A proponent of 

westernising Russia, Peter the Great, who established the city, originally named

it Sankt-Pieter-Burch (Сан(к)т-Питер-Бурхъ) in Dutch manner and later its spelling was
standardised as Sankt-Peterburg (Санкт-Петербургъ [a]) under German influence.[16] (The Russian
name lacks the letter s between Peter and burg.) On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak
of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the
city Petrograd (Russian: Петроград[a], IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat]),[17] meaning "Peter's city", in order to
expunge the German words Sankt and Burg. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death
of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed to Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград, IPA: [lʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]), meaning
"Lenin's City". On 6 September 1991, the original name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by
citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as "Saint Petersburg". Local residents
often refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter (Russian: Питер, IPA: [ˈpʲitʲɪr]).
The city's traditional nicknames among Russians are the Window to the West and the Window to
Europe. The northernmost metropolis in the world, St. Petersburg is often called the Venice of
the North or Russian Venice due to its many water corridors, as the city is built on