The building is a memorial of the history of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Here, on April 4, 1917, V. I. Lenin expounded his famous April Theses.
On May 31, at the Petrograd Conference of Factory Committees that took place in the palace, Vladimir Ilyich delivered a speech on the problem of workers’ control over industry. In January 1918 the Taurida Palace was the scene of the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets which heard a report from V. I. Lenin. In March 1918 the 7th Congress of the Bolshevist Party directed by V. I. Lenin was convened here. On March 12, 1919, at a sitting of the Petrograd Russian V. I. Lenin spoke about the foreign and internal policy of the Russian Government.
On July 19, 1920, the first session of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern (Communist International) was held at the palace. V. I. Lenin addressed the session with a report on the international situation and the principal problems facing the Communist International.
The 15th International Congress of Physiologists, held in 1935 in the Assembly Hall of the Taurida Palace, heard a speech by I. P. Pavlov, ‘the grand old man’ of world physiologists.
The palace and the Taurida Garden make a fine architectural ensemble; it was created in the 1780’s by the architects I. E. Starov and F. I.-VoIkov.
