Anichkov Palace
Following his marriage in 1866 the future Tsar Alexander III and his wife, Maria Feodorovna, made the Anichkov Palace their St. Petersburg residence, ensuring its refacing in a variety of historic styles. There their children, including the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, spent their childhood years, and after Alexander III came to the throne in 1881, he preferred to stay at the Anichkov Palace (as opposed to the Winter Palace). The Anichkov provided the setting for numerous family festivities, including the wedding of Emperor Nicholas's niece Irina Romanova to Prince Felix Yusupov in 1914. Nicholas II's mother, after becoming dowager empress, continued to have the right of residence in the palace until the February Revolution of 1917, although she had moved to Kiev away from St. Petersburg. After the revolution the Ministry of Provisions moved in.