Revolution in Moscow

Abstract

The outcome of the Russian revolution depended in large part on whether Moscow workers and soldiers would support the workers of Petrograd. Moscow was a major economic, political, and cultural center, the second capital of Russia. During the twenty years preceding the revolution, the city's population had doubled, and by February of 1917 comprised over two million persons, nearly the population of Petrograd.1 But Moscow's population was more petit bourgeois in character than that of Petrograd. Many tradesmen, workers in small businesses, and office employees lived there. The industrial proletariat made up less than half of those employed in Moscow, and these workers maintained closer ties to the village. The proletariat was not concentrated in large factories such as in Petrograd. According to data from factory inspections, by the beginning of 1917, only 28 firms in Moscow employed over one thousand workers each, while 739 enterprises employed less than one thousand workers.2