Secrets of Lenin's Kremlin apartment. How the leader of the revolution lived and worked

Dolgoruky's Kremlin was tiny: it fit between the modern Tainitskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. It was surrounded by a wooden wall 1,200 meters long.

At first this fortress was called a city, and the lands around it were called a suburb. When it appeared, the fortress was renamed Old Town. And only after construction in 1331 the fortress was called the Kremlin, which meant “fortress in the center of the city.”

The word "comes from the Old Russian "krom" or "kremnos" (solid) - this was the name of the central part of ancient cities. Kremlin fortress walls and towers were usually placed at the highest places.

The word “Kremlin” could also come from the so-called “kremlin” (strong) wood from which city walls were built. And in 1873, researcher A.M. Kubarev suggested that this toponym could come from the Greek language, where “kremnos” means “steepness, a steep mountain above a bank or ravine.” The Moscow Kremlin really stands on a mountain on a steep river bank, and the words “kremn” and “kremnos” may have entered Russian speech with the Greek clergy who arrived in Moscow in the late 1320s along with Metropolitan Theognostus.

Guide to Architectural Styles

The Moscow Kremlin stands on Borovitsky Hill, at the confluence of the Moscow River and. Behind the walls of the fortress with an area of ​​9 hectares, residents of the surrounding villages could hide from danger.

Over time, the plantings grew. The fortress grew with them. In the 14th century, under Ivan Kalita, new walls of the Moscow Kremlin were built: wooden outside, coated with clay, stone inside. Since 1240, Rus' was under the Tatar-Mongol yoke, and the Moscow princes managed to build new fortresses in the center of the captured country!

The Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy (after the fire of 1365) was built from white stone. Then the walls were almost 2 kilometers long - 200 meters shorter than today.

Fires and an earthquake in 1446 damaged the fortress, and under Ivan III at the end of the 15th century the Moscow Kremlin was rebuilt. For this purpose, Italian architects - specialists in fortification - Aristotle Fiorovanti, Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo were invited. They built not just a fortress, but a holy city. The legendary Constantinople was laid out in three corners on all sides, seven miles apart, so the Italian craftsmen placed 7 red-brick towers (together with the corner ones) on each side of the Moscow Kremlin and tried to maintain the same distance from the center - . In this form and within such boundaries, the Moscow Kremlin has survived to this day.

The Kremlin walls turned out so good that no one has ever taken possession of them.

How to read facades: a cheat sheet on architectural elements

Two water lines and the slopes of Borovitsky Hill already gave the fortress a strategic advantage, and in the 16th century the Kremlin turned into an island: a canal was dug along the northeastern wall that connected the Neglinnaya and Moscow rivers. The southern wall of the fortress was built first, since it faced the river and was of great strategic importance - merchant ships arriving along the Moscow River moored here. Therefore, Ivan III ordered the removal of all buildings south of the Kremlin walls - since that time nothing has been built here except earthen ramparts and bastions.

In plan, the Kremlin walls form an irregular triangle with an area of ​​about 28 hectares. On the outside they are made of red brick, but inside they are built from the white stone of the old walls of the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, and for greater strength they are filled with lime. They were built from half-pound bricks (weighing 8 kg). In proportions it resembled a large loaf of black bread. It was also called two-handed, because it could only be lifted with two hands. At the same time, brick was an innovation in Rus' at that time: they used to build from white stone and plinth (something in between brick and tile).

The height of the Kremlin walls ranges from 5 to 19 meters (depending on the topography), and in some places reaches the height of a six-story building. Along the perimeter of the walls there is a continuous passage 2 meters wide, but from the outside it is hidden by 1,045 merlon battlements. These M-shaped battlements are a typical feature of Italian fortification architecture (they were used to mark fortresses by supporters of imperial power in Italy). In everyday life they are called “swallowtail”. From below, the teeth seem small, but their height reaches 2.5 meters and their thickness is 65-70 centimeters. Each battlement is made of 600 half-pound bricks, and almost all the battlements have loopholes. During the battle, the archers covered the gaps between the battlements with wooden shields and fired through the cracks. Every prong is a sagittarius, people said.

The walls of the Moscow Kremlin were surrounded by rumors of underground wars. They defended the fortress from undermining. There was also a system of secret underground passages under the walls. In 1894, archaeologist N.S. Shcherbatov discovered them under almost all the towers. But his photographs disappeared in the 1920s.

Dungeons and secret passages of Moscow

There are 20 towers in the Moscow Kremlin. They played a key role in monitoring the approaches to the fortress and in defense. Many of the towers were drive-through, with gates. But now three are open for travel to the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya.

The corner towers have a round or multifaceted shape and contain secret passages and wells inside to supply the fortress with water, while the remaining towers are quadrangular. This is understandable: the corner towers were supposed to “look” in all external directions, and the rest - forward, since they were covered from the sides by the neighboring ones. Also, the passage towers were additionally protected by diversion towers. Of these, only Kutafya has survived.

In general, in the Middle Ages, the towers of the Moscow Kremlin looked different - they did not have hipped tops, but there were wooden watchtowers. Then the fortress had a more severe and impregnable character. Now the walls and towers have lost their defensive significance. The gable roof also did not survive: it burned down in the 18th century.

By the 16th century, the Kremlin in Moscow acquired the appearance of a formidable and impregnable fortress. Foreigners called it a “castle” on Borovitsky Hill.

The Kremlin has been at the center of political and historical events many times. Russian tsars were crowned here and foreign ambassadors were received here. The Polish interventionists and the boyars who opened the gates for them took refuge here. The Kremlin tried to blow up Napoleon fleeing from Moscow. The Kremlin was going to be rebuilt according to Bazhenov’s grandiose project...

What can be compared with this Kremlin, which, surrounded by battlements, flaunting the golden domes of cathedrals, reclines on a high mountain, like a sovereign crown on the brow of a formidable ruler?.. It is the altar of Russia, on it many sacrifices worthy of the fatherland should be and are already being made.. No, it is impossible to describe neither the Kremlin, nor its battlements, nor its dark passages, nor its magnificent palaces... You must see, see... you must feel everything that they say to the heart and imagination!..

During Soviet times, the Moscow Kremlin housed the government. Access to the territory was closed, and the dissatisfied ones were “calmed down” by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. Sverdlov.

Undoubtedly, the bourgeoisie and the philistines will raise a howl - the Bolsheviks, they say, are desecrating holy places, but this should least of all bother us. The interests of the proletarian revolution are higher than prejudices.

During the reign of Soviet power, the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin suffered more than in its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 54 structures inside the Kremlin walls. Less than half have survived. For example, in 1918, on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin's monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was demolished (he was killed in February 1905), and at the same time the monument to Alexander II was destroyed (a monument to Lenin was later erected on its pedestal). And in 1922, more than 300 pounds of silver and 2 pounds of gold, more than 1,000 precious stones, and even the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes were taken from the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin.

Congresses of the Soviets were held, a kitchen was set up in the Golden Chamber, and a dining room was set up in Granovita. The Small Nicholas Palace turned into a club for workers of Soviet institutions, a gym was opened in the Catherine Church of the Ascension Monastery, and a Kremlin hospital was opened in the Chudov Monastery. In the 1930s, the monasteries and the Small Nicholas Palace were demolished, and the entire eastern part of the Kremlin turned into ruins.

The Kremlin: a mini-guide to the territory

During the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was one of the main targets of aerial bombardment of Moscow. But thanks to camouflage, the fortress “disappeared.”

The red brick walls were repainted, and windows and doors were painted on them to imitate individual buildings. The battlements on top of the walls and the stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with plywood roofs, and the green roofs were painted to look rusty.

The camouflage made it difficult for German pilots to find the Kremlin, but did not save them from bombing. In Soviet times, they said that not a single bomb fell on the Kremlin. In fact, 15 high-explosive and 150 small incendiary bombs fell. And a bomb weighing a ton hit, and part of the building collapsed. British Prime Minister Churchill, who later arrived in the Kremlin, even stopped and took off his hat as he passed by the gap.

In 1955, the Moscow Kremlin was partially opened to the public - it turned into an open-air museum. At the same time, residence in the Kremlin was prohibited (the last residents left in 1961).

In 1990, the Kremlin ensemble was included in the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage sites. At the same time, the Kremlin became a government residence, but retained its museum functions. Therefore, there are uniformed employees on the territory who quickly guide lost tourists “on the right path.” But every year more and more corners of the Kremlin become open for walks.

The Kremlin is also often filmed for film. And in the film “The Third Meshchanskaya” you can even see the Moscow Kremlin before the demolition of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries.

Mini-guide to the Kremlin walls and towers

They say that......The Kremlin walls were built by Ivan the Terrible (Ivan III was also called “The Terrible”). He called 20,000 village men and ordered:
- So that everything will be ready in a month!
They paid little - 15 kopecks a day. Therefore, many died of hunger. Many were beaten to death. New workers were brought in to take their place. And a month later the Kremlin walls were completed. That's why they say that the Kremlin is standing on its bones.
...in the lower tiers of the bell tower the shadow of Ivan IV often wanders. Even the memories of Nicholas II have been preserved, how on the eve of the coronation the spirit of Ivan the Terrible appeared to him and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
And when False Dmitry was killed in the Moscow Kremlin, Muscovites sometimes began to see the outlines of the Pretender’s figure flashing in the twilight between the battlements of the walls. He was also seen on the August night of 1991 - before the coup attempt.
And one evening, the watchman on duty in the building next to the Patriarchal Chambers (there was housing there under Stalin) raised the alarm. One of the apartments on the second floor was occupied by the People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov, and the duty officer's post was located in the hallway of the former Yezhov apartments. Around midnight, the watchman heard footsteps on the stairs, then the jingling of a key in the lock, and the creak of a door opening and closing. He realized that someone had left the building and tried to apprehend the intruder. The duty officer jumped out onto the porch and saw, a few meters from the house, a small figure in a long overcoat and cap, well known from old photographs. But the ghost of the security officer melted into thin air. We saw Yezhov several more times.
The spirit of Stalin did not appear in the Moscow Kremlin, but the ghost of Lenin is a frequent guest. The spirit of the leader made his first visit during his lifetime - on October 18, 1923. According to eyewitnesses, the terminally ill Lenin unexpectedly arrived from Gorki to the Kremlin. Alone, without security, he went to his office and walked around the Kremlin, where he was greeted by a detachment of cadets from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The head of security was at first taken aback, and then rushed to call Gorki to find out why Vladimir Ilyich was unaccompanied. Then he learned that Lenin had not gone anywhere. After this incident, real devilry began in the leader’s Kremlin apartment: the sounds of moving furniture, the crackling of a telephone, the creaking of floorboards and even voices were heard. This continued until Ilyich’s apartment with all his belongings was transported to Gorki. But until now, security and Kremlin employees sometimes see on frosty January evenings

Died January 21, 1924 Vladimir Lenin, one of the most prominent political leaders of the 20th century. About the last years of the life of the “leader of the world proletariat”, after the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, in the material of AiF.

Special operation

Lenin informed members of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) about his plans to move to Moscow at a meeting on February 26, 1918. It is interesting that the next day, after the decision to move was made, the newspapers published a message from the authorities: “All rumors about the evacuation of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Executive Committee (Central Executive Committee - Ed.) from Petrograd are completely false. The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Executive Committee remain in Petrograd and are preparing the most energetic defense of Petrograd...” But at the small Tsvetochnaya Ploshchad station, the secret training of the railway special forces was already in full swing. On March 10, 1918, at 22:00, train No. 4001, guarded by 200 Latvian riflemen, set off for Moscow. The journey took almost a day, and upon arrival the riflemen took security over the new seat of the Soviet government - the Kremlin.

By the way, part of the new Soviet elite settled right there in the Kremlin. Moreover, some figures - Yakov Sverdlov, Alexey Rykov, Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council Valerian Obolensky (Osinsky), head of the Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky, at that time People's Commissar for Nationalities Joseph Stalin and others - at different times they lived directly in the royal Grand Kremlin Palace. By the end of 1918, 59 people were officially registered in the palace. In total, by mid-summer 1918, more than 1,100 people were permanently living in the Kremlin.

Library corridor. Photo: RIA Novosti

However, for the most part these were still palace employees, monks and priests of the two monasteries located on the territory of the Kremlin. There was not enough housing for the “newcomers,” so on July 20, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted a resolution: “...Within seven days, evict from the Kremlin all persons who do not serve in Soviet institutions, allowing those evicted to take with them only (personal) household items. The premises thus vacated will be provided for housing for Soviet employees.” The decision to evict from the Kremlin Sergei Bartenev, historian and researcher of the Kremlin fortress, - albeit with an expression of great regret - was personally received by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin. He allocated his car to the historian to remove things and the unique library.

Front apartment. Photo: RIA Novosti

By the way, the Bolsheviks had cars from their own garage at their disposal His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II and cars that, after the February Revolution of 1917, were taken away from wealthy citizens of the former empire by order of the Provisional Government. The French Turka-Mary, Renault and the British Rolls-Royce were assigned to Lenin's family. Lenin also used them for trips outside of Moscow, for example, to hunt in the forests of the Moscow region or Tver. There is a funny document in the archives of a special purpose garage: during a trip to Arkhangelskoye, a car from a special garage that was stuck in the snow was rescued by peasants. They had to pay five rubles for help.

Kitchen. Photo: RIA Novosti

By the way, Lenin’s cars were stolen twice. Back in St. Petersburg in 1918, “Turk-Mary” was taken right from the main entrance of Smolny. As it turned out, the thieves were employees of the Smolny fire department; they wanted to resell the car in Finland. In Moscow Sokolniki in 1919, a gang Yashki Wallet, having pulled out into the snow the driver, the security guard, Lenin himself, who was not recognized as the head of state, and his sister Maria Ilyinichna, took away things, weapons and a car. The car, a Renault 40, was quickly found this time too, and the bandits were caught and shot.

N. Krupskaya's room. Photo: RIA Novosti

Meanwhile, Lenin himself, after moving, settled for some time in the Kremlin in the so-called Cavalry Corps (two of them were demolished during the construction of the Palace of Congresses). But already in the fall he moved to an apartment specially prepared for him in the building of the Kremlin Senate, in the offices of which the tsar’s heads were replaced by officials of the Soviet government. To arrange an apartment for Lenin, the layout of the third floor of the building was changed. Next door they set up a reception room, a meeting room of the Politburo, and Lenin’s office, next to which a switchboard and telephone operators were placed.

V. Lenin's room. Photo: RIA Novosti

Ilyich with a stove

The apartment turned out to be quite spacious. Ilyich’s own bedroom is about 18 m2 plus a vestibule. The chief's wife lived next door Nadezhda Krupskaya. The largest room - about 55 m2 - had a living room. Lenin’s elder sister sometimes stayed here overnight. Anna Elizarova-Ulyanova, who in 1919, having buried her husband, was left alone. Being the head of the child protection department in the People's Commissariat for Social Security and the People's Commissariat for Education in 1918-1921, she lived next to the Kremlin, on Manezhnaya Street. Occupied another room Lenin's younger sister Maria Ilyinichna- Manyasha. Unlike her older sister, the younger sister’s personal life did not work out at all.

July 5, 1918. Lenin and his sister Manyasha go to the Bolshoi Theater for the V Congress of Soviets. Photo: RIA Novosti

In the 20s she was in love with Nikolai Bukharin(in 1924-1929, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). And he... gave her his books. By the way, Bukharin’s lengthy signatures in the books given to Manyasha are almost the only example of the handwriting of a Soviet figure who was accused of “right deviationism” and shot in 1938. Books by Lenin, Krupskaya and Maria Ilyinichna, along with many other things from the Kremlin apartment, are kept in a museum in Gorki, near Moscow - Lenin’s Kremlin apartment did not survive a major renovation in the Senate building in 1994-1995.

Dining room. Photo: RIA Novosti

Meanwhile, the apartment had its own kitchen, a maid’s room and a combined bathroom, equipped with a bathtub, a shower hose and - a rarity in those days - a water closet. However, the heating in the building at that time was still stove; there were several ordinary stoves in the apartment. But in December 1918, the first elevator in the Kremlin was made for Lenin: after the August assassination attempt Fanny Kaplan During the leader’s trip to the Mikhelson plant, it was difficult for him to climb the stairs to the 3rd floor. Another elevator allowed the apartment's inhabitants to go directly to the roof, where a gazebo was equipped. However, Lenin’s apartment was furnished modestly by today’s standards.

M. Ulyanova's room. Photo: RIA Novosti

There is garbage in the yards

In a devastated country, tensions with both food and the simplest utensils were felt even in the Kremlin. So, for example, June 14, 1918 to the first commandant of the Kremlin P. Malkov a note was received from the affairs department of the Council of People's Commissars: “I ask you to release as much cereal as possible for N.K. Ulyanova (Krupskaya - Ed.) for the necessary nutrition.” And Soon after the move, Manyasha wrote the following dispatches to the commandant: “Dear comrade! I ask you to provide for V.I. Lenin... an electric portable lamp for the table, two bowls, a rolling pin, a kettle for the stove, a spatula and a broom for collecting litter... (12 points in total. - Ed.) With rev. priv. M.I. Ulyanova.” Lenin's wife, as a housewife, according to contemporaries, was weak, so Manyasha took on some of the worries. By the way, Krupskaya lived in Lenin’s Kremlin apartment until her death in 1939. No one dared to evict “the fighting friend of the leader of the world proletariat” from the first corps.

Living room. Photo: RIA Novosti

By the end of 1920, more than 2,100 people were already registered in the Kremlin in 325 apartments and in all premises somewhat suitable for this. “Overcrowding,” houses that had not been renovated for a long time, broken windows, broken bars, garbage heaps - all this left an impression of complete neglect. The scale of the communal disaster is confirmed by documents. Thus, the “instruction” to the residents of the Kremlin dated October 14, 1918 read: “Despite the repeated instructions of the Kremlin Commandant... house committees do not at all fulfill the duties assigned to them by law: there is dirt in the courtyards and squares, in the houses, on the stairs, in corridors and apartments are terrifying. Garbage from apartments is not removed for weeks; it sits on the stairs, spreading infection. The stairs are not only not washed, but also not swept. Manure, garbage, and the corpses of dead cats and dogs lie in the yards for weeks. Stray cats roam everywhere, being constant carriers of infection. A “Spanish” disease is spreading in the city, which has also reached the Kremlin and has already caused deaths...” Apparently, the inhabitants of the Kremlin, dreaming of a world revolution, looked too far ahead into a “bright future” to be distracted by some garbage heaps near yourself under your nose.

Conference hall. Photo: RIA Novosti

"You fell victim..."

Meanwhile, already in 1918, on Lenin’s personal order, the Nikolskaya Tower of the fortress was almost completely restored, which was the most striking post-war during the storming of the Kremlin by revolutionary troops in November 1917. By July 1918, the Kremlin chimes, damaged by an artillery shell, were also restored. Instead of the melodies “How Glorious is Our Lord...” and “March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment”, they began to perform “The Internationale” at noon, and “You fell a victim...” at midnight. In 1918, the Council of People's Commissars allocated a lot of money for the restoration of the Kremlin - 450 thousand rubles.

V. Lenin's office. Photo: RIA Novosti

Vladimir Lenin took a personal and active part in many events. There was even petty tediousness. Consider, for example, such a note to the then commandant of the Kremlin: “Comrade. Peterson... I reprimand you for the unsatisfactory use of my order. Today at about 10 3/4 o'clock in the evening I passed by that post, post "B", where I talked with you the other day (the post inside the building next to the post at the outer gate). After I walked past this post for the second or third time, a sentry from inside the building shouted to me: “Don’t walk here.” Obviously, my order to accurately and clearly explain to the sentries their duties was carried out unsatisfactorily by you (for the rule about not approaching 10 steps does not apply to this internal post: in addition, the sentry did not say precisely and clearly that it was declared forbidden). Next time I will be forced to subject you to a more severe punishment... Prev. STO (Council of Labor and Defense. - Ed.) V. Ulyanov (Lenin).”

Switchboard. Photo: RIA Novosti

The habit of understanding everything down to the smallest detail, superimposed on the need to essentially re-create the state, ultimately ruined the leader. Serious health problems for Lenin, who had been complaining of headaches, fatigue and numbness in his limbs for some time, began in May 1922. But he still continued to write articles and personal notes. For example, Stalin, from whom he demanded to apologize to Krupskaya. She gave Lenin newspapers to read, after which he expressed his comments to Stalin, who was already subduing power in the country, and Stalin literally yelled at Krupskaya. One of Lenin’s most famous letters of this period was the message to the XII Congress, with the famous words “Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us communists, becomes intolerable in the post of Secretary General...” In the fall of 1922- Lenin felt better, but in the spring of 1923, after a severe stroke, he was almost permanently taken from the Kremlin to Gorki.

What Lenin died from, how his body was saved and secret rooms were built under the Mausoleum - read in the next issue of AiF.

For the materials and assistance provided, the editors would like to thank the Federal Security Service of Russia and Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Devyatov.

With the advent of Soviet power, the capital was moved to Moscow and the Kremlin again became a political center. In March 1918, the Soviet government headed by V.I. Lenin moved to the Kremlin. Palaces and cavalry corps became its residence and place of residence for Soviet leaders. Soon, free access to the Kremlin territory for ordinary Muscovites is prohibited. Temples are closed and the Kremlin bells fall silent for a long time.

During the years of Soviet power, the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin suffered more than in its entire history. On the plans of the Kremlin at the beginning of the 20th century, one can distinguish 54 structures that stood inside the Kremlin walls. More than half of them - 28 buildings - no longer exist.

In 1918, with the personal participation of Lenin, the monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was demolished. In the same year, the monument to Alexander II was destroyed.

In the mid-1920s, the chapels at the gate icons near the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers were demolished.

In 1922, during the campaign to “seize church valuables”, more than 300 pounds of silver, more than 2 pounds of gold, thousands of precious stones, and even the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes from the Assumption Cathedral were confiscated from the Kremlin cathedrals.

The Grand Kremlin Palace began to be adapted to host congresses of Soviets and congresses of the Third International, a kitchen was placed in the Golden Chamber, and a public dining room was installed in the Granovita. The Small Nikolaevsky Palace was turning into a club for workers of Soviet institutions, it was decided to build a gym in the Catherine Church of the Ascension Monastery, and a Kremlin hospital in Chudovoy.

At the end of the 1920s, a large series of demolition of ancient Kremlin buildings began. The author of a fundamental study about the Moscow churches “Forty Sorokov”, Pyotr Palamarchuk, calculated that on the eve of 1917 there were 31 churches with 51 altars in the Moscow Kremlin. During the years of Soviet power, 17 churches with 25 altars were destroyed.

Church of Saints Constantine and Helena, demolished in 1928

Ascension Monastery. demolished 1929

Church of the Annunciation on Zhitny Dvor, demolished in 1933

On September 17, 1928, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution defining the timing of the demolition of church buildings and ancient structures of the Moscow Kremlin. In 1929-1930, two ancient Kremlin monasteries, Chudov and Voznesensky, were completely demolished, with all the temples, churches, chapels, necropolises, service buildings, as well as the Small Nicholas Palace adjacent to the Chudov Monastery, where the headquarters of the defending cadets was located. Thus, the entire eastern part of the Kremlin from Ivanovskaya Square to the Senate Palace was completely ruins until 1932.

At the end of 1932, on the site of the destroyed monuments, a military school building was built. All-Russian Central Executive Committee in neoclassical style (14th building of the Kremlin). In 1933, the Church of the Annunciation in Zhitny Dvor, which was attached to the Annunciation Tower in the 18th century, was destroyed. In the same year, the oldest temple in Moscow, the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, located in the courtyard of the Grand Kremlin Palace, was destroyed. In 1934, a 5-story service building was built in its place. Not even the foundations of the temple remain, with the exception of fragments of the foundation of the western vestibule, which was discovered in 1997.

14th building of the Kremlin

The 14th building is an administrative building located between the Spassky Gate and the Senate Palace. The facade of the building faces the Tainitsky Garden. The building is one of the buildings that form Ivanovo Square of the Kremlin. The building was built in 1932-1934 on the site of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries and the Small Nicholas Palace destroyed in 1929. The project of the administrative building belongs to Ivan Rerberg. Currently, the building houses some units of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The building is not an architectural monument of the Moscow Kremlin and is not included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.

Some buildings in the Kremlin have been remodeled. At the Faceted Chamber, the “Red Porch”, the main staircase along which Russian tsars and emperors walked to their coronation in the Assumption Cathedral (restored in 1994), was broken. Before the revolution, the facade of the Grand Kremlin Palace contained 5 white stone bas-reliefs in the form of the coat of arms of Russia - a double-headed eagle - and several more small bas-reliefs in the form of coats of arms of the historical possessions of the Russian Empire (Moscow, Kazan, Astrakhan)

In 1935, the double-headed eagles that crowned the main passage towers of the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya, were replaced with stars made of gilded copper, covered with Ural gems. In 1937, gem stars were replaced with ruby ​​glass stars. The ruby ​​star was first installed on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.

During restoration work in the late 1960s and early 1970s, clay tiles on the Kremlin towers were replaced in many places with metal sheets painted to resemble tiles. In addition, in connection with the construction of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial, part of the surface layer of the wall between the Corner and Middle Arsenal towers was hewn to a depth of 1 m and then laid out again to create a surface monotonous in color and texture, designed to serve as a background for the memorial

State Kremlin Palace, built in the 1960s of the 20th century

The State Kremlin Palace (until 1992 - the Kremlin Palace of Congresses) was built on the site of the demolished old building of the Armory Chamber, built in 1807-1810 by I. V. Egotov in the Empire style. Before that, the buildings of Tsar Borisov’s court, that is, the former court of Boris Godunov, stood on this site. When the Armory Chamber was demolished, the ancient Russian cannons, which stood in a chain along the building (the Tsar Cannon crowned this chain), were moved to the Arsenal building.

View of the old building of the Armory Chamber
Watercolor
P.A. Gerasimov. Mid-19th century

Since 1955, the Kremlin has been partially open to the public, becoming an open-air museum. From the same year, a ban on living on the territory of the Kremlin was introduced (the last residents left in 1961)

In 1990, the Kremlin was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve
MOSCOW KREMLIN

Unlike the Tower of London, the Escurial in Madrid, the palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleau in France, and a huge number of medieval fortresses in Western Europe, long ago turned into museum complexes, the Moscow Kremlin has remained for centuries the main center of Russian statehood, where fundamental decisions for the country were made and human destinies were decided. .

The Kremlin of the 15th-16th centuries was the place of residence of boyars, palace masters, merchants, and the farmsteads of distant monasteries were located here. The development of the Kremlin until the 16th century was very cramped, so Ivan III had to take measures to improve the Kremlin territory: straight streets were laid from Spassky and Nikolsky Gates to Cathedral Square.

From the middle of the 16th century, the entirety of the supreme state, legislative, executive and judicial power was concentrated in the hands of the tsar, and the actions of the authorities were carried out in the name of the tsar and by his decree. The Tsar exercised his power through the Boyar Duma and the order of Secret Affairs (since 1646). The Rank, Local and Ambassadorial orders were subordinate to the Boyar Duma. The order of Secret Affairs was subordinated to the king. The Palace orders were subordinated to the Tsar and the order of Secret Affairs. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' had his orders.

All these orders were headed by boyars, as well as clerks and Duma nobles. In the middle of the 17th century, the administrative buildings stretched in one line from the Archangel Cathedral to the Spassky Gate. In the first quarter of the 18th century, Peter I abolished the orders and introduced a system of collegiums in Russia.

After the Time of Troubles, under Mikhail Fedorovich and especially under Alexei Mikhailovich, the Kremlin as a royal residence reached its peak. The royal chambers occupied only one floor of the Terem Palace, the rest of the premises had a state purpose: the Boyar Duma met in the Cross Chamber, and the church court sat in the Prestolnaya Chamber.

Before the fire of 1737, the Kremlin housed many publicly accessible city institutions, such as the Medical Office and the Main Pharmacy.

The courtyards of the nobility and clergy occupied too large an area, and therefore could no longer be located within the Kremlin, so they were gradually pushed back to the areas of Kitay-Gorod and the White City. In the second half of the 18th century, the nobles finally moved out of the Kremlin.

As you know, since the time of Peter, who moved the capital to St. Petersburg, Moscow has been called the “first throne”. And although the entire main imperial and official life took place on the banks of the Neva for more than two hundred years, the Moscow Kremlin was not mothballed. Spiritual and cultural life continued here. Not far from the Kremlin, in the building of the Sukharev Tower, the school of mathematical and navigational sciences, created by decree of Peter I, was located, which was under the jurisdiction of the Kremlin Armory. Simultaneously with the Navigation School, foreign language courses were opened under the Ambassadorial Prikaz, and the Moscow Burmist Chamber was created, which was called upon to collect taxes from all Russian cities, so that gradually it began to serve as the main treasury. The Commandant of Moscow and his office settled in the Poteshny Palace in 1806; before the revolution, the Senate building housed the Moscow Judicial Chamber, which considered political cases, and the Moscow District Court, and officials of the judicial chamber with their families lived in the Cavalry Corps.

For centuries, the Kremlin has been the sacred center of the country. During the reign of Ivan Kalita, the Spassky Monastery was founded here next to the Church of the Savior on Bor. At the beginning of the 14th century, the metropolitan court moved to the Kremlin territory. In 1365, Metropolitan Alexy founded the Chudov Monastery, located closer to Cathedral Square. The history of its foundation is connected with the miraculous healing through the prayer of Metropolitan Alexy of Khansha Taidulla, mother of the Golden Horde khan Janibek. In the 15th-16th centuries, along with the Trinity-Sergius, Joseph-Volokolamsk, Kirillo-Belozersky monasteries, the Chudov monastery was one of the largest in Rus'. In 1407, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy, Princess Evdokia, founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, which became the tomb of the grand duchesses and other representatives of the grand ducal house. Already under Ivan III, in 1490, the Spassky Monastery was moved beyond the Kremlin walls. Since the end of the 16th century, the Kremlin has been the residence of the Patriarchs of Moscow and All Rus'. Under Patriarch Nikon, new Patriarchal Chambers were erected here next to the royal palace, and after the establishment of the Holy Synod in 1721, the Synodal House.

The Kremlin remained the center of Orthodox life until 1918, with services held daily in its 25 churches and cathedrals. On January 23, 1918, the Soviet government adopted a decree “On freedom of conscience and religious societies,” which was later included in the collection of laws (1918. No. 18) under the title “On the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church.” The decree determined that “no church and religious societies have the right to own property, they do not have the rights of a legal entity, and all the property of church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared national property.” From that time on, the cathedral bells in the Kremlin fell silent, the domes were stripped of their crosses, and the churches were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture.

At one time, Alexander I bought a metropolitan house from the Chudov Monastery and, having rebuilt it, gave it to his younger brother Nicholas. The future Emperor Alexander II was born in the Nicholas Palace in 1818. Emperor Nicholas called Moscow “the amiable ancient capital.” He often visited the Grand Kremlin Palace, which he rebuilt, where the royal family’s chambers were located on the first floor, and the second floor was used for ceremonial receptions. It is no coincidence that under Nicholas I the first long railway in Russia was built from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Typically, visits of the imperial family to the Kremlin were associated with the coronation of a new monarch in the Assumption Cathedral. At this time, the imperial court also moved to Moscow. Coronation festivities lasted for many days and were accompanied by balls, masquerades, and theatrical performances. The last ceremonial arrival of Nicholas II to the Kremlin with his family and retinue took place on the occasion of the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, which was widely celebrated in 1913. And on August 18, 1914, the entire imperial family gathered in the Grand Kremlin Palace in connection with the outbreak of the First World War. Contemporaries recalled that on that day the Kremlin was filled with a huge crowd, whose roar was drowned out by the roar of the bells of Ivan the Great.

In March 1918, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, Moscow was again declared the capital. A special resolution was adopted on the relocation of the government and party leadership from Petrograd (Smolny) to Moscow (Kremlin). The new leadership of the country settled in the Senate building, and the Red Banner was raised over the Kremlin. The first to enter the Kremlin through the Trinity Gate on March 12, 1918 were V. I. Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, and Ya. M. Sverdlov, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

So in the spring of 1918, the ancient Kremlin found new life and new inhabitants.

From the Trinity Gate to the right along the Kremlin wall stretched Palace Street, lined on both sides by the Officers', Kitchen, Grenadier's, three Cavalry, Children's and Maid of Honor buildings, the Amusement Palace and other buildings, which gradually began to be occupied by new residents.

In October 1918, the Ascension Monastery was closed. The nuns, led by the abbess, were evicted from the Kremlin and assigned to the church of the Lefortovo hospital. The Chudov Monastery was also deserted. And new guests also moved into the cells of the monks and nuns.

L. D. Trotsky, in his book “My Life,” describing Kremlin life, admitted that the new Kremlin housing made a strange impression on him: “With its medieval wall and countless gilded domes, the Kremlin, as a fortress of a revolutionary dictatorship, seemed like a complete paradox. True, Smolny, where the Institute of Noble Maidens was previously located, was not in its past intended for workers, soldiers and peasants' deputies. Before March 1918, I had never been to the Kremlin, nor did I know Moscow at all, with the exception of one single building: the Butyrka transit prison, in the tower of which I spent six months in the cold winter of 98–99. As a visitor, one could contemplatively admire the Kremlin antiquity, the Grozny Palace and the Palace of Facets. But we had to settle here for a long time. The close everyday contact of two historical poles, two irreconcilable cultures both surprised and amused...

Before the revolution, Kremlin officials lived in the Cavalry Corps, opposite the Amusement Palace. The entire lower floor was occupied by a high-ranking commandant. His apartment has now been divided into several parts. Lenin and I moved across the corridor. The dining room was common. The food in the Kremlin was very poor at that time. Instead of meat they gave corned beef. Flour and cereals were with sand. Only red chum caviar was in abundance due to the cessation of exports. It is not only in my memory that the first years of the revolution are colored by this unchanging caviar.

The musical clock on the Spasskaya Tower was rebuilt. Now the old bells, instead of “God Save the Tsar,” slowly and thoughtfully rang “The Internationale” every quarter of an hour. The access for cars was under the Spasskaya Tower, through a vaulted tunnel. Above the tunnel is an ancient icon with broken glass. In front of the icon is a long-extinct lamp. Often, when leaving the Kremlin, the eye rested on the icon, and the ear caught the “Internationale” from above. The gilded double-headed eagle still rose above the tower with its bell. Only the crown was removed from him. I advised placing a hammer and sickle over the eagle, so that the gap in time could be seen from the height of the Spasskaya Tower. But they never got around to doing this...

In my room there was furniture made of Karelian birch. Above the fireplace, the clock under Cupid and Psyche chimed with a silver voice. Everything was inconvenient for work. The smell of idle nobility emanated from every chair. But I also approached the apartment on a tangent, especially since in the first years I only had to spend the night in it during my short raids from the front to Moscow.

Almost on the first day of my arrival from St. Petersburg, we talked with Lenin, standing among the Karelian birch trees. Cupid and Psyche interrupted us with a melodious silver ringing. We looked at each other, as if catching ourselves in the same feeling: from the corner the lurking past was listening to us. Surrounded by him on all sides, we treated him without respect, but also without hostility, a little ironically. It would be wrong to say that we were accustomed to the environment of the Kremlin - there were too many dynamics in the conditions of our existence for that. We had no time to “get used to it.” We looked sideways at the situation and said to ourselves ironically and encouragingly to the cupids and psyches: weren’t you expecting us? There's nothing you can do, get used to it. We accustomed the situation to ourselves."

First of all, the new inhabitants of the Kremlin renamed Dvortsovaya Street to Kommunisticheskaya. Also in 1918, the Kremlin was closed to visitors.

At first, V.I. Lenin, like his comrades Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Stalin, Bukharin, Molotov and many others, occupied a two-room apartment (No. 24) in one of the Cavalry buildings, which has survived to this day. But he soon moved to the more spacious home of the prosecutor of the Judicial Institutions, in the Senate building. The apartment was located in the part closer to the Trinity Gate, on the third floor. Lenin lived here with his wife and sister from 1918 to 1923, and members of his family continued to live here until 1939.

The decision to open the Lenin Apartment Museum was made only during the time of N.S. Khrushchev, perhaps on his personal initiative. True, by that time the interior decoration of the premises had already been lost, and it was assigned to the architect G. G. Savinov to restore it. The museum was opened to the public in 1955. Its main attraction was Lenin's personal library, numbering 18 thousand volumes. The interior of the apartment retains a grand piano, and in the kitchen there is a shelf with saucepans made from the first Soviet aluminum. But the situation, of course, was far from Spartan. In 1995, in accordance with the decree of the Prime Minister, the Kremlin Apartment Museum moved to Gorki, where it now occupies a separate building on the territory of the estate park.

In the apartments of all the Kremlin inhabitants there was furniture left over from their former life. We had to eat from dishes with the royal coat of arms: the commandant simply did not have another one.

The Arsenal building housed the barracks and administrative services of the Kremlin Commandant's Office.

Security was entrusted to the Latvian riflemen, subordinating them to the Kremlin commandant. In September 1918, they were replaced by machine gun courses from Lefortovo, which in January 1919 were renamed the First Moscow Machine Gun Courses for the training of Red Army command personnel. Thus, a school for red commanders, who were then called Kremlin cadets, was created here. Since 1930, Kremlin cadets served at post No. 1 at the entrance to the Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin. In 1935, the tasks of protecting the Kremlin were transferred to the Special Purpose Battalion, which fully assumed the responsibilities of protecting members of the Soviet government and became subordinate to the NKVD of the USSR. In the same year, the battalion was reorganized into a special-purpose regiment, and in 1936 into a Separate Kremlin Regiment. By decree of President B.N. Yeltsin on March 20, 1993, it was transformed into the Presidential Regiment.

In September 1918, a special Kremlin telephone room appeared, where a 100-number switchboard was installed, and in January 1922, the Commandant’s Office of the Moscow Kremlin began operating its own automatic telephone exchange. In 1930, the first HF communication lines Moscow-Leningrad and Moscow-Kharkov were put into operation.

In April 1929, on the initiative of the Kremlin commandant R. A. Peterson, a government commission, which included K. E. Voroshilov, V. V. Shmit, A. E. Enukidze, examined the buildings of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries and decided to demolish them , clearing the place for the construction of the Military School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with an underground shooting range for machine gunners. True, already in October 1935, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee school was evacuated from the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. And in this part of the Kremlin, inaccessible to visitors, next to the Spasskaya Tower, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with the Kremlin Theater is located. In the 1950s, the building was transferred to the Supreme Council and the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR. Today this building is called the 14th building.

There were not so many premises suitable for living in the Kremlin, and therefore senior party functionaries and government officials since 1918 lived in the best hotels in the city: the Metropol, National, Central and Savoy, which were transformed into the so-called Houses of Soviets.

In the Kremlin, everyone lived very modestly, like in a large communal apartment. Children rode bicycles through the Kremlin public gardens, bawled, and got underfoot. Then they grew up and had to be taken to school. Over time, it became more and more difficult to live and work here, much less maintain order. In 1931, families of major party leaders began to move from here, and by 1937 almost no one was left here. In the 1930s, those who were not repressed were moved to city apartments. Only Stalin was left to live in the Kremlin, but even he spent most of his time at the Blizhnaya dacha in Volynskoye.

Very close to the Kremlin, across the bridge, a huge house was built in 1931, with the light hand of Yuri Trifonov, known to everyone as the House on the Embankment, where many Kremlin families moved.

Today everyone knows about the fate of this dark gray gloomy house on Serafimovich Street, covered with memorial plaques. It was built according to the design of the architect Boris Mikhailovich Iofan as an exemplary house of the future, in which high-ranking Soviet party and government figures were to live: members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Commission of Soviet Control, the Party Control Committee, People's Commissars, Deputy People's Commissars, and chiefs of central administrations. Later they were joined by the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, employees of the apparatus of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the Comintern, and the People's Commissariat of Defense.

By the way, the same architect was responsible for the design of the Palace of the Soviets, which in 1931 was going to be built on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior. According to his design, a sanatorium was built in Barvikha (1931–1935), as well as Soviet pavilions at the World Exhibitions in Paris (1937) and New York (1939).

For the construction of the “House of the Central Executive Committee” in 1927, a government commission was formed, headed by A. I. Rykov, at that time the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Its members included the Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR A. S. Enukidze, the author of the project himself B. M. Iofan, Deputy Chairman of the OGPU G. G. Yagoda. All four received apartments in the new building, but only B. M. Iofan lived to old age, the rest were repressed in 1937–1938, as were many of its other residents.

The house is located on an area of ​​more than three hectares and was built for almost four years: from 1928 to 1931. There were 505 huge 7-12 room apartments with small kitchens: the people who lived here, naturally, never ate in the kitchen, but there was enough space to cook for one family. It’s another matter when, in the 40s, almost half of the apartments in the House on the Embankment became communal; in such kitchens, traditional conflicts for communal apartments, and with them scandals and gossip became inevitable. And only thirty years later, during a major renovation, the apartments were made into 4-5 rooms, and the communal apartments were moved out.

The apartments of the House on the embankment had the same furniture, made of bog oak according to the design of the same B. M. Iofan. These were tables, chairs, beds, sideboards, etc. with metal inventory numbers. Instead of a garbage chute, there was a freight elevator, the shaft of which went into the kitchens and in which special employees traveled, collecting bags of garbage put out by residents.

It had its own canteen, library, gym, grocery and department stores, kindergarten, nursery, laundry, outpatient clinic, post office and savings bank. The right wing of the house housed the Club of the Council of Ministers (now the Variety Theater), and the left wing housed the Udarnik cinema, designed for 1,500 spectators.

In this house at different times lived the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Postyshev, the First Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Shvernik, aircraft designer A. I. Mikoyan, Lenin's comrade-in-arms P. N. Lepeshinsky, military leaders M. N. Tukhachevsky, G. K. Zhukov, I. X. Bagramyan, F. I. Tolbukhin, the famous Donbass miner A. G. Stakhanov, Chelyuskin pilots M. V. Vodopyanov and N. P. Kamanin, Lenin’s secretaries E. D. Stasova and Fotieva, writers Demyan Bedny and Boris Lavrenev , poet Mikhail Koltsov, director of the ensemble I. A. Moiseev, academicians T. D. Lysenko, V. I. Burakovsky, N. N. Blokhin, V. I. Shumakov, V. P. Glushko and many, many others.

Before the war, the house was considered a special facility and was under the jurisdiction of the NKVD commandant's office. The watchmen were full-time employees of the committee; they had the keys to all apartments. It was just like that, it was impossible to get into the house from the street, and guests were forbidden to stay for a long time: they had to leave no later than 23.00. The fate of each of those who lived in it is worthy of both respect and regret.

After the war, the idea of ​​gathering all outstanding contemporaries under one roof was abandoned, and memorial plaques began to appear on the walls of the house. Now everyone knows that there were wiretaps, although before it was hard to believe. I was convinced from my own experience that wiretaps were installed in apartments: shortly before the collapse of the USSR, I received an apartment in one of the Central Committee buildings. Our housemates later turned out to be iconic figures of the new Russia. But then, in the mid-80s, B.N. Yeltsin, and G.A. Zyuganov, and many others were not yet so famous and did not occupy their high positions. Not long ago, my wife and I started a European-quality renovation of our apartment, and the finishing guys showed me the “bugs” implanted in the walls. Whether they listened or not was another matter, but they played it just in case. In a word, they guarded, that is, they protected, but at the same time, they did not trust. So it is no coincidence that the fates of many of those who lived in the House on the Embankment did not work out.

Later, by order of Khrushchev, mansions were built on the Lenin Hills so that people could visit each other through the gate. And Budyonny went to Voroshilov to play the harmonica. Even later, “Kosygin’s house” and “Gorbachev’s house” appeared. But starting from the Brezhnev era, members of the Politburo no longer lived together. An attempt to recreate the idea of ​​a home for comrades-in-arms was made during the first presidential term of B. N. Yeltsin. But it turned out to be unsuccessful; very soon everyone fled from the house on Osennaya. Psychologically, it is very difficult and unjustified: both at home and at work, seeing the same faces and having the same conversations. You can’t switch gears, you can’t relax, and if you also take into account that work doesn’t happen without disagreements, then it becomes clear that they automatically transfer to the home dorm. True, it is, of course, convenient for the security service when all those protected are concentrated under one roof.

So, already in the 30s, everyday life gradually left the Kremlin, and it turned exclusively into an administrative center.

Together with the families, pets left the Kremlin: cats and dogs, and they have not been here since then. But there are squirrels and many different birds. Particularly noticeable, of course, are the crows: everyone knows how they love to ride, sliding down on their tails, from the Kremlin domes and what consequences this leads to - the crows peel off gold leaf with their paws. In order to discourage them from such fun, the Kremlin had to acquire a hawk that “patrolls” the sky above the golden domes. When reconstruction was carried out in the 1990s and the Kremlin communications, which had not changed for decades, were torn apart, it was discovered that they were inhabited by hordes of rats, which had to be fought much more seriously than with crows: among other things, the rats even chewed through a government communications cable.

The name Sovnarkom, or Government House, was firmly attached to the Senate building. Here, on the second floor, there was a three-room apartment and J.V. Stalin’s office, which consisted of a spacious reception room and a small workroom. In the reception room sat the head of personal security V.N. Vlasik, Stalin’s first assistant A.N. Poskrebyshev and assistant L.A. Loginov. In the middle of the room, on a large table, lay Soviet and foreign newspapers and magazines.

Then came the so-called dressing room, where colonels and security officers were on duty, who asked visitors to hand over their weapons, if they had any. There was also a coat rack for Politburo members.

The windows of Stalin's office overlooked the Arsenal. The white walls were lined with light oak paneling. Carpet. A large desk littered with books. Bulky, dark wood furniture. A long table covered with green cloth.

The apartment also overlooked the Arsenal and was also furnished with dark, bulky furniture; it was located in the northern part of the building, near the Nikolsky Gate, which was never opened. In the front door, two duty officers stood on both sides of the doors, checking passes.

After Stalin's death, the premises of the first building were never completely renovated. His office became the office of the chairmen of the Council of Ministers: G.M. Malenkov, N.S. Khrushchev, A.N. Kosygina.

And the third floor, in addition to the Lenin Apartment Museum, was given over to the reception of the General Secretary and his office, since it was in the Kremlin that Politburo meetings were held on Thursdays. Another office of the General Secretary was located in the building of the Central Committee of the Party, which lived in 1922 and the first half of 1923 on Vozdvizhenka, and then moved to a huge house on Staraya Square, where the fifth floor of the house was reserved for the secretaries of the Central Committee. The only division of the general department of the Central Committee that served the Politburo was located in the Kremlin. The remaining premises were those of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Council. Politburo meetings usually took place in the meeting hall of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. By the way, this hall was called Red under Lenin because it was covered with red wallpaper and the chairs in it were upholstered in red plush. Under Stalin, wallpaper was replaced with oak panels and plush with leather.

In the mid-30s, the Kremlin carried out “reconstruction” in two gigantic halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace, Aleksandrovsky and Andreevsky. They knocked down the stucco with miner's jackhammers and destroyed the decor, hastening to turn the former splendor into a dull, long room with wooden desks, where sessions of both chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR traditionally took place after the 1936 elections. Twice a year for three days. Then, however, congresses of creative unions were held there: the Writers' Union, the Composers' Union.

It is impossible not to admire the dedication of the museum specialists who worked here in the 1930s and who preserved fragments of stucco, hiding them in the basements. Already in our time, when, by order of President B.N. Yeltsin, restoration work began to be carried out in these halls, those fragments were very useful.

It is surprising that St. George's Hall and the Chamber of Facets were preserved then: in those years, in everything from clothing to protocol, the style of the revolutionary era and the desire for utilitarian simplicity prevailed.

When on March 27, 1990, at the Third Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, M. S. Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR, his office was still the office of the General Secretary, which was located on the third floor of the Senate, where Politburo meetings continued to take place. Presidential aides and members of the Presidential Council, a new structure that was entirely subordinate to the president, who determined its composition and strength, moved here. The Presidential Council then included state and public figures A. N. Yakovlev, E. M. Primakov, V. G. Rasputin, Ch. T. Aitmatov, N. I. Ryzhkov and a number of others.

But until the end of 1990, the Kremlin primarily remained the House of Government. The Senate building belonged to the apparatus of the Council of Ministers and its management of affairs. The office of the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers N.I. Ryzhkov was traditionally located in Stalin’s former office.

On December 26, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the law “On amendments and additions to the Constitution of the USSR in connection with the improvement of the public administration system,” which abolished the Council of Ministers and replaced it with the Cabinet of Ministers. Ryzhkov's government ceased to exist de jure. After the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved V.S. Pavlov as Prime Minister of the USSR (January 14, 1991), all his deputies and the former apparatus of the Council of Ministers moved from the Kremlin. And from Staraya Square to the Kremlin, the apparatus of the President of the USSR began to move, the head of which was appointed V.I. Boldin. As a matter of fact, this is where he was formed. Initially it was understood that it would be small so as not to duplicate the powerful apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee.

But already at the IV Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR on December 27, 1990, the Vice President of the USSR was elected, and in March 1991 the Presidential Council was dissolved and a new body was formed - the Security Council, then the institute of assistants and advisers to the president was created. At the same time, much was borrowed from the US presidential model. The scheme of presidential structures has undergone significant changes many times, as a completely new institution of power was created. The third floor of the now presidential Senate was still retained by the Politburo.

Today a lot has been said and written about the State Emergency Committee. There are many strange things in this whole story. I think that in 20–30 years, researchers will describe in detail how it all happened, but for now, perhaps the time has not come yet.

The signing of the Union Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States and the division of powers was scheduled for August 20–21 in Novo-Ogarevo. But history decreed otherwise.

In August 1991, I was vacationing at the Valdai sanatorium of the Fourth Main Directorate of the Ministry of Health and was supposed to return to Moscow on the evening of the 19th. At the same time, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A.I. Lukyanov, who lived at a distant state dacha, was also vacationing there. On the morning of August 19, having heard the first messages, I began to call Moscow, but it turned out that the government telephone numbers were disconnected, but I easily reached Boldin’s reception using the city number. “Come back, we’ll see there” - that was the only information that I received at that time. I was in Moscow in the evening, when there were already tanks in the city.

The end of August 1991 was marked not only by the collapse of former symbols and monuments throughout the country, for many, including the inhabitants of the Kremlin, it was a time of collapse of illusions. On August 23, in the White House, B. N. Yeltsin called for “during the establishment of democracy to dissolve the governing bodies and nationalize the property of the CPSU, to dissolve the KGB.” And on August 24, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from his post as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. On August 29, the Supreme Council banned the activities of the Communist Party and seized party property.

I was amazed by the courage of those 200-300 democrats who came out to Old Square with posters in the August days. Naturally, they had no weapons. They shouted at the Central Committee employees: “Get out immediately! The Communist Party is banned! There were at least one and a half thousand people in the building on Old Square at that hour. At least ten percent of them were armed. I am convinced that if they had something to protect, they would easily disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, these people hastily left their offices, abandoned fax machines, documents, protecting only their own safes. They were ordered to vacate the premises before four o'clock, and they complied with this demand of the crowd, like soldiers following an order.

By that time, many services of the USSR Presidential Administration did not yet have premises in the Kremlin and were located in the building of the CPSU Central Committee. However, even today a number of divisions of the Russian Presidential Administration are located on Old Square.

The USSR Presidential Protocol Management Service, which I headed, was also located in the former premises of the Central Committee. We represented the apparatus of the current president of the Soviet Union and had nothing to do with the Central Committee. When people from the square came into my office and demanded that I leave, I replied that I would leave when I collected my things and sealed the rooms. Those who came, although they were cultured and educated people, were very excited, but I did not hear any threats addressed to me from them. My colleagues and I stayed in the building on Old Square until we prepared our belongings and documentation for shipment. The mayor of Moscow at that time was G. Kh. Popov. I called him, and he sent his representatives, in whose presence the premises belonging to the apparatus of the President of the USSR were sealed. And only at 20.00 I calmly left the building on Old Square and headed to the Kremlin. Despite the turbulent events that took place, all our material assets were completely intact, even the gift storeroom, where truly valuable things were kept.

The next morning, at the appointed hour, trucks were delivered to us, and the officers assigned to them helped load and unload our property. That day, together with several employees of the USSR President’s apparatus, I moved to the Kremlin, to the first entrance of the first building, where we were temporarily housed in small rooms on different floors.

Life went on. M. S. Gorbachev also had visits both abroad and throughout the country. On October 23–24, we visited Spain, then France, where we met with Francois Mitterrand. Who would have thought that in just two months the Soviet Union would no longer exist!

In November - early December, Gorbachev went to Kyrgyzstan, where he was on a working visit and where he had many meetings with workers at enterprises and scientists. People expressed their attitude to the events that took place and were waiting for some kind of solution. And it was obvious that everyone in their hearts regretted that the Union was collapsing. However, the results of the Ukrainian referendum on independence once again confirmed that the former Union will no longer exist.

On December 24, 1991, Mikhail Sergeevich said goodbye to his employees, and on the 25th he addressed the people. In his television speech, M.S. Gorbachev announced that he was ceasing his activities as President of the USSR, and also said that he believed in his fellow citizens, wished them all the best, and ten minutes later, in the presence of the Minister of Defense, Marshal E.M. Shaposhnikov, gave B. N. Yeltsin a suitcase with nuclear attack codes. In a few days (December 30), the Soviet Union would celebrate its 69th anniversary.

On December 27, B. N. Yeltsin occupied the office of M. S. Gorbachev in the Kremlin, over which two days earlier the state flag of the USSR had been lowered and the tricolor flag of the Russian Federation had been raised.

The services of the Russian presidential apparatus were located in the 14th building back in August, immediately after the putsch. When, after 1991, the entire complex of buildings, including the Senate, was put up for reconstruction, the actual residence of the first President of the Russian Federation was located in the building of the former Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Today, the 14th building is staffed by deputy heads of the presidential administration and its main apparatus. And the Senate building is the residence of the President of the Russian Federation. Apart from the president, only his secretariat and the head of the administration are located here.

Speaking about the inhabitants of the Kremlin, one cannot fail to mention the employees of the Kremlin museums, which house a unique collection that clearly represents the history of Russian culture. During all periods of the two-century history of the Kremlin storages, museum workers have always done everything possible to preserve the priceless treasures entrusted to them.

For the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, it was planned to open a museum of gifts to Stalin in the building of the Armory Chamber, designed to testify to “the most important events of the era of revolution and the construction of socialism.” In addition to gifts, they were going to display the double-headed eagle from the Spasskaya Tower, “pierced by soldiers’ bullets,” royal standards, revolutionary banners, and other similar relics. But there were so many gifts for Stalin that this idea had to be abandoned.

Since 1918, the Kremlin has long remained a closed facility. There was a strict access control regime on its territory. And only on December 9, 1953, the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers G.M. Malenkov signed a decree allowing Soviet citizens to freely visit the Kremlin as a historical relic. Today we can say that this resolution was the first step towards the liberalization of the Soviet regime.

Access to the Kremlin was opened only seven months after the adoption of the corresponding resolution in the summer of 1954. Here it was possible to examine only the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell. After some time, the cathedrals were opened, the last to be “declassified” was the Armory Chamber. But in reality, I believe, the Kremlin opened during the International Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in the summer of 1957.

Since then, every day except Thursday, from 10 am to 6 pm, the Kremlin is open to visitors. We inherited Thursday as a day off from Soviet times, since it was on Thursdays that the Politburo met in the Kremlin. Millions of Russian and foreign citizens have the opportunity to get acquainted with the Armory Chamber, historical relics and shrines of the Kremlin churches, and in the former Patriarchal Palace visit the Museum of Applied Arts and Life of Russia of the 17th century. On the basis of the state museums of the Moscow Kremlin, the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Moscow Kremlin" was formed in 1991.

In recent years, the tradition of holding an annual reception in the Alexander Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, held by the president in honor of the best graduates of military academies and universities of all branches of the military, has become established. Also at the end of June, the All-Russian Ball of High School Graduates is held in the Kremlin. If the president manages to find time, he always comes to greet yesterday’s schoolchildren and wish them happiness and success.

The commandant is responsible for order in the Kremlin. The condition of all buildings is monitored by the Commandant's Office together with the Presidential Administration. Basically, the territory is cleaned by the economic part, where, as a rule, civilians work, sweeping, cleaning and scrubbing from early morning until late at night. They also have the appropriate equipment at their disposal. However, there are exceptions, like in 1998, when a hurricane knocked down many trees, so that even the Kremlin walls were damaged. In such cases, the Presidential Regiment is involved in the work, which normally performs completely different tasks.

Just a few years ago it was impossible to imagine that a time could come when spiritual life would return to Cathedral Square, that prayers would be heard in the Kremlin cathedrals, and in the Kremlin squares not only the hum of the voices of numerous tourists would be heard, but also the sounds of music and opera arias .

Today, the 5,000-seat venue for party congresses at the State Kremlin Palace has also found new life. It was turned into the Kremlin Ballet Theater, created in 1990 by the famous Russian choreographer, People's Artist of Russia Andrei Petrov.

By May 9, 2005, a large-scale reconstruction of the sixth floor of the State Kremlin Palace was completed. It was there that a memorable government reception was held in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory, which was held by the President of the Russian Federation and which took place after the parade on Red Square. The reception was attended by veterans of the Great Patriotic War, prominent state and public figures of Russia, as well as heads of state and government who came to share this holiday with all citizens of the Russian Federation. In 2006, the complete reconstruction of the State Concert Hall will be completed, which is being carried out gradually, starting from the lower floors, where engineering equipment has already been replaced, unique lighting equipment has been reinstalled, and the interior of the auditorium has been changed. The palace was not closed entirely, because it is currently the largest concert venue in the country. A decision was also made to reconstruct the 14th building of the Kremlin, where the office of the presidential administration is located. There has been no renovation here since the 30s of the last century. The interior of the hall where the president reads his annual message to the Federal Assembly will also be updated.

Notes:

Quote by: Titlinov B.V. The Church during the Revolution. M.; L., 1923. pp. 109–110.

TrotskyL. My life: Experience of autobiography. M., 1991. pp. 338–340.

After the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 « » no longer felt safe due to the hostility of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd, so they had to move from Petrograd to Moscow.

Upon arrival in Moscow, the Bolshevik leaders settled in the National and Metropol hotels, since work had been uninhabited for a long time and had just begun. The Kremlin after the Bolshevik shelling, Chudov Monastery:

Consequences of the Bolshevik "Maidan". House on the square at Nikitsky Gate:

But soon Ulyanov, Bonch-Bruevich, Flaxerman and others moved to apartments located near the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Gradually, a dozen administrative buildings and the Kremlin monasteries (Chudov and Voznesensky) were inhabited by them. Ulyanov and hundreds of other people became residents of fashionable apartments in a building called « » .
Moscow, immersed in darkness, and only the Kremlin stands out thanks to electric lighting - such a picture fully corresponds to the realities of the civil war and the realities of the exceptional conditions in which the “guardians of the people's welfare” lived in the midst of general chaos and poverty.
In the Cavalry Corps, high-ranking officials, such as Bronstein, Enukidze, Vorovsky, Tsyurupa, Mordukhai-Boltovsky (Kalinin), Dzhugashvili, Radek, Krestinsky, Fotieva, Bonch-Bruevich, a total of 94 people, occupied 73 rooms, next to which there were small rooms for service personnel (69 people). In the Ascension Monastery, persons of state importance and servants also lived under one roof.
Ulyanov and Bonch-Bruevich on the territory of the Kremlin:

In the autumn of 1920, this democratic hostel extended to 505 rooms occupied by families, of which 56 belonged to the highest hierarchy and 234 to service personnel: housekeepers, workers, technicians, medical personnel, etc., - the principle of fellowship did not prevent leaders from surrounding themselves with servants...
Almost a thousand military personnel defended the territory and the lives of civilian inhabitants of the Kremlin, of whom there were 1,112 people. Formation of personnel of the 1st Automatic Combat Detachment of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee named after. Sverdlova:

Party members (1,082 people) and non-party members (929 people), civilians and military men worked side by side, argued about politics, sorted things out with each other, and shared concerns about material life, health and education of children (259 people). We lived in a communal climate, not in a communal apartment, but in a small closed town. Meeting of the Bolsheviks in the Kremlin (drawing from the Moscow Museum named after V.I. Lenin):

Of the five gates of the ancient Kremlin, only one, Trinity, was open, but it was not easy for visitors to pass through them. The check of seven types of ID cards, papers and passes took a very long time at times. Showers and disinfection of clothing, mandatory for some categories of visitors during the Civil War, could further delay the visitor.
It was in this closed territory that a social environment was formed that claimed to represent the mythical “power of the worker and peasant.” The consolidation of this environment took place largely on the basis of life's banalities. Indeed, conditions of daily life improved inside the Kremlin walls and worsened outside them. In the configuration created in these first post-revolutionary years, a contrast emerges that deserves attention.
At first, the Kremlin was almost no different from other territories. The sanitary conditions there were disastrous. However, within two years everything changed, mainly thanks to the Medical and Sanitary Administration, created on February 22, 1919 by order of Ulyanov and Sverdlov. Doctor Ya.B. Levinson, the head of Lechsanupra, began by arranging two rooms for disinfection, baths, mechanical laundries and a waste incinerator, the latest German model. On his orders, the sewerage system and water supply system were repaired and storerooms were installed. After an inspection in December 1919, the kitchen in the Arsenal building was cleaned and kitchen workers were required to cover their heads and keep their aprons clean.
The extermination of rats and mice, organized in several stages, was not successful. Nine bitten soldiers and tens of kilograms of spoiled food every year - these victims finally raised the alarm, and a decisive battle ended the matter, cost one thousand gold rubles in 1922. Quite quickly they equipped everything necessary to treat diseases and maintain health. So, in 1918, a small hall with ten beds was replaced by a hospital with fifty beds. A pharmacy was opened, a laboratory for tests and a room for combined procedures (electrotherapy, hydrotherapy, x-ray) were operational. The complex of Kremlin medical services was completed with a first-class equipped dental office.
"...By the way,– Ulyanov wrote then to People’s Commissar Dzhugashvili, – Isn’t it time to found 1-2 exemplary sanatoriums no closer than 600 versts from Moscow? Spend gold on this; We spend and will spend a long time on inevitable trips to Germany. But only those where it has been proven possible to have punctually strict doctors and administration, and not the usual Soviet bunglers and slobs, can be recognized as exemplary.”
And of course, such an invariable attribute of Soviet power as state-owned dachas. In 1921, the first twelve dachas in Mamontovka near Moscow received one hundred and forty employees of the Council of People's Commissars. : “near”, “far”, on Rublyovka, 4 dachas in Sochi, 2 dachas in Georgia, 3 dachas in Crimea, 4 dachas in Abkhazia, etc. It is known that Dzhugashvili personally came to the construction site of the “near” dacha and constantly expressed wishes, which were satisfied to the smallest detail. But after 5 years he stopped liking the house, it was dismantled and a new one was built - with a corridor that led to a separate service house. Constant reconstruction and redevelopment on the “near” continued almost until Dzhugashvili’s death; on the “near” a 2nd guest floor with a huge dining room and bedroom was built...
The end of the civil war in March 1920 made it possible to begin a major overhaul of many Kremlin apartments, installing telephones, furnishing dining rooms and offices. The furniture came from outside, but some of those Kremlin props were also used, which should not have been used, being subject to the decree on the preservation of museum property. Thus, Vladislav Khodasevich noted in his memoirs the presence of palace furniture in the apartment, typical of the 80s. XIX century: “black, lacquered, upholstered in crimson satin.” From Rosenfeld, his attention was drawn to “narrow earthenware cups with a bell at the top, with a thin gold rim and a black double-headed eagle.” “As everyone knows, these are not served for tea: they are used for chocolate,” Khodasevich noted. “But it’s possible that the Rosenfelds only got these during the division,” or maybe the owners didn’t know etiquette.
One of the table services that Joseph Dzhugashvili received:

In 1923, the Council of People's Commissars made a decision, marked as "top secret", to offer the "society of old Bolsheviks" inkwells, trays, glass holders, plates, forks, knives, paintings, candelabra, chess sets, etc. Ulyanov plays chess:

The decorative details of the past, as well as the former servants rehired by Bonch-Bruevich and Malkov, led to the restoration of a certain part of the past. Ulyanov's office in the Kremlin:

But most of all, one aspect of Kremlin life contributed to the “subversive work” that the past could carry out. This aspect concerns nutrition. Upon arrival at the Kremlin from Smolny, where they were already better provided with food than everyone else, representatives of the highest authorities should have received adequate provision for them. The task of providing material support for the residents of the Kremlin fell entirely on the Administration of the Council of People's Commissars. The archives contain many documents testifying to this side of his activities. In search of food and basic necessities, the Office of Affairs turned to various organizations. So, for example, on May 29, 1918, in a letter addressed by the ruler of the Council Chancellery M.V. Komarintsev to the Moscow City Food Committee to Comrade A.B. Khalatov: “Classes at SNK take place every day until 2 am. In view of this, it seems extremely urgent to place at the disposal of the canteen at the Council a certain quantity, somehow ham, poultry, canned meat, cheese, etc.» The list of products that is asked from the Board of the Central Workers' Cooperative ends with the wish to receive premium tobacco and 2000 cigarettes. To the extent possible, through some organizations (for example, the Economic Department of the Central Election Commission), they provide themselves with rare products, such as caviar, wine, nuts, tobacco...remembered: “Ulyanov and I moved across the corridor. The dining room was shared... Red chum salmon caviar was in abundance due to the cessation of exports. It is not only in my memory that the first years of the revolution are colored with this unchanging caviar.”
For shoes, clothes, watches, etc. they turn to the State Product. They bought from private traders at free prices only as an exception. These troubles are explained by the debate, especially heated since the spring of 1918, between supporters of the “food dictatorship of the working class and the poor peasantry” (and in fact, the monopoly of the People’s Commissariat for Food) and defenders of some freedom of private trade. The second tendency was expressed by the local authorities of Moscow and the commission headed by Rosenfeld, consisting of communists of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Supreme Economic Council and cooperatives. They opposed the dictatorship and, which the People's Commissariat of Food, with the support of the Council of People's Commissars, demanded exclusively for themselves. Relations between all these authorities were tense, and therefore it was necessary to act diplomatically and spare the pride of comrades.

In 1919, the debate wanes, private commercial establishments (not only shops and stores, but also restaurants, snack bars, private canteens and even street vendors) are municipalized, nationalized, closed or banned, and a food dictatorship regarding the urban private trader is increasingly becoming a reality . The hesitation and scruples that are felt in the documents of 1918 give way to “demands”. SNK's business management better outlines the circle of its suppliers. In 1920, it could even count on its own state farm, “Red Ray”. The composition of rations is becoming more diverse, and prices are lower. Money is retained for rations, but less than their value. Most employees of the SNK Department pay approximately the same, while such prominent figures as Ulyanov, Bonch-Bruevich, Fotieva and others pay more, but in a differentiated manner. Despite improvements in supply management, food shortages remain significant. Procurement managers continue to expend a great deal of energy to ensure the supply of products.
The state of supplies requires the inhabitants of the Kremlin to take a very active part in daily problems: they have to constantly ensure that their name appears on the right list, get some signatures, express in writing requests for the slightest needs, worry about answers, take advantage of the opportunity to purchasing or receiving something, defending your rights or interests, monitoring the order of distribution, fighting against the theft of food in canteens and warehouses, etc. In a word, fuss. At the same time, the petty and envious exhausted themselves with gossip about the difference in rations... In the photo, the proletarian writer Demyan Bedny asks Yankel Movshevich Sverdlov to increase the ration:

In reality this difference was small. The lists of privileged rations (July-August 1922) began with the name of Lenin, the only one generously allocated (3.2 kg of sugar and 1.6 kg of butter). It was followed by the names of secretaries and office employees, who all received approximately the same amount of food (500 g of sugar and 100 g of butter). The number of people on these lists varied, depending on the products, from 100 to 200 people. In contrast to this group, other Kremlin residents, more than a thousand, received less significant but regular rations. Product standards did not differ much by employee category: for example, in the fall of 1922 for the Administration of Business Administration 5 pounds lard, the same norm in the Kremlin Sanitary Administration and at transport bases. At the horse base they sometimes gave out more, 7 pounds lard, 7 pounds sausage. The standards for corned beef and sausages were slightly higher in the Office of Affairs (6 pounds versus 4 pounds in Sanupra). It should be noted that in 1921-1922 there was still a civil war and there was a massive famine in the USSR, which, according to official data, claimed the lives of about 5 million people .

If inside the Kremlin they distributed to everyone, albeit not exactly equally, but enough, then the entire Kremlin, in comparison with the Moscow world around it, was a fertile oasis. The Kremlin was very different from the five Houses of Soviets (the National and Metropol hotels and three large buildings in the center of Moscow), where employees of central institutions lived. Their canteens and rations were incomparably worse than those in the Kremlin.
Here, for example, is what the Kremlin doctors recommended to the chairman of the Cheka: "1. White meat is allowed - chicken, turkey, hazel grouse, veal, fish; 2. Avoid black meat; 3. Greens and fruits; 4. All sorts of flour dishes; 5. Avoid mustard, pepper, hot spices.”
And here is the menu of Comrade Dzerzhinsky:
“Monday.” Game consommé, fresh salmon, Polish cauliflower;
Tuesday Mushroom solyanka, veal cutlets, spinach with egg;
Wednesday. Asparagus soup, bully beef, Brussels sprouts;
Thursday Boyar stew, steamed sterlet, greens, peas;
Friday Puree from flowers cabbage, sturgeon, head waiter beans;
Saturday. Sterlet soup, turkey with pickles (apple, cherry, plum), mushrooms in sour cream;
Sunday Fresh mushroom soup, marengo chicken, asparagus.”
In the fall of 1920, four Kremlin canteens (Sovnarkom, All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Central Committee of the Party, Comintern) served residents of the Kremlin, but also many other high-ranking officials who did not live within its walls. Thus, the canteen of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not refuse employees of the Arsenal and the Military School and received comrades from the Socialist Academy, the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, archives, the garage of the Council of People's Commissars and the Commissariat for Nationalities.
In January 1921, in one of his reports, Enukidze stated that the quality of food in this canteen had decreased due to the large number of clients (four thousand instead of five hundred people). In the canteen of the Council of People's Commissars the same trend is revealed (in February 1921, employees of the Council of People's Commissars were given 463 lunches versus 270 given to business travelers). However, despite the fact that the official inspection notes a decline in quality, the menu of these canteens remained very rich for that time. You can find a large selection of meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, butter, eggs, cereals, delicacies such as caviar, sausage and rare fish. The canteen of the Council of People's Commissars was best supplied, followed by the canteen of the Comintern, the canteens of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Committee belonged to the third category.
In the Houses of Soviets, rations were poor, people stood in line for hours to get the simplest foods: bread, sugar, flour, herring, dried fruit and candy. These products were supplied irregularly, and canteens did not save people from living from hand to mouth. Inedible dishes were served in the Metropol canteen; in the third House of Soviets, the canteen was punished for the very poor quality of food. Conditions at the National Hotel were relatively acceptable.
Ultimately, the food in the Kremlin canteens was unrivaled. Everyone tried to gain access there in every possible way. The gap that exists between the position of the privileged inhabitants of the Kremlin and the representatives of power living outside this coveted place gave rise to envy and hatred.
These strong feelings, as well as everyday worries, quarrels and worries about food, became obsessive, thoughts about food would not leave my head. Most of the Kremlin residents fought to increase their meager rations. Among those who seemed to be considered fairly wealthy, some, such as Enukidze, were looking for an increase in order to offer their guests tidbits that they could not try elsewhere. Others, like Rosenfeld, on the contrary, hid the wealth of the Council of People's Commissars' rations from the guests. Khodasevich says that at the Rosenfelds he was treated to thin slices of black bread, barely greased with melted butter, and dirty pieces of sugar, called “played sugar” because it was bought from the Red Army soldiers, who paid with it while playing with each other into cards. “By the meagerness of the treats they wanted to show us that in the Kremlin they eat the same way as we do.” Since Ulyanov became addicted to tea, one of the first orders of the Soviet government was a decree on tea and the creation of “Tsentrochay”, i.e. an order to confiscate and transfer into the hands of the Bolsheviks all tea reserves in Russia.
Documents indicate that the rations received by Ulyanov were not ascetic. Despite this well-known fact among his circle, legends circulated around his private life. One of them is especially famous, as it was repeatedly broadcast on the radio during the anniversaries of the “leader of the world proletariat,” especially in the 1970s, during the celebration of the centenary of his birth. Allegedly, in 1919, his sister and wife asked the housekeeper to prepare a birthday cake for Vladimir Ilyich from millet received as part of the ration. But there were no eggs. The housekeeper, however, managed to get two eggs... Having learned this story from his laughing women, Lenin, to their surprise, became angry: “There is no need to look for anything, and there is no need to ask, why don’t you put an egg!” This legend eases the conscience and, most importantly, spreads outside the Kremlin the desired, but far from reality, image of the leader, and at the same time all his Kremlin relatives and neighbors.
Personal belongings of Ulyanov - watches from a Swiss company Henry Moser & Cie, jacket (wool, silk), hat (felt, reps, silk), travel bag (leather, cloth, steel), boots (leather, cotton fabric, metal):

Ulyanov preferred to travel in rare and very expensive cars. One of the first cars purchased for the Soviet leaders was the silent Rolls-Royce 40/50 “Silver Ghost”:

He also did not disdain the Renault 40CV, driving with relatives around the outskirts of the capital. The “leader’s” younger brother Dmitry Ulyanov recalled that he loved "ride with the breeze" and regularly complained about the calm driving style of the drivers.

Personal cars of members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (the first “personal cars”):

The Kremlin and the five Houses of Soviets housed the central government, which in two or three years became a closed world. Within it, a hierarchy is formed, marked mainly by food rations. From the outside, this world seems completely unified and homogeneous, since it is judged in accordance with one precise and harsh criterion: “well-fed” - and this despite the camouflage of rations and other benefits, the hierarchy of their distribution and ascetic legends.
This demarcation line is drawn by the poverty and hunger that reigns in the country. In the ancient Kremlin and in its immediate surroundings, power is strengthening and rallying around the supply trough. Inside, private life mixes with public life. One might think that the appearance of the commissar in a leather jacket, captured by memory, newsreels and paintings, was created in a Kremlin warehouse, where a carload of leather kits was driven from unknown roads.

The “new type” government, through the Administration of Affairs, dealt with economic issues that were as countless as they were incredible: fixing a watch, taking a photo, going to the theater, riding a tram... It seems like neither eating, nor dressing, nor doing anything else -it was impossible in private life without a mandatory application-petition addressed to Bonch-Bruevich, that is, entering public life.
Do the circumstances justify everything? Of course, they must be taken into account, because they isolated the Bolshevik elite in a hostile environment. However, since 1922, there has been an economic recovery, the development of market relations, and it would be possible to change the order of life. Despite this, as a result of the abolition of wages in kind, they did not switch entirely to cash support. A United Kremlin cooperative emerged, numbering twenty thousand members from all central government bodies. His task was to ensure, as before, a good food supply at special prices. Obviously, this enterprise helped the political leadership not only financially, it gave them a reason to feel in the close ranks of their people. The following, for example, resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars could be classified as “Top Secret”: “Release, at the expense of the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars, in the Special Last paragraph, according to the estimate of the Administration of the Council of People's Commissars, for the January-March quarter, 2 million rubles issued in 1923 for the maintenance of a canteen and for medical care " Thus, the established scheme of a specialized “feeding trough” in the Soviet Kremlin