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Palace of Soviets (Palace of Councils) was an architectural project to construct the world's largest building in Moscow, Russia, across the Moskva River from the Kremlin.
Design
The project submitted by Boris Iofan (shown in the picture) won the 1933 competition against many other projects, including others by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Erich Mendelsohn. The selection of Iofan's project was a turning point in architectural history, a signal that the Soviet revolutionary government had turned away from Modernist Constructivism and back toward historical styles.
A 100 meter (325 feet) high statue of Vladimir Lenin topped a superstructure composed of several receding tiers of cylindrical masses, evocative of artistic depictions of the Tower of Babel. The total height of the building was planned at 415 meters (1365 feet), taller than the Empire State Building, the tallest building at that time. The Palace would have housed several museums, and main and secondary auditoriums, with lower and underground levels given to traffic handling, storage, and technical equipment.
The building was supposed to give the impression of an enormous ladder to the sky. The utilitarian purpose of the building was to house Congresses of Soviets, likely the World Congress of Soviets.
Construction
The Palace was to be constructed on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, one of Moscow's largest churches. Demolition work began in July 1931 and the structure was finished off with explosives on December 5, 1931. However, water seepage into the site from the nearby Moskva River soon turned the area into a giant stagnant pond, delaying construction. The steel skeleton of the building was complete by the start of World War II. The attack on Moscow halted construction work, and the steel structure was torn down to produce tanks for the defence of the Soviet Union.
After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev finally terminated the project for good, and its only complete part, a sumptuously decorated station of the Moscow Metro, was renamed as Kropotkinskaya. The site itself was turned into a huge public swimming pool.
After the end of the Soviet Union, the reconstruction of the Cathedral was started on January 7, 1995 and it was officially consecrated (and thus inaugurated) on August 19, 2000.
See also
- Eighth Sister (Moscow)
- All-Russia Exhibition Centre
- Hotel Leningradskaya
- List of skyscrapers in Europe
- Moscow State University
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
- Ministry of Heavy Industry of Russia
- Academy of Science (Riga)
- Seven Sisters (Moscow)
- Stalinist architecture
- Triumph-Palace
- Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science
External links
Buildings and structures in Moscow | Soviet culture | Incomplete buildings and structures
"Palace of Soviets"