Vologda and Samara (Kuybyshev) as reserved (diplomatic) capital cities of Russia: political geography's approach

The capital city appears to be a key element of the political and territorial structure of the state, which forms, reproduces and transmits stateness, inwardly and outwardly. Nomination of the capital city is the process of cognition by the nation itself, the essence of the people's thoughts about their past, geopolitical positioning, and the image of the desired tomorrow and the representation of the state. Being forced by the nomination of the capital city in periods of great historical upheavals allows us to see the political and geographical context of any uncertain “vague” time. The choice of Vologda and Samara during the revolution and the war, respectively, predisposes to new outputs and implications about the political and territorial structure of Russia, the cohesion and fragmentation of its territory, to an elaboration of the concept of “capitalness” and its role in territorial identity. The relevance of the study lies in the empirical comparative study of the role of constructivist "imaginary" capitals cities in the system of center-peripheral relations. Decentralization of the image of the capital city can become an instrument of regional branding and the construction of a local identity. By means of spatial analysis by the method of S.V. Rogachev, the geographical component of the choice of Vologda and Samara was analyzed as the location of the diplomatic community. The method implies the creation of schemes of spatial patterns - mental maps, which are the result of the generalization of territorial images and allow collectively to “conceptualize” the reality as precise as possible. The project methodology implied passive participant observation, in-depth interviews, and the collection of written, oral and audiovisual materials. The analysis made it possible to identify some common features and aspects of the political and geographical position of the city, which are necessary for the location of the capital city on its place. The capital city should be located in a node of the country's key traffic flows, and those that ensure the city's connectivity in all geographic directions: north, south, west and east. It is important to connect the capital city, protected by the location of spatial barriers, at least along the vector of the greatest external threat with several large paths of permeability. The capital should be placed at the point of maximum actualization of its own political pressure in the “core” of the state's potential (long-term development zone).