In November of 2003 Hofstra University hedl a conference celbrating the 300th anniversary of the city of St. Petersburg. There have been many other conferences dealing with the subject we have tried in our efforts to emphasize some themes that may not be fully treated in these other enterprises. We have tried to focus on the city itself and on its contritutions to Russian History and Civilization. We have also triedto sort myth from reality. For tow hundred years the city was the capital of Imperial Russia. During that period it became a unique creation of the Russian czars because it was one of the few cities planned from above.(480)