The town of Pushkin is situated 20 kilometers from Saint Petersburg. Formerly the Tsar's Village, it used to be the imperial residence. In this town used to live A.S.Pushkin, N.M.Karamzin, M.Yu.Lermontov, A.N.Tolstoy, A.AAkhmatova. In the early XVIII century Peter the Great granted Menshikov a small county estate. It was then bequeathed to the tsar's wife Ekaterina Alekseevna. Beginning in 1724 it was called Tsarskoe Selo. In 1718 the construction of a small palace with a garden began and by the middle of the XVIII century Tsarskoe Selo had become the parade residence.

Pavlovsk is a delightful romantic English park with a palace and pavilions. It was built in 1777 on the land of Catherine II and presented to her son Paul I in honour of the birth of Alexander, her first grandson and the future Russian Emperor. The Pavlovsk Palace looks like an Italian palazzo. Pavlovsk is still famous for its antiques and art collections. The Pavlovsk palace and park ensemble is located 27 kilometers away from St. Petersburg. In 1777 Catherine II gave the grounds to the Great Duke Paul as a summer residence. In 1779 a two-storied building called Marientahl was erected. The intensive establishment of the Pavlovsk Park, Palace and pavilions started in 1780.

Petrodvorets is situated on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, 29 km from Saint Petersburg. Its parks occupy a territory of about 1000 ha. In 1714 on a high littoral terrace a palace was founded (known as upper halls) and behind the palace the Upper Garden was laid out. Peterhof is one of the oldest summer residences in the vicinity of St.Petersburg. Peterhof means "Peter's Court". It was founded in 1710, when the Peter and Paul Fortress lost its military significance, and Peter the Great started to build another fortress on Kotlin Island to protect St.Petersburg from the city.

Gatchina is mentioned in the scribe book in 1499 as the village, Khotino. After the victory in the Northern war many noblemen used the local lands as hunting grounds. In 1766 the construction both of the palace and the park began. The palace is located in the scenic place overgrown with thick pine forest interspersed with clear lakes: The Silver, White, and Black lakes are connected between them by canals.

Kronstadt is a town located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, 29 km north-west of St Petersburg. The length of the island is 12 km, and its maximum width is 2 km, it is 15 sq. km in area. The civic population of the town of Kronstadt consists of about 50,000 people. A base of the Russian Baltic Navy occupies about one half of the island.

The town of Lomonosov is located 10 kilometers to the west of Saint Petersburg on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Lomonosov (formerly Oranienbaum) and its palace & park ensemble represent great historical and artistic value. Moreover, the architectural sights here were less damaged than in the other suburbs during the World War II. The Grand Palace of Oranienbaum was built from 1710 - 1727 by the architects D.Fontana and I.Schadel. There is a garden in front of the palace and several terraces descend from the palace to sea.

Veliky Novgorod is situated in the north-west of the European part of Russia, 180 kilometers to the south of St Petersburg and 520 kilometers from Moscow. The history of this old Russian town goes back to over 1000 years ago. The date of the town`s foundation was determined based on ancient chronicles. However according to some records, the Novgorod settlement was founded in 854 and according to others it did not existed until 859. Eventually the latter date was assumed to be the accurate date.

Pskov is a very ancient city, it was mentioned as far back as the ancient chronicles of 903. Princess Olga, the first Russian Christian woman and a wise governor of Russia founded the first settlement in Pskov. Later it became the strongest fortress (called Kremlin or Kron) on the western border of Russia. Pskov's historical past as a warrior intercessor is reflected in its monuments, and especially in its architecture, an extraordinary, permanent, genuinely popular epic in stone. As the capitol of its region, Pskov was surrounded by numerous fortified cities, impressive for their powerful defensive structures which blend harmoniously with the landscape. They include the fortress in Ostrov, Pokrhov and Izborsk, whose foundation is connected with the recruitment of Varangians in Russia.

Vyborg, was first known as a sea-port and industrial and trading centre. After the revolution of 1917, Vyborg was given to the newly independent Finland. During the following period of 20 years, Vyborg was greatly developed as industrial, commercial, cultural and business town. Today Vyborg is an industrial and cultural center, the international harbor, and an important railway and highway point.

The village of Staraya Ladoga, with its population of just over 2000, lies on the left bank of the broad, deep River Volkhov, 128 kilometers from St. Petersburg. Most philologists connect the name of the village with the Ladozhka River, tracing the derivation of the word to its Finn-Baltic origins: in Baltic geographical termination, the word "lataka" or "lata-ga" means a stream, a ditch or a boggy marsh. This settlement is not widely known, but it is a very special place, steeped in tradition, and at the same time extraordinarily beautiful.