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THE SMOLNY BOARDING SCHOOL
1806-8. Architect D. Quarenghi

The Smolny building was designed to house the most privileged closed educational institution for the 
nobility - the Institute for Young Ladies of Noble Birth, founded as early as 1764. Architecturally it 
embodies the main features of high Classicism: monumental forms, accuracy of design and laconic 
proportionality. Its central part is accentuated with an Ionic portico topped with a pediment.
Protruding side wings outline the front courtyard.
Interior layout is simple and rational. It is characteristic of the educational institutions that were 
being put up in the 18th - early 19th centuries. Class-room and dormitories are arranged on both sides 
of wide long corridors. Artistically of most interest is the large two-tier Assembly Hall. The hall space is 
divided into three parts by columns. In wall decoration Quarenghi made use of a plastic frieze and the 
figure of the flying Glory placed over the entrance. The ceiling in side bays is ornamented with rosettes 
inclosed in caissons. The Smolny Assembly Hall is one of the best samples of reception halls in 
Russian classical architecture.
The Smolny building is linked with the revolutionary events. In August 1917 the All-Union 
Central Executive Committee and the Petrograd Soviet moved here from the Taurida Palace. It was 
here that the Military Revolutionary Committee was residing that was in the head of the revolutionary 
uprising. In Smolny the first Soviet government had been sitting before it moved to Moscow in 1918. 
The memorial rooms where Lenin used to live and work have been turned into a museum. Smolny 
used to be the revolutionary headquarters where Bolshevik meetings and conferences took place. 
Since 1918 it used to house the Regional and City Committees of the CPSU.