Every Saint Petersburger is well acquainted with the peculiar sky-line of the eight-storey tower of this huge building. This monumental edifice was built in 1937 according to the design of the architects N. A. Trotsky and S. N. Kazak. There are many spac.ous halls in the Palace: a theatre seating 1,300, a dancing-hall, a cinema hall and more than 100 rooms for amateur societies whose members stage plays and give concerts.
About three million Saint Petersburgers visit the Palace every year. More than 6,000 people are members of the various amateur societies of the Palace, which include an amateur opera company, a Russian folk song choir, three dramatic clubs, several schools for painting and sculpture lovers, five ensembles of dancers, ten stringed instruments orchestras, two variety orchestras, dress-making courses, foreign language classes, travel clubs, an amateur photographers’ and camera men’s club, a chess and draughts club, an aqualungists’ club, a music-lovers’ club, a nature-lovers’ club, a book-lovers’ society, various collectors’ clubs and so on. The University of Culture and the Amateur Dramatic and Opera Theatres are popular among the public. The performance of the Amateur Ballet Society given before the delegates of the 5th World Trade-Union Congress on the stage of the Moscow Palace of Congresses was a great success.
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