Chudov Monastery
The Presidium was on the site of the former Chudov Monastery which Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow founded in 1365, Ascension Convent, and Lesser Nicholas Palace. These were among the historic edifices in the Kremlin that Joseph Stalin ordered demolished as part of the state atheism campaign, pursuant to which religious structures throughout Russia were razed. Ivan Rerberg, a prominent architect of Moscow who had designed the Kiyevsky Rail Terminal, was assigned to design a new administrative building for the Soviet government, and its construction began almost immediately.