House of Soviets (Saint Petersburg)

The House of Soviets (Russian: Дом Советов, Dom Sovetov) is the office building built in Stalinist style in the late 1930s in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). It is located in the Moskovsky District of Saint Petersburg. It has been described as "the purest form of totalitarian monumentality".[1]

House of Soviets
Дом Советов
Main façade of the House of Soviets
General information
Type	Office building
Architectural style	Stalinist architecture
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Address	Moskovsky Prospekt, 212
Coordinates	59°51′08″N 30°19′32″E
Construction started	1936
Completed	1941
Owner	JSC "Holding Company Leninets"
Height	50 meters
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Noi Trotsky
Other designers	Lev Tverskoi, Modest Shepilevsky, Nikolai Tomsky

According to Soviet projects, the House of Soviets was planned to host the administration of Soviet Leningrad government. The location was chosen on undeveloped south outskirts of the city away from the downtown area which was prone to frequent floods. The construction was completed just before the Nazi invasion of Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, and the building was never used for the intended purpose. In 1941, it was fortified and used as a local command post for Soviet Red Army during the Siege of Leningrad. Surviving reminders of that stronghold are small bunkers built from a reinforced concrete which still stand at several corners of the House of Soviets. Later, the building housed the Soviet research institute which focused on the design of electronic components for military objects. Among the notable engineers who worked there are two post-World War II defectors from the US, Alfred Sarant and Joel Barr. Currently, the office space in the building is rented out to various businesses.

A square in front of the House of Soviets is called Moscow Square (Moskovskaya Ploshad). During a construction of the subway station Moskovskaya in 1970, the square was remodelled and upgraded with a massive monument to Vladimir Lenin designed by Mikhail Anikushin. In 2006, several fountain features were added at the square.