The House on the Embankment

To contrast with yesterday......this building stands on the south bank of the Moscow River just to the west of the Kremlin. It is a vast, imposing and very very grey building.

The building was completed in 1931 for the upper ranks of the Soviet elite, the highest echelons of the Red Army and socialist celebrities. Each apartment had a gas cooker and hot water on tap, a complete luxury at the time. But in fact it wasn't your ordinary apartment block - it was a city within a city. There was a theatre, shops, a post office, a doctor's surgery and even hot meals provided for the residents so that they didn't even have to cook.

However, the glorious life that was offered to the residents for many resulted in a tragic end. In the mid 1930s at least one third of the residents fell victim to Stalin's purges. The apartments were in fact bugged and many of the residents were send to labour camps or worse.