Presidium

In the north-eastern corner of the Kremlin complex stands the Neoclassical edifice of the Presidium, built in 1934 to house a school for "Red Commanders", but subsequently home to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and today housing various government offices.

It was in this building in 1953 that the Director of the Soviet Secret Police, Lavrenty Beria, was arrested after an attempt to claim dictatorial power of the USSR after the death of Stalin.

Some allege that he was shot on the spot, but official Soviet history records that he was arrested, put on trial, found guilty of being an "Imperialist agent" and committing "criminal anti-party and anti-state activities" and was executed.

In Tsarist times, the site of the Presidium was occupied by the Monastery of Miracles and the Convent of the Ascension, into which many female members of the Tsarist family were forced to enter due to the lack of Suitable Orthodox foreign rulers for them to marry. By the 19th century the convent had earned itself a terrible reputation of the lose morals of its nuns and was abolished.