Danny Jones, age 13, of Mesa, Ariz., for his question:
DID LENINGRAD ONCE HAVE ANOTHER NAME?
Leningrad is the second largest city in Russia and has the country's best equipped port. The city has had three names: Saint Petersburg, Petrograd and Leningrad.
Peter the Great, who founded the city in 1703 as his capital, named it Saint Petersburg. Then, when Russia went to war against Germany in 1914, the name was changed to the Russian name of Petrograd, which means Peter's City. The Russians did this to get rid of the German ending "burg." Finally, the Communist government gave the city its present name when V.I. Lenin, the founder of the Communist Party in Russia, died in 1924.
Leningrad today is one of the world's great cities. It has a population close to 4 million with about 1 million more living in surrounding areas.
Leningrad lies along the Baltic Sea at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland. Located on the delta of the Neva River, the city contains several islands formed by the branches of the river.
Leningrad is about 400 miles northwest of Moscow and sits about as far north as Anchorage, Alaska. Leningrad is the northernmost city in the world that contains a population of more than 1 million.
The city is famous for its wide boulevards and for its palaces and public buildings. About 365 bridges connect the various parts of the city. Most of these bridges cross narrow canals.
The main part of Leningrad is divided by three long avenues that meet at the Admiralty, the center of the city. The principal thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt, is about 130 feet wide and about four miles long.
In the days of the czars, Leningrad was famous for its luxurious palaces and handsome public buildings. The Soviets turned many of these into museums or converted them to other uses.
Leningrad has about 50 museums. Probably the best known is the Hermitage, famed throughout the world for its art masterpieces.
One of the city's famous buildings is the Winter Palace which faces the Neva River. Built in baroque style between 1754 and 1762, it is a huge building that is 500 feet long and 385 feet wide. It was the winter residence of the czars until 1917. When fully occupied, the Winter Palace accommodated 6,500 persons and was the largest royal palace in the world.
The Winter Palace is now an extension of the Hermitage.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, with its semicircular colonnade of Corinthian columns, is another outstanding building. It now contains the Museum of Religion and Atheism of the Academy of Sciences.
Leningrad's educational system is excellent. There are many colleges and schools specializing in technology, music and art. Eight percent of the country's college and university students go to school in Leningrad.
Although Leningrad is located far to the north, westerly winds from the Atlantic Ocean tend to moderate its climate. The temperature averages 17 degrees Fahrenheit in January and 65 degrees Fahrenheit in July.