Q 01/05

On which river does St. Petersburg stand?

A) The Volga

B) The Don

C) The Neva

D) The Dnieper

Answer · why

C) The Neva

The city sits at the head of the Gulf of Finland, where the Neva empties into the Baltic.

Q 02/05

Which ruler founded the city in 1703?

A) Catherine the Great

B) Peter the Great

C) Ivan the Terrible

D) Alexander I

Answer · why

B) Peter the Great

He laid the first fortress on Hare Island on 27 May 1703, on the site of a captured Swedish fort.

Q 03/05

After which apostle was the city named?

A) Saint Paul

B) Saint Andrew

C) Saint Nicholas

D) Saint Peter

Answer · why

D) Saint Peter

The founder's name day falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church remembers Peter and Paul together.

Q 04/05

What was the city called from 1914 to 1924?

A) Petrograd

B) Leningrad

C) Petropolis

D) Piterburg

Answer · why

A) Petrograd

Nicholas II dropped the German-sounding Sankt and Burg a month into the First World War.

Q 05/05

What name did the city carry from 1924 until 1991?

A) Stalingrad

B) Kirovgrad

C) Sovetsk

D) Leningrad

Answer · why

D) Leningrad

The renaming came five days after Lenin's death; the oblast around the city still bears the name.