Eighth Sister

Following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, it was decided that the projected structure would overshadow the Moscow Kremlin and Chechulin's 1967 Rossiya Hotel was erected on the spot.

The final design of the administrative building in Zaryadye was completed and published in 1949, at which time its two authors, the architect Dmitry Chechulin and the engineer Iosif Tigranov, became winners of the Stalin Prize.

It was bounded by Red Square to the west, Kitaygorodsky Proyezd to the east and Moskvoretskaya Embankment to the south.

This construction, topped with a gilded polyhedral tent with a spire and an emblem with symbols of the USSR, was the main part of the building.

From the side of Kitaygorodsky Proyezd a car park was envisaged, and around the building – landscaped public gardens with preserved architectural monuments of Zaryadye.

Cloakrooms for 1,700 people each were arranged in the side aisles, and a lift lobby served as an extension of the middle nave.

[1] A technical floor and a two-tiered concrete bunker were added under the stylobate, which, according to historian Nikolai Kruzhkov, could have been used as a bomb shelter.

According to historian Kruzhkov, the reason the construction was stopped was that Chechulin did not support the campaign against architectural excesses initiated by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, which radically changed the direction of the capital's urban planning policy.