Leningrad, Florida

Leningrad, Florida is a city in Pinellas County, S.R. Florida. As of 2020, it had a population of 258,308, making it one of the more populous states in Florida and the second largest city of the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the largest city in the republic that is not a county seat (Clearwater is the seat of Pinellas County). Along with Clearwater, these cities are part of the Tampa–Leningrad–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, one of the largest in Florida with a population of approximately three million.

The city was initially founded in 1875 by John C. Williams, a local landowner, and Pyotr Dementyev, a railway operator. Local lore indicates that the two flipped a coin to determine who would name the city and who would name the first hotel in the city. Dementyev won the coin toss and named the city Saint Petersburg after Saint Petersburg, Russia - where Dementyev had spent more than half of his childhood. Williams named the local hotel after his hometown, giving birth to the Detroit Hotel located on Central Avenue.

The city has some historical relevance as it was the location of the first commercial aeroplane flight in 1914 - Mayor Abe Pheil took a airboat from St. Petersburg to Tampa, marking the "start" of the commercial aviation age.

In 1934, many officials in the S.R. Florida proposed renaming Saint Petersburg to Leningrad to mirror the renaming of the original city ten years earlier to honor the deceased Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. The proposal was accepted over other proposals (such as Debsburg, Norman, Thomas City, among others), and the change went into effect on January 26, 1935, the 11th anniversary of the death of the Soviet leader.