Accommodations for dictators: New books look at Stalin's hotel and Hitler's brothel
Since it opened its doors in 1905, the Metropol Hotel in Moscow has witnessed seismic events in Russia’s 20th-century history. In its early years it was a glittering playground for wealthy merchants, louche cavalry officers, and ladies of leisure and luxury. When the Bolsheviks seized power, Tsarist officers beat a retreat to the hotel to fight a last losing battle against the revolutionaries. Afterward, Lenin requisitioned it, renamed it the Second House of Soviets, and sent from it the telegram instructing the massacre of the deposed Tsar Nicholas and his family. The building became a hote...
Source: washingtonexaminer.com
