Speaking of Moscow and St. Petersburg, I believe everyone knows that these are two more famous big cities in Russia. In fact, in the history of Russia, St. Petersburg and Moscow have both been the capital of Russia, so the two cities have their own advantages. In 1918, after the October Revolution, Soviet Russia, the predecessor of the Soviet Union, moved its capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow, thus ending more than 200 years of st. Petersburg's capital history. Why, then, did the Soviet Union move its capital to Moscow? Today, we will talk about the rise of the Russian Empire and the complex process of moving the capital.
First, let's talk about the rise of the Russian Empire. The predecessor of the Russian Empire was the Principality of Moscow, which, as the name suggests, belonged to a small principality near Moscow. Please note that Moscow is located in the middle of the Great Plain of Eastern Europe, surrounded by fertile land and dominated by plains, which is very suitable for farming. In the early days of the establishment of the Muscovite Principality, it was very weak, but the Muscovite Principality continued to annex a series of small states around it, and the area of control gradually expanded. By the time of Ivan IV's reign, the muscovite principality was no less powerful, Ivan IV began to call himself Tsar, the Muscovite principality became the Russian Empire, and the capital was naturally set up in Moscow.
At first, the Russian Empire was mainly busy consolidating and expanding its rule over the Great Plains of Eastern Europe and expanding its influence eastward. In terms of territorial size, the Russian Empire at this time had surpassed most of the countries in Western Europe, but its national strength was still very backward. Because Russia has no access to the sea, in the era of rapid development of maritime trade, Russia is clearly lagging behind the Western powers. By the end of the 17th century, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the Russian Empire had risen to become a large empire spanning Eurasia. However, Russia lacked access to the sea, and after Peter I ascended the throne, he began to fight with Sweden, Ottoman Turkey and other powerful powers, preparing to seize the sea access to the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and other places.
The expansion of the Russian Empire was not smooth, and it suffered a series of failures, after all, the surrounding powers had a certain degree of strength. At this stage, Peter I began to rapidly rex the western part of the empire and discovered the strategic value of St. Petersburg. At the suggestion of Peter I, St. Petersburg quickly became an important military fortress to contain Sweden. As the war situation changed, the Russian Empire defeated Sweden and gained access to the Baltic Sea, and in order to further consolidate his sphere of influence, Peter I decided to build St. Petersburg on a large scale and prepare to move the capital to St. Petersburg.
If you look for examples, the author thinks of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, similar to the situation of Peter I, with the meaning of consolidating the frontier and expanding the sphere of influence. With the construction of St. Petersburg fully completed, in 1713 Peter I officially decided to move the capital of the empire to St. Petersburg. Of course, Moscow's status did not decline and it remained the capital of the Empire. At this stage, the Russian Empire had two capitals, similar to Beijing and Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty and Beijing and Shengjing in the Qing Dynasty. After Peter I, through successive tsars, the russian Empire reached its peak of national strength. Especially during the reign of Catherine II, the tsarina was very clever. Although Russia has moved its capital to St. Petersburg, Moscow remains one of Russia's symbols for Western countries.
In the early 19th century, Napoleon led a large army to attack Tsarist Russia, still making the occupation of Moscow an important goal for him. Because Moscow is located in the hinterland of Russia, once It occupies Moscow, it will indeed affect the situation in all aspects. In 1914, World War I broke out, and as a member of the Allies, Russia went to war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany does have an overwhelming advantage in army building and weapons design. On the eastern front, the Russian army was repeatedly defeated, losing more than 1 million officers and soldiers. Coupled with the intensification of various contradictions in the country, in 1917, the February Revolution and the October Revolution broke out in Russia.
Note that the October Revolution took place in St. Petersburg, not Moscow. After the success of the October Revolution, the Russian regime came to power, the predecessor of the Soviet Union. At that time, due to ideological problems, the Western countries were very repulsive to Soviet Russia. But the war against Germany was not over, and the Western countries had no energy. By 1918, Germany's defeat was largely a foregone conclusion, and it was only a matter of time. Before the war was over, Britain, France and other countries hastily formed an intervention army to attack the newly established Soviet Russia from the east and west roads.
At that time, the strength of Soviet Russia was still very weak. St. Petersburg is not safe in the face of a menacing Western intervention force, as St. Petersburg is a coastal city. The Western powers have powerful navies, and the situation can be very passive once landing operations are conducted. Against this backdrop, the Soviets moved the capital back to Moscow. In this way, St. Petersburg ended more than 200 years of capital history. In a few years, The Soviet Union began a hard battle, gradually repelling the east and west intervention armies and pacifying various domestic forces. Entering the 20s, the Soviet Union was established.
At that time, in the case of a significant shortage of heavy industry, the Soviet Union began to give priority to the development of heavy industry. In less than 20 years, the Soviet Union had risen to become a heavy industrial power. During World War II, Germany sent millions of troops to attack, and the forwards were already approaching the outskirts of Moscow. Even under such circumstances, the Soviet Union still launched a military parade on Red Square, stabilizing the war and pushing Germany back. After several major battles such as the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Union grasped the absolute initiative in the war and began a comprehensive counterattack. In May 1945, Soviet troops occupied Berlin, the capital of Germany, declaring victory in the Soviet-German War. Seriously, war needs to be built on strong national power.
Finally, let's talk about nation-building and army building. The author has been watching documentaries from World War I and World War II recently. The author found that Germany has indeed reached the level of black technology in the military industry, which can be called the pinnacle of perfection. Of course, other powerful countries also have certain family foundations and advantages. In contrast, the gap in our country is very, very obvious. However, after decades of development, China has gradually developed from a backward agricultural country to a big country capable of building aircraft carriers on its own, which requires bit by bit accumulation and development in all aspects. Let's talk about the relationship between St. Petersburg and Moscow, which is still the capital of Russia, but St. Petersburg is a very important city in Russia.