The Moscow City Council () in short Mossoviet (), an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet (), was established following the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

. Initially it was a parallel, shadow city administration of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

run by left-wing parties. Following the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

it became the city administration of Moscow throughout the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

period (1918–1991).

History

Initial period

The first meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ Deputies occurred on 1 March 1917. The meeting was initially attended by 52 delegates from various factories, cooperative societies and trade unions. However, when the meeting was reconvened in the evening after a short adjournment, the meeting had swollen to over six hundred delegates. An executive committee of 44 members was created under the leadership of Lev Khinchuk a member of the

Menshevik The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

After the Bolshevik seizure of power

Between 1918 and 1941, these two administrations were perceived as two distinct, although related, bodies. The Mossovet (''Imeni Mossoveta'') title was appended to the names of different institutions as an honorary title ("in the name of Mossovet") referring to 1917 events, i.e. *''Mossovet Theater'' (established 1924, and still operates under this name) or as a sign of administrative control ("established by Mossovet") by the current administration, i.e. *''Mossovet Architectural Workshops'' (established 1932) *''Mossovet Kindergarten'' could mean a corporate kindergarten for City Hall staff, or any public kindergarten managed by the City Designed in 1780s by

Matvey Kazakov Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov (; 1738 – 7 November 1812) was a Russian Neoclassicism, Neoclassical architect. Kazakov was one of the most influential Muscovite architects during the reign of Catherine II of Russia, Catherine II, completing numerou ...

, it was shorn off its wings in 1939 and moved fourteen meters backward on rollers. By 1945 it was jacked up a storey, joined to a smaller house built in 1930s, sandwiched between new ground and attic floors, and fitted with a high-arched portico.

References

{{Russian Revolution 1917 establishments in Russia 1993 disestablishments in Russia 20th century in Moscow Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Organizations of the Russian Revolution Defunct unicameral legislatures Politics of Moscow Soviets of the Soviet Union