This austere Classical edifice, initially a girls' boarding school commissioned by Catherine II, is today the headquarters of the town hall of the former Russian capital. Open to the public, you can visit the historic ballroom, where Soviet power was proclaimed on the night of 25-26 October 1917 (from 7 to 8 November), the office where Lenin signed the first decrees of the Soviet government and the room where he lived with his wife, Nadezhda Kroupskaya.