The legal status of the capital - the historical aspect

The status of the capital in Russia is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the 1993 federal law “On the status of the capital of the Russian Federation”. The main characteristic of the capital is the legislation that government bodies are located in the capital. However, in the case of granting the capital status of Moscow, this characteristic is not decisive, because since 2007 the Constitutional Court has been located in another city of federal significance - St. Petersburg. The perception of Moscow as a capital is currently determined, first of all, by the history of our state. A brief review of the history of the capital cities of our country shows that for a long time Moscow played the role of a historical center, uniting cities, a center of traditions. Moscow as the center of the country is perceived in the public consciousness at the present time. Therefore, in the normative legal acts on the status of the capital, the idea of historical continuity should be spelled out, just as this idea was fixed in the amendments to the Constitution of Russia in 2020.