Leningrad

"The Soviets are making their last stand in Leningrad and I'm pretty sure they'll throw everything they have at you."

- Eva talking about the city.

Leningrad (formerly Saint Petersburg, Petrograd) is a large metropolis in the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union and former capital of the Russian Empire, located on Russia's Baltic coast. It is named after the Soviet revolutionary hero, V.I. Lenin.

History
Russian Tsar Peter I the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport, so it could trade with maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north and closed to shipping for months during the winter. On May 12 [O.S. 1] 1703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 27 [O.S. 16] 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; a number of Swedish prisoners of war were also involved in some years under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov. Tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later the city became the centre of Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, 9 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. In 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernise Russia had met with opposition from the Russian nobility — resulting in 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 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 Tzars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917. During World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd, meaning "Peter's City", to remove the German words Sankt and Burg. In March 1917, during the February Revolution Nicholas II abdicated both for himself and on behalf of his son, ending the Russian monarchy and over three hundred years of Romanov dynastic rule. On November 7, 1917 (O.S. October 25), the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace in an event known thereafter as the October Revolution, which led to the end of the post-Tsarist 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 the West Estonian archipelago and threatened Petrograd with bombardment and invasion. On March 12, 1918, the Soviets transferred the government to Moscow. During the ensuing Civil War, in 1919 general Yudenich advancing from Estonia repeated the attempt to capture the city, but Leon Trotsky mobilized the army and forced him to retreat. On January 26, 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. Later some streets and other toponyms were renamed accordingly. 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.

World War Three (Red Alert 3)
Leningrad was the site of the USSR's last stand against the Allies. Premier Cherdenko and General Krukov, knowing that Moscow is not safe place to hide themselves (they remember how Moscow was destroyed at the end of the Post-war Crisis) employed everything they have in the defence of this city while they prepared to launch a space shuttle in order to escape into space.

The Shuttle was to be launched from the Peter and Paul Fortress, now converted to a launch site, and was protected by an Iron Curtain. The Allies had to bring down all the Iron Curtain generators in the city before they could assault the island fortress.

During the Soviet Campaign, Leningrad was struck by the Imperial Army and Navy which besieged the Peter and Paul Fortress and threatened the Hermitage Museum. Soviet troops including the crack Soviet sniper Natasha (rumoured to have been born in Leningrad) conducted a successful defence of the city and sank several Imperial Battleships.

Areas of Interest

 * Peter and Paul Fortress: A large fortress in the middle of Leningrad surrounded by water. Later in the war it was modified to support a space shuttle launch facility.


 * Hermitage Museum: The Hermitage Museum is a museum and art gallery in Leningrad, located partly in the Winter Palace, the former residence of the Russian Tsars. The Museum contained many of Russia's national treasures. Natasha protected the place from Imperial infantry units during the Imperial Invasion.

Trivia
During the real World War II, the Germans had three years to capture and seize the city of Leningrad, to win a total victory against Stalin's USSR. The USSR's winter storm had frozen the German army and cannot drive through the captured Baltic states. This was one of the factors that Germany couldn't reach either the city or Moscow. Much more important, however, was the sheer determination and tenacity of the city's defenders.