Government Buildings

Lonely Planet review

The lane to the right (south), immediately inside the Trinity Gate Tower, passes the 17th-century Poteshny Palace ( Poteshny Dvorets ) where Stalin later lived. Poteshny Palace was built by Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich and housed the first Russian theatre. Here Tsar Alexey enjoyed various comedy performances; however, in keeping with conservative Russian Orthodox tradition, after the show he would go to the banya (Russian bathhouse), then attend a church service to repent his sins.

The bombastic marble, glass and concrete Kremlin Palace of Congresses ( Kremlyovksy Dvorets Syezdov ), built in 1960-61 for Communist Party congresses, is also a concert and ballet auditorium which holds 6000 people. North of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses is the 18th-century Arsenal, commissioned by Peter the Great to house workshops and depots for guns and weaponry. An unrealised plan at the end of the 19th century was to open a museum of the Napoleonic Wars. Now housing the Kremlin Guard, the building is ringed with 800 captured Napoleonic cannons.

The ultimate seat of power in the modern Kremlin, the offices of the president of Russia, are in the yellow, triangular former Senate building, a fine 18th-century neoclassical edifice, east of the Arsenal. Built in 1785 by architect Matvei Kazakov, it was noted for its huge cupola. In the 16th and 17th centuries this area was where the boyars (Russian nobles) lived. Next to the Senate is the 1930s' Supreme Soviet (Verkhovny Soviet) building.