Saint Petersburg is a major city in Russia, situated on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Formerly known as Petrograd and Leningrad, it serves as a historically strategic Baltic port and was once the capital of the Russian Empire. Today, it is governed as a federal city.
The city is the second-largest in Russia after Moscow and holds the distinction of being the world's northernmost city with more than 1 million residents. It is also the most populous city on the Baltic Sea and ranks as the fourth-most populous city in Europe. While its metropolitan area houses over 6.4 million people, the city itself covers an area of 1,439 square kilometers, making it the smallest administrative division of Russia by area.