Palace of Soviets
Encyclopedia
The Palace of the Soviets
was a project to construct an administrative center and a congress hall in Moscow
, Russia
, near the Kremlin
, on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
. The architectural contest
for the Palace of the Soviets (1931–1933) was won by Boris Iofan
's neoclassical
concept, subsequently revised by Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh into a supertall skyscraper
. If built, it would have become the world's tallest structure of its time. Construction started in 1937, and was terminated by the German invasion in 1941
. In 1941–1942, its steel frame was disassembled for use in fortifications and bridges. Construction was never resumed. In 1958, the foundations of the Palace were converted into what would become the world's largest open-air swimming pool
. The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1995–2000.
A nearby subway station, built in 1935 as Palace of the Soviets station, was renamed Kropotkinskaya
in 1957.
The Soviet Union
was officially formed at the first Soviet Convention
in December 1922. Sergey Kirov
, speaking at the Congress, proposed building the congress palace "on the sites of palaces once owned by bankers, landlords, and tsars." Very soon, Kirov said, existing halls would be too small to fit the delegates from new republics of the Union. The palace "will be just another push for the European proletariat
, still dormant...to realize that we came for good and forever, that the ideas... of communism
are as deeply rooted here as the wells drilled by Baku
oilers."
In 1924, Vladimir Lenin
's death and the construction of the temporary Lenin's Mausoleum
initiated a national campaign to build Lenin memorials across the country. Victor Balikhin, a graduate student at VKhUTEMAS
, proposed to install Lenin's memorial on top of a Comintern
building, on the site of Christ the Savior Cathedral. "Arc lamps will flood the villages, towns, parks and squares, calling everyone to honor Lenin even at night..." Balikhin's concept, forgotten for a while, emerged later in Boris Iofan's design.
and traditional architects). This contest ended in May 1931, with no winners.
On June 2, a conference of Party elders identified the site of the future Palace and condemned the Cathedral. This was formally endorsed on July 16 by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union commission. July 18 (the day when Izvestia
announced the second, international contest), state commissioners started an inventory count of Cathedral properties. A small fraction of them were removed and stored at state expense and the expense of Donskoy Monastery
; the rest perished. Demolition began on August 18; on December 5, the structure was finally destroyed in two rounds of explosions. Hauling out the rubble took more than a year.
, Joseph Urban
, Walter Gropius
, Erich Mendelsohn
, and Armando Brasini, Boris Iofan's Italian teacher; American entries were coordinated by Albert Kahn. It was the foreigner Brasini who literally expressed the idea of "Lenin atop the skyscraper" in the most clear form.
Enormous publicity followed the project until 1941; in 1931–1932, it was broadcast internationally, with reviews and reports published all over the world. The Council of Experts was chaired (at least formally) by old Bolshevik
Gleb Krzhizhanovsky
; Time
magazine called it "a jury whose most noteworthy member was Dictator Stalin."
Public contest entries
Instead of announcing a clear winner, in February 1932 the Council declared three leading drafts by Boris Iofan
, Ivan Zholtovsky
and a 28-year-old British architect living in New Jersey
, Hector Hamilton. This outcome called for a third round of competition—or a state intervention. All three runners-up turned their backs on the avant-garde and leaned towards neoclassicism (or eclecticism
). This "reactionary" decision caused an uproar among European avant-garde artists. Le Corbusier
and Sigfried Giedion
, leader of the CIAM
, complained to Stalin, using communist rhetoric, that the "Decision of the council is a direct insult to the spirit of Revolution and the Five-year plan
... [it is] a tragic betrayal."
See also:
Recently published correspondence between Joseph Stalin
and Lazar Kaganovich
, however, pinpoints the moment of selection as no later than August 1932. On August 7, Stalin wrote a memo to Kaganovich, Vyacheslav Molotov
and Kliment Voroshilov
, clearly naming Iofan's draft as the best, and proposing changes:
"let out a cry of protest, charging that the Soviets had stolen an idea submitted by him for a Lenin memorial in Leningrad" in vain. The statue structure was designed later; a 100 m (328 ft) 1936 version weighed in excess of 6000 t (6,613.9 ST). In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright
, addressing the Congress of Soviet Architects, remarked "This structure — only proposed I hope — is good if we take it for a modern version of Saint George destroying the dragon."
interfered: the steel frame was cut in 1941 and 1942 and used for Moscow's defense fortifications and railroad bridges. The empty foundation stood unused, filled with seepage water, but well guarded, until 1958.
Meanwhile, Iofan's team, relocated to Sverdlovsk, continued perfecting the design. After the war, Iofan produced another iteration of the original concept, this time incorporating the Victory theme, literally: interior halls were decorated with Order of Victory
motifs. These drafts remained unused; construction on the old site never resumed. Iofan bid for the design of the Sparrow Hills Skyscraper
, but lost to Lev Rudnev
. Rudnev and other post-war architects designed their towers as if the Palace existed, referencing all major projects to the Palace skyline. As an example, 1947 placement map for the Moscow Skyscrapers
is centered on the Palace.
The Palace project forced the development of new technologies, notably the DS (ДС, Дворец Советов) family of construction steel. ODS (ordinary DS) and SDS (special DS) steel were used in Moscow bridges built in the 1930s and Moscow Canal
structures. A nearby metro station, a 1935 award-winning design by Alexey Dushkin
, was named Palace of the Soviets and renamed Kropotkinskaya
in 1957.
As soon as the 1934 Iofan-Shuko-Gelfreikh draft was published, the Palace became a symbol in Soviet art, appearing in propaganda pictures such as those by Alexander Deineka. The unbuilt Palace animation was inserted in films (including the 1944 Six o'clock after the war made when the Mosfilm
studio was evacuated to Tashkent
). Images of the unbuilt Palace were copied onto real buildings like the 1937 North River Terminal
.
From 1958–1960, the Palace foundations were cleared of rubble and converted to the open-air Moskva Pool
. The one-of-a-kind circular pool had a diameter of 129.5 metre.
In the 1970s, the State ran an architectural contest for the new V. I. Lenin Museum on a nearby site between the Pushkin Museum
and the Kremlin
. Some of the competitors, however, proposed building the Museum on the site of the Moskva pool, following the Iofan concept. This project never materialized.
The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1995–2000.
describes the demolition of the cathedral and the project of building the Palace of the Soviets in a chapter of his book Imperium
.
The Pritzker Prize
winning architect Rem Koolhaas
describes the Palace of the Soviets in his 1995 book S,M,L,XL
.
Ex-Soviet Spy Viktor Suvorov
describes building the Palace of the Soviets as the ultimate sign of communist supremacy in the world, in the book "Last Republic".
Similar Projects commissioned by Adolf Hitler
for the Third Reich:
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
was a project to construct an administrative center and a congress hall in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, near the Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Moscow)
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a Church in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few blocks south-west of the Kremlin...
. The architectural contest
Architectural design competition
An architectural design competition is a special type of competition in which an organization or government body that plans to build a new building asks for architects to submit a proposed design for a building. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel of design professionals...
for the Palace of the Soviets (1931–1933) was won by Boris Iofan
Boris Iofan
Boris Mihailovich Iofan was a Russian Soviet architect, known for his Stalinist architecture buildings like 1931 House on Embankment and the 1931-1933 winning draft of the Palace of Soviets.- Background :...
's neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
concept, subsequently revised by Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh into a supertall skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
. If built, it would have become the world's tallest structure of its time. Construction started in 1937, and was terminated by the German invasion in 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
. In 1941–1942, its steel frame was disassembled for use in fortifications and bridges. Construction was never resumed. In 1958, the foundations of the Palace were converted into what would become the world's largest open-air swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
. The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1995–2000.
A nearby subway station, built in 1935 as Palace of the Soviets station, was renamed Kropotkinskaya
Kropotkinskaya
Kropotkinskaya is a station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. One of the better-known Metro stations, it was designed by Alexey Dushkin and Ya...
in 1957.
History of the concept
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was officially formed at the first Soviet Convention
Congress of Soviets
The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and several other Soviet republics from 1917–36 and again from 1989-91. After the creation of the Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union functioned as its legislative branch...
in December 1922. Sergey Kirov
Sergey Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov , born Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to become head of the Party organization in Leningrad...
, speaking at the Congress, proposed building the congress palace "on the sites of palaces once owned by bankers, landlords, and tsars." Very soon, Kirov said, existing halls would be too small to fit the delegates from new republics of the Union. The palace "will be just another push for the European proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
, still dormant...to realize that we came for good and forever, that the ideas... of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
are as deeply rooted here as the wells drilled by Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
oilers."
In 1924, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's death and the construction of the temporary Lenin's Mausoleum
Lenin's Mausoleum
Lenin's Mausoleum also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated in Red Square in the center of Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the current resting place of Vladimir Lenin. His embalmed body has been on public display there since shortly after his death in 1924...
initiated a national campaign to build Lenin memorials across the country. Victor Balikhin, a graduate student at VKhUTEMAS
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
, proposed to install Lenin's memorial on top of a Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
building, on the site of Christ the Savior Cathedral. "Arc lamps will flood the villages, towns, parks and squares, calling everyone to honor Lenin even at night..." Balikhin's concept, forgotten for a while, emerged later in Boris Iofan's design.
Demolition of the cathedral
Six years later, in February 1931, the State declared the first contest for the Palace of the Soviets, distributing preliminary proposals to 15 architectural workshops (avant-gardeAvant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and traditional architects). This contest ended in May 1931, with no winners.
On June 2, a conference of Party elders identified the site of the future Palace and condemned the Cathedral. This was formally endorsed on July 16 by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union commission. July 18 (the day when Izvestia
Izvestia
Izvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
announced the second, international contest), state commissioners started an inventory count of Cathedral properties. A small fraction of them were removed and stored at state expense and the expense of Donskoy Monastery
Donskoy Monastery
Donskoy Monastery is a major monastery in Moscow, founded in 1591 in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from an imminent threat of Khan Kazy-Girey’s invasion...
; the rest perished. Demolition began on August 18; on December 5, the structure was finally destroyed in two rounds of explosions. Hauling out the rubble took more than a year.
Public contest
The second, public, international contest was declared on July 18, 1931. A total of 272 concepts were collected, including 160 architectural works (136 Soviet, 24 foreign). The contest attracted international architects like Le CorbusierLe Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban Born in Vienna, Austria, died in New York City, trained as an architect, known also for his theatrical design and his early illustrations of children's books....
, Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn was a Jewish German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.-Early life:...
, and Armando Brasini, Boris Iofan's Italian teacher; American entries were coordinated by Albert Kahn. It was the foreigner Brasini who literally expressed the idea of "Lenin atop the skyscraper" in the most clear form.
Enormous publicity followed the project until 1941; in 1931–1932, it was broadcast internationally, with reviews and reports published all over the world. The Council of Experts was chaired (at least formally) by old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik , also Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for those who were members of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, many of whom were either tried and executed by the NKVD during Stalin era purges or died under suspicious...
Gleb Krzhizhanovsky
Gleb Krzhizhanovsky
Gleb Maximilianovich Krzhizhanovsky was a Soviet economist and a state figure. Academician of USSR Academy of Sciences , Hero of Socialist Labour ....
; Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine called it "a jury whose most noteworthy member was Dictator Stalin."
Public contest entries
Instead of announcing a clear winner, in February 1932 the Council declared three leading drafts by Boris Iofan
Boris Iofan
Boris Mihailovich Iofan was a Russian Soviet architect, known for his Stalinist architecture buildings like 1931 House on Embankment and the 1931-1933 winning draft of the Palace of Soviets.- Background :...
, Ivan Zholtovsky
Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky
Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky was a Russian-Soviet architect and educator. He worked primarily in Moscow since 1898 till his death. An accomplished master of Renaissance Revival before the Russian Revolution of 1917, later he became a key figure of Stalinist architecture.-Early years:Ivan...
and a 28-year-old British architect living in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, Hector Hamilton. This outcome called for a third round of competition—or a state intervention. All three runners-up turned their backs on the avant-garde and leaned towards neoclassicism (or eclecticism
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
). This "reactionary" decision caused an uproar among European avant-garde artists. Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
and Sigfried Giedion
Sigfried Giedion
Sigfried Giedion was a Bohemia-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture....
, leader of the CIAM
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern...
, complained to Stalin, using communist rhetoric, that the "Decision of the council is a direct insult to the spirit of Revolution and the Five-year plan
Five-Year Plan (USSR)
The Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the Soviet Union were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general...
... [it is] a tragic betrayal."
See also:
- Draft by Dmitry ChechulinDmitry ChechulinDmitry Nikolaevich Chechulin - was a Russian Soviet architect, city planner, author, and leading figure of Stalinist architecture.- Life :...
- Draft by Karo Alabyan, Arkady MordvinovArkady MordvinovArkady Grigoryevich Mordvinov was a Soviet architect and construction manager, notable for Stalinist architecture of Tverskaya Street, Leninsky Avenue, Hotel Ukraina skyscraper in Moscow and his administrative role in Soviet construction industry and architecture.-VOPRA years:Mordvinov was born in...
et al.
The decision
The international contest was followed by not one, but two more rounds of closed competition. The third contest (March–July 1932) round invited 15 design teams, the fourth (July 1932–February 1933) invited only five. On May 10, 1933, Boris Iofan's draft was declared the winner. A duo of neoclassicist architects, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh, were assigned to Iofan's team, and the design became known as the Iofan-Schuko-Gelfreikh draft.Recently published correspondence between Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...
, however, pinpoints the moment of selection as no later than August 1932. On August 7, Stalin wrote a memo to Kaganovich, Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
and Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
, clearly naming Iofan's draft as the best, and proposing changes:
- Drive the main tower upward, like a column (as Iofan did in his first entry)
- Make it as tall as the Eiffel towerEiffel TowerThe Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
or even taller - Crown the column with a brightly lit Hammer and SickleHammer and sickleThe hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
- Place monuments to Vladimir LeninVladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Karl MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Friedrich EngelsFriedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
in front of the building
The Iofan-Schuko-Gelfreikh design
Iofan's original draft was crowned with a relatively small statue of "The Free Proletarian". In August 1932, as is clear from Stalin's memo, this statue disappeared from his draft, and Stalin personally intervened to correct the omission. A taller tower and Lenin's statue appeared after the fourth contest, in response to Stalin's public speech: "The Palace of the Soviets is a monument to Lenin. Don't be scared of height; go for it." In the process, the total height increased from 260 m (853 ft) to 415 m (1,362 ft). The Main Hall with a capacity of 21,000 seats was 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)100 meters high and 160 m (525 ft) in diameter (the Little Hall in the Eastern Wing was 6,000 seats). This project was released to the public in March 1934. The Lithuanian-American artist William ZorachWilliam Zorach
William Zorach was a Lithuanian-born American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer. He won the Logan Medal of the arts.-Life and career:...
"let out a cry of protest, charging that the Soviets had stolen an idea submitted by him for a Lenin memorial in Leningrad" in vain. The statue structure was designed later; a 100 m (328 ft) 1936 version weighed in excess of 6000 t (6,613.9 ST). In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
, addressing the Congress of Soviet Architects, remarked "This structure — only proposed I hope — is good if we take it for a modern version of Saint George destroying the dragon."
Construction
The foundation was completed in 1939. The builders drove a perimeter of 20 m (66 ft) steel piles, excavated the pit, demolished and hauled out the old cathedral foundations. The new foundation was a slightly concave concrete slab with concentric vertical rings, intended to carry the main hall columns. By June 1941, the steel frame for the lower levels was erected. Then World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
interfered: the steel frame was cut in 1941 and 1942 and used for Moscow's defense fortifications and railroad bridges. The empty foundation stood unused, filled with seepage water, but well guarded, until 1958.
Meanwhile, Iofan's team, relocated to Sverdlovsk, continued perfecting the design. After the war, Iofan produced another iteration of the original concept, this time incorporating the Victory theme, literally: interior halls were decorated with Order of Victory
Order of Victory
The Order of Victory was the highest military decoration in the Soviet Union, and one of the rarest orders in the world. The order was awarded only to Generals and Marshals for successfully conducting combat operations involving one or more army groups and resulting in a "successful operation...
motifs. These drafts remained unused; construction on the old site never resumed. Iofan bid for the design of the Sparrow Hills Skyscraper
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, but lost to Lev Rudnev
Lev Rudnev
Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev was a Soviet architect, and a leading practitioner of Stalinist architecture.-Biography:Rudnev was born to the family of a school teacher in the town of Opochka . He graduated from the Riga Realschule and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg...
. Rudnev and other post-war architects designed their towers as if the Palace existed, referencing all major projects to the Palace skyline. As an example, 1947 placement map for the Moscow Skyscrapers
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
is centered on the Palace.
Legacy
Moscow Canal
The Moscow Canal , named the Moscow-Volga Canal until the year 1947, is a canal that connects the Moskva River with the main transportation artery of European Russia, the Volga River. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Moscow Oblast...
structures. A nearby metro station, a 1935 award-winning design by Alexey Dushkin
Alexey Dushkin
Alexey Nikolayevich Dushkin was a Soviet architect, best known for his 1930s designs of Kropotkinskaya and Mayakovskaya stations of Moscow Metro...
, was named Palace of the Soviets and renamed Kropotkinskaya
Kropotkinskaya
Kropotkinskaya is a station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. One of the better-known Metro stations, it was designed by Alexey Dushkin and Ya...
in 1957.
As soon as the 1934 Iofan-Shuko-Gelfreikh draft was published, the Palace became a symbol in Soviet art, appearing in propaganda pictures such as those by Alexander Deineka. The unbuilt Palace animation was inserted in films (including the 1944 Six o'clock after the war made when the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
studio was evacuated to Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
). Images of the unbuilt Palace were copied onto real buildings like the 1937 North River Terminal
North River Terminal
The North River Terminal or Rechnoy Vokzal , is one of two passenger terminals of river transport in Moscow. It is also the main hub for long-range and intercity routes. It was built in 1937.-External links:* * ....
.
Moskva Pool
The Moskva Pool was, for a time, the world's largest open air swimming pool.It was built in Moscow in 1958 on the foundation of the abandoned Palace of Soviets, to the designs of prominent Moscow architect Dmitry Chechulin...
. The one-of-a-kind circular pool had a diameter of 129.5 metre.
In the 1970s, the State ran an architectural contest for the new V. I. Lenin Museum on a nearby site between the Pushkin Museum
Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour....
and the Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
. Some of the competitors, however, proposed building the Museum on the site of the Moskva pool, following the Iofan concept. This project never materialized.
The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1995–2000.
In literature and culture
Ryszard KapuscinskiRyszard Kapuscinski
Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsknow in Belarusin the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, into poverty: he would say later that...
describes the demolition of the cathedral and the project of building the Palace of the Soviets in a chapter of his book Imperium
Imperium (Polish book)
Imperium, published in 1993, is a book by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński about his travels to the Soviet Union, and more broadly about his personal relationship with that country...
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The Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
winning architect Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
describes the Palace of the Soviets in his 1995 book S,M,L,XL
S,M,L,XL
S,M,L,XL is a book by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, edited by Jennifer Sigler, with photography by Hans Werlemann.It was first published by Monacelli Press in 1995 in New York and 010 Publishers in Rotterdam...
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Ex-Soviet Spy Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
describes building the Palace of the Soviets as the ultimate sign of communist supremacy in the world, in the book "Last Republic".
See also
Stalinist Architecture Projects:- NarkomtiazhpromNarkomtiazhpromThe Narkomtiazhprom was a 1934 architectural contest for the People's Commissariat of Construction of Heavy Industry, to be constructed in Red Square, Moscow...
architectural contest (1934) - All-Russia Exhibition CentreAll-Russia Exhibition CentreAll-Russia Exhibition Centre is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow, Russia....
(1936–1939, 1951–1954) - Seven Sisters (Moscow)Seven Sisters (Moscow)The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
(1947–1954) - List of skyscrapers in Europe
- Latvian Academy of SciencesLatvian Academy of SciencesThe Academy of Sciences is the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences . It is located in Riga...
- Warsaw Palace of Culture and ScienceWarsaw Palace of Culture and ScienceThe Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw is the tallest building in Poland, the eighth tallest building in the European Union. The building was originally known as the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science , but in the wake of destalinization the dedication to Stalin was revoked; Stalin's...
Similar Projects commissioned by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
for the Third Reich:
- Deutsches StadionDeutsches StadionThe Deutsches Stadion was a monumental stadium designed by Albert Speer for the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, southern Germany. Its construction began in September 1937, and was slated for completion in 1943...
- VolkshalleVolkshalleThe ' , also called ' or ' , was a huge domed monumental building planned by Adolf Hitler and his architect Albert Speer for Germania. The project was never accomplished....
- Welthauptstadt GermaniaWelthauptstadt GermaniaWelthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...