But in the 19th century, the Varvara joint-stock company bought the corner plot for new development. At first, several houses appeared here with cheap apartments and shops on the ground floors. But then the idea arose to build a luxury hotel.
At first the hotel was called “National”. Accommodation was not cheap - up to 25 rubles per day, but there was no shortage of clients. All thanks to the excellent finishing and technical equipment: marble staircases, stucco moldings, mosaic floors, stained glass windows, mahogany furniture. The majolica panels on the upper floor were made at the Abramtsevo plant especially for the National. One of the paintings depicted the god Bacchus on a wooden bicycle. The hotel was equipped with technical innovations of that time: elevators worked, and telephones, water closets and baths appeared in the rooms.
In Soviet times, after the capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow, members of the Bolshevik government lived here for some time. The National Hotel turned into the First House of Soviets.
How to read facades: a cheat sheet on architectural elementsThe hotel functions of the building were returned to the 1930s. The hotel was renovated, and the interiors were replenished with furniture from the Anichkov and Tsarskoye Selo palaces. At the same time, an “industrial” panel by I.I. appeared in the corner part of the building. Rerberg. And during the Second World War, the residences of 16 foreign embassies and diplomatic missions were set up in the National.
The renovated National Hotel opened on May 9, 1995, when Russia celebrated the 50th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Today the hotel has 202 rooms, and each is a small museum. Antique vases from the time of Napoleon, gilded chandeliers, furniture sets made of Karelian birch send guests back to the times of Tsarist Moscow. In total, on the seven floors of the National there are 500 original antiques.
architectural monument (federal)Hotel "National"- a 5-star hotel in the center of Moscow. The hotel building occupies the corner of Tverskaya and Mokhovaya streets, and is also an important component of the architectural appearance of Manezhnaya Square.
History of creation
In the place where the hotel is now located, from the end of the 18th century there were apartment buildings of the merchant Moskvin. In the 19th century, the Varvara Joint Stock Company of Homeowners bought a corner plot for new development - soon several houses with cheap apartments appeared here, the first floors of which were given over to shops. At the same time, the designers gave the corner protrusion of the main building a semicircular shape, characteristic of Moscow architecture of the late 18th century. In 1901, the new owners began construction of a luxury hotel designed by architect A. V. Ivanov. The new architectural project provided for the preservation in general terms of the appearance of the previous building (apartment house by architect L.N. Benois), including the semicircular corner. The building of the National Hotel, opened on December 29, 1902, is designed in an eclectic style with Art Nouveau elements. The National was originally conceived as a world-class luxury hotel. Expensive materials were used in the decoration. The exterior decoration is marked by the use large quantity stucco moldings; mosaic floors and stained glass were used in the interiors. The hotel was equipped with advanced technical innovations of the time: elevators were installed, and telephones, water closets and baths appeared in the rooms. Initially, the hotel was designed for 160 rooms, which were located on the four upper floors.
In 1918, after the Soviet government moved to Moscow, the hotel building was occupied by government units of the new government (and occupied it for the next 15 years); the hotel was named First House of Soviets. For several days in March 1918, the head of the Soviet state V.I. Lenin lived with his wife N.K. Krupskaya and sister M.I. Ulyanova in two-room number 107-109. The hotel’s involvement in revolutionary history is reminiscent of the majolica panel on an industrial theme, installed on the corner attic in 1931-1932 - one of the first examples of the implementation of Lenin’s plan for “Monumental Agitation and Propaganda.” In 1932, the building was returned to hotel status.
From 1991 to 1995, a large-scale reconstruction and restoration of the National was carried out.
Current state
Today the hotel is one of the most comfortable in Moscow. In 2006, the hotel, having received official name Royal Meridien National became part of the international hotel corporation Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. On September 1, 2009, after another renovation, the National Hotel changed the Le Royal Meridien brand to The Luxury Collection, which also belongs to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. From this moment on, the hotel bears the name “Hotel National, a Luxury Collection Hotel.” The hotel has 206 rooms, including 37 suites with views of the Kremlin, individually designed and furnished with antique furniture, as well. “National” has repeatedly been awarded the title of “Best Hotel in Russia in the five-star category” and has “Royal status”. Among the guests of the National are heads of state and government, show business stars, and famous cultural figures.
In December 2011, the hotel, previously owned by the Moscow government, was privatized. The winner of the auction was the structure of entrepreneur Mikhail Gutseriev, who offered 4.674 billion rubles for National.
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An excerpt characterizing the National (hotel, Moscow)
- No, but I need something else. “I need a peasant dress and a pistol,” said Pierre, suddenly blushing.“I’m listening,” Gerasim said after thinking.
Pierre spent the entire rest of that day alone in his benefactor's office, restlessly walking from one corner to another, as Gerasim heard, and talking to himself, and spent the night on the bed that was prepared for him right there.
Gerasim, with the habit of a servant who had seen many strange things in his lifetime, accepted Pierre's relocation without surprise and seemed pleased that he had someone to serve. That same evening, without even asking himself why it was needed, he got Pierre a caftan and a hat and promised to buy the required pistol the next day. That evening Makar Alekseevich, slapping his galoshes, approached the door twice and stopped, looking ingratiatingly at Pierre. But as soon as Pierre turned to him, he bashfully and angrily wrapped his robe around him and hastily walked away. While Pierre, in a coachman's caftan, purchased and steamed for him by Gerasim, went with him to buy a pistol from the Sukharev Tower, he met the Rostovs.
On the night of September 1, Kutuzov ordered the retreat of Russian troops through Moscow to the Ryazan road.
The first troops moved into the night. The troops marching at night were in no hurry and moved slowly and sedately; but at dawn the moving troops, approaching the Dorogomilovsky Bridge, saw ahead of them, on the other side, crowding, hurrying across the bridge and on the other side rising and clogging the streets and alleys, and behind them - pressing, endless masses of troops. And causeless haste and anxiety took possession of the troops. Everything rushed forward to the bridge, onto the bridge, into the fords and into the boats. Kutuzov ordered to be taken around the back streets to the other side of Moscow.
By ten o'clock in the morning on September 2, only the rearguard troops remained in the open air in the Dorogomilovsky Suburb. The army was already on the other side of Moscow and beyond Moscow.
At the same time, at ten o’clock in the morning on September 2, Napoleon stood between his troops on Poklonnaya Hill and looked at the spectacle that opened before him. Starting from the 26th of August and until the 2nd of September, from the Battle of Borodino until the enemy entered Moscow, all the days of this alarming, this memorable week there was that extraordinary autumn weather that always surprises people, when the low sun warms hotter than in the spring, when everything sparkles in the rare, clean air so that it hurts the eyes, when the chest becomes stronger and fresher, inhaling the fragrant autumn air, when the nights are even warm and when in these dark warm nights golden stars constantly rain down from the sky, frightening and delighting.
On September 2 at ten o'clock in the morning the weather was like this. The shine of the morning was magical. Moscow from Poklonnaya Hill spread out spaciously with its river, its gardens and churches and seemed to live its own life, trembling like stars with its domes in the rays of the sun.
At the sight of a strange city with unprecedented forms of extraordinary architecture, Napoleon experienced that somewhat envious and restless curiosity that people experience when they see the forms of an alien life that does not know about them. Obviously, this city lived with all the forces of its life. By those indefinable signs by which at a long distance a living body is unmistakably distinguished from a dead one. Napoleon from Poklonnaya Hill saw the flutter of life in the city and felt, as it were, the breath of this large and beautiful body.
– Cette ville Asiatique aux innombrables eglises, Moscow la sainte. La voila donc enfin, cette fameuse ville! Il etait temps, [This Asian city with countless churches, Moscow, their holy Moscow! Here it is, finally, this famous city! It's time!] - said Napoleon and, dismounting from his horse, ordered the plan of this Moscou to be laid out in front of him and called the translator Lelorgne d "Ideville. "Une ville occupee par l"ennemi ressemble a une fille qui a perdu son honneur, [A city occupied by the enemy , is like a girl who has lost her virginity.] - he thought (as he said this to Tuchkov in Smolensk). And from this point of view, he looked at the oriental beauty lying in front of him, whom he had never seen before. It was strange to him that his long-standing desire, which seemed impossible to him, had finally come true. In the clear morning light he looked first at the city, then at the plan, checking the details of this city, and the certainty of possession excited and terrified him.
“But how could it be otherwise? - he thought. - Here it is, this capital, at my feet, awaiting its fate. Where is Alexander now and what does he think? Strange, beautiful, majestic city! And strange and majestic this minute! In what light do I appear to them? - he thought about his troops. “Here it is, the reward for all these people of little faith,” he thought, looking around at those close to him and at the troops approaching and forming. “One word of mine, one movement of my hand, and this one died.” ancient capital des Czars. Mais ma clemence est toujours prompte a descendre sur les vaincus. [kings. But my mercy is always ready to descend to the vanquished.] I must be generous and truly great. But no, it’s not true that I’m in Moscow, it suddenly occurred to him. “However, here she lies at my feet, playing and trembling with golden domes and crosses in the rays of the sun. But I will spare her. On the ancient monuments of barbarism and despotism I will write great words of justice and mercy... Alexander will understand this most painfully, I know him. (It seemed to Napoleon that the main significance of what was happening lay in his personal struggle with Alexander.) From the heights of the Kremlin - yes, this is the Kremlin, yes - I will give them the laws of justice, I will show them the meaning of true civilization, I will force generations the boyars lovingly remember the name of their conqueror. I will tell the deputation that I did not and do not want war; that I waged war only against the false policy of their court, that I love and respect Alexander, and that I will accept peace terms in Moscow worthy of me and my peoples. I do not want to take advantage of the happiness of war to humiliate the respected sovereign. Boyars - I will tell them: I do not want war, but I want peace and prosperity for all my subjects. However, I know that their presence will inspire me, and I will tell them as I always say: clearly, solemnly and grandly. But is it really true that I am in Moscow? Yes, here she is!
“Qu"on m"amene les boyards, [Bring the boyars.]" he addressed the retinue. The general with a brilliant retinue immediately galloped after the boyars.
Two hours passed. Napoleon had breakfast and again stood in the same place on Poklonnaya Hill, awaiting the deputation. His speech to the boyars was already clearly formed in his imagination. This speech was filled with dignity and the greatness that Napoleon understood.
The tone of generosity in which Napoleon intended to act in Moscow captivated him. In his imagination, he appointed days for reunion dans le palais des Czars [meetings in the palace of the kings], where Russian nobles were to meet with the nobles of the French emperor. He mentally appointed a governor, one who would be able to attract the population to himself. Having learned that there were many charitable institutions in Moscow, he decided in his imagination that all these institutions would be showered with his favors. He thought that just as in Africa one had to sit in a burnous in a mosque, so in Moscow one had to be merciful, like the kings. And, in order to finally touch the hearts of the Russians, he, like every Frenchman, who cannot imagine anything sensitive without mentioning ma chere, ma tendre, ma pauvre mere, [my sweet, tender, poor mother], he decided that for everyone In these establishments he orders them to write in capital letters: Etablissement dedie a ma chere Mere. No, simply: Maison de ma Mere, [An institution dedicated to my dear mother... My mother’s house.] - he decided to himself. “But am I really in Moscow? Yes, here she is in front of me. But why hasn’t the city’s deputation been showing up for so long?” - he thought.
Hotel "National" - one of the most famous and comfortable hotels in Moscow (5-star class), located on the corner of Tverskaya and Mokhovaya streets.
The hotel was built in 1901-1903 according to the design of the architect Alexander Ivanov on the site of a block of apartment buildings with cheap apartments, the first floors of which were given over to shops. The corner protrusion of the block had a semicircular shape: this was typical of Moscow architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries. During the construction of the hotel, the shape of the quarter was taken into account and preserved: the construction project provided for the preservation of the general features of the appearance of the previous building, including the semicircular corner.
The building of the National Hotel was built in the eclectic style, borrowing elements of Art Nouveau. Initially conceived as a world-class hotel, the National Hotel was decorated with the highest quality and most expensive materials and received a rich decorative design, replete with stucco and sculptures. The corner ledge received a solemn and luxurious appearance: it was decorated with a decorative colonnade and caryatids, and on the attic a majolica panel “Apollo and the Muses” appeared, made according to sketches by artists Sergei Chekhonin and Alexander Golovin at the Moscow Butyrka ceramic factory “Abramtsevo” by Savva Mamontov. The border with an ornament in the form of oak leaves that completes the 5th floor of the building also attracts attention.
The interior design of the hotel was not inferior to the exterior: marble staircases, figures of Atlases, mosaic floors and stained glass windows made the hotel interiors truly luxurious. The decoration was echoed by the equipment - the hotel was equipped with the latest technology: elevators were installed in the building (an incredible luxury at the beginning of the 20th century) and a steam heating system, and telephones appeared in the rooms.
In 1918, the building was occupied by government structures of the established Soviet power, and the hotel ceased operation for 15 years, turning into First House of Soviets. In 1931-1932, as part of Lenin’s program of monumental propaganda, the majolica panel “Apollo and the Muses” on the corner attic was replaced with panels with an industrial theme. In 1932, the building again became a hotel.
In 1991-1995, the National Hotel underwent reconstruction and restoration, as a result of which some lost elements of the pre-revolutionary interiors were restored, and an indoor restaurant was equipped in the courtyard-well of the building.
Initially the hotel had 160 rooms, now their number has increased to 206. different years members of the imperial family, Vladimir Lenin, Fyodor Chaliapin, Ivan Bunin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Catherine Deneuve, Pele, Alain Delon, Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Sholokhov, Nicolas Sarkozy and other famous people lived in them.
Hotel "National" located at Mokhovaya Street, 15/1. You can get to it on foot from metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" Sokolnicheskaya line and "Theatrical" Zamoskvoretskaya.
Category of historical and cultural significance
Federal significance
Object type
Monument
Basic typology
Monument of urban planning and architecture
Creation date information
Facility address (location)
Moscow, st. Mokhovaya, 15/1, building 1 (part)
Name, date and number of the decision of the government authority to place the object under state protection
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR On the addition and partial amendment of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR dated August 30, 1960 No. 1327 “On further improvement of the protection of cultural monuments in the RSFSR” No. 624 dated 12/04/1974
Description of the subject of protection
Urban planning characteristics of the building involved in the formation of the development front of Tverskaya and Mokhovaya streets, Manezhnaya Square ; volumetric-spatial composition of the main building as amended in 1901-1903; composition and architectural and artistic design of the facades of the main building as amended in 1901-1903; four small polychrome majolica panels 1901-1903. on the 6th floor level; majolica panel with an industrial theme from the 1920s. at the 7th floor level; composition and architectural and artistic design of the facades of the courtyard of the main building in the original edition of 1901-1903; composition and architectural and artistic design of a fragment of the southwestern firewall, decorated in 1934 according to the design of academician I.V. Zholtovsky in connection with the construction of the “House on Mokhovaya” on the neighboring site; the original function of the hotel. Space-planning structure and structures of the main walls of the main and courtyard buildings, 1901 - 1903. (basement - 7 floors); system of vaulted basement floors (the subject of protection of vaulted basement floors is specified based on the results of the design of the device). Initial architectural and artistic design and decoration of the interiors of the main building: window rollers and marble window sills; volumetric-spatial composition and decorative design of the main lobby of 1901-1903: stucco ceilings, a fragment of the floor made from the original Metlakh tiles; volumetric-spatial composition, decorative design and construction of the main staircase and elevator hall from Mokhovaya Street, 1901-1903. (1-6 floors): enclosing structures, stucco decoration of ceilings and walls, stained glass filling of window openings, fragment of the staircase floor (6th floor?), assembled from the original tiles, figures of Atlanteans, metal fencing of elevators n. XX century; volumetric-spatial composition and decorative design of the staircase from the side of Tverskaya Street of the former “Petukhov Brothers Ready-Made Dress and Fur Products Store”: figured enclosing structures; location and volumetric-spatial design of the service staircases of the main building (basement - 7 floors) and the courtyard building (basement - 5 floors); location and decorative design of corridors and halls of the 2-6 floors of the main building; premises of the modern hall "St. Petersburg": decorative design and painting of ceilings, original mirror and heating radiators (2nd floor, south-eastern corner of the main building); premises of modern banquet halls "Suzdal" and "Kostroma": painting of ceilings 1975-1976, made by artists I.V. Nikolaev and M.M. Dedova-Dzedushinskaya (2nd floor, northern corner of the main building); the original structure of the rooms located along the main facades (3-6 floors); hotel room 178 (3rd floor): original planning solution, decorative ceilings, stained glass; hotel room 101 (3rd floor): stucco ceiling decoration with paintings, corner fireplace; hotel room 107 (3rd floor): in 1918 V. stayed in the room. I. Lenin and N.K. Krupskaya; hotel room 115 (3rd floor): artistic ceiling painting "Triumph of Juno" 1902, stucco ceiling decor; hotel room 207 (4th floor): fragment of the picturesque composition painting “Bacchus on a wooden bicycle”, stucco ceiling decoration; hotel room 201 (4th floor): painted frieze with fantasy masks in gilded vignettes on a blue background. The commission proposes to clarify the name of the object in the following wording: “Hotel “National”, 1901-1903, architect A.V. Ivanov.” 2. Subject of protection at the facility cultural heritage of federal significance is approved in accordance with the established procedure.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Shortly before the New Year, we were lucky enough to photograph one of the oldest and most luxurious hotels in the city - the National.
The National Hotel was built in 1902-03 according to the design of the architect Alexander Ivanov; the Varvara joint-stock company acted as a customer and sponsor. At the time of opening, it was the most expensive, prestigious, modern and technically equipped hotel.
In this publication we will walk through the halls and rooms of the hotel, and also briefly talk about its history —>
At all times, appropriate guests stayed at the hotel - government officials, important foreign gentlemen and celebrities. Endless governors-general, leaders of noble assemblies. But the most famous guest of the hotel’s first years was not an official at all, but a composer - Rimsky-Korsakov.
After the revolution, the hotel turned into the 1st House of Soviets, in fact a hostel for Soviet officials. In the 1920s alone, most of the furniture and the former splendor of the interiors were lost. Since the 1930s, it has been a hotel again, now under the familiar name “National”; hundreds of pieces of antique furniture, requisitioned from rich palaces of the tsarist era, have been brought into its rooms. But large-scale repairs and restoration were carried out only in the early 1990s. During the restoration, all rooms of the hotel were brought as close as possible to their original appearance. Let's walk through the hotel and see what's inside, what has changed over 113 years, and who had the honor of living in its rooms.
Decoration of elevators in the main lobby of the hotel. An elevator for 1902 was an unprecedented luxury and innovation; the very first electric elevators in Moscow appeared a year earlier, in 1901.
It cannot be said that the National Hotel is a building in the Art Nouveau style. After all, this is eclecticism, the architect Alexander Ivanov, who built it, even in the Art Nouveau era remained faithful to the mixture of styles, he is an architect of the St. Petersburg school, he lived in northern capital and built more than 60 houses there, starting in the 1870s, and only in the 1890s did he come to Moscow. Even in the heyday of Art Nouveau, he used only details of the newfangled style in his projects. The National Hotel is close to classicism in its composition, and in its decor it is a bright mixture of classicism, baroque, French renaissance and modernism. Most of the modernity is in the forged grilles of the balconies, the mosaic panel at the top of the corner part of the building, and in the interior it is primarily the fences of the main staircases.
There were two main staircases: the main one was from Mokhovaya Street. The Art Nouveau staircase railing, referencing Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau, is the pride of the National and one of the main symbols of the hotel.
We look from the stairs towards the entrance. The composition of the hall is reminiscent of St. Petersburg neoclassicism; many of St. Petersburg's front doors are decorated in a similar way, with atlases. The architect's roots make themselves felt. By the way, the wooden vestibule at the entrance is partially original.
Looking up at the staircases decorated for the New Year.
In the 1990s, it took a long time to come up with a hotel brand logo. And suddenly they discovered a miraculously preserved wine glass with the hotel’s monogram made from a combination of the Russian letter and H and the Latin N. The logo was ready, there was no need to come up with anything new. As a result, the monogram of the early 20th century formed the basis of the hotel’s new corporate identity; it is now everywhere – on staff costumes, in advertising brochures, and on all signs.
A new café space on the ground floor emerged in the 1990s. Before reconstruction, it was a courtyard-well, surrounded on all sides by hotel buildings.
The floral decoration of the main staircase is also quite a characteristic detail of the Art Nouveau era, but in composition it is still closer to classicism.
Another reason for joy is the preserved stained glass windows from 1902 in the Art Nouveau style that decorate the windows of the main staircase. All of them are original; only the central part of the windows was lost during Soviet times. In St. Petersburg, quite a lot of these are still preserved in the front apartment buildings; for Moscow, this, alas, is very rare.
One of the restaurant halls on the second floor of the hotel. Almost all the decoration here was lost during Soviet times; in the 1930s it was an ordinary dining room. Based on the surviving traces, everything was restored during the restoration process, including the color scheme of the walls and ceilings.
A local artifact - authentic heating radiators from the early 20th century.
The view that now opens from the restaurant from the second floor was not originally there. Until the 1930s, a whole block of old buildings stood on the site of Manezhnaya Square, including the five-story buildings of the Loskutnaya Hotel. It was she who blocked the view of the Kremlin from the National.
View of their upper floors of the "National" at the beginning of the 20th century. Between the houses there is narrow Tverskaya, and in the distance you can see the tops of the rooftops Historical Museum and the pointed roof of the City Duma (formerly the Lenin Museum, now another building of the Historical Museum).
Before the revolution, the kitchen was located on the sixth floor so that the smells of food did not spread throughout the hotel, and dishes were transported to the restaurant on the second floor using a special lift - a “machine for lowering food.”
In the window on the right you can see the newly built Moscow Hotel. It is believed that the artist Andrei Ioganson sketched the view of the hotel while sitting in one of the restaurant halls on the ground floor of the hotel, later turning the drawing into a label for Stolichnaya vodka.
The hall on the second floor with windows towards Tverskaya is a monument to the Soviet era, the times of “developed socialism”, 1975-76. The authors of the stucco moldings and paintings are artists I.V. Nikolaev and M.M. Dedova-Dzedushinskaya.
The design clearly refers to the era of the Stalinist Empire style, but here it is all deliberately made naive and childish. And not just like that, here in the 1970s there was an idea to set up a children's cafe.
A fragment called “Carnival”, author – Marina Dedova-Dzedushinskaya.
The adjacent corner room, decorated by the same artists, was occupied by the Petukhov brothers' fur and sewing accessories store before the revolution. A separate staircase led to the store from the first floor, from Tverskaya. Now this is the second front door of the National.
The halls and rooms of the National contain a huge amount of antiques. However, now it is difficult to say where each of the artifacts came from, this knight, for example. In the 1930s, thousands of units were requisitioned from pre-revolutionary manor houses, estates of nobles and merchants. All this was distributed among Soviet hotels and institutions.
Second floor corridors.
The doors, their decoration and the ornament with the number on the glass have been completely restored exactly as they were in 1903.
Some of the celebrities who have stayed at different time in the National - Catherine Deneuve, ballerina Anna Pavlova, football player Pele, racer David Coulhard and Alain Dalon. The entire wall in one of the corridors is covered with portraits.
After the revolution, in March 1918, the Soviet government moved from Petrograd to Moscow. On the first train were Lenin, Krupskaya, Maria Ulyanova and Bonch-Bruevich and his wife. They were accommodated in rooms at the National Hotel. Party leaders from the second train were assigned to Metropol. Before the arrival of the party leadership in Moscow, all the guests were evicted from the hotel and security was posted. Room 107, where Lenin and Krupskaya were lodged, was guarded by Latvian riflemen from Smolny.
This is the office and bedroom of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The furniture in the room is antique, but not from the National, but, again, from palaces and estates, imported in the 1930s. Moreover, in this issue some of the items are from the royal palaces of St. Petersburg. The round table has the stamp of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration, and the desk with drawers has the stamp of the Anichkov Palace. Alas, the original furniture from the “National” did not survive the 1920s; a significant part of it was also used as firewood for heating.
Krupskaya and Lenin’s sister Maria Ulyanova slept in this room.
Neoclassical ornament restored during reconstruction in the 1990s, restored from traces discovered under several layers of Soviet wallpaper. Similar ornamental belts decorated all the hotel rooms, only their design was different in each room.
Each room has a different ornament.
In addition to the leader of the proletariat, the following people managed to live in the former “National” in those days: Sverdlov, Trotsky, Lunacharsky, Tsyurupa, Budyonny, Voroshilov and Stalin. On March 19, 1918, a week after their arrival, all party leaders, along with Lenin, were moved to the Kremlin, which was quickly cleaned and patched up after the revolutionary battles.
The bathroom in room 107 is now new. The original bathrooms were small and uncomfortable by today's standards, but at the beginning of the 20th century they were an unprecedented luxury. With all these amenities, “National” beat the rest of the leading hotels at that time. Loskutnaya, Bolshaya Moskovskaya, Paris, Louvre Madrid, Dresden - all of them were built before sewerage was installed in Moscow, and in most cases did not have plumbing equipment and bathrooms. Yes, and “National” only 13 of the most expensive rooms had water closets and bathrooms. The remaining guests used the 49 bathrooms on the floors.
Third floor corridor.
After the government moved to the Kremlin, “National” was renamed the 1st House of Soviets. All shops on the 1st and 2nd floors were closed, the restaurant turned into a canteen. The delegates to the congresses of the Soviets, who had arrived, it seemed, for a while, did not want to leave here. Members of the Communist Party of Finland, employees of the State Control apparatus, members of the Small Council of People's Commissars, the list of their positions could go on for a long time, but the names hardly mean anything to anyone in our time: Frumkin, Minkin, Galkin, Karamyasov, Roslavets and etc. From famous people one can recall Molotov and Kaganovich. Gradually, the hotel rooms became overcrowded, lower-ranking party officials invited their relatives and friends, everyone wanted to stay here, and as a result, the hotel turned into complete chaos and disorder.
This is what commission member G.P. wrote in the report after the inspection. Maurin: “Inspecting the 1st House of Soviets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, its warehouses with food, pantries with equipment and the kitchen where lunch is prepared, I found and was truly amazed at all the mismanagement of the people assigned to this institution. The kitchen where the food is prepared is, if you enter from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., a complete swamp or garbage pit. The floor is littered with food waste, such as potato peelings and cabbage leaves, and all this is sufficiently saturated with dirt.
... carcasses of meat and fish lie in the open courtyard under a canopy, exposed to weathering and spoilage. The same fate befalls potatoes, of which 1,000 poods in bags are collected in a common pile and represent a dump of spoiled products.”
And only in the 1930s did everything change, all the Bolsheviks were evicted, and the 1st House of Soviets again turned into the National Hotel.
Let's return to inspecting the best hotel rooms.
This is room 115, which before the revolution bore the name “Louis XV’s Drawing Room”. Furniture made from Karelian birch, brought here in the 1930s, was manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century at the famous factory of P.N. Schmidt. Initially, this room, like all the rooms on the third and fourth floors, had mahogany furniture from the Meltzer factory, a trendsetter in furniture fashion in St. Petersburg and supplier to the Imperial Court. On the fifth and sixth floors there was furniture made of light and stained oak. The original decoration of the walls with damask, a fabric of pink tones, has been restored. During the restoration it turned out that the upper cornice was also a wooden structure for fastening silk damask.
The most significant relic from issue 115 is an early 19th century French vase with images of Napoleon and his wife Josephine. Josephine looks into the corner, and once every two weeks the vase is turned 180 degrees so that everything is fair. During the era of “perestroika,” when property was removed from the hotel, the legendary vase disappeared. The criminal investigation department threw all its efforts into searching for her, and soon the stoker of one of the Moscow boiler houses called the police. It turned out that his friend, a former hotel employee, was hiding this vase in his boiler room. The thief was caught and the vase was returned to its place.
Now this room belongs to the Presidential Suite class. Before the revolution, members of royal families, foreign diplomats, and ministers of the tsarist government stayed in such rooms. In 1913, the uncle of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, father-in-law of Felix Yusupov, lived here. And in 1918, it was in this room that Yakov Sverdlov, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, one of the people who made the decision to execute the royal family, was accommodated.
Grand piano from the 19th century by the German company Rud Ibach Sohn.
The picturesque panel “The Triumph of Juno” has been preserved since 1902 and was restored in the 1990s.
And in the bedroom the furniture is already modern, stylized as antique.
During the Stalinist repressions, many numbers were bugged. One day, writer Mikhail Sholokhov became an accidental victim of wiretapping. Usually, when he came to Moscow, he stayed at the National. In 1938, the writer’s affair with the wife of the “Iron People’s Commissar” Nikolai Yezhov broke out. Evgenia Yezhova visited the author of “Quiet Don” in the rooms of this hotel. And the most interesting thing is that the wiretap recording went straight to People's Commissar Yezhov through the security officers.
Another room worthy of attention is 177. The furniture is also all antique, brought from rich estates.
Contrast.
It is worth taking a closer look at the details of the bed.
Its backs are decorated with rams' heads.
There is a bed with rams, and a wardrobe with swans in the capitals.
On top is a belt of restored fragments of Art Nouveau decor. The dark rectangle is a cleared original painting, and all the others were restored from it. The original fragment has darkened over time; initially it was like all the others now - lighter.
Original and restored fragments.
Table in the living room.
In the living room, the decor is represented by suits of playing cards. And here, too, they preserved the original, darkened fragment.
Fourth floor corridor.
In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stayed in this room.
The painting “Bacchus on a wooden bicycle” belongs to the original decoration of the hotel, recently restored.
Furniture details for room 210.
This is a three-room suite, on either side of the main corner room there are two more, with windows onto Mokhovaya and Tverskaya. In the 1920s, the family of Comrade Kropotkin lived in a corner room and there were 10 beds.
A room with a window onto Mokhovaya. Another family was already living in this room. In fact, every room in the 1920s was a communal apartment.
And this one faces Tverskaya. During the time of the 1st House of Soviets, guards or subordinates of big bosses could live in such small rooms.
During the restoration of the National in the 1990s, 120 rooms were restored from the 3rd to 6th floors, they were brought as much as possible to their original appearance.
The topmost stained glass window is different from all the others.
Its fragment.
Sixth floor corridors and rich floral stucco.
A mixture of Rococo and Art Nouveau.
And finally, a shot from the reception hall, on the first floor.
Worked on this publication:
text: Alexander Ivanov
photo: Alexander Usoltsev
