Church of Christ the Savior [Khram Khrista Spasitelia]
I took approx. 44 years to build the cathedral which was a memorial to the Russian dead of 1812. When completed in 1883 it was the largest structure in Moscow.
I took approx. 44 years to build the cathedral which was a memorial to the Russian dead of 1812. When completed in 1883 it was the largest structure in Moscow.
In 1931 Joseph Stalin, the communist dictator, had the cathedral blown up because he said it was the breeding ground of "the narcotic" (religion).
Stalin wanted to replace this breeding ground with the absolutely ridiculous Palace of the Soviets. There was to be a 6,000 ton statue of Stalin atop the palace that, if finished, would have been taller than the Empire State Building.
Nikita Kruschev decided the empty space was an eyesore, much like our government produced with Urban Renewal, and decided to build a huge series of very large swimming pools. As with much centralized government planning and the mindset that goes with it, the design and construction was very poor and the pools leaked, sometimes they leaked in reverse allowing dirty water from the Moskva River to dirty the waters of the largest pool in the world.
By 1995, President Reagan had brought the Soviet Union to its knees and as freedom and religion again flourished in Russia construction on a new cathedral, to be identical to the original, began. It was completed in 2000.
