Which Russian tsar built the port of St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea to serve as Russia's "window on the West"? A. Catherine the Great B. Alexander I c. Ivan the Terrible D. Peter the Great

The correct answer is D.

St. Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703 with the intention of making it Russia's "window into the Western world." From then on it became the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. When the Russian Revolution broke out, the city was the center of the rebellion. In March 1918 the capital was transferred to Moscow. In January 1924, after the Bolshevik victory, the creation of the Soviet Union (1922) and the death of Lenin (1924), St. Petersburg changed its name to Leningrad, in honor of the communist leader Lenin. During the Second World War, the site of Leningrad took place, which lasted 29 months, in which the Germans constantly bombed the city and blocked it so that it could not be supplied. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, the city was named Heroic City by the Soviet authorities. When disappearing the USSR with the consequent collapse of the Communism, the city was renamed Saint Petersburg and has become an important economic and political center of the present Russia.