Small Nicholas Palace

The Small Nicholas Palace (also known as the Maly Nikolayevsky Palace ) (Russian: Малый Николаевский дворец) was a three-storey neoclassical building situated within the Moscow Kremlin, at the corner of Ivanovskaya Square. Constructed in 1775 as the residence of the head of the Moscow Eparchy, it was later converted into the official Moscow residence of the Imperial family. Until the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace between 1838 and 1849, it served as the principal residence of the Russian monarchs during their stays in Moscow. The palace was particularly associated with Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I, and remained closely linked to the imperial household throughout the nineteenth century.

As part of the historic Kremlin ensemble adjoining the Chudov and Ascension monasteries, the palace occupied a prominent position within the medieval heart of Moscow. Like many architectural monuments within the Kremlin, it did not survive the Soviet period. In 1929, the Small Nicholas Palace was demolished together with the neighbouring monasteries. Between 1932 and 1934, the Kremlin Presidium (also known as Building No. 14) was erected on the site. The new structure housed key institutions of the Soviet Union, including the Supreme Soviet of the USSR—the highest legislative body of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991—and later offices of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation until 2011. The Kremlin Presidium itself was dismantled in 2016.

Today, only archaeological remains mark the former presence of the Small Nicholas Palace within the Kremlin.

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