I flew into St. Petersburg on Lufthansa via Frankfurt
There's no train into town from Pulkovo Airport so I took a cab via pre-paid kiosk - the young ladies there speak English but most cab drivers do not. I was dropped off on the wrong address since it wasn't an obvious hotel with a sign. I had to walk to my hostel after getting directions from a restaurant worker in broken English. Not the greatest first impression but thankfully wasn't a sign of things to come.
Most everything of touristic interest in St. Petersburg is within walking distance of the Hermitage. There's also a subway but it's of limited use to tourists. Most people in tourism related industries (hotels, museums, restaurants) in Central St. Pete's speak some English, however most other people do not. Your best bet is to seek out younger folks to ask for directions/help. I had a Russian phrasebook and google translate and got by for the most part.
You should learn a bit of the Cyrillic alphabet which will help you navigate with the signs. It's not as daunting as you might think. Just remember some letters in English are pronounced differently in Russian ('B' is pronounced like a 'V', 'P'='R') Russian pronunciation is pretty easy once you can read it and if you try and speak it people will understand you for the most part.
It's a beautiful city and for the most part very clean and orderly. It's not really "Russian" per se, as it has a very Western European vibe so I would recommend visiting Moscow as well, or taking a daytrip to Veliky Novgorod (5th photo in my 1st post) to get the full feel for Russia.