20th Century
The Bolsheviks disbanded the Orphanage immediately after the Revolution. The main building was conveyed to the Soviet trade unions, followed by Dzerzhinsky Military Academy and a long succession of state institutions. The satirical novel The Twelve Chairs features a famous episode: an abandoned wife chasing Ostap Bender, her runaway husband, through numerous editorial offices of the former Orphanage.
During Joseph Stalin's reconstruction of old Moscow (1937), several Orphanage buildings facing Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge were torn down to make way for the new bridge. The right wing of the Orphanage was topped out by June 1941, but the project was not completed until after World War II. Viewed from the outside, this later addition is only marginally different from the left wing, to which the top floor was added at about the same time. The main building conforms quite closely to Blank's original designs.
Read more about this topic: Moscow Orphanage
Famous quotes containing the word century:
““Darling,
will you come home today
after a few hours,
or at noon,
or a little later,
or when the whole day’s passed?”
A young wife
with tearful words stuck in her throat
spoils the departure of her man
who wishes to go to a land
that takes a hundred days
to reach.”
—Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)