On March 12, 1918, after 200 years of St. Petersburg holding this title, Moscow became the capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The city ceased to be Russia’s capital in 1712, as Peter the Great moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg to underline his drive to westernize the country. Take a look at the reality of life in early 20th-century Moscow captured in these TASS photographs
Capital centennial: Moscow as Russia’s seat of power for over 100 years
On March 12, 1918, after 200 years of St. Petersburg’s time as Russia’s capital, the Bolsheviks returned this leading role to Moscow
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Maroseyka street, the Polytechnic Museum, one of the oldest science museums in the world, on the left, 1900
© Fotokhronika TASS Street vendor with pies at the Red Square, 1900
© Fotokhronika TASS Passengers at the tram stop, 1910
© Fotokhronika TASS First steel Krymsky Bridge designed by Vladimir Speyer and built by Amand Struve, 1913
© Fotokhronika TASS Passenger train at Nikolayevsky railway station, 1917
© Fotokhronika TASS The Sukharevsky market, 1920
© Fotokhronika TASS Village carpenters trying to earn money in Moscow, 1920
© Fotokhronika TASS Okhotny Ryad Street, 1920
© Fotokhronika TASS/Vladimir Savostyanov Classes in a detention center for homeless, 1926
© Fotokhronika TASS A view of the Kitay-gorod wall from Novaya Square,1926. Kitay-gorod, developing as a trading area, was known as the most prestigious business districts of Moscow
© Fotokhronika TASS A view of Sretenka street, 1932
© Fotokhronika TASS