How the Bolsheviks settled in the Kremlin. Arrangement of a specialized "feeder"
January 21, 1924 died 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 "AiF".
special operation
Lenin announced plans to move to Moscow to the members of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) 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 the rumors about the evacuation of the SNK and the Central Executive Committee 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 station Tsvetochnaya Ploshchad, the secret training of special railway personnel 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 road took almost a day, and upon arrival, the arrows took under the protection of the new residence of the Soviet government - the Kremlin.
By the way, right there, in the Kremlin, part of the new Soviet elite settled. Moreover, some figures - Yakov Sverdlov, Alexei 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 lived directly in the royal Grand Kremlin Palace. By the end of 1918, 59 people were officially registered in the palace. In total, more than 1,100 people permanently lived in the Kremlin by the middle of the summer of 1918.
Library corridor. Photo: RIA Novosti
However, for the most part, they were still palace employees, monks and clergymen of 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 the evicted to take with them only (personal) household items. The premises vacated in this way shall be provided for housing by 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 - personally received the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin. For the removal of things and a unique library, he allocated his car to the historian.
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 Turk-Mary, Renault and the British Rolls-Royce were assigned to the Lenin family. Lenin also used them for trips outside Moscow, for example, to hunt in the forests near Moscow or Tver. There is a funny document in the archives of the special garage: during a trip to Arkhangelskoye, the car of the special garage, stuck in the snow, was rescued by the peasants. They had to pay five rubles for their help.
Kitchen. Photo: RIA Novosti
By the way, twice Lenin's cars... were stolen. Back in St. Petersburg in 1918, the "Turk-Mary" was taken right from the main entrance of the 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 Drawers Purse, pulling out the driver, the guard, Lenin himself, who was not recognized as the head of state, and his sister Maria Ilyinichna, took away things, weapons and a car. Auto - "Renault-40" - was quickly found this time, and the bandits were caught and shot.
N. Krupskaya's room. Photo: RIA Novosti
In the meantime, Lenin himself, after moving for some time, settled in the Kremlin in the so-called Cavalier Corps (two of them were demolished during the construction of the Palace of Congresses). But already in the autumn he moved to an apartment specially prepared for him in the building of the Kremlin Senate, in whose offices the tsarist clerks were replaced by officials of the Soviet government. To arrange an apartment for Lenin, on the third floor of the building, its layout was changed. In the neighborhood, a reception room, a Politburo meeting room, and Lenin's office were equipped, next to which a switchboard and telephone operators were placed.
V. Lenin's room. Photo: RIA Novosti
Ilyich with a stove
The apartment is quite spacious. The bedroom of Ilyich himself 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 older sister sometimes stayed here to spend the night. Anna Elizarova-Ulyanova, who in 1919, having buried her husband, was left alone. Being in 1918-1921 the head of the department for the protection of children in the People's Commissariat of Social Security and the People's Commissariat for Education, she lived near the Kremlin, on Manezhnaya Street. Another room occupied Lenin's younger sister Maria Ilyinichna- Manyasha. Unlike the 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 Fifth Congress of Soviets. Photo: RIA Novosti
In the 20s she was in love with Nikolai Bukharin(in 1924-1929 he was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks). And he ... gave her his books. By the way, Bukharin’s lengthy signatures in the books donated to Manyasha are almost the only example of the handwriting of a Soviet leader who was accused of “right deviation” and shot in 1938. Books by Lenin, Krupskaya and Maria Ilyinichna, along with many other things from the Kremlin apartment, are stored in a museum in Gorki near Moscow - Lenin's Kremlin apartment did not survive the overhaul in the Senate building in 1994-1995.
Canteen. 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 trip of the leader to the Michelson plant, it was difficult for him to climb the stairs to the 3rd floor. Another elevator allowed the inhabitants of the apartment to get 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
In the yards - garbage
In a devastated country, tension with both food and the simplest utensils was felt even in the Kremlin. For example, June 14, 1918 to the first commandant of the Kremlin P. Malkov a note was received from the administration of the Council of People's Commissars: "I ask you to release for the necessary nutrition N.K. Ulyanova (Krupskaya. - Ed.) as much cereal as possible." And soon after the move, Manyasha wrote to the commandant such dispatches: “Dear comrade! I ask you to issue for V. I. Lenin ... an electric portable lamp on the table, two bowls, a rolling pin, a kettle for tiles, a spatula and a whisk for collecting rubbish ... (12 points in total. - Ed.) From a roar. pref. M.I. Ulyanova. Lenin's wife, the hostess, 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 girlfriend 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 rooms that were somehow suitable for this. "Overcrowding", long unrepaired houses, broken glass, broken grates, garbage heaps - all this left the impression of complete neglect. The scale of the communal catastrophe is also confirmed by documents. Thus, the “instruction” to the residents of the Kremlin dated October 14, 1918 read: “Despite the repeated instructions of the Commandant of the Kremlin ... house committees do not at all fulfill the duties assigned to them by law: dirt in courtyards and squares, in houses, on stairs, in corridors and apartments appalling. Garbage from the apartments is not taken out for weeks, stands on the stairs, spreading the infection. Stairs are not only not washed, but also not swept. Manure, garbage, corpses of dead cats and dogs have been lying in the yards for weeks. Homeless cats roam everywhere, being constant carriers of the infection. A “Spanish” disease is circulating in the city, which has entered 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 a victim..."
Meanwhile, already in 1918, by personal order of Lenin, the Nikolskaya tower of the fortress was almost completely restored, which suffered more than others during the storming of the Kremlin by revolutionary detachments 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 “Internationale” at noon, and at midnight - “You fell a victim ...”. In 1918, the Council of People's Commissars allocated a lot of money for that time 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. What is worth, 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 pm I passed by that post, post "B", where I talked to 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 go here." Obviously, my order to accurately and clearly explain to the sentries their duties was fulfilled by you unsatisfactorily (because the rule of not approaching 10 steps does not apply to this internal post: in addition, the sentry did not say exactly and clearly that it was declared forbidden). Next time I will have to subject you to a stricter penalty ... Prev. STO (Council of Labor and Defense. - Ed.) V. Ulyanov (Lenin)."
Switching. Photo: RIA Novosti
The habit of understanding everything to the smallest detail, superimposed on the need, in fact, to re-create the state, as a result, ruined the leader. Serious health problems with Lenin, who for some time complained of headaches, fatigue and numbness of the limbs, began in May 1922. But he still continued to write articles and personal notes. For example, to Stalin, from whom he demanded to apologize to Krupskaya. She gave Lenin the newspapers to read, after which he expressed his remarks to Stalin, who was already crushing power in the country, and Stalin literally yelled at Krupskaya. One of Lenin's most famous letters of this period was a 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, the Communists, becomes intolerable in the position of Secretary General ..." In the autumn of 1922- Lenin felt better, but in the spring of 1923, after a severe stroke, he was almost forever taken away from the Kremlin to Gorki.
From what Lenin died, how his body was saved and secret premises were built under the Mausoleum - read in the next issue of AiF.
For the provided materials and assistance, the editors would like to thank the Federal Security Service of Russia and doctor of historical sciences Sergey Devyatov.
Let's take a walk in Moscow's old town today. Yes, in Moscow, as in any normal European city (St. Petersburg does not count), there is an old city that we have lost. More precisely, it was not so much lost as it was taken from us and will not be returned in any way. The old city of Moscow is the Kremlin, officially the largest medieval fortress according to the Guinness Book of Records and a completely closed area almost 100 years ago, which is no longer perceived as a district.
But everything is in order.
Here, for example, is the hem of the Moscow Kremlin in the 17th century
A wonderful painting-reconstruction of our contemporary - the artist Sergei Glushkov.
As you can see, living in the center of the city then meant living in the Kremlin, i.e., as in many European cities, within the historical part of the city, surrounded by a fortress wall.
By the 20th century, the population of the Kremlin, of course, had somewhat thinned out, but still the Kremlin remained a full-fledged district of the city, all the gates were open, and the Tainitsky Garden was one of the favorite places for leisurely walks with a beautiful view.
In the background stands a monument to Alexander II, which the Bolsheviks, of course, dismantled almost immediately after the revolution.
Among the greenery you can see a small dome of the Church of the Annunciation on Zhitny Dvor.
This is how this church attached to the Kremlin tower looked until it was demolished in 1932.
Some completely cozy provincial corner, even the bench picturesquely squinted.
The temple stood on the site of an old grain yard, where unground grain was brought from state lands - live, as well as hay, oats and other supplies, which were then distributed among the "sovereign people". Such, in the most direct sense, is an old Russian state feeder. A stone church was built here in 1731, and even before 1831, next to the tower in the wall, there was a Port Washing Gate, through which the Kremlin washerwomen went to the river to wash the sovereign's trousers.
View of the garden, now equipped with a helipad
Again, pay attention to the whitewashed tower. As today's experience shows, something unpainted in Moscow by local authorities has always been considered a mess, borders are still being painted, the Kremlin is still being painted, but if earlier it was whitened from time to time, then the Bolsheviks who came to power began to paint it red color. You will be near the Kremlin, pay attention - most of the walls and towers do not have the original brick color, but are painted red.
And here is the territory completely closed to the common people on the back side of the Spasskaya Tower and the unpreserved church of St. Catherine of the Ascension Monastery.
The most perfect center of the city, a passage yard. Walk through any gate and also exit
Spassky Gates - exit from the Kremlin to Red Square.
Now permanently closed and only for employees of the FSO and the Presidential Administration
Here in the Kremlin, the fabulous view of the Chudov Monastery has not been preserved.
The Senate building... The courtyard is now completely closed, and there are not even modern photographs.
Interestingly, the dome was originally crowned by St. George the Victorious, striking a snake, but during the war of 1812 he disappeared. They say that the French took it as a trophy, and when the District Court was located in the building, it was crowned with a crown with a brief inscription under it LAW. To which the Muscovites replied with an epigram: There is no law in Russia, but a pillar and a crown on the pillar.
In Soviet times, even the inscription "LAW" was dismantled
What is most interesting is that in our time the historical truth has been restored and St. George has been erected again.
What else is hiding in Moscow's old town?
Here, for example, the Amusing Palace of the 17th century
Absolutely amazing old photo. On the one hand, the old palace, and on the other - living quarters, even the laundry is dried.
Now here, again, an absolutely closed territory, and the commandant's office of the Kremlin is located
Modern look
We can not see in our old city and the amazing arches of the Arsenal. Again the area is closed.
And no one will let you on the wall in your own old town.
Before the revolution, the Kremlin even had a winter garden, please come and enjoy
The funny thing is that it still exists, but the territory is so closed that no one even really suspects its existence.
And before, even in a cab it was possible to famously ride around the Kremlin? Who did it bother?
Some beggars are sitting at the Tsar Bell. The city lives its own life.
Speaking of beggars
Here, for example, the legend of Art Nouveau, the artist Alphonse Mucha, walked around the Kremlin and took a photo:
He returned home, developed it, twisted it back and forth and as a result painted the painting “Winter Night”:
There was a great lively old town, but as you know, everything changes when they come. Bolsheviks.
To begin with, to knock out the junkers, the Kremlin was shelled. Here, for example, how the Small Nikolaev Palace looked like as a result, which was eventually demolished and a large administrative building, now occupied by the Presidential Administration, was built instead of it and the monasteries
Sent by the Germans in a sealed Lenin, he fulfilled his promise, the government was overthrown, but for some reason his comrades-in-arms were in no hurry to get out of the First World War, which was so necessary for Germany, which was already barely fighting on two fronts, but nevertheless actively advancing deep into Russia, which is why the Bolshevik government was seriously frightened and decided, just in case, to move from Petrograd to Moscow. Peace was nevertheless concluded, but then it turned out that there were much more threats to the power of the Bolsheviks inside Russia itself than from outside, therefore, according to the old Russian tradition of appanage princes, the Bolsheviks entrenched themselves in the Kremlin. The old city was closed to ordinary people, and the Spassky Gates were slammed shut and are still not open.
Interestingly, the Latvian riflemen guarded the Soviet government, which was very convenient. Firstly, they are non-local, they don’t have relatives in Moscow, they don’t go home, they live right there in the Kremlin, they don’t have friends among the local population, therefore, in the event of any mess, they will shoot at Muscovites without a twinge of conscience. Secondly, many do not even speak Russian, so it will be difficult to negotiate with them locally, in which case. Mercenaries are mercenaries. For the same reason, the Vatican is still guarded exclusively by Swiss mercenaries from the German cantons, who do not speak Italian.
Latvian riflemen suppressed uprisings in Yaroslavl, Kaluga, Murom and other cities. Theodors Eichmans, one of the Latvian shooters, subsequently made a dizzying career, was one of the initiators of the Stalinist repressions and the first head of the Gulag. So once again, when Latvia starts crying about Soviet repressions, remember these facts.
But we are talking about the old city. New owners have arrived...
... and completely closed the whole area of the city. Of course, inside the fortress walls it is somehow calmer.
The first Soviet leaders both worked and lived in the Kremlin. In general, they almost never left it without protection.
There was even a kindergarten for the children of party workers on the territory:
The Kremlin was closed throughout the 1920s, throughout the 1930s, throughout the 1940s… Muscovites have even become accustomed to the fact that the Kremlin is the residence of the authorities and have finally ceased to consider it as a district of the city.
The Kremlin was opened to the public only under Khrushchev, in 1955, or rather, a small part of it was opened with passages to Cathedral Square. In fact, what is now open, and most of the original area of the city is still closed. At the same time, it was forbidden to live in this area, while the last residents were discharged from the Kremlin only in 1961. The Kremlin finally turned into a museum in which not only you can’t walk freely, but even restrictions on photography were lifted only a few years ago.
To finally finish off the old city, the old buildings of the Arsenal were demolished:
And in their place, in a huge pit, the Grand Kremlin Palace was built.
Okay, they destroyed part of the old city, but at the same time, even in the Soviet photo on the right, the city is still alive.
As you can see, he is alive both along the walls and in the closed territories now occupied by the commandant’s office, but, alas, as almost a hundred years ago, the authorities prefer to live in a state of siege, holding the defense inside the fortress walls.
It's better to look at an old postcard.
White Kremlin, white garden, ice on the river. Old city! Love Moscow!
The fashion for a frontal briefing to the desktop was set by Vladimir Lenin
All the troubles in Russia are due to the fact that Lenin does not lie according to Feng Shui! That's how they joked in Russia at the height of democratic reforms. But you must admit that in every joke, born of the collective consciousness of the people, there is some deep truth ... After all, in fact, the leader of the world proletariat is energetically connected with the Mausoleum. And even more - directly with the main building of the Kremlin, where he lived and worked for a long time. By the way, after his death, all members of the government of the USSR and, in turn, all the first persons of the Soviet state, except for Khrushchev, sat here after his death. And then - the first and only president of the USSR. Despite the fact that none of the leaders of the USSR did not want to enter the office of his predecessor, they all worked in the same building. It is said that Yeltsin, being the first newcomer to the Kremlin already in the post-Soviet era, fundamentally chose an office that faces the opposite direction than the offices of the leaders of the Soviet era. But did the Cabinet No. 1 of the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin pass by inheritance to his successor, and then to the next successor? This is what I will tell you today. By the way, all the first persons of the Russian Federation in their office used and continue to use the traditional way of arranging furniture for managers, which became popular even under Lenin! Representative Office of the President in the Kremlin
Behind the wall of the Working Room is the Representative (front) office of the President - it is decorated more elegantly and solemnly than all other working rooms. Meetings with heads of foreign states, negotiations are held in the representative office, high state awards are presented. Here are located: a desktop, an oval table for negotiations, by the fireplace - armchairs for conversations in the "one on one" format. On the arms of the chairs are lion heads, a symbol of state power. This office was located in the Small or Oval Hall of the Senate Palace, which is the second most important front hall of the residence (after Catherine's). They say that it was called “oval” already in the 90s, in imitation of the Americans, but it is really oval in shape - in accordance with the “highest architectural fashion” of the 18th century, and was designed by the architect Kazakov much earlier than their Oval Office. So who imitated whom is another question ...
By the fireplace in the Oval Room
A special solemnity is given to the Oval Hall by the architectural design: the color of the walls is pale green with white, an unusual, oval-shaped dome, and crystal chandeliers. The decoration of the executive office is a large malachite fireplace lined with thin malachite plates, selected so that the natural pattern smoothly passes from one plate to another and it seems as if it was carved from a single piece of stone shimmering in different shades. By the fireplace there are comfortable chairs for one-on-one negotiations, a place for official photography and filming. In the middle - a large oval table for negotiations. The four niches of the Representative Office now house sculptures of Russian emperors of the 18th-19th centuries: Peter I, Catherine II, Nicholas I and Alexander II. The magnificent parquet of the Oval Hall is like a carpet; it was recreated according to old drawings and sketches from dozens of types of valuable and hard woods. Type-setting parquet is a traditional element of the interiors of palace ensembles, and it was by the end of the 18th century that this art became widespread in Russia and became traditional.
Executive Office in the Oval Hall
Since many fragments of the interiors of the Senate were lost, in 1991 the interior decoration of these halls had to be created anew. Fortunately, almost all the design documents of the 18th century have been preserved. It was thanks to these drawings, plans and drawings that it was possible to identify numerous changes that were made in the design of the hall over the course of two centuries. After a thorough study of archival data, the restorers found that the Oval Hall underwent the most serious changes in 1824. So it was under Yeltsin that the Senate Palace again became a palace (as under Catherine the Great).
Lenin lived on the 3rd floor
After the Senate Palace was built, Catherine II chose a spacious but cozy office in a semicircular rotunda (now the presidential library is located here). But the empress did not visit her office often (probably because, as you know, she did not like Moscow at all). Further, during the time of the Romanovs, the reigning persons did not have their apartments in the Senate Palace - for example, the “business chambers” of Nicholas II were located in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
Desk of Nicholas II
But Lenin fell in love with the Senate building - his study (50 sq. m., 2 windows) was on the third floor. Until the summer of 1993, there was a museum-apartment of the leader, who was then moved to Gorki. The main distinguishing feature of Lenin's apartments is the library, which contains almost 40,000 volumes. There were bookcases in almost every room. Lenin preferred the third floor (occupied 4 rooms). Stalin had 5 rooms on the first floor and an office on the second. Brezhnev moved to the third floor. All the general secretaries, right down to Gorbachev, also sat here. The Tsek office was twice as large as Yeltsin's office, who chose a place on the second floor. And its windows fundamentally look in a completely different direction.
Lenin's office was moved from the Kremlin to the museum
Stalinist Empire
Stalin settled in the Kremlin in 1922 - shortly after he became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. His office (more than 150 square meters, five windows) was on the second floor. Already in 1933, at the direction of Stalin, the building was replanned for the first time, the interiors were changed: the walls were sheathed with oak panels with Karelian birch inserts, and the same oak doors were installed. There was nothing superfluous on the table: a telephone, a pen, an inkwell, a carafe of water, a glass of tea, an ashtray.
In the left corner - Brezhnev's famous "horned" clock
In the corner of Stalin's office, as well as Lenin's, there was a stove that was heated with wood - central heating in the Kremlin appeared only at the end of the 30s. On the ground floor, Stalin had another study - home. The leader's apartment was also located here, where his children Svetlana and Vasily also lived. They say that during the reconstruction, when they raised the floors in Stalin's office, they discovered a secret passage leading to the dungeon. Perhaps it was just a newspaper duck.
The ugliest office
Khrushchev's office (100 sq. m., 4 windows, 3rd floor) had the same oak panels and doors as under Stalin: having debunked his cult of personality, the new owner did not change the interiors.
Nikita Sergeevich did not have a single bookcase. As the old Kremlin business executives recall, it was the most faceless office, which for 10 years had the same uninhabited appearance. The apartment was cluttered with many gaudy souvenirs that appeared and disappeared periodically. These were models of satellites, airplanes, steam locomotives ... - everything that Soviet and foreign citizens presented to Khrushchev in abundance. And also - numerous vases, including those with portraits of Khrushchev himself. On one of them, Nikita Sergeevich was depicted in the form of a lieutenant general. Brezhnev and "Vysota" The Soviet leaders never agreed to move into the apartments of their predecessors. So Leonid Ilyich, when he overthrew Nikita Sergeevich, was equipped with an office (100 sq. M., 3 windows, 3rd floor) away from Khrushchev. In party slang, Brezhnev's apartments were called "The Height". Oak panels on the walls were replaced with lighter ones, with inlays. And on the table appeared the famous horned clock, which, during the life of the Secretary General, flashed in almost all pictures of the TASS newsreels. In the early 80s, when the Secretary General was already moving with difficulty, "electric traction" was invented for him. Not far from the office, a personal elevator was installed (before that, all the leaders used a common one), which was supposed to lower Leonid Ilyich into the basement, and there - on a special electric car (it was something like a wheelchair) Brezhnev was going to be transported to the neighboring building, to the plenums Central Committee of the CPSU. Then both Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko sat in the former Brezhnev office. But their short stay did not affect either the interiors or the interior decoration of the apartments.
Gorbachev's cabinet was bursting at the seams
Gorbachev, having become General Secretary in April 1985, refused to enter the former Brezhnev office - an apartment (100 sq. M., 5 windows, 3rd floor) was equipped for him between Leonid Ilyich's "Vysota" and Khrushchev's office. Of course, perestroika and redevelopment immediately began on the Gorbachev floor, and a moire design appeared in the office - the walls were covered with silk in pastel yellow tones. For the first time, expensive furniture made of Karelian birch was brought in, and it was changed several times. Kremlin business executives recall a "symbolic incident": in the spring of 1991, during a heavy downpour, the ceiling leaked in the Secretary General's office. The caretaker interprets this in their own way: not only the USSR was destroyed, the residence of the general secretaries was also bursting at the seams.
Yeltsin ordered a table from Italy
Boris Yeltsin moved to the Kremlin immediately after the coup - in September 1991. Feeling that the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev was losing control over the country, the President of Russia, without much thought, laid claim to the main Moscow residence. At the end of 1991, after the collapse of the USSR and Gorbachev's departure from the Kremlin, Yeltsin moved into the General Secretary's office. Morals in the Kremlin began to change from the end of 1993. First of all, according to the observation of his associates, the changes were due to changes in the character of Yeltsin himself. Regal manners began to awaken in the former first secretary of the regional committee. At this time, the president started a grandiose repair of the 1st building. The inner circle, catching the change in the boss's character, practically imposed on him a pompous imperial style, replete with stucco, gilding and furniture with bent legs. Cossack drawings were brought to light, according to which it was supposed to reconstruct the 1st building. All the old partitions inside the building were destroyed - only the outer walls were not touched. Window openings and vaulted ceilings, parquet and oak panels were removed; furniture that belonged to Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich and other historical residents of the Kremlin was sold at auction. The museum-apartment of Lenin was moved "to a settlement" in Gorki. After the repair, most of the premises of the 1st building began to be occupied by the president's apartments - working and representative. Yeltsin's office is a room on the second floor (75 sqm, 3 windows) with a small reception area. By a strange coincidence, the footage of the presidential office became almost the same as that of the royal office, located in the Grand Kremlin Palace. Furnishings: 205 cm custom-made work desk in Italy and conference table.
On December 31, 1999, these apartments were inherited by Vladimir Putin. It was here that Dmitry Medvedev moved in on May 7, 2008. The former manager of the President of the Russian Federation Pavel Borodin (it was he who carried out the reconstruction) claims that in 1993, before determining the “deployment” of office No. 1, bioenergy therapists were specially invited to the Kremlin, who confirmed that these 75 sq. m on the 2nd floor in the center of the residence - the best energy place in the building of the former Senate. Maybe for this reason, little is changed in the presidential office over time: along the walls are the same bookcases with reference literature and encyclopedias. Of the decorations - only a few ceramic goblets on the floor.
Sources: tabloid.vlasti.net; kp.ru
After the revolution, they thought to start up a tram right on its territory, but there was not enough money. A little later, only those who did not ride trams remained in the Kremlin apartments.
When was the last lodger escorted out of the Kremlin? Who can still boast of a Kremlin residence permit? And for whom, in a Kremlin hotel hidden from prying eyes, is a large bed always kept filled?
Their Majesties water closet
The Moscow Kremlin in its history was built up, equipped and heavily rebuilt several times. Naturally, the main "responsible tenants" for centuries here were Moscow princes and Russian tsars. By the way, in the second half of the XVIII century. architect Vasily Bazhenov - he was instructed by Catherine the Great to bring another gloss to the Kremlin - managed to demolish not only part of the historical buildings inside the red stone walls, but even one of the walls. He needed the passage to build a wide front staircase to the Moscow River. But the empress did not like the project, the wall was restored. In 1776, another architect was assigned to complete the repair - Matvey Kazakov. His work - the palace of the ruling Senate - is still standing and serves as the working residence of the president.
By the way, the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, insisting on the return of the historical name (in Soviet times it was the building of the Workers 'and Peasants' Government, the first building), categorically objected to the word "palace". We agreed on the wording "Kremlin Senate". Although the current inhabitants of the corridors of power say the old fashioned way: the first building. Today, in its luxurious Catherine's Hall, for example, state award ceremonies are held. But few of the guests know what kind of dome is above them: for the first time in Russia, 20 meters in diameter without supports is lined with a thickness of half a brick. However, during the "state acceptance", at the end of the 18th century, Kazakov personally climbed onto the dome and even jumped to demonstrate the reliability of the structure.
At one time, high-ranking officials worked in the Senate, the Moscow district prosecutor lived, and there was also an official apartment of the minister of the imperial court. The imperial court itself - in the form of the current Grand Kremlin Palace - appeared on the territory of the Kremlin 160 years ago at the behest of Nicholas I and through the efforts of the architect Konstantin Ton. At the same time, he created the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
According to the plan of Nicholas I, the luxurious palace, instead of the former, was supposed to include "everything that in the memory of the people is closely connected with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe abode of the Sovereign." Apparently, in order to refresh this memory, in the absence of the royal family in Moscow, social events of the Moscow nobility were held in the palace.
By that time, there had already been a water supply in the Kremlin for a long time. The water tower supplied water from the river for the winter garden and the pool, which was built here back in the 15th century, and for soaps - royal baths. But in the middle of the 19th century, a “master company for the maintenance of water closet machines” appeared at the royal court. That is, a company of plumbers who were engaged in the installation and repair of toilet bowls in the imperial palaces. Prior to this, royal persons used chamber pots. And quite ordinary people - toilets of the "hole in the ground" system.
At the beginning of the 20th century, according to some sources, up to 4 thousand people permanently lived in the Kremlin. Including about a thousand monks in the Chudov and Ascension monasteries, officials and palace servants. All these people from the Kremlin in the spring of 1918 were decisively moved by the new Soviet government. The monasteries were demolished a bit later.
By the end of 1920, 2100 people were registered in 325 "apartments and premises" in the Kremlin: party leaders, red bureaucrats and their revolutionary servants. The Kremlin had two garages, a kindergarten and a consumer cooperative "Communist".
At first, Lenin lodged in the Cavalier buildings (they were later demolished during the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses). But soon Ilyich moved to an apartment specially prepared for him on the 3rd floor in the same palace of the ruling Senate. Under the Bolsheviks, the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and several "apartments" were placed here.
A warm toilet remained a curiosity and a privilege - in the leader's apartment, a combined bathroom was fenced off with a bathtub equipped with a shower hose and an Ideal Standard water closet. By the way, Lenin's toilet survived the Soviet regime and is stored today in the storerooms of the museum in Gorki. Ilyich turned out to be a lover of technical innovations and conveniences - he ordered the installation of the first automatic telephone exchange in the Kremlin. It was later that Stalin, turning into the sole owner of the country, ordered that his number be deleted from all reference books. Party comrades were connected to the leader only through a telephone operator.
Under Lenin, in December 1918, the first elevator appeared in the Kremlin. After the August assassination attempt, it was difficult for the leader of the world proletariat to climb the stairs home. Another elevator made it possible to get directly from Ilyich's apartment to the roof, where a gazebo was equipped. If electricity was supplied to the Kremlin even under the tsar, then central heating instead of a stove, for example, appeared in the Senate Palace in 1927. Gas was supplied to the first Kremlin apartments in 1929.
In order to arrange Lenin's apartment, the original layout of the building was altered, blocking off several rooms with the help of new walls. The apartment is quite spacious. The bedroom of Ilyich himself is about 18 square meters. His wife Nadezhda Krupskaya lived in the same one. The largest room - 55 meters - was occupied by the elder sister of the leader Anna. The younger sister Manyasha lived 20 meters away. In addition to the bathroom, there was a kitchen (20 meters) and a dining room.
However, Lenin's apartment was furnished modestly by today's standards. In the country devastated by the revolution and the civil war, tension was felt both with food and with the simplest utensils. Therefore, at first, dispatches like the one unearthed by the authors of the recently published, but already rare book “The Moscow Kremlin. Citadel of Russia": "Dear comrade! I ask you to issue for V. I. Lenin ... an electric portable lamp on the table, two bowls, a rolling pin, a kettle for tiles, a spatula and a whisk for collecting rubbish ... (12 points in total. - Ed.) From a roar. pref. M.I. Ulyanova.
At first, only Klara Zetkin, who was placed in one of the chambers of the Grand Kremlin Palace, received free rations among high-ranking revolutionary Kremlinites. For some reason, Lev Trotsky also ate for free. But Joseph Stalin relied on rations without restrictions, but for a fee, although at 50% of the cost. In addition, for example, in 1923, judging by the documents, 7956 rubles were collected from all the Kremlin residents. 97 kop. rent. Moreover, among the malicious non-payers, the capital's commissar, the revolutionary "mayor" of Moscow, Lev Kamenev, was unexpectedly listed.
Visiting a dictator
Nadezhda Krupskaya lived in Lenin's Kremlin apartment until her death in 1939. No one dared to evict the "fighting girlfriend of the leader of the world proletariat" from the first building. Stalin, who lived in another wing, Krupskaya, apparently, did not callous on the eyes of Stalin.
The future generalissimo and father of peoples, before settling in the first building, lived in the Kremlin in four places - both in the Cavalier Corps, and in the former "boyar corridor" of the Grand Kremlin Palace, and in two apartments of the Poteshny Palace. This building at one time received such a name because it was built for the royal children. It was there, unable to endure the "fun" and humiliation of her husband, that Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide. Today, the Amusing Palace is used by technical services. Nothing from the Stalinist situation was preserved in it. As the cult of the leader was planted before, in the same way it was mercilessly debunked, erasing the signs of the era during repairs.
Stalin's main apartment - five rooms on the ground floor of the Senate Palace. There the leader lived with his son Vasily and daughter Svetlana. In the basement of the building, so that the growing offspring of the dictator does not get bored, a locksmith and carpentry workshops were equipped. The closed and suspicious Stalin had few guests. But one of them in 1942 was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He flew in to talk face to face and report: there will be no second front in Europe this year, but the allies will try to pull at least part of the Nazi troops from the Soviet front, operating in Africa. Stalin was very dissatisfied with the news, but decided to maintain relations personally with Churchill, inviting him for a drink to his home. As Churchill wrote in his memoirs, the apartment seemed very modest to him.
However, the master's habits of the Soviet ruler manifested themselves in a different way. During the war, right under the windows of Stalin’s apartment, even new equipment was brought in for inspection - tanks and self-propelled guns. While the country was receiving bread on ration cards, life was in full swing in the Kremlin buffet. So, for example, on December 4, 1941, in a hastily and incorrectly printed lunch menu in honor of the head of the Polish government in exile, General Sikorsky, there were black caviar, and game, and sterlet in champagne. This could not fail to impress the guest.
The last entry about Stalin in the Kremlin house book is "discharged due to death."
The personal belongings of the dictator are now stored in the storerooms of museums. There was also nothing left of the very last Stalinist apartment, as well as of Lenin's. During the renovation, already under President Yeltsin, even the layout of the premises changed. Almost everywhere in the building of the Kremlin Senate, the section of walls laid down by the architect Kazakov was restored. In place of Lenin's office today there is a marble fireplace room. And where Stalin's apartment was, there are technical rooms.
In 1955, Nikita Khrushchev, having become the master of the country, decided to evict all tenants from the Kremlin. However, the latter moved out only a few years later: Kliment Voroshilov occupied an apartment in a building adjacent to the Armory Tower, next to the Armory, and lost his Kremlin registration in 1962.
But to say that no one has lived in the Kremlin since then is to seriously sin against the truth.
Firstly, in the historical building of the Kremlin arsenal, converted into a barracks, today a whole presidential regiment is quartered. Secondly, Boris Yeltsin had to spend the night in the rest room next to the current presidential office several times. Thirdly, there is a real hotel in the Kremlin, which, however, consists of only ... one room. AiF journalists were the first to look into it.
To be continued.
We were helped
For help in preparing the material, the editors would like to thank Sergey Devyatov and Valentin Zhilyaev.
