Moscow was 

 laid by Nicholas I, who thus 

 brought Petrograd closer to the 

 heart of the empire. 



Rlys. run direct to the Murman 

 coast, to Perm, with a branch to 

 Archangel ; direct communication 

 with Germany has been broken by 

 the new Baltic States. The har- 

 bour is connected with the outpost, 

 Kronstadt, by a ship canal 18 m. 

 long and 22 ft. deep ; ice breakers 

 keep the waters open except in the 

 severest winters. 



Petrograd was the scene of 

 the revolution, March 12, 1917, 

 and here in Sept., 1917, a re- 

 public was proclaimed. After the 

 Bolshevist coup d'etat in Nov., 

 1917, the Soviets took over the 

 administration, making the Smolni 

 Institute their headquarters. The 

 capital was transferred to Moscow 

 on March 14, 1918, and Petrograd 

 proclaimed a free port. Several 

 attempts were made to overthrow 

 the Soviet government and restore 

 the old regime, Yudenitch's troops 

 reaching the suburbs in 1919. After 

 the death of Lenin (<?.v.) in 

 Jan., 1924, the city's name was 

 changed to Leningrad. Pop. (1915) 

 2,300,000 See St. Petersburg, G. 

 Dobson, 1910 : Petrograd, Past 

 and Present, W. B. Steveni, 1915; 

 Petrograd, the City of Trouble, 

 Meriel Buchanan, 1918. 



B. M. Birkmyre 



Petroleum. Term meaning 

 literally rock oil. Technically it is 

 applied to a number of fluid sub- 

 stances, minerals, obtained from 

 the crust of the earth, varying in 

 character from natural gas and the 

 clear and limpid naphthas of 

 Georgia on the Caspian to the 

 heavy bitumen of the great Trini- 

 dad lake. Commonly it is used for 

 crude mineral oil. See Oil. 



