Mossoviet

The Moscow City Council, in short Mossoviet, an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet, was established following the February Revolution. Initially it was a parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by left-wing parties. Following the October Revolution it became the city administration of Moscow throughout the Soviet period.

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 faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power

Between 1918 and 1941, these two administrations were perceived as two distinct, although related, bodies. The Mossovet title was appended to the names of different institutions as an honorary title referring to 1917 events, i.e.

Mossovet Theater

or as a sign of administrative control by the current administration, i.e.

Mossovet Architectural Workshops
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, 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.