House No. 1

When the new Soviet government decided to “temporarily” move their capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow in early 1918, they were a bit hesitant to move right into the Kremlin, given its association as “a center of reactionary tsarist power.” So Vladimir Lenin moved into room #107 at the National Hotel, directly across Okhotny Ryad from the Kremlin.

The move to Moscow proved anything but temporary, both for the government and Lenin. Ironically, room #107 now provides a perfect view of Lenin’s final resting place—the granite mausoleum on Red Square.

Lenin actually ended up living in the National for only about a week. What with World War I raging (a main reason the Bolshevik government evacuated Petersburg) and Civil War looming, the high walls of the Kremlin had some distinct security advantages. Lenin took up residence in a small apartment that had previously been the chambers of the tsar’s procurator, in the Senate building. The only piece of furniture preserved since Vladimir Iliych lived and slept in #107 is his green desk, which looks rather humble amid the  National’s luxurious surroundings.

While Lenin moved out, shortage of office and living space for the tens of thousands of government officials who had moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow sealed the National’s fate. In 1918 it was expropriated by the Soviet government and designated “House of Soviets #1” (the Metropol Hotel was #2)—by 1923, there were 13 such House of Soviets and some 30 a decade later.

Bolshevik leaders such as Yakov Sverdlov, Felix Dzerzhinsky and Joseph Stalin all lived in House #1. On Lenin’s order, the once-luxurious hotel restaurant was turned into a canteen where Soviet sluzhashchye (employees) could get their meals for talony (coupons). A commissariat was located on the upper floors. Lenin, despite living in the Kremlin, apparently visited the National often to see his colleagues and to pop in at the hairdresser located there. The latter visits, in all likelihood, must have been rather quick affairs ...

All of this was a rather strange turn of fate for the Hotel National. Its cornerstone was laid on June 15, 1900, and the Varvarinskoye Society of House Owners, which commissioned it s construction, sought to make it one of Moscow’s finest hotels. This is why they hired Alexander Ivanov, the famous Russian architect and academician. Ivanov conceived the building in the then fashionable pompous eclectic style. The building was raised with what was then state of the art technology and materials: reinforced concrete, ceramic bricks, and hydro-isolated materials. The construction cost one million rubles, a colossal sum for those times. In fact, among the many buildings and monuments Ivanov had designed, the hotel National was his most costly to date.

The hotel opened in 1903, startling both domestic and foreign visitors with its luxurious furniture, its gorgeous restaurant and stores, and its two electric elevators—a rarity for those times. Celebrities such as the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and ballerina Anna Pavlova stayed at the hotel. Yet, as is the case today, the hotel was most popular with businessmen—the Russian kuptsy (merchants) and kommersants loved its central location on the busy trading row, Okhotny Ryad. (Today, 85% of the hotel’s visitors are businessmen.)

By 1931, when the massive House on the Embankment was completed and top government officials moved to the new apartments there, the National was returned to its status as a hotel.

In an attempt to modernize the hotel, several renovations were undertaken during this period. Oak window frames were replaced by modern aluminum windows and the first floor was painted a deep beetroot color (“granite-like,” it was said). The huge majolica panneau on the hotel’s prominent outer corner was also redone: the antique picture was replaced with something “industrial.” Bathroom facilities were put in rooms, instead of down the hall, as previously.

Slowly, the National recaptured the glory intended by its founders. The writers Anatole France and Pablo Neruda, the American singer Paul Robeson, millionaire Armand Hammer, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill all stayed in the hotel.

Yet even the influence of foreign luminaries couldn’t prevent time from taking its toll on the building. Nor was the hotel spared by WWII: during the war years, Muscovites who lost their homes in German air raids were lodged in the National.

The National Hotel had never been completely renovated since its opening in 1903, and, over the decades, it gradually became more and more dilapidated. Finally, in 1986, a decision was made to proceed with a capital renovation. In 1991, the hotel was closed for four years of reconstruction work. The builders and restorers were given the arduous task of returning the hotel to its original design and decoration. In some places the restorers stripped off 20 layers of paint and wallpaper.

The restorers worked under the watchful eye of the Moscow City Department for the Protection of Historical and Architectural Monuments. They sought to preserve the hotel’s original art nouveau style, which has resulted in a sober yet sumptuous interior, with blue and rose colored walls, oil paintings, marble floors and staircases, high ceilings and golden chandeliers. In all, over 120 rooms and halls in the National received substantial reconstruction work to restore them to their original design.

Initially, it was believed that the hotel had had only one deluxe suite decorated with a ceiling fresco. Yet, during renovation, fifteen frescoes were discovered. One “unearthed” ceiling has the panneau “Pan [Greek god of the forest] riding a wooden bicycle.” The original image in the majolica panneau on the building’s prominent corner was also restored.

The furniture sets and many other decorative items also underwent restoration. Nearly a dozen rooms are now furnished with antiques, like the porcelain vase featuring the portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and his first wife, Josephine Boharne, made in France in the early 19th century, or the encrusted sleeping room furniture set made at Moscow’s famous Smidt furniture workshop at the end of the 19th century. Such rooms are especially popular with foreign visitors, because they evoke the National’s trademark style, which hotel managers define as “the style of reserved luxury and comfort.”

But in this day and age, comfort must also have modernity and security. So, when the hotel was reconstructed, a new, seventh floor was added, which houses a health center, swimming pool, saunas and a juice bar. A state of the art security system was also added, and banquet and meeting facilities were upgraded.

For those who cannot afford to overnight in the hotel (see box, page 58) a welcome addition in the renovation is the new glass-ceilinged atrium café, the Wintergarten. It is a nice, centrally-located place to get a cup of coffee and a pastry while taking in the old world elegance of the hotel.

On May 9, 1995, the hotel reopened to visitors. Since that time, over 50,000 guests have stayed at the hotel. According to the hotel’s Public Relations and Advertising Manager, Kiril Pokrovsky, since then, the hotel has mainly enjoyed very high rates of occupancy: “up until 1998, occupancy was over 90% ... Of course, the August 1998 crisis did have an impact on us. But the situation has been steadily improving. Our average occupancy rate in 1999 was 55% and was over 60% during the first six months of 2000.”

Even during the depths of the 1998-1999 crisis, the hotel did not engage in discounting to keep occupancy rates up. “Do that once,” Pokrovsky said, “and it’s hard to go back. So we simply decided to keep the prices as they were and wait and see.”

In fact, since 1995, some room prices have even increased. For example, a room which cost $1,300 in 1995 now costs $1,500. “Prices are indeed high,” Pokrovsky admitted, “but there is demand for it; it’s a hotel museum.”

Location is everything in the hotel business, and the National has a location to beat all—right across from Red Square. The recent addition of the Manezh outdoor mall and promenade has only added to the appeal. “One may argue over the artistic merits of the mall,” Pokrovsky said, “but people go there, it’s all green ... and actually our guests often ask our doormen how to get to there.”

Of course, the neighboring Intourist hotel doesn’t do much for the hotel’s exterior ambiance. All it does, Pokrovsky said is “spoil the view.” City planners seem to agree, and it was recently decided that the Intourist will soon be demolished to make way for a smaller, more architecturally fitting building. The bad news for the National is that the new building will be a five-star Hyatt hotel. “It is a very good hotel chain, very aggressive,” Pokrovsky said, “so we will expect yet another redistribution of the market.”

How will the National respond to the “invasion” of its turf by another five-star hotel? “Well, our credo is to win customers’ loyalty and turn our customers into regular ones,” Pokrovsky said. Plus, very few hotels in Moscow can boast a century of service (minus a few years “in service to the State”).

From its very first days, the hotel’s prestigious location and its exclusivity has been its calling card. “For example,” Pokrovsky said, “the French singer Mireille Mathieu [enormously popular with Russians], before visiting Russia last March for a series of concerts, made a precondition: that she must stay in the same room [# 203, known as the Kremlin Suite] at the National that she stayed in during her 1997 visit to Moscow. When such ‘must’ conditions are being put forward, it tells you something about the place, no?”

Another honored guest of the hotel, the actor Peter Ustinov, has called the National. “... a place of casually unexpected pleasures, where you can always feel the warmth of the human touch.”

Indeed, the National strives to be the crème de la crème of hotels in Russia, and in Europe more generally. An associated member of The Forte & Le Meridien, as of January 1, 2000, the National also became a member of the association “Leading Hotels of the World” (the only other Russian hotel in this association is the Baltchug). And, in 1999, hotel director Yuri Podkopaev won the Gold Rook Award as the Best Hotel Director in Russia.

And yet, perhaps surprisingly, the National is still 100% owned by the city of Moscow. “We are proud that we can dispel the myth that good service can only be provided by foreigners,” Pokrovsky said. “One hundred percent of our personnel is Russian. And our employees take the business personally, because they know that if they don’t please the client, he will not return, and this will hurt them in the end as well. Our barmen constantly ask me, ‘So, how is the occupancy? Are there enough visitors coming?’”

Worry they should. Competition among four- and five-star hotels is fierce in Moscow these days. And, for a business hotel, the summer months can be dry. Thankfully, the National benefited from the Moscow International Film Festival—the festival’s jury stayed at the hotel and, now that this event will be an annual one, it could inure to the National’s benefit.

Speaking of film stars, this past year the American actor Jane Seymour (who has Russian roots) stayed at the National. “Americans,” Pokrovsky said, “number the highest among the hotel’s foreign visitors ... during the recent US-Russian summit, the entire second floor was booked as the summit press-center. Many journalists, especially TV crews like to lodge here. Think about it: it is very convenient. You just go up to the window, take out your TV camera and you can shoot a picture of the Kremlin and the heart of Moscow without ever leaving your hotel room. I call it user-friendly TV coverage.”  RL