This is where sessions of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR are held. It was rebuilt in 1933-4 from the St. Andrew and St. Alexander halls, named after the orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander of the Neva, respectively.
      The Second Congress of the International and the Eighth Meeting of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International over which Lenin presided were held in the St. Andrew Hall. To commemorate this, as it were, a statue of the founder of the Soviet state was placed in the Conference Hall (sculptor Sergei Merkurov).
      The light walls divided by pilasters are void of ornament. The spatial composition is simple and austere in keeping with the function of the hall. It contains 3,000 seats. More than half of these are in the parterre, where deputies of the Supreme Soviet, delegates and foreign guests sit. There are boxes along the north wall for diplomats and the press and about a thousand seats in the balcony for visitors.
      On either side of the platform of honour there were boxes for the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Next to the Chairman's table is the rostrum.
      The deputies' seats are provided with earphones, and speeches can be translated simultaneously into thirty languages. The hall has special newsreel and television equipment. The lighting system enables filming to be done without any special additional lighting.
      In the Conference Hall, apart from the sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, national conferences of workers in various branches of the economy were held, as well as congresses of writers, artists, film-makers, composers, architects and journalists.

Select Hall or Chamber St. George Hall St. Vladimir Hall Conference Hall St. Catherine Hall Sacred Vestibule Of The Chamber Of Facets Chamber Of Facets Golden Tsarina Chamber Terem Palace