October Palace, Kiev

The October Palace is a concert hall and a place where cultural events are held regularly. The palace was built at the turn of the 20th century to a design by Vikentiy Beretti, and initially hosted Institut Blagorodnyh Devits (the Noble Maidens School). After the 1917 Revolution, the building was taken over by a new government and used as the headquarters of ChK (the secret service, forefather of the KGB). It was here, during the Bolshevik period, that as many as 120,000 people - mostly intellectuals: writers, scientists, priests, teachers and actors – were executed by a firing squad.

During World War II, the building suffered great damage. It then had to undergo thorough restoration which lasted seven years, from 1952 until 1959, but largely preserved the original architecture. After the restoration, the October Palace has been used as a concert hall. Not long ago, it had a movie theater wing added in order to have more space for entertainment events.