Up to the revolution, this little street stretching from Teatralnaya Square to the beginning of Tverskaya was a very busy area known for its food shops, and the famous writer and reporter V. Gilyarovsky described the street as 'Moscow's belly.' The street's name came from one of the stalls which traded in game and poultry which was brought in by hunters (okhotniki).
After a hard day's trading, the stallholders loved to relax. People began to open restaurants on Okhotny Ryad, and one of them, 'Testov's Tavern', became celebrated throughout Moscow. It was famed for its cuisine in which only the highest quality foods were used. A special favourite was his open-topped pasties with sterlet and sucking pigs, garnished with horeseradish and sour cream. It was said that Testov had special cradles installed for his piglets so that they would grow fat and juicy, and that he fed them with fresh cottage cheese.
No less well-known was 'Yegorov's Tavern' which opened in the late 18th century. Yegorov was an Old Believer (an Orthodox group which did not accept Nikon's reforms). He did not allow his guests to smoke, and during Lent he would not serve food that was forbidden for the Lenten Fast. Even so, the number of people wanting to dine at his tavern did not decline. His clients became very fond of the room for tea-drinking, superbly decorated in the Chinese style, where they were served with the very best teas. In the basement of the same building was 'Voronin's Pancake Parlour'. On entering, Yegorov's guests could not fail to notice the sign inviting them to sample Voronov's pancakes, since it had a painting of a crow holding a pancake in its beak. Very often, having had a drink at Yegorov's, the contented guest would go downstairs to partake of the best pancakes in Moscow.
After the revolution all the stalls and taverns on Okhotny Ryad were closed down, and the street itself fell before the bulldozers of Stalinist reconstruction. On the left arose the gloomy building of the Hotel 'Moskva', while opposite appeared the Soviet of Labour and Defence, which now houses the State Duma. There is an interesting story attached to the hotel's construction. A drawing was submitted to Stalin, and it showed two alternative facades for the hotel. In his bold hand Stalin placed his signature right in the middle between the two plans. So the architects, Shchusev, Savelyev and Stapran, built the hotel with two completely different facades.
The only echo of the old city to remain is the building of the former Nobility's Assembly Rooms, with its famous Hall of Columns, which in Soviet times was the House of Unions. This hall was used as the basis for the design of the white-columned hall for the Nobility's Assembly Rooms which was built later in St. Petersburg, and which today houses the Philharmonia. The Moscow hall was built in the 1780s by the architect Kazakov for Prince Dolgoruky-Krymsky, who took part in annexing the Crimea to Russia. It was in 1784 that the Assembly Rooms were first used by the nobility. It is said that in one of the halls during repairs in 1811 a painting of an eagle was revealed on a ceiling. The eagle was soaring high in the sky amid thunder and lightning, and superstitious people took it as an evil omen It is even said that on seeing this picture Alexander I himself frowned and exclaimed: "What on earth is this?' The following year Russia was attacked by Napoleon.
The whole of aristocratic Moscow would gather here for the most brilliant balls. They would spend the summer abroad or on their country estates, while winter was the time in which they enjoyed themselves. Each winter season from December to the Great Fast gilded coaches would swirl up to the main porch of the Assembly building at 11.00 p.m. High society women would dance around this splendid hall with its Corinthian columns of white marble. The dancing - master Yogel gave his celebrated balls here, as described by Tolstoy in War and Peace.
Lermontov was invited to the New Year's Eve ball here in 1831, and Pushkin would often look in on these soirees, and it is quite possible that it was here that he first set eyes on the young Natalia Goncharova. A description of a ball in the Assembly Rooms is included in his poem Yevgeny Onegin. The hall has also been the setting of memorable concerts given by Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt, Chaikovsky and Rachmaninov.
In June 1881 a Pushkin festival was held here on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial on Tverskoi Boulevard. Turgenev took the stage to a great ovation from the enthusiastic audience. At that time he was at the height of his fame, and he began to recite The Cloud, one of Pushkin's poems. His memory failed him at the third line, and he hesitated, helplessly spreading out his arms. From various points in the hall people started to prompt him, for practically everyone in the audience knew Pushkin by heart. Turgenev smiled and together with the whole hall in chorus he completed his recitation. At the end of the evening all the participants went up on the stage where Turgenev had placed a laurel wreath on a bust of Pushkin. Pisemsky surreptitiously removed the wreath and made as if to place it over Turgenev. The entire audience burst out into applause, and yelled out 'Bravo!' But Turgenev's reception paled into insignificance compared to the exultation that awaited Dostoyevsky's speech which later became renowned as his 'Pushkin Speech'. The huge hall was full to overflowing, and people fainted in ecstasy, they cried out, fell to their knees and tried to kiss the hand of him who was by now completely drained by the emotion of the occasion. The laurel wreath was placed on Dostoyevskys shoulders, and early the next day he took it in a cab to Tverskoi Boulevard and laid it at the foot of the new Pushkin memorial. The Assembly was the scene on 18 February 1899 of a fancy dress ball in support of the society for Literature and the Arts, which had been formed by Stanislavsky, Komissarzhevskaya and Fedotov. This ball marked the first public appearance of the young Vera Komissarzhevskaya as a soloist with the Gypsy Chorus. Distinguished guest included Chekhov and Nemirovich - Danchenko. The final dance in the hall was held on 5 September 1912 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. In 1919 the Soviet government transferred the house to the trade unions, and it came to be known as the House of Unions. In January 1924 crowds of people flocked to the building to take their leave of Lenin. From that time onwards it has been the tradition that the coffins of the general secretary and members of the Politburo should lie in state here for the public to pay their last respects.
