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tour a mysterious and exclusive address from the soviet era it's the only apartment building within a minute three hundred meters from the kremlin on t. his the tenants on the usual tiles. in the heart of just. imposing even. three hundred meters of the. time. it was meant for soviet russia ruling elite

revolutionary communist functionaries government ministers and members of parliament. a coveted 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. a 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 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 . serve as a result many of them to starvation. very extensive. executions with. they had to by providing. adequate supply of. 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 project. to build a big apartment house with all modern conveniences for the country's ruling elite. the architect. a graduate of the italian academy of fine arts. that was the first ad up project of its kind city within a city down to the 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. died

of a heart attack in that same year. however his family was allowed to move into the house . thirty two my grandad's family moved out of the kremlin and into a five room apartment just like this one with the good girl in one thousand 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 it was not enough for a large and growing family compared to the tiny flat the family had lived in before the apartment was like a palace stove. 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 the building if they. all utilities catering to their daily needs were close at hand shops an outpatient clinic a club with 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 or kindergarten was in that cabin on the rooftop. there was a large veranda on the other side from children from the creche and kindergarten slept on the verandah in the daytime. 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 three minutes into jail it's not clear if it was demanded to be

that way but the more if architect. it sends to 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 every movement was monitored there was a total control of everybody and everything. that never even occurred to the tenants of the modern house that 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 apartments. 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 with. 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

the detainee was guarded by two special services officers and the driver of the car had no room for. the raven in russia i was considered to be a bird who brought on happiness that's why people called a black raven the model on which this car was based was presented to soviet russia by henry ford. was shown in the car in the kremlin in one thousand thirty three. plated time before he touched the grill and wondered why they were so much chrome on it. it was told that in that way soviet engineers had wanted south to forward. too much chrome was not a good idea as ford does he order to perform. 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 then he said i would understand and forgive him when i grew up he made an attempt to protect our family. filed a divorce suit and moved into a hotel in less than a month and he was arrested on the street his formal divorce he 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 bought 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. just 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 them 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 start chewing a staff of some thirty carpenters catered to the houses top notch inhabitants anything that the tenant wanted us to meet use blogs 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 capital's underground service lines archaeologists and rescue workers turned to him for help. on the embankment a still under construction political prisoners built up bunker and the secret tunnel linking the house to the kremlin. to one theory they died there. travel

down to the mosque at a depth of seventeen or eighteen 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 aisle swampy soil but this is not the only mystery still surrounding the house on the embankment.

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t.v. dot com. happiness and a few. side by side in this grain somber 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 became a matter of routine in the late one nine hundred thirty s. there were more sealed uninhabited apartments than occupied ones the exodus of veteran tenants was faster than the influx of new residents. they were tenants only two or three apartments in a block of flats. the others had been sealed up the place was incredibly quiet. and ready to go they always had some basic necessities close at hand and whenever

they had the entrance door slam during the night they thought it was their turn to be arrested that's how it was. 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 spend a lot of 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 children the youngest of usually had their names changed. in a children's home soon after his talents death a sixteen year old boy wrote a letter to the radio in it he describes his childhood i grew up in the greyhound sunderbans my father's name was. my mother's name was alexandra each

morning i was taken to the kindergarten that was in the same block of flats. 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 operations services. but the. ceiling in this corridor is much lower than inside the roots of the earth means that anyone would have had no difficulty at all so in getting into the air ducts used to be right here above me. there he could have seen and heard everything that was going on inside. out he was about this. in those days it was not necessary to collect incriminating evidence to arrest someone

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 all of the legends surrounding the house and of the real events in its history. in one way or another happy and a joyous event concerning its stem 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 your interest and of my late husband dressed as sold at the gate 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 of their. for the war there were fountains in each. but when the war was over they were in a state. because of public pressure the fountains were replaced. there was a volleyball net about five meters high and there were also two professional volleyball players living in the house at the time to not together a team. as a result people from all over moscow came here to play foley ball where sometimes they played until dusk. 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 during the war. missing soldiers were seen as enemies of the people my mother was a daughter of an enemy of the people so she was denied official employment. 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 trauma's only reached the first floor then 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 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. this brutal well here was a tool that sorry for the details. and there was a canteen for personnel. but the rest was the same as those the most important was to turn this building into a theater. but unfortunately we can't climb up right now

tennis court above us weighs down on the theatre below the moment they knew it was actually built in the early nineteenth thirties when the house was under construction. when. we came to theaters 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 with pretty mild and actually those music sheets on the over there there are the notes for 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 in the life of russia 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. few 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

you know 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. as a student of the italian school of architecture irrfan wanted to get as much from the rare sunlight here as possible. to that and he designed a vast verandas like this one. it's a very large indeed. there are even larger of around as elsewhere show 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 apartments here but they don't live in them instead they regard them as a profitable investment in real estate move into the building for the sheer pristine 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 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. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realm of russia. we've got the future covered.

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