Sankt Petersburg: Bedeutungswandel und Entwicklungsperspektiven einer osteuropäischen Metropole

Abstract

St. Petersburg is one of the few metropolitan centres of Europe the development of which was consequently planned and carried through right from its foundation. Its development can be divided into three important phases: (1) Its development into a world-famous city of culture and trade until the beginning of the 20th century; (2) its development into the second largest industrial centre of the Soviet Union; (3) its transformation into an modern multi-functional business centre in East Europe since the beginning of the 1990s. The town was founded in 1703 at a site on the Baltic coast of strategic importance as a „window to Europe“, far away from the influence of Moscow, the old capital of patriarchal Russia. Within only 200 years St. Petersburg developed into a cultural and economic centre right between East and West Europe. Along with the formation of capitalist economic structures, the town turned into an important international centre of finance. Already in 1897 the number of inhabitants amounted to 1.27 million. Traditionally, the number of foreigners was very high, especially among the intelligentsia and the armed forces and in economy. The ethnic composition was characterized by a high proportion of non-Russian nationalities (13 per cent) with the Germans taking the first place (4.6 per cent). With the beginning of the Soviet era Leningrad lost not only its name and its status as capital but also its function as a „window to Europe“. From a European metropolis it developed into an important industrial centre of the Soviet Union and was a basis for the economic development of the North-Western region. The main emphasis in industrial development was on the processing branches, in particular metal processing, and military-oriented branches. This brought about a strong increase in intraurban building density as well as a great expansion of the city area due to the establishment of land-consuming industries and the building of large housing estates on the urban fringe. Leningrad’s population increased very rapidly. Despite interruption by two world wars, civil war and economic crisis its pupulation size increased continuously to 3 million until the mid 1950s. In 1990 already 4.5 million people were living in the actual city area. This increase was caused chiefly by a government-induced mass influx of labour from all parts of the Soviet Union. Still today the share of non-Russians is 11 per cent. Especially after World War II Leningrad developed into a technical and scientific centre of the Soviet Union. Since the beginning of the 1990s St. Petersburg has started out on a new period that is characterized by the step-wise introduction of a market economy and a new geopolitical situation in the Baltic region. Due to the decline of the Soviet Union and the loss of former Soviet ports the importance of St. Petersburg – beside Kaliningrad the only port on the Baltic coast left – will change considerably in the years ahead. Despite present problems – a strong decrease in industrial production, dismissal of labour, transformation of military-oriented industrial resources into civil ones, privatisation of over-sized industrial combines and trusts – the city still avails of an enormous innovative potential (400 scientific and research institutions, highly qualified labour, a densely structured traffic network with international connections, a well-established tourist sector and others) which will provide it a chance to become again the turntable between East and West.