I have found some more materials about this palace:
The Last Palace in St. Petersburg ( this is an extract from special pamflet)
" The Abamelek Lazarev house is on of the famous buildings that have been constructed in 20th century in St. Petersburg. Is is notable, that is is the last palace constructed in our city. The building was constructed in 1735-1737 for Count Apraksin, and in 1770-ies it was rebuilt. In 1911, Countess Alyabieva, who was the owner of the house, sold it to the Duke S.S. Abamelek-Lazarev. For Arkhitect Fomin the Duke designed an original project of a new building. The main demand was to construct two large halls ( a dining room and a theater and ball hall), and it had to pattern after the facade design of the Marble Palace. This construction by architect Fomin, became a classical example of the neoclassicism. The design of the facade and the interiors, which attract our attention by its large-scale forms, the classicism heritage features and at the same time by the bright individual Fomin's style are known very well. And we will pay an attention to the particular features of the building that regard to the conststruction context of that time. At first, this building could be hardly call a "mansion". There were no living rooms . The huge main staircases were considered to meet quests only , and they had a different entrance with a reception hall. There were held balls and routs attended by the Petersburg's beau monde. The last Emperor of Russia NicholasII often visited these formal parties."
