Although called “The Russian White House”, this is not the president's residence, the name comes only from the color. During the Soviet period, it housed the Supreme Soviet, the legislature of the Russian Federation, a republic in the Soviet Union. It is famous as the site, where in 1991 Yeltsin stood on a tank and dared government troops to fire on himself and thousands of protesters, and where, two years later, Yeltsin ordered other tanks to open fire on the building, when the Supreme Soviet refused to acknowledge his authority. Today it houses government offices.