Saint Petersburg



Petrograd (Russian: Петербург (Petrogradskiy)) (later Saint Petersburg) was a city within the Russian Empire and one of the locations in which the Russian Assassin headquarters were based, in the early 20th century.

Nikolai Orelov, one of the main characters from Assassin's Creed: The Fall was an Assassin operating in Petrograd and became a Master Assassin of the Petrograd Assassin's Guild. It was the birthplace of the Russian Revolution and capital of the Russian Empire.

History
St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by the third Romanov Tsar, Peter the Great, who wanted to Westernize and reform Russia. He designed to the city to be modeled on the great cities he'd seen in Europe during his tours there earlier in life. Peter called his new city his "Window on the West", and made it the new capital of the Russian Empire, much to the enmity of the conservative elite who still lived in Moscow. The city was given a more menacing nickname by the poor souls who were forced to build it: "the City of Bones". This was appropriate, as work crews died in their thousands from disease, starvation, and cold.

The city was expanded during the 18th and 19th centuries. When the 20th century turned, it was renamed Petrograd since St. Petersburg sounded too German. After the fall of the Russian Empire, it was renamed again into Leningrad after Vladimir Lenin. The city would hold this name until the fall of the Soviet Union.