The Capital Should Move To Petersburg

Somebody has to say it: the capital should be moved to St Petersburg. It could be pure frustration speaking, born of the interminably slow advent of summer, or of a surfeit of pukh. But before anybody pleads our insanity, moving capitals has precedents even within Russia. Peter the Great moved the seat of government away from Moscow to the shores of the Gulf of Finland in the first place -- and he had to build it from scratch. The Bolsheviks then moved it back to Moscow. Why should it not shuttle north again?Nor is the idea of shifting capitals unique to Russia. The Germans, for example, are trying to move back to Berlin from Bonn. The Brazilians did it. Kazakhstan has just announced that it plans to do it. In fact, dig far enough back into the history of any nation and it has probably moved capital once.The arguments for moving:?Living in St. Petersburg would be more fun. Moscow has its architectural addicts and seen from the right street corner and in the right light, it can be sensationally beautiful. But St. Petersburg has canals and parks and whole boulevards of mansions and palaces, whereas Moscow boasts mainly concrete monsters and the impressive but twisted architecture of Stalin, Ivan the Terrible (St. Basil's) and their ilk. It's pockets of beauty must be sought out.?The history is right. Russia's golden years were orchestrated from St. Petersburg, its ages of suffering from Moscow. This was the capital not only of Ivan Grozny, but also the city that was sacked by the Poles during Russia's Time of Troubles and by Napoleon in later years; its power grew out of the Muscovite princelings' deftness in playing and deceiving their Mongol oppressors; and by no means least important, Moscow was in this century synonymous with the suffocating power of Soviet communism.?It would help bring St. Petersburg back to life. Many Muscovites consider St. Petersburg a museum, pretty to visit but good for little else. Bringing the president, parliament and government to the city would give it valuable new purpose and money.?Finally, the move would help physically separate Russia's politicians from its wallet, helping to relieve officials from the temptations of corruption and to relieve the business sector of inordinate state interference. Bloated ministries would be left behind to atrophy and die, their heads alone moved to the new northern capital.Moscow, once the terrible deed was done, would become Russia's New York -- the nation's financial and cultural center. The politicians would live elsewhere.The argument against moving:What if they started building monstrous concrete ministries on Nevsky Prospekt?