The region of what is now Tsarskoye Selo was taken from Sweden early in the Great Northern War 1700-1720. Peter the Great gave the existing small country estate to Prince Alexander Menshikov. Later, when he became angry at Menshikov's financial fraud and other dealings, he took it back and gave it to his wife, empress Catherine I. Since then Tsarskoye Selo became one of the official imperial summer residences with beautiful palaces and parks.

Tsarskoye Selo was the center of innovations in the late 19th Century. In addition to being the location of the first railroad in Russia, running water and sewage systems were built in 1887. An electric power plant made it the first town with electricity in Europe. In 1937 the place was renamed Pushkin.