here's a look at our top story this hour. the investigation. that killed the country's president. rules.

and also. talks. on the global stage. it's the only apartment building with three hundred. building. thirty two in the heart of moscow just. looks

imposing even. three hundred meters of the. town. every. time. it was meant for soviet russia ruling elite revolutionary communist functionaries government ministers and members of parliament. a key to the country's best. of its tenants had been repressed. special house for special people was popularly known as the house of pretrial incarceration. buildings in secrets is now known as the.

alexander. house across from. the postcard like. the big gray house itself. to me. to say just don't you think it's something. i'm sick and tired of it but it's my. grandfather alexander in the one thousand. he held the post of food minister in a country that had gone through the upheavals of revolution and civil war a person responsible for food supplies was almost as important as all the law makers put together. instantly complied with special

paramilitary groups made the rounds of villages to strip peasants of so. as a result many of them were doomed to starvation. very extensive. executions without troil. they had to by providing the nation with an adequate supply of grain. alexander to save the country's scientific and industrial potential by preventing the urban population from starving around about the same time stalin came up with a costly and vicious project the idea was to build a big apartment house with all modern conveniences for the country's ruling elite the job was given to the architect. a graduate of the italian academy of fine arts . that was the first ever project up it's a city within

a city down to only western as well as domestic architects built on that idea later in the twentieth century. construction got underway on an aisle in the moscow river facing the kremlin nine hundred twenty eight. was to be one of the first tenants but he didn't live long enough to see the end of construction. of a heart attack that same year. however his family was allowed to move into the house. thirty two family moved out of the kremlin and into a five room apartment just like this one. nine hundred forty i was brought there from a maternity home to my three uncles and a sister and grandmother was very happy to see me that. one hundred twenty square metres was a huge amount of floor space in those days even so for a large and growing family compared to the tiny flat the family had lived in before

the. palace. and hot water on tap were seen as marvels of engineering. the architects had introduced a host of technical novelties to make the tenants and lives as comfortable as possible. there was a service left here before the building was revamps and there was a dust bin just outside the door a man whose job it was to collect dust bins used to live to pick them up from every floor the. tenants didn't have the building if they didn't want to. work clothes and hand shops and outpatients clinic a cinema close to outsiders a tennis court a canteen and even hobby clubs for children. yes you would be hard put to find anything missing what there was a crash and there was a kindergarten kindergarten was in that cabin on the rooftop. there was

a large veranda on the other side children from the creche and kindergarten slept on the verandah in the daytime and. in those days it was not as noisy as it is now yet life in the house was very comfortable. moving nice and yes the wool believed in was three minutes until the jail it's not clear if it was demanded to be that way but the more if architect. had sensed the trend of the times in any case that's the way that world was constructed. finding a closed courtyards and a system in general isn't about anyone entering or leaving the building was taken they were telling every movement was known and taught there was a total control of everybody and everything. that never even occurred to the tenants of the modern house they were living in a large golden cage there were small fountains in the middle of the courtyard with

a staff of gardeners looking after flower beds around them there was not a single tree obstructing the guard's field of vision no one could cross the courtyard unnoticed concierges guarded all entrances they were officers of the country's special security units and they had keys to all of the buildings apartment. special service agents always stood guard inside this gate we knew they were because they were wearing a stricken koehler's they let no outsiders into the house. and sometimes took advantage of the situation by seeking safe haven in the house from all sorts of unpleasant situations out with these. parents had no worries about their children they knew their kids were under constant observation but. under total can. that made the job of the special security units easier the repression machine was gaining momentum in the soviet union in the late one nine hundred thirty s.

at that time five hundred five families occupied five hundred five apartments in the complex three hundred eight of them were repressed in one nine hundred thirty seven. such cars were commonly known as black ravens believed to have been used to take people to present. the detainee was bundled into a car where he sent between two men in the special security force said you miss me a detainee was guarded by two special services officers and the driver of the car had no where. the raven in russia was considered to be a burden who brought on happiness that's why people called. the model on which this car was based was presented to soviet russia by henry ford.

was shown the car in the kremlin in one thousand thirty three. plated time well before he touched the grill and wondered why they were so much. it was told that in that way soviet engineers had wanted to outdo forward. too much chrome was not a good idea as for does he ordered. this was the only mass produced car in the country at the time it was used both as a taxi and as a limousine for big special service officers also made use of the ominous vehicle. marguerita father raised her almost as he would a boy he taught her to swim run and stick up for herself. was a communist worthy of the title he was proud of his party membership but when indiscriminate arrests swept the country in the late one nine hundred thirty s.

he realized that storm clouds were gathering over him. in january one nine hundred thirty seven margaret his parents spent a long time in her father's study talking in whispers margaret was just eight years old at the time. that our mother entered the room children your father is leaving us yeah i said to my father communists don't behave like that. try to embrace me but i did my best to break loose from his grip and what he said i would understand and forgive him when i grew up he made an attempt to protect our families. filed a divorce suit and moved into a hotel in less than a month he was arrested on the street his formal divorce didn't help a few days after his arrest his apartment in the house on the embankment was searched his family was still there.

i thought in my nightmare a very long time after the search. was their custom they had come in the evening when i was already in bed and the first thing that they did one of them took my dog. i didn't really play with dolls but this one my father brought from england on the way it was a rag doll but it had a head made of porcelain one of them took and smashed the doll against the wall. my father taught me to strike back so i bit him but. the families of the repressed and stayed in the basement pending a decision on what was to be done with there was a multitude of workshops catering to the tenants needs in the endless labyrinth underneath the house on the embankment there were also air raid shelters there many

people used them during world war two the families of the enemies of the people lived in the bomb shelters accompanied by the noise of the woodworking machines. will structurally necessary for some thirty carpenters catered to the houses top notch inhabitants anything that the tenant wanted us to meet news blocks floors. but they always expected us to show up as soon as the ordered us to come from. the basements of the house have undergone no change since the one nine hundred thirty s. even the doors of the now nonexistent service lives that were used to move dust bins are still there. sounds ten years ago there was a big hole here some of the ground had been flushed away when they were building a sewage pipe a few other young man and i went down to a depth of twelve metres we saw there was a sunken underground been sucking in water and soil to be awarded later but it was

blocked with concrete. is a professional digger he makes maps and charts of the capitals underground service lines archaeologists and rescue workers turned to him for help. house on the embankment a still under construction your political prisoners built a bunker and a secret tunnel linking the house to the kremlin. to one theory if they died there was a tunnel traveled under the mosque at a depth of seventeen thousand meters. but we saw several human skulls with holes at the back a large holes in the forehead. clearly people had been shot and killed their bodies . suddenly highlevel found two underground passages one dates back to the sixteenth century as for the other he believes it was made when the building was under construction he couldn't examine the second passage because it was filled

with concrete to prevent pavements and sidewalks above from further sinking into the soil but this is not the only mystery still surrounding the house on the embankment. culture is that so much of the taxpayers' money i mean what i says here give it real estate is the one hundred dollar question the rising price of oil the cost of petroleum has been increasing steadily over the past few weeks and months. for the full story we've got it first ten of the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

happiness and a fear of side by side in this grain summer house built for the soviet elite in the heart of moscow just across from the kremlin eminent tenants walked to the kremlin to report for work care for children played in the backyards but even they didn't fail to notice that their playmates were disappearing one by one arrests of house tenants became a matter of routine in the late one nine hundred thirty s. there were more sealed uninhabited apartments than occupied ones as a veteran tenant was faster than the influx of new residents. there were tournaments only two or three apartments in a block of flats. the others had been sealed up though the place was incredibly quiet but packed and ready to go they always had some basic necessities close at hand and whenever they heard the entrance door slam during the night really they thought it was their turn to be arrested that's how it was with us and some people

couldn't stand the stress and committed suicide. one of the two rooms of the small museum of the house on the embankment is devoted to the repressed attendants a tour of the museum lasted for one and a half hours museum guides and spend a lot of that time telling the stories of the families of the so-called enemies of the people most of the immediate relatives of the repressed tenants were sent to prison camps and their children to children's homes the youngest of them usually had their names changed. and he's really been a children's home soon after his talons death a sixteen year old boy wrote a letter to the red cross in it he describes his childhood i grew up in the grey house on the bank of hurry for my father's name was nikolai work you were my mother's name was aleksandra each morning i was taken to the kindergarten that was in the same block of flats alexandra the boy's mother survived the prison camp and

returned home she found her son using the description contained in his letter all they are his name had been changed. reality and fiction all of that is intertwined in the house on the embankment even in conspicuous engineering concepts or mistakes in construction are often held up as examples of malicious tricks of special operation services. but the. ceiling in this corridor is much lower than inside the roots above that means that anyone would have had no difficulty at all so. getting into the air dr used to be right here above me. there he could have seen and heard everything that was going on inside this room. was about this. in those days it was not necessary to collect incriminating evidence to arrest someone the procedure was much simpler and much more menacing that if they wanted to take someone away they

just came and whisk them away then they said they were spying for china or something. curator of the museum of the house on the embankment knows of the legends surrounding the house and of the real events in its history. in one way or another and a joyous event concerning it stemmed from the grim past of this place. with the bright side of it is there a turn of people from prison camps one of them was the mother of you retreat and of my late husband a soul has given this house its name by writing a great book about it that his mother came back alive is a miracle and a great joy. the status of the houses tenants underwent a gradual change towards the end of the one nine hundred forty s. now communist and other top most officials were not the only inhabitants of the house world war two heroes and prominent scientists created

a new atmosphere there. for the war they were found. but when the war was over they were in a state of decay. because of public pressure the fountains were replaced. there was a volleyball net about five meters. and there were also two professional volleyball players living in the house at the time the minister not together a team. as a result people from all over moscow came here to play for. sometimes they played until. soviet citizens were not allowed to purchase private property in those days only the state provided housing. an official paper authorizing the right to move into the house on the embankment was a very prestigious sign the kind of apartment you got was also important at the end of the war alexander family was moved into a smaller apartment in

a different block his father a red army officer had disappeared without a trace. seen as enemies of the people my mother was a daughter of an enemy of the people so she was. life was hard and she had to work by night as a dressmaker. all private enterprise was banned it literally was hush hush business . today only the walls of the house and the museum serve as a reminder of times gone by the consumer goods shop the outpatients clinic and the laundry are all gone the rooftop kindergarten is no longer there. time was when there were some nice looking cup a troll is here. there was a concierge and a telephone but the with the still later the cuppa traumas only reached the fifth floor and all of them were removed and the telephone disappeared and the concierge

went away everything was then as it is now if. the club were only house tenants were admitted is now a popular variety theatre the theatres bar is a pale semblance of a vast canteen that fed thousands of residents at a time there are no children's hobby clubs anymore only the stage and tennis court have survived. visible well here was a tool it's sorry for the details. and there was a canteen for personnel. but the rest was the same as those the most important tosk was to turn this building into a theatre. but unfortunately with the current climate up right now the tennis court above us weighs down on the theatre. it was actually built in the

early nineteenth when the house was under construction. when it. became the theatres artistic director in the late one nine hundred ninety s. he saw to it that the style of decorations in the auditorium and on stage was preserved as much as possible in line with the original design. it's ridiculous. so here you see these here is the coat of arms of the soviet union was pretty mild and actually those music sheets on the over there there the notes or the saw at national anthem those things have survived actually to this day i see them as the most vivid maint of a great and tragic period and the life of russia you know just look at the columns the architecture and the imperial power demonstrated by this construction but there he kicked already. the government elite moved out of the house

a long time ago. however having an apartment in the house is still regarded as a symbol of prestige. though many are deterred by its ill fame. actually i first played with the idea of moving into this building in the mid seventy's but my wife she told me she would never answer it because she said the walls in the shed she has here. others however would like to live here precisely because a large stratum of russia's history is associated with this house. as a historian i have always wanted to touch history with my own hands to experiment and explore different options or i me it's. a prominent political analyst in the one nine hundred ninety s. is a relatively new resident of the house on the embankment he bought an apartment and

moved here in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine since then he's been enjoying life here. when i first answered disappointment i was surprised by the fact that there was very little light in it. that the leo left almost no light there but that's how it was with the. there was a. small rooms on both sides of it. perhaps the architect thought that was enough for living. so i knocked on all the old walls in all that's left now are the windows and the bookshelves. bourse your fun designed the building in such a way so as to offer a good view of the kremlin for most of the apartments some of them boasted enormous recessed balconies yeah i'm. a student of the italian school of architecture

wanted to get as much from the rare sunlight here as possible. i do that and he designed a vast verandas like this one a groom only it's very large indeed a groom there even larger of around as elsewhere sure boards legend has it that in winter time water was poured over them so that people could skate there was a couple many modern day businessmen by apartments here but they don't live in them instead they regard them as a profitable investment in real estate others move into the building for the sheer prestige but the descendants of the victimized tenants make it a point of not walking anywhere near it if an apartment has new plastic windows this is a sign that it was only a short time ago the few descendants of eminent ancestors prefer old frames made of wood but their numbers are on the decline. some very old people living in this

house might keep in touch some hall but as a rule there are no close relationship the atmosphere is guns that's for sure. this house doesn't feel the same anymore.

she's available in hotels. on. the. phone.