On Vacation Guide Book Moscow | Page 11

2 .   S T A T E K R E M L I N P A L A C E КРЕМЛЬ Located in the heart of the capital of Russia - in the ancient Moscow Kremlin , the State Kremlin Palace was built in 1961 for 16 months - in the shortest time possible - with the active support of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev , the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee . The selection of a site for the construction of the Palace was a particularly important task . The location of this monumental building was to correspond to its social and political role . The construction of the Palace on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin - a place sacred to the Russian people , most fully met these high requirements . The Moscow Kremlin is not only an outstanding historical and architectural monument of the past , but , above all , the center of our capital , the center of the country ' s highest authorities . It was here that it was decided to implement the idea of building the Palace . A closed competition for the creation of a building project has begun . Among the twelve proposed options for the project , the winner and , subsequently , the head of the team of architects was Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin . This outstanding architect , awarded for the project of the Kremlin Palace of the Lenin Prize , was at that time the chief architect of Moscow and the head of the Main Architectural and Planning Directorate of the city . In the original version , the hall was designed for 4000 seats . In the future , the scale of the Kremlin Palace , it was decided to increase . The indirect " culprits " of this were Chinese architects . In 1959 in China , the formation of the People ' s Republic of China was celebrated , and therefore , it was decided to build ten large buildings in Beijing , among which the Congress Palace was also planned , designed for 10 , 000 seats with a huge banquet hall . N . S . Khrushchev , who was present at the celebrations , was struck by this building and told M . V . Posokhin about it . By the summer of 1961 , the huge building of the Kremlin Palace was constructed and finished on the outside with white Ural marble , golden anodized aluminum and glass , and inside - with red Carbach granite , Koelga marble and patterned Baku tuff . In the decoration of the walls and parquet flooring were used ash , oak , beech , Pacific walnut and hornbeam .