Across the "street" in the center is the historic 1903 Hotel National, which was used as the First House of Soviets. The Alexander Gardens are behind us.
The Intourist Hotel, in the background, was destroyed in 2002 and is now a Ritz Carlton. While searching for information I discovered that conspiracy theorists in America think that Bill Clinton visited KGB prostitutes at the Intourist Hotel a few months later in 1969. I'll need to read more about that, it will be entertaining. Entertaining because you can clearly see that the Intourist Hotel is under construction here, and opened in 1970.
Photo by my grandfather David C. Cook. Scanned from an unlabeled Kodachrome slide, date stamped June 1969 frame 15. In a slide cartridge labeled "Russia".