Photo Gallery Inside the Kremlin
The Kremlin Senate: The Kremlin Senate is the official residence of the Russian head of state. First Lenin had an office in the building, which later served as the Soviet Union's Council of People's Commissars or Sovnarkom. Today, the building is home to the workrooms of the Russian president along with the his most important advisers.
Security Council Meeting Hall: The Russian president holds cabinet meetings here as well as gatherings of his security council. In addition to the president and the prime minister, the security council includes, among others, the foreign and interior ministers, the defense minister and the heads of Russia's secret service agencies.
The President's Office: When the Russian president isn't traveling abroad or at his official residence, he runs the country from here. The Kremlin describes the office as offering "maximum comfort."
Main Entrance: The Russian flag flies from the dome of the Senate. It weighs some 20 kilograms (44 pounds). Because of the unreliable Moscow winds, a blower has been installed to ensure that the Russian tricolore flutters appropriately.
Representative Office: Four statues stand in niches inside the room. They portray Russia's greatest reformist tsars: Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I and Alexander II. The sculptures are meant to symbolize the continuity of Russian state power, yet also serve as a reminder of the need for reform.
Heraldic Hall: The ornate, yet small reception room has no official use.
Hall of Arms: It is here that the president receives foreign guests. The hall takes its name from the double-headed tsarist eagles of gold thread that adorn the red cloth on the room's walls.
Collection of Honors: Russian honors and orders of merit are kept here, as well as the president's chain of office, which is placed around his neck at his inauguration.
Coats of Arms Display: The coats of arms of the Russian tsars are on display here as well as those of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.
Catherine Hall: Catherine Hall is the most magnificent of all of the Senate's rooms and where important meetings attended by the president take place. Two female statues adorn the room: They embody Russia and Wisdom.
Presidential Library: The copy of the Russian constitution used to swear in new presidents is kept here. Outgoing head of state Dmitry Medvedev also used the library for official purposes, such as television interviews.
Great Kremlin Palace: The Great Kremlin Palace is, in addition to the Senate, one of two buildings to be used for political activities. Foreign dignitaries are received here, and Vladimir Putin was inaugurated here following his first election to the presidency, in 2000. The Great Kremlin Palace was built in the 19th century before the Bolsheviks moved into the Kremlin following the 1917 October Revolution. Once the Soviets fell in the 1990s, the five, double-headed tsarist eagles returned to their original place on the façade, while the Soviet coat of arms was removed.
St. Andrew Hall: This is the throne room of Russia's old and new tsars. The Romanovs presided here and both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev were inaugurated in the hall. In 1934, the 17th Communist Party Congress was held here. Of the 1,225 participants with voting rights, less than half would survive the next five years. Two-thirds of those elected to the Central Committee had been killed by 1938.
St. Alexander Hall: The resplendent Hall of Alexander is a tribute to Alexander Nevski, one of the pivotal figures during the middle age in Russia. A painting on the wall reminds visitors of Nevski's greatest triumph: the Battle of the Ice. In 1242, Nevski vanquished an army of German and Swedish crusaders on the frozen Lake Peipus. The Hall of Alexander is adorned with reliefs bearing the initials S.A. They stand for Sanctus Alexander; the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nevski in the 16th century.
Outer Hall: The Great Kremlin Palace includes 700 rooms, spaces and halls. Guests entering St. George's Hall are welcomed by an epic battle painting. The work is called "Whoever comes to us with the sword, will die by the sword." The painting is named after a famous saying attributed to Alexander Nevski as he battled to defeat the Swedish and German crusaders.
St. George Hall: In the grandest of the Kremlin's halls, marble plaques on the walls commemorate Russia's greatest war heroes, such as Mikhail Kutuzov, the general, who in 1812-1813, repelled Napoleon's attempts to invade. In 1945, the Russian conquerors of Nazi Germany where honored here. In 1961, it was the turn of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into space. Today the hall serves as an imposing backdrop for international conferences and state receptions.
Red Staircase to Palace of the Facets: The front of the Palace of the Facets is adorned with sharp-edged, limestone cubes. The palace is the oldest secular building not only in the Kremlin, but also in all of Moscow. It was built in the 15th century by Italian architects. Foreign emissaries visiting the Kremlin often walk the steps. The stairs were destroyed in the 1930s and were restored in the 1990s.
St. Vladimir Hall: The Hall of Vladimir is smaller than St. George's Hall or the Hall of the Order of St. Andrew. It has a square floor but the corners are rounded. Daylight streams in through a glass cupola in the ceiling.
Holy Vestibule: Inside the Palace of Facets is the Holy Vestibule, a reception room leading to the ballroom. It is where Ivan the Terrible celebrated his triumph over the Tartars and Peter the Great his triumph over the Swedes.
Banquet Hall in the Palace of the Facets: From the Holy Vestibule, one enters the Palace of Facets ballroom. Ivan the Terrible used it is his throne room. Just as tsars once welcomed their guests in the ballroom, the new Russia also receives dignitaries here. Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was welcomed here in 1994.
Terem Palace Churches: East of the Terem Palace are five private chapels used once used by tsars, recognizable from the outside by virtue of the chapels' 11 onion-domed spires. In 1862, War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy married his German wife Sofia in one of the chapels.
Tsars' Chambers in the Terem Palace: To wander into the Terem Palace's rooms is like walking into a Russian fairytale. The chambers housed 17th Century Russians tsars. According to legend, the tsars rose "with the first rays of the sun at 4:00 to 4:30 a.m.; in the winter never later than 7:00 a.m." A basket was hung from one of the chamber windows so the tsars could collect written requests from their subjects.
Kremlin Armory: Jewellery and weapons were produced here for the Russian tsars. Today the armory is a museum housing the treasures of the period, including historic weapons and the infamous Monomakh's Cap. The precursor to later crowns, Monomakh's Cap is lined with sable fur.
State Kremlin Palace: The clunky State Kremlin Palace was built in 1961 as an arena for Communist Party meetings. Party Leader Nikita Khrushchev had seen the monumental constructions of the Chinese communists in the 1950s and wanted a similar structure in the Kremlin. Several tsar-era buildings were demolished to make way for the 6,000 seat auditorium. The space was used to stage Bolshoi Theater productions in between party congresses. Today the palace serves as a stage for ballet and theater productions as well as for rock concerts.
Red Square: Between the walls of the Kremlin and the famous GUM department store lies Red Square. Tsars such as Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great would stage public executions of their enemies here. Today, the Kremlin stages military parades on the square every year on March 1 to display Russia's military might. Tanks and long-range missiles are paraded through the square to commemorate the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany. The square's surface must be repaired almost every year as a result of the parades.
Lenin Mausoleaum: In Soviet Times, the resting place of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was a site of pilgrimage for millions of Russians. Some 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the embalmed body of the father of the October Revolution can still be viewed in Red Square. Many in Russia, however, believe it is time to finally bury Lenin.
Spasskaya Tower: Spasskaya Tower, or "Savior Tower," is the most famous entrance gate to the Kremlin. Napoleon marched through the gate in 1812 when he thought he had conquered Moscow. Vladimir Putin and the then newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev likewise passed through the gate in 2008 to greet their supporters in Red Square. At the top of the tower sits the Kremlin's most famous clock. Millions of Russians focus raptly on the clock on New Year's Eve: Its chimes officially signal the start of the New Year.
