The building of the former Senate

In the north-eastern part of the Kremlin, by order of Empress Catherine II, the building of the Noble Assemblies of the Moscow Province was built. The project was entrusted to Matvey Kazakov, an assistant to the then chief architect Vasily Bazhenov. According to the surviving memories, the project was considered too unusual and bold, which scared even experienced builders. Kazakov successfully coped with a difficult task by building a building in the form of an isosceles triangle. The architectural dominant of the new building was a large dome. It successfully fit into the architectural ensemble of Red Square.

Soon, the Senate, the highest body of state power, moved into the new building. The officials were waiting for a magnificent residence, a real embodiment of classicism. During the invasion of the Napoleonic army, the Senate Palace was looted. The French threw valuable state archives into the moat-behind the wall of the fortress. By order of Napoleon, the equestrian statue of St. George was removed from the dome of the Senate and taken to France. After the revolution, the Senate Palace was renamed the first building of the Workers 'and Peasants' Government building. Here were the apartments of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Lenin. According to legend, the building was equipped with an elevator that went up to the roof. Then another Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, moved into the former Senate Palace. A huge, one hundred and fifty square meters, Stalin's office was located on the second floor. There are legends that there was a secret underground passage from the office. Then, on the third floor of the main facade, the offices of Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev were located. Surprisingly, the leaders categorically refused to enter the offices of their predecessors. The former Senate Palace was completely reconstructed under the first Russian president – Boris Yeltsin. The state halls were restored to their former gloss. Currently, the working residence of the President of the Russian Federation is located in the premises of the Senate Palace.