Senaat.
Senat Building.

This edifice, especially its dome, plays a very important role in shaping the silhouette of the Kremlin from Red Square. The triangular shape of the site dictated the plan of the building. The famous Classical architect M. Kazakov designed a symmetrical structure covering the entire site. It contains three inner courts: the central one is a pentagon and the other two triangles. The offices were ranged along lighted corridors looking onto inner courts. The brick edifice was plastered and painted yellow and white, with the Ionic portico of the central facade, rusticated base and Doric pillars of the wings. In the centre of the composition rises the caissoned dome of Catherine's Hall. It was the largest dome in Russia at that time (diameter 24,6 m). It was once one of the Senate's institutions (the Legal Regulations building). From 1918 it housed the Government of the USSR. Lenin used to work there. His study is preserved with all the furniture of those days. On the same floor there is a flat where Lenin and his family lived until 1923.
The building houses the governmental staff today, too.