The General Staff Building (russian: Здание Генерального штаба, ''Zdanie General'nogo shtaba'') is the headquarters of the

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military ...

of the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

, situated on

Arbatskaya Square Arbatskaya Square or Arbat Square () is one of the oldest squares of Moscow, located on the junction of Gogolevsky Boulevard, Znamenka Street and Arbat Gates Square (in 1925–1993 – part of Arbatskaya Square). The square is home to the Arba ...

Central Administrative Okrug Central Administrative Okrug, or Tsentralny Administrativny Okrug (russian: Центра́льный администрати́вный о́круг, ''Tsentralny administrativny okrug''), is one of the twelve administrative okrugs of Moscow, R ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. The building was designed by Mikhail Posokhin who was the main architect of Moscow (1960–1982), and built in 1979–1987.

History

To clear the place for the building, the buildings on Znamenka, Vozdvizhenka, and Arbatskaya Square were demolished. In particular, the house where

Nikolai Rubinstein Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (russian: Николай Григорьевич Рубинштейн; – ) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tc ...

and

Pyotr Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

lived in their youth was destroyed, as well as the hotel where

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

lived. In the courtyard of the building is the ground lobby of the

Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first ...

station Arbatskaya of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. During the construction of the building, new exits from the lobby through the building were arranged towards Vozdvizhenka, and the old ones, to Arbatskaya Square, were closed.

Architecture

The General Staff building occupies an entire quarter. One of its facades faces Arbatskaya Square. The building has eight floors. The walls are decorated with marble, Ural stone – a coil and granite. Facades have horizontal and vertical division. The architectural style as a whole is characteristic of the Soviet administrative buildings of the 1960s–1970s, but at the same time, there are certain features

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

in the design of the portals and in the drawing of the crowning part of the structure.

References

External links

*
General Staff Building
@ moskvasovet.ucoz.com {{coord, 55.4505, N, 37.3613, E, display=title Buildings and structures in Moscow Arbat District Central Administrative Okrug Buildings and structures completed in 1987

Military installations of Russia