Failed Foundation

the Palace of the Soviets served as the design influence found in the Seven Sister buildings

The Stalinist architectural trend and Seven Sisters project that overtook Moscow in the late 1940s through 1950s wasn’t conceived on such dates. Instead, it was conceived in the early 1930s. A project to honor the death of Vladimir Lenin began taking form in the early 1930s when in 1932, Stalin declared Boris Iofan’s design as superior to the rest of a publically held contest that allowed citizens to envision what the masterpiece building of Russia would look like. However, this plan was ultimately scrapped after the start of construction in order to utilize steel towards the defense of Moscow during the World War. The site would garner little attention and have failed attempts of reconstruction after the World War, instead having a public pool taking its place for the better half of the 20^th century.

The concept of the Seven Sisters, being Russia’s method of asserting their place in the pantheon of world superpowers, had a relatively more modest beginning with the idea of honoring Lenin, one of the most influential individuals in Russian history. The idea of founding their position as a world hub for success only came after the World War in a period which saw the decentralization of power in the Eastern Hemisphere. Russia began gaining power both economically, technologically, and culturally yet the site of what was originally to be the Palace of the Soviets gained no traction in planning or construction. A public pool was instead constructed in order to provide a location of social leisure and entertainment for the citizens of the city. This transition revealed that Moscow was engaged with the update of their image as an inviting location for all and a place of prosperity and potential utopia. The pool was however also deconstructed in the 1990s. The grounds of what was originally planned as the palace and eventually built into a pool is a superimposition of what stands today, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

front shot of the imposing cathedral, although not a Stalinist mold

While not considered a part of the Seven Sisters, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour represents a return to the religious fundamental identity of Moscow. This is an interesting pivot from the original honoring of Lenin and future idea of creating imposing Stalinist structures. Perhaps with the construction of the Sisters, there was no need for further strangling of government funds with yet another similar structure. The stark contrast between a church and memorial of a communist leader indeed represents Russia’s own attempt to balance the philosophical foundations of their identity. With the initial ideation of the Palace of the Soviets, Stalin gained inspiration for a larger scope project that would come to be known as the Seven Sisters, a project determined to aid Russia’s image as a country as philosophically and physically powerful as any capitalist city.