More here and here.
The plan entailed constructing a grandiose Palace of Soviets on the site of the Cathedral. This palace was meant to be the largest building in the world - a monument to victorious socialism and Lenin - the leader of the world proletariat. A new Moscow, with no vestiges of the "cursed past and its' monuments" was to arise around this Palace. A massive wave of propaganda preceded the actual destruction. The newspapers wrote, "the Cathedral is grotesque and totally inartistic", that "the Cathedral is a poisonous mushroom on Moscow's face" and that it was "a source of slothfulness" and so forth.
The first explosions rocked the Cathedral at noon on December 5, 1931, as per the decision of Stalin's politburo. The memorial to military glory and the most important church in Russia was brutally vandalized and destroyed.
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4 comments:
Not sure how to judge the architecture of the monstrosity of a church, but it's better than that gigantic statue of Mickey Mouse or whoever.
The statue would have been of Vlady. The would-be building, taller than the Empire State Building, was meant to house the World Congress of Soviets. Sic transit gloria mundi...
Moscow, 1931: A massive wave of propaganda preceded the actual destruction. The newspapers wrote, "the Cathedral is grotesque and totally inartistic."
JJ, 2006: how to judge the architecture of the monstrosity of a church
Les grands esprits se rencontrent.
They were right, as far as a little look at the hotel consortium site can tell. A huge Lenin isn't much better.
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