Before Petrograd (St. Petersburg) was built, did Russia ever actually consider moving its capital somewhere else?

[Futurist]

Before Petrograd (St. Petersburg) was built, did Russia ever actually consider moving its capital somewhere else?

 

[Taikuri]

Well, St. Petersburg was a deliberate effort to make a new capitol with good access to the Baltic Sea whereas before the capitol had more like shifted according to what faction of Russia was prominent. So no I don't think so. It would be interesting to learn if there were designs by Russian Tsars specifically for that purpose and Peter The Great just decided to build his own when earlier attempts proved fleeting. Access to the seas seems to be a recurring in theme in Russian geopolitics.

 

[Larrey]

There were many capitals in what eventually became Russia. But Moscow was the capital of the Muskovite state, which pulled it all together.

It's one of these "What-ifs" that's sometimes proposed – what if fx Novgorod, with its differences in politics and traditions from Muscovy, had unified Russia?

 

[Slavon]

Almost all "moving capitals" in world history are veiled foundation of new states. Real capital cannot be simply moved. Because it would mean radical break of the state. Stable states dont move their capital only after catastrophic war defeats. Examplrs: France in 1940, Germany in 1945, Korea in 1945. After defeat they proclaimed some insignificant town as temporary capital. But didnt moved capital. Voluntary moving capital means some schock in state more than such in France, Germany or Korea.

So i think nobody didnt want to move capital from Moscow voluntary.