Palace of the Soviets
| Palace of the Soviets | |
|---|---|
| Дворец Советов | |
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|
| General information | |
| Status | Never built |
| Type | Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union |
| Location | Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Coordinates | 55°44′41″N 37°36′21″E / 55.74472°N 37.60583°ECoordinates: 55°44′41″N 37°36′21″E / 55.74472°N 37.60583°E |
| Height | |
| Antenna spire | 495 m (1,624 ft) |
| Roof | 415 m (1,362 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 100 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Boris Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko |
The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов, Dvorets Sovetov) was a project to construct an administrative center and a congress hall in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (present-day Russian Federation) 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 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 Moskva 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 Congress of Soviets officially established the Soviet Union in December 1922. Sergey Kirov, speaking at the Congress, proposed building a 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".
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