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House on the Embankment
The House on the Embankment (Russian: Дом на набережной) is a block-wide apartment building on the banks of the Moskva River on Balchug in downtown Moscow, Russia. It faces Bersenevskaya Embankment on one side and Serafimovicha Street on the other side. Until 1952, it was the tallest residential building in Moscow. It is considered an example of constructivist architecture. It was best known as the place of residence of the Soviet elite, many of whom were arrested and executed during Stalin's Great Purge.
This residential complex of 505 apartments and 25 entrances is located on Zamoskvorechye Island, a district connected with the rest of the city by two bridges: Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge and Maly Kamenny Bridge. The ensemble covers an area of 3.3 hectares and comprises 8 buildings with a varying height of 9 to 11 floors. It overlooks Serafimovich Street and Bersenevskaya Embankment.
The official address of the building is 2 Serafimovich street. Organizations located on the riverside sometimes use the address 20 Bersenevskaya Embankment.
The relocation of the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow caused an increased need to house civil servants in Moscow. In 1927, a commission decided that a building would be constructed in the Bersenevka neighborhood, opposite the Kremlin, which had been occupied by the Wine and Salt Court, an old distillery and excise warehouse. During the Tsarist era, the area had been used mainly as a mushroom market.
The new apartment block was completed in 1931 as the Government Building, a residence for the Soviet elite. Previously, they had lived mostly in the Kremlin itself or in various luxury hotels around Moscow, such as the National, the Metropol and the Loskutnaya.
It was designed by Boris Iofan, who lived in the building from 1931 to 1976. (He also designed the Palace of the Soviets, which was never built.)
The building is considered to be constructivist in style. The apartments were luxurious for their time: telephones, central heating and high ceilings were standard. At the time, most Muskovites had to make do with communal apartments. The building also featured a sports hall, tennis court, kindergarten, library, laundrette and a kitchen from which meals could be ordered for collection.
Many residents and their families were detained during the Great Purge under reign of Stalin in the late 1930s; to the extent that the building was dryly referred to as "The House of Preliminary Detention". (That is a play on the Russian initialism Допр, from the building's original name: Дом прави́тельства). During this period it was known as having the highest rate of per-capita arrests and executions of any residential building in Moscow. Fully a third of its residents disappeared during the purge. Professor Yuri Slezkine published in 2017 The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution (Princeton University Press) which records the fates of about eighty tenants and their families. He notes that some of the apartments in the Government Building held up to five successive sets of occupants between 1937 and 1940, as senior officials were arrested for execution or imprisonment.
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House on the Embankment
The House on the Embankment (Russian: Дом на набережной) is a block-wide apartment building on the banks of the Moskva River on Balchug in downtown Moscow, Russia. It faces Bersenevskaya Embankment on one side and Serafimovicha Street on the other side. Until 1952, it was the tallest residential building in Moscow. It is considered an example of constructivist architecture. It was best known as the place of residence of the Soviet elite, many of whom were arrested and executed during Stalin's Great Purge.
This residential complex of 505 apartments and 25 entrances is located on Zamoskvorechye Island, a district connected with the rest of the city by two bridges: Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge and Maly Kamenny Bridge. The ensemble covers an area of 3.3 hectares and comprises 8 buildings with a varying height of 9 to 11 floors. It overlooks Serafimovich Street and Bersenevskaya Embankment.
The official address of the building is 2 Serafimovich street. Organizations located on the riverside sometimes use the address 20 Bersenevskaya Embankment.
The relocation of the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow caused an increased need to house civil servants in Moscow. In 1927, a commission decided that a building would be constructed in the Bersenevka neighborhood, opposite the Kremlin, which had been occupied by the Wine and Salt Court, an old distillery and excise warehouse. During the Tsarist era, the area had been used mainly as a mushroom market.
The new apartment block was completed in 1931 as the Government Building, a residence for the Soviet elite. Previously, they had lived mostly in the Kremlin itself or in various luxury hotels around Moscow, such as the National, the Metropol and the Loskutnaya.
It was designed by Boris Iofan, who lived in the building from 1931 to 1976. (He also designed the Palace of the Soviets, which was never built.)
The building is considered to be constructivist in style. The apartments were luxurious for their time: telephones, central heating and high ceilings were standard. At the time, most Muskovites had to make do with communal apartments. The building also featured a sports hall, tennis court, kindergarten, library, laundrette and a kitchen from which meals could be ordered for collection.
Many residents and their families were detained during the Great Purge under reign of Stalin in the late 1930s; to the extent that the building was dryly referred to as "The House of Preliminary Detention". (That is a play on the Russian initialism Допр, from the building's original name: Дом прави́тельства). During this period it was known as having the highest rate of per-capita arrests and executions of any residential building in Moscow. Fully a third of its residents disappeared during the purge. Professor Yuri Slezkine published in 2017 The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution (Princeton University Press) which records the fates of about eighty tenants and their families. He notes that some of the apartments in the Government Building held up to five successive sets of occupants between 1937 and 1940, as senior officials were arrested for execution or imprisonment.