Temporary capital

A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a country or a town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in establishing control in another metropolitan area. This is common during a civil war, when one faction lacks control of the capital, or during an invasion, when the usual capital is taken or threatened by invaders.

Examples include:

• During World War II due to evacuation actions the Soviet Union had different de facto capitals:
  • Kuybyshev (now Samara) — planned temporary capital in case of occupation of Moscow and de facto temporary administrative and diplomatic capital
  • Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) — de facto temporary industrial capital
  • Kazan — de facto temporary scientific capital
  • Tyumen — de facto temporary spiritual capital
• Similarly the Republic of China maintained a temporary capital in Chongqing while Japan occupied Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and following the Chinese Revolution the Republic of China established a capital in Taipei.
• The Pan-Russian "White" regime of A. Kolchak in Omsk during the Russian Revolution
• During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists initially had a temporary capital at Burgos; once the Nationalists took Madrid, the Republicans maintained temporary capitals first at Valencia and finally at Barcelona.
• The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Bir Lehlou, rather than El Aaiún, Western Sahara, but with its de facto headquarters in Tindouf, Algeria.
• The government of Somalia in various locations within their territory and Kenya, rather than Mogadishu.
• Lithuania in Kaunas rather than Vilnius during the interwar period when Poland controlled the latter city (see Temporary capital of Lithuania).
• The Parliament of Finland moved from Helsinki to Kauhajoki during Winter War.
• In the Korean War before the KPA conquered and occupied Seoul, the South Korean government temporairly moved their capital to Pusan (Busan) and the many left behind in Seoul had no choice but to accept their fate. The government of South Korea restablished Seoul as the permanent capital of South Korea after the Korean War Ceasefire.

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