In 1931, the first five-year plan of the nascent Red Empire Soviet Union was successfully completed, which made it grow rapidly in the economy, industry and agriculture. When the basic economic construction was completed, the primary goal was to announce to the world the strength of the Soviet Union, especially to deter the Western capitalist forces. So in 1931, the Soviet authorities decided to build a standard Soviet building in the capital Moscow, the Soviet Palace, and began to openly adopt the design plan, and among the plans of more than 400 designers from various countries, the design of the Soviet architect Jovangao was finally adopted.
The new Soviet palace was chosen to be built on the Cathedral of the Savior. Construction of the world's largest Orthodox cathedral at the time was ordered by Tsar Alexander I and began construction in 1837, with the main structure largely completed by 1860. It took another 20 years to complete the lavish decorations and frescoes inside. On May 26, 1883, the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer was officially completed, and it took 46 years but the Soviet authorities agreed that Moscow's landmark could not be a Cathedral of Saviour representing religious heresy except the Kremlin.
The wooden model of the Soviet Palace, if built it would be the tallest building in the world, in the design scheme of Fan Gao, the total height was forced by Stalin to increase from the original 260 meters to 415 meters, while the main hall was 100 meters high, with a diameter of 160 meters, which could accommodate 21,000 seats, while at the top of the palace erected a sculpture of Lenin weighing 6,000 tons and 100 meters high, while the total area of the building was 11 hectares and weighed 1.5 million tons.
Sketch planning scheme of the Palace of the Soviets
▲Highest! utmost! In order to deter Western capitalist forces, Stalin ordered that the Soviet Palace must be much taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. The first phase of the project began in 1931 before it was fully finalized – blowing up the Cathedral of Saviour!
▲ The Cathedral of the Savior, the largest Orthodox cathedral in the world, which is being demolished by demolition, has been reduced to rubble
▲ After the destruction of the Cathedral of Saviour, the remaining rubble alone was cleared for 1 year
However, in the years after the bombing of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, construction of the palace was delayed, and before the Second World War in 1939, the upper part of the palace began to be built, and the foundation and steel frame had only just begun. After the German invasion began on June 22, 1941, concrete, granite, steel and other building materials were used in the war, and the dream of a Soviet palace was declared bankrupt.
▲ The imagination of the Soviet Palace after it was built, but the manpower and material resources consumed by this political building are unbearable for the Soviet Union, not from reality, but from the pursuit of "Soviet first", it must be a failure.
Khrushchev built a "Moscow Swimming Pool" with a diameter of more than 130 meters and a depth of more than 6 meters on the site of the Soviet Palace, which was officially opened to the public in 1960
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in order to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the founding of Moscow, Russia invested 200 million yuan to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the basis of swimming pools, and the reconstruction project began in 1995 and was completed in August 2000
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