Kschessinska Mansion, seized by revolutionary soldiers to became the headquarters for the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks and the editorial offices of party newspaper Pravda. On his return from exile in Finland, Vladimir Lenin also began to work in the house (as did Josef Stalin and Grigori Zinoviev), and the balcony facing Kronverkskiy Prospekt became the podium for some of his most famous speeches. Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya (1872  1971) was a Polish ballerina and was a mistress of the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.