May 19, 1712

Saint Petersburg

The Governing Senate establishes its working seat in Saint Petersburg

The capital move left no transfer decree. Historians reconstruct it from senators arriving with their households and beginning to govern beside the Neva.

14 April 1712, three versts up the Neva

On 14 April 1712 in Russia's Julian calendar — 25 April Gregorian — Peter I was in Saint Petersburg and ceremonially received Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev on the Neva.

Peter met him three versts upstream from the city, and cannon fired from ships as they approached the fortress. He then spent about two hours at Sheremetev's lodgings.

The senators who arrived and stayed

The contemporary account used by the Higher School of Economics records that several senators arrived at the same time, and that from then on the senators lived and the Senate government operated in Saint Petersburg.

Peter had been increasingly running government and Baltic naval operations from the city. No decree transferring the capital from Moscow has been found.

Which day, and even which year

The 19 May 1712 date attached to this event is unsupported by the consulted scholarship. Even the year is debated: HSE says many historians count from the Senate's move in April 1712, while other work describes the court and Senate moving in 1713 and P. A. Krotov argues for an official-calendar declaration in May 1714.

Because the court, diplomatic corps and government offices moved at different times, there is no universally accepted single day on which the capital changed.

Moscow kept institutions of its own, and the ground Saint Petersburg stood on remained formally Swedish territory until the 1721 Treaty of Nystad.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1712-04-25.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed date, 19 May 1712, is unsupported by the consulted scholarship.
The HSE chronology's 14 April 1712 is an Old Style Russian date, equivalent to 25 April Gregorian.
Even the year is debated: HSE says many historians count from the Senate's move in April 1712, other scholarship describes the court and Senate moving in 1713, and P. A. Krotov argues for an official-calendar declaration in May 1714.
Because the court, diplomatic corps and government offices moved at different times, there is no universally accepted single day on which the capital changed.