Marking the 320th anniversary of St. Petersburg: The Presidential Library spotlights moving the capital from Petrograd to Moscow

In March 1918, 105 years ago, Petrograd ceased to be the capital of the state. The relocation of the Soviet government took place in an atmosphere of absolute secrecy. The memories of those days are kept by publications from the Presidential Library’s collections, as well as a virtual tour of the exhibition Journey from Petrograd to Moscow available on the institution’s portal and prepared by library specialists for the 100th anniversary of the relocation of the Soviet government and the capital to Moscow.

Despite the fact that St. Petersburg was the “cradle of the revolution”, it was here that the counter-revolutionary movement was most likely to strengthen. According to Leon Trotsky’s book From the October Revolution to the Brest Peace, with the advent of Soviet power, sabotage began on the part of bank officials and teachers, postal and telegraph employees, and other important state institutions. Located next to Finland, which gained independence, the city became a place of attraction for various kinds of spies and internal provocateurs. To combat counter-revolution and sabotage, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was organized at the end of December under the chairmanship of Felix Dzerzhinsky. However, its efforts were not enough at first. It came to assassination attempts on the very leader of the revolution, Lenin, at the beginning and end of January 1918. When negotiations with Germany and its allies in Brest reached an impasse, the capital felt a real external threat in connection with the German offensive.

 “It was absolutely clear to me that suburban Petrograd could by no means be a reliable capital of that turbulent time”, Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, Lenin’s closest associate at that time, Administrator of the Council of People’s Commissars, recalled in the book The Relocation of the Soviet Government from Petrograd to Moscow (1926). According to him, intelligence information clearly stated that the aspirations of many spies, international adventurers and White Guards were directed at the former tsarist capital, and it was becoming more and more dangerous for the new government to stay there. Bonch-Bruyevich claimed that in early February 1918 he and his brother Mikhail Dmitriyevich, a lieutenant general who took the side of the new government, made suggestions to Lenin about the immediate relocation of the Bolshevik government.

On February 26, 1918, a meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars was held in Petrograd, at which Vladimir Lenin drafted a decree on the evacuation of the government to Moscow. It contained the following orders: 1) choose Moscow as the location of the government; 2) evacuate for each department only a minimum number of heads of the central administrative apparatus, no more than 2-3 dozen people (plus families); 3) at all costs and immediately take out the State Bank, gold and the Expedition of Storing State Papers; 4) start unloading valuables in Moscow.

Only a few people were privy to the evacuation plans, the secrecy was the strictest. In addition to terrorist attacks, the government feared mass riots that could arise if the news about the relocation of the entire leadership of the Soviet Republic became widely known.

Preparations for the government’s relocation began, as Bonch-Bruyevich said, “with curiosities”. At that time, the professional organization of railway workers Vikzhel was “reactionary”, in it “Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries settled in huge numbers”. Therefore, Bonch-Bruyevich had to invent a false task for them to prepare for the government’s move from Petrograd to the Volga. “Thus, one of the most dangerous leaders of the organization at that time was busy with my own assignment”, Lenin’s colleague recalled.

At the same time, Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich began practical preparations for the move, while, as he claimed in his memoirs, even Lenin did not know the exact date of departure. Departure was scheduled for March 10, 1918. Bonch-Bruyevich, together with the commissar of the Nikolayevskaya Railway, chose the abandoned Tsvetochnaya station, located on the connecting tracks adjacent to the Nikolayevskaya Railway, behind the Moscow outpost, as the place for train departure. “We decided to accumulate cars here gradually, then, when necessary, form a train and leave without lights right away”, the author said. The entire crew for the train was selected from those who could be relied on. The Tsvetochnaya area was regularly inspected by trained people under the guise of carefree passers-by.

In the meantime, Bonch-Bruyevich, with special hype, was preparing for the departure of the Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) delegates to Moscow by two tsarist trains from the Nikolaevsky Railway Station “to make reports to Moscow workers and prepare for the session”. For the safety of his fellow party members, he organized seating arrangements so that deputies of all parties sat in all cars, with the Esers mainly being in the first cars. “The Esers wouldn’t want to blow themselves up because of our comrades”, Bonch-Bruyevich reassured Lenin. The chairman of the VTsIK, Yakov Sverdlov, was placed in the first train so that the whole audience, crowding at the station, could see it well, but when the last car was reached, he was taken out and moved to the second train. No one noticed anything, everyone was just happy with the “peasants” being transported in royal wagons.

On March 9, at the Nikolaevsky Railway Station, the loading of the property of the Administration of the Council of People’s Commissars into two emergency passenger trains began, so that everything would be ready for departure on March 10. Late in the evening of the same day, the People’s Commissars and those who were supposed to travel on the government train were handed secret orders in envelopes to leave on March 10 at 10 p.m. and prepare things for shipment by truck. On the day of departure, after two o'clock, trucks began to arrive at the Tsvetochnaya area. A detachment of Latvian machine gunners was assigned to guard the train. When it got dark, People’s Commissars with their families and those from a special list prepared in advance were taken to the train. By the way, among the “special ones” was the beloved proletarian poet Demyan Bedny. At 9:30, Vladimir Lenin left Smolny.

As planned, the train left for Moscow at 10 p.m. The train was moving slowly – a freight train loaded with deserting sailors occupied the path in front. In Vishera, the train was delayed, and the sailors were disarmed. In the evening of March 11, the government train arrived in Moscow.

On March 12, 1918, a telegram was sent to all the Soviets about the Government moving from Petrograd to Moscow. Its text can be found in the collection Decrees of the Soviet Government: “On Monday, March 11, the Government left for Moscow. All mail, telegrams, etc. must be sent to Moscow to the Council of People’s Commissars. Chairman of the SNK V. I. Lenin, Administrator of the SNK V. D. Bonch-Bruyevich”. The message about the government’s relocation was published in the Pravda newspaper.

On March 16, the resolution of the Fourth Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of Soviets was issued: “In the conditions of the crisis that the Russian revolution is experiencing at the moment, the position of Petrograd as the capital has changed dramatically. In view of this, the Congress decides that henceforth, until the above conditions are changed, the capital of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic will be temporarily moved from Petrograd to Moscow”. Moscow has once again become the capital, but this time in the Soviet state.

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Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Виртуальный тур по выставке «Путешествие из Петрограда в Москву. 1918: к 100-летию переезда советского правительства и переноса столицы в Москву»

«Переезд Советского правительства из Петрограда в Москву, 14-16 марта 1918 года» (фрагменты кинохроники)

Л. Д. Троцкий «От Октябрьской революции до Брестского мира» (1924)

В. Д. Бонч-Бруевич «Переезд советского правительства из Петрограда в Москву» (1926)

С. Н. Валк, Г. Д. Обичкин «Декреты Советской власти. Т. 1: 25 октября 1917 г. – 16 марта 1918 г.» (1957)