"The Silver Age" (The beginning of XX century)
 
Precursors of the XX century. The Revolution of 1905-1907. State Duma establishment. The celebration of the House of Romanovs.

This period in the history of Russia and started with the splendid coronation of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra in Moscow, which ended with the Khodynka disaster with thousands of casualties.  It ended with the World War I.

In 1902 St. Petersburg celebrated the 100th anniversary of Alexander I's establishment of ministries system. In May 1903 St. Petersburg celebrated its 200th anniversary. The new Troitsky (Trinity) Bridge was officially opened in the royal presence and then a church service took place on the Senate Square next to the Bronze Horseman, the monument to the founder of the city.

The tragedy came in 1905. In January 1905 (it became known as "Bloody Sunday") a peaceful demonstration of workers was fired at by troops at the Palace Square. This led to the start of the 1905-07 Revolution. On October 17, 1905 Nicholas II had to issue a manifesto proclaiming a number of civil rights and instituting a new parliament, consisting of the Duma and the reformed State Council.  The district where the Duma was located soon became one of the most popular residential areas.

However, the government curtailed many of the freedoms and blocked many of the Duma's initiatives. In the end, the people's patience came to an end and the streets were filled with rebels. The city was renamed from St. Petersburg to Petrograd and saw the two revolutions of 1917. But that happened later.

Meanwhile St. Petersburg was the shelter for many of the most prominent artists, musicians, composers, writers and poets who made this period the "Silver Age". In the poetry there appeared trends of symbolism and futurism and mystic tendencies in philosophy. The Russian Orthodox Church was preparing for recovery of patriarchate cancelled by Peter the Great. With a population of 2 million people, the modern metropolis was about to face new challenges, but the war has changed all the plans.