Founded by Peter the Great, Leningrad was originally called St. Petersburg and was the original capital of Russia. Shortly after the communist revolution of 1917, the city was renamed Petrograd in an attempt to remove the czarist links implied by its name. In addition, the capital was moved to Moscow, farther away from Europe. Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, the city was renamed Leningrad in his honor.
Almost 70 years later, after the communist regime in the USSR fell, the city once again took its original name, St. Petersburg, in 1991, and that is what it is known as today.