Location: Moscow Kremlin
The Senate Palace is a front building on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin, designed by the Russian architect Matvey Kazakov in 1776-1787. Made by order of Empress Catherine the Great in the classical style characteristic of that time. As of 2023, the Senate Palace is the working residence of the President of Russia
The construction of the Senate Palace was
started in 1776 by decree of Catherine II. Initially, the building was
intended for holding meetings of the nobility of the Moscow province,
but after the division of the Senate into departments, everyone remained
in the palace, except for the court and the nobles in charge of the
rights, who were transferred to St. Petersburg. For the construction of
the building, the princes Trubetskoy and Baryatinsky were bought out of
their Kremlin courtyards and the courtyards of the monasteries were
abolished. The selected site had a triangular shape and was inconvenient
for development: it was located between the Kremlin wall, the Zeikhgauz
building and the Chudov Monastery. The project was compiled by Matvey
Kazakov. Karl Blank helped Kazakov to draw up an estimate for the
construction. He also supervised the construction in 1777-1778. However,
construction progressed sluggishly, and in 1778 Kazakov was appointed to
supervise the construction of the building. In 1776-1786, Kazakov
reworked the original project several times. Four sets of author's
drawings have been preserved.
By the middle of the 19th century,
the building fell into disrepair. Since the time of Arakcheev, its main
hall has been used either as a flour barn or as an archive of the
military ministry. Only in 1865, during the preparation of the judicial
reform, it was decided to place the bodies of the new public court in
the building. Under the guidance of the architect K.S. Afanasiev,
restoration and adaptation to public jurisprudence was carried out. The
palace began to be called "the building of the Moscow judicial
institutions." It houses the District Court, the Judicial Chamber, the
Survey Office and other institutions. The dome of the building was
crowned with a symbol of imperial justice - a pillar with the royal
crown and the inscription "Law".
In March
1918, Vladimir Lenin moved to the Senate Palace, for whom they arranged
the apartment of the former tsarist prosecutor on the third floor. The
Politburo and the Council of People's Commissars sat next to it. The
total area of Lenin's apartments was 560 m². In 1955, a museum was set
up in the former office of Lenin - “The office and apartment of V. I.
Lenin in the Kremlin.” It was adjacent to the premises of the Government
of the USSR and consisted of more than 40 thousand exhibits. In 1994, by
order of the Government of the Russian Federation, in connection with
the reconstruction of the Senate building and the placement of the
residence of the President of Russia in it, the collection was
transferred to the Gorki Leninskiye State Historical Museum-Reserve.
After the Soviet government moved in 1918, a flagpole with the flag
of Soviet Russia was installed in place of the pillar with the crown.
The building housed the Council of People's Commissars and the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In the former Catherine's Hall,
which received the name Sverdlovsk under Soviet rule, the presentation
of prizes, for example, Lenin and national ones, the Plenums of the
Central Committee of the CPSU were held, there was a meeting room of the
Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
In 1932, Joseph
Stalin occupied a five-room apartment on the first floor. A year later,
the building was replanned for the first time, changing the interiors:
the walls were sheathed with oak panels, new doors were installed. Above
Stalin's apartment were his personal office and the Special Sector of
the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. On
the right side of the reception room, Major General Alexander
Poskrebyshev and his deputy L. A. Logino worked.
During the Great
Patriotic War, the palace housed the State Defense Committee, the
apparatus of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the
Council of People's Commissars. After coming to power in 1953, Nikita
Khrushchev arranged his office on the third floor of the palace, which
occupied 100 m². In 1972, the building housed the offices of the General
Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and employees of the General
Department of the CPSU Central Committee, a relaxation room, a small
office, a reception room, a Nut Room, a Politburo meeting room, an
archive and a group of the Special Sector of the General Department of
the CPSU Central Committee. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev moved to the
palace, for whom new apartments on the third floor were equipped.
On December 25, 1991, the place of the Soviet flag on the dome was
taken by the Russian one, which in 1994 was replaced by the presidential
standard. In 1992, the restoration of the building began. The historical
appearance was preserved by the Catherine and Oval halls, the rest were
created anew in accordance with the original style of Matvey Kazakov. As
a result of restoration work in 1994-1996, ancient high reliefs, stucco
decoration of the cornice, frieze and capitals were restored in the
halls.
As of 2022, the palace is the working residence of the
president.
The Senate Palace has become the largest completed
project of Matvey Kazakov. According to the architect's intention, the
building was supposed to symbolize civic ideals, law and justice. He
found their embodiment in the classical forms of antiquity. This
explains the conciseness of the building, with the help of which Kazakov
wanted to enhance the architectural expressiveness of Red Square as the
main square of Moscow.
The Senate Palace is a three-story
building shaped like an isosceles triangle. Its outer perimeter is 450
meters, inner - 360. The outer facades of the building have three
risalits, highlighted by Doric pilasters. The first and basement floors
are rusticated, which gives the building the properties of monumentality
and unity of volume. The corners of the building are cut and processed
with projections, in the solution of which the motif of triumphal arches
is used, which is repeated in the center of all three facades. An
entrance arch with an Ionic four-column portico and a pediment leads to
the courtyard from the Senate Square. The palace is crowned with a green
dome in the form of a hemisphere, under which the Catherine's Hall is
located.
From the outside, on the top of the dome until 1812,
there was a sculptural equestrian group depicting St. George the
Victorious. During the occupation of Moscow, by order of Napoleon, the
statue was removed and taken to France.
The presidential residence consists of two parts:
business and representative. The business part includes working and
representative offices, a meeting room of the Presidential Council, a
library, and the premises of the Security Council. The representative
part consists of a grand suite of halls where international meetings and
protocol events take place. All rooms are located along the outer
facades and are connected by through corridors running along the
perimeter of the courtyards.
The representative office of the
president, decorated in white and green colors, is located in the Oval
Hall. It hosts meetings and negotiations, and awards state awards. The
room is decorated with a malachite fireplace, decorated with a mirror
with a bronze clock and candelabra on the mantelpiece, as well as four
tall sculptures: Peter I, Catherine II, Nicholas I and Alexander II. The
crystal chandeliers of the hall are made according to Kazakov's
drawings.
In the deepening of the courtyard is the main
compositional center of the structure - the Dome Hall of the Senate, or
Catherine. This is one of the largest round halls in Moscow: its
diameter is 25 meters and its height is 27 meters. Previously, it was
intended for noble assemblies held for the purpose of elections to
self-government bodies. The hall is decorated with 24 Corinthian white
marble columns and bas-reliefs in antique style. The walls between the
windows of the dome are filled with plaster medallions with bas-relief
images of Russian princes and tsars, made from marble originals by the
sculptor Fedot Shubin, originally created for the Chesme Palace near St.
Eighteen high-relief panels, presumably by Gavriil Zamaraev, based on
allegorical scenes composed by Gavriil Derzhavin and Nikolai Lvov, are
installed in the piers between the columns. They reflect the state
activities of Catherine II, glorify the rule of law, justice, education.
All decorative moldings were made by I. Yust, Arnoldi and other
sculptors. The vault of the dome is decorated with caissons, giving it
depth. The Shokhinsky staircase, finished with marble and granite, leads
to the hall. Its base is decorated with two floor lamps, and the spans
are decorated with sculptures of the goddess of justice Themis.
The office of the president is made in the style of classicism with a
round rotunda, decorated with a bronze chandelier. Next to it is the
Blue Living Room with white and gold furniture. The Audience Hall, made
in light colors with gilding, is decorated with portraits of Russian
emperors, marble, and a classically shaped fireplace. The suite of
representative rooms is completed by the Banquet Hall designed in light
yellow and blue tones. The furniture installed in it was created
according to the surviving drawings of the 18th century.
The
Fireplace Hall and the Living Room are used for holding meetings and
signing state documents. The Dining Room hosts informal breakfasts and
lunches, as well as working meetings between the President of Russia and
the leaders of various states. The Presidential Library is located on
the third floor of the northeastern part of the building. Encyclopedias,
reference books, legislative acts are collected in bookcases. This room
houses the original copy of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,
on which the presidents take the oath at the time of taking office.