Burg sounded too German! The start of St. Petersburg’s 80 year identity crisis.

    by revealedbyai

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    1. Context:
      The city of St. Petersburg has had a serious identity crisis.

      1703: Founded as St. Petersburg

      1914 (Petrograd): When WWI started, Russia realized their capital city’s name sounded too German “burg”, so they panic renamed it to the Slavic “Petrograd.”

      1924 (Leningrad): Renamed to honor Lenin.

      1991 (St. Petersburg): Back to the original.

      Fun Fact: The name Leningrad stuck around for so long that even today, the surrounding province is still called Leningrad Oblast, even though the city is St. Petersburg again. The identity crisis never truly ended

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