“The purest form of totalitarian monumentality” they called it. That’s how Dom Khudobina in Saint Petersburg has been described.
This imposing structure stands on Moskovsky Prospekt. It’s a testament to Stalinist architecture. The House of Soviets was its intended purpose. The building was meant to house the Leningrad Soviet government. Its location on the city’s undeveloped southern outskirts was strategic. It was far from the flood-prone downtown area.
Construction finished just before World War II. The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Dom Khudobina never served its intended purpose. Instead it became a Red Army command post during the Siege of Leningrad. Remnants of this military past remain. Small reinforced concrete bunkers still stand at its corners.
After the siege the building housed a research institute. This institute designed electronic components for military equipment. Among its engineers were two American defectors. Alfred Sarant and Joel Barr worked there after the war. Today Dom Khudobina is a rental office building. Various businesses occupy its space.
Moscow Square lies before Dom Khudobina. The Moskovskaya metro station was built in the 1970s. The square was redesigned then. A massive monument to Vladimir Lenin was added. Fountains were added to the square in 2006.
Dom Khudobina is more than an office building. It’s a silent witness to war revolution and the enduring spirit of Saint Petersburg. It’s a tangible link between the city’s past and its present. A physical reminder of a history too easily forgotten.