This building formerly housed the Mikhailovsky Manege; it was erected in 1798—1801 to V. F. Brenna’s design and remodelled in 1824 by the architect C. I. Rossi.
It was in this building that on April 15, 1917 V. I. Lenin addressed a meeting of the soldiers of an armoured division. And later, on the 1st of January, 1918, when a Red Guard detachment gathered here to leave for the Western front line, V. I. Lenin addressed the Red Guards with a parting speech. After V. I. Lenin’s address, the floor was taken by the progressive American writer Albert Rhys Williams — a friend of John Reed, the author of the book Ten Days That Shook the World.
The Winter Stadium was inaugurated within the reconstructed building of the Manege in 1948. Competitions are arranged here in various kinds of sports — fencing and boxing, volleyball and basket-ball, light athletics and calisthenics.
