Stalin’s skyscrapers
After the Great Patriotic War the USSR was involved into the grandiose building and incredible architectural reconstruction. Stalin’s skyscrapers quickly became the symbol of this reconstruction. Stalin’s idea of the Soviet supremacy mirrored the new era’s architectural style. All Stalin’s skyscrapers were built in ten years time (1947-1957). There are seven skyscrapers in Moscow:
Stalin skyscrapers |
Address |
Time of building |
Architect |
Height |
MFA on Smolenskaya square |
Smolenskaya-Sennaya square, house 32/34, Smolenskaya metro station |
1948-1953 |
V.G. Gelfreich, M.A. Minkus |
27 floors,172 meters |
“Leningradskaya” hotel |
Kolonchevskaya street, house 21/40, Komsomolskaya metro station |
1949-1954 |
L.M. Polyakov, A.B. Boretskiy
|
17 floors,136 meters |
House on Barrikadnaya |
Kudrinskaya square,house 1,Barrikadnaya metro station |
1948-1954 |
M.V. Posohin, A.A. Mndoyantz
|
24 floors,156 meters |
“Ukraina” hotel- “Radisson royal hotel” |
Kutuzovskiy avenue, house 2/1, building 1, Kievskaya metro station |
1953-1957 |
A.G. Mordwinow, V.K. Oltarzhevskiy
|
34 floors,206 meters
|
Administration building near Red Gates |
Sadovaya-Spasskaya street, house 21, Krasnie vorota metro station |
1947-1952 |
A.N. Dushkin, B.S. Mezencev
|
24 floors,138 meters |
Living house on Kotelnicheskaya embankment |
Kotelnicheskaya embankment,house 1/15, Taganskaya metro station |
1948-1952 |
D.N. Chechulin, A.K. Rostkovskiy
|
26 floors,176 meters |
Main MSU building |
Vorobievy Gory,house 1,Universitet metro station |
1949-1953 |
B.M. Iofan, L.V. Rudnev, S.E. Chernishev and others |
32 floors,240 meters |
At the beginning of the twentieth century American skyscrapers were a symbol of freedom and capitalism. Manhattan, Empire-state building, streets and avenues which cross each other strictly under a direct angle are still a symbol of capitalism. Moscow in the 1920’s was the city of stone mansions, wooden merchant houses, barracks and marketplaces. It was not good enough for the Soviet Union’s capital.
In the 1930’s rulers clearly understood that the new government needs a new, progressive city, which would reflect the ideas and political regime. It was a grandiose work, that began with realigning the streets (Some houses were even moved, if the road should have been enlarged).
How many Stalin’s skyscrapers was planned to be built?
There is no real answer to that question, as the plans were a top secret. Historians concluded that there should have been eight great structures build around Moscow, such was the order from Stalin. They were meant to be a symbol of eight centuries of Moscow’s existence, the existence of the hero-city. Fall, 1947 September 7, 1 A.M. In eight different places of Moscow, the first “founding stone” was placed at the foundation of each building, as if it was a great ritual.
The date was not chosen by random chance. It was a very special astrological data that had to provide all buildings with a very powerful energy. But only seven buildings were ever to be completed. At the base of eight, unbuilt one, should have been the statue of the leader himself with the total height of 120 meters. The construction of the eighth one was stopped when Stalin died. At the base of the eighth building, near the Zaryadye area ,later “Rossia-hotel” has appeared (Rossia hotel was disassembled in 2007).
City legends tell that Moscow skyscrapers are just a fraction of Stalin’s dream of the future city. A city with majestic administrative and living houses and ideal smooth granite embankments. Stalin wanted to make Moscow a “pioneer”. Later, all other cities would have been transformed into somethings quite similar. “Stalin’s skyscrapers” could have been an idiom, meant to represent the power of the Soviet Union and Stalin.