Bely Dom (White House)

Bely Dom (White House) Review

This large, white, modern building perched along the riverbank, across the river from the Ukraina hotel, is one of the seven "Stalin Gothic" skyscrapers built in Moscow in the mid-20th century. Before the August 1991 coup, the White House was the headquarters of the Russian Republic of the USSR. You may have first seen the building on television when it was shelled in October 1993 in response to the rioting and near-coup by Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and parliamentarians. They had barricaded themselves in the White House after Yeltsin's decision to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. Today the building houses the prime minister's and the Russian government's offices and is called the Dom Pravitelstvo, or Government House.