Nestling in the bend of the River Neva, northeast of Nevskiy prospekt, lies the quiet Smolniy district, whose sleepy streets lined with nineteenth-century apartment blocks belie the area's turbulent historic past. Lenin ran the Revolution from the Smolniy Institute and for the 74 years of Communist rule, the word "Smolniy" was synonymous with the Revolution and the Party.

The SMOLNIY DISTRICT: Tauride Palace

The Tauride Garden (Tavricheskiy sad), at the end of Furshtadtskaya ulitsa, was designed by the English gardener, William Gould, in the eighteenth century but now also boasts a small antiquated fairground. On the north side of the park is the Tauride Palace (Tavricheskiy dvorets), built by Catherine the Great for her lover, Prince Potemkin, to celebrate his annexation of the Crimea (Tauris) to Russia. Completed in 1789, the palace is one of the city's earliest examples of austere Neoclassicism, but is sadly closed to the public, being used as headquarters for the Commonwealth of Independent States (the organization uniting the former Soviet republics).

The SMOLNIY DISTRICT: Smolniy monastyr

Just east of the Tauride Palace, at the end of Shpalernaya ulitsa, it's impossible to ignore the glorious ice-blue cathedral towering on the eastern horizon, which is the focal point and architectural masterpiece of the Smolniy Complex. In the eighteenth century, Empress Elizabeth founded the Smolniy Convent (Smolniy monastyr) on the site. Rastrelli's grandiose Rococo plans - including a 140-metre-high bell tower, which would have been the tallest structure in the city - were never completed, and Stasov only finished the building in 1835 in a more restrained Neoclassical fashion. The cathedral's austere white interior (daily except Thurs 10am-5pm) is disappointingly severe and is used to host temporary exhibitions and concerts. The Smolniy Institute, now the Mayor's Office, was built 1806-08 to house the Institute for Young Noblewomen, but gained its notoriety after the Petrograd Soviet moved here in August 1917, until the city's vulnerability in the Civil War impelled the government to move to Moscow in March 1918. It contains a museum, which includes Lenin's rooms.

Metro: Chernishevskaya