Bolshaya Dmitrovka ulitsa 1
Tel. (495) 692 0736
Subway: Teatralnaya, Okhotnyy Ryad
Houseof Unions or The Trade Union House, built in the early 1780s under the supervision of architect Matvei Kazakov, became famous as the historical site where in 1861 Tsar Alexander II of Russia declared the emancipation of serfs. The Trade Union House was occupied by trade unions after the Soviet Revolution; in 1924, Vladimir Lenin's body was displayed here before being moved to a mausoleum in Red Square; in 1953, the same ceremony was held for the recently deceased Joseph Stalin.
The history of the mansion begins with the Society of
Nobles, founded in 1783 on the initiative of Councillor Mikhail
Soimonov. Its members were hereditary aristocrats who owned mansions in
Moscow Oblast; on December 19, 1784, the society purchased the mansion
of Prince Vasily Dolgorukov Krymsky at the corner of Okhotny Ryad and
Bolshaya Dmitrovka streets with funds received from the trustees under
the mansion's mortgage. The house was purchased. Upon purchasing the
house, the bill of sale was issued in the name of Prince Alexei
Golitsyn. After Prince Golitsyn's death, on November 9, 1792, the House
of Peers, through Prince Alexander Prozorovsky, Commander-in-Chief of
Moscow, petitioned Empress Ekaterina II to transfer the house to the
Society. Six months later, an imperial rescript of the highest rank
arrived:
Prince Aleksandr Aleksandrovich.
Prince
Aleksandrovich! The house of the late Mikhail Dolgoruky Privy Counselor,
who purchased the Noble Society of Moscow, in the name of the late
Prince Alexei Golitsyn, commanded by Article 50 [th] of the Charter of
the Noble Deeds to the number belonging to sobstvennostyu, remembering
the Noble Society. Ekaterina.
The mansion, of classicist
architecture, was originally used as a residence and did not have a
large hall for balls and meetings. The architect Matvei Kazakov was
invited to rebuild the building. He used the first floor as a
housekeeping room and placed the hall and living rooms on the second
floor: Soimonovskaya, Aleksandr, Katrine, Golitsyn, Kazakov, Krestovaya,
dining room, library, and smoking room were located there. The central
room was a large hall built on the site of a former courtyard. It was
surrounded by 28 Corinthian columns and lit by several rows of
chandeliers. It covers an area of 600 square meters, with a ceiling 14.5
meters high, and was painted by the artist Giovanni Battista Scotti on
mythological subjects. The hall could accommodate more than 2,000 people
and was famous for its acoustics. The flat wooden ceiling served as a
sound board that reflected and amplified the sound. The walls were
painted by Antonio Canoppi. Between the Great Hall and the surrounding
guest rooms were the Catherine Room and the Krestovsky Room. In the
Catherine Salon, the columns were arranged in a semicircle, while the
Krestovsky Salon was decorated with pilasters. The front facade facing
Bolshaya Dmitrovka was emphasized by six columns of Ionic order and a
flat portico, while the side facades were colonnades connected by
entablatures. The corners of the building were framed by porticos with
Doric pilasters. Historian Alexei Marinovsky describes the House of the
House of the House of Nobles as follows:
In addition to the
semicircular corridor in which the monument to Yekaterina II is erected,
there are two adjoining halls with card tables, and behind them the
dining room and the ladies' toilet. On one side (the choir on the
colonnade of the hall) is occupied by the orchestra, and on the other
side are people of various ranks who have no right to be registered in
the assembly, from which they watch the dance and splendor of the
Russian Assembly of Nobles."
In the early 1790s, Kazakov designed
an addition that reached as far as Georgievsky Street. The main part of
the new building, a domed rotunda with Corinthian colonnades, was built
at the corner of Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Georgievsky Streets. A
three-story building with windows decorated with semicircular niches
joined it.
A fire in 1812 destroyed the roof and damaged the
interior decoration, which was restored two years later by architect
Alexei Bakarev, a student of Matvei Kazakov. Part of the funds for
repairs was allocated by Alexander I, and the rest was collected through
private donations. As a result, the roof was repaired and a balcony was
installed. The ceiling decoration by Giovanni Scotti was severely
damaged and was painted white with plaster. The Catherine Hall was made
circular by centering the semi-circular colonnade; by December 1814, the
interior and the facade facing the street Ohotny Ryad were completed,
but the rest of the building remained in the forest until 1819. Despite
the repairs, a ball was held on December 12, 1814, attended by 1,115
people; in the 1820s, the house grounds were rented out, often by dance
master Peter Andreyevich Iogel, who organized balls for a fee.
In
the late 19th century, composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Franz Liszt gave concerts in
the circular hall; between 1868 and 1912, the pianist Maria Semyonovna
Keltsin founded the " Circle of Russian Music Lovers" gave 111 concerts
in the Great Hall. Leonid Sobinov, Nadezhda Zabela, Fyodor Chaliapin,
pianists Konstantin Igumnov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Galina Barinova,
Anatoly Brandukov, Emil Cooper, Vyacheslav Suk, and others participated.
On March 30, 1856, Alexander II addressed the Assembly of Nobles on
the need to abolish serfdom, and in 1880, Fyodor Dostoevsky delivered a
speech in memory of the poet at a ceremony marking the erection of a
monument to Alexander Pushkin on Tverskoy Boulevard.
Between 1903
and 1908, the building was to be rebuilt according to fashion. According
to Alexander Meissner's plans, it was planned to build the building on
three floors and to make the facade more harmonious and austere. As a
result, the triangular pediment was replaced by a wide rectangular
attic, high reliefs of ancient subjects appeared on the walls, and the
facade along Okhotny Ryad Meyer Street was completed with a dome.
In the summer of 1912, the building celebrated the 300th anniversary
of the Romanov family and the 100th anniversary of the victory in the
Fatherland War. Prior to the arrival of Nicholas II, all the rooms were
decorated with flowers and wreaths. At the festival, the orchestra and
choir performed music from Russian operas. During World War I, concert
activities in noble houses gradually declined. Balls were replaced by
charity concerts and lotteries, and parts of the house were converted
into a clinic.
After the revolution of November 1, 1917, by decision
of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, the former Noble Council
building was confiscated. The Central Council of Moscow Trade Unions was
placed there and the building was renamed the Trade Union House. The
main hall became the Hall of Columns, Catherine Oval, and
Phillips-October. Other halls were renamed in this way.
From 1918
to 1922, Vladimir Lenin gave about 50 speeches here. The first speech
was delivered on March 14, 1918, at the Fourth Extraordinary All-Russian
Congress of the USSR. On October 22 of the same year, Lenin gave his
first public report after the attack on the Michelson factory.
In
1920, more than 20 events were held in union halls, beginning with the
2nd All-Russian Congress of Mine Workers, which opened on January 26; in
October 1921, the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Educational Workers was
held in the Circular Hall and the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Art
Workers in the Blue Hall; by 1921, more than 50,000 volumes books in the
library; the Shakhty trial was held from May to July 1928, the
Industrial Party trial in late 1930, and the trial of technicians
accused of sabotage in 1933; in 1934, the first conference of writers
was held, with more than 500 delegates; in 1933, the first conference of
art workers was held at the Russian Academy of Arts, with more than 500
delegates; in 1933, the first conference of art workers was held at the
Russian Academy of Arts, with more than 500 delegates. Radios were set
up in the hall to record the speeches of the writers.