The railway workers club

The ensemble of Kalanchevskaya Square was finally formed by 1927. The complex of the Kazan Station was designed by architect A.V. Shchusev began to be built in 1913, but the construction was placed by the war, the station was completed only after the October Revolution in 1927 and continued to be completed until the 1940s. After the revolution Schusev reworked his project, given the new political and financial situation in the country. In 1927, Club October Revolution was included in the Station complex - "exemplary workers' club -theater" for members of railway trade union. In the original draft of Schusev the house of Company's customers employees of the Moscow- Kazan railway was in the corner of Kalanchevskaia square. The club building blends with the rest of the station and was designed ​​in the same style of "Naryshkin " Baroque, reproducing the white stone " scallops " of the XVII century Churches. The auditorium could fit 1,200 club seats (now about 700). Semicircular façade wall is an exterior wall of the auditorium. Engineer G.G. Carlsen calculated innovative reinforced concrete structure of a semicircle shape for the building. The foyer of the club was placed in the former station premises. Schusev overbuilt and redesigned them in 1940. Money for the new club was found by the People's Commissariat of Railways, part of the money collected road committee and the Central Committee of the Union of Railwaymen. However, the legend of the treasure N.D. Staheeva, one of the merchant guilds, who fled to France after the revolution, was popular among the Muscovites. They said that the merchant returned to Moscow in 1918 to collect the treasure hidden in his house on Basmannaya street. The unfortunate merchant seized by the GPU, and then he offered a deal to Dzerzhinsky: in exchange for the treasures of the merchant requested a pension for life and the ability to leave. This story was published in the newspaper Gudok, where I. Ilf and E. Petrov worked. Under their satirical pen, "diamonds turned into solid facade glass and reinforced concrete floors, cool gymnasiums were made of pearls. The diamond diadem turned into a theatrical hall with a revolving stage, ruby pendants grew into whole chandeliers, gold snake bracelets with emeralds turned into a fine library, and the clasp turned into a nursery, glider workshop, chess club, billiard room. "