[6] It was designed by Arkady Mordvinov and Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky (the leading Soviet expert on steel-framed highrise construction), and is the second tallest of the neoclassical Stalin-era "seven sisters" (198 m (650 ft), with 34 stories).

[7] In the same year, the Vesnin brothers proposed a project for the Palace of Labor, whose high-rise building was a tower 132 metres (433 ft) high.

In 1940, architect Dmitry Chechulin published a draft of a 24-story public building on the Dorogomilovsky Bend of the Moscow River - the hotel "Ukraine" subsequently appeared at this place.

[9] On January 13, 1947, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), Joseph Stalin, signed the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On the Construction of High-Rise Buildings in Moscow".

In the future, the government decided to transfer the construction to the Dorogomilovskaya settlement, which was built up with barracks and wooden houses.

This was due to the desire to create a high-rise which would dominate the intersection of the Moskva River embankment and a promising major highway, Kutuzov Avenue.

[11] Stalinist skyscrapers of the same time were not built in a separate area; they were distributed mainly in the historical center of the capital.

[12] Like all skyscrapers built in the Stalinist era, the first stone of the hotel was solemnly laid on September 7, 1947, on the day of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, but work did not actually begin until 1953.

Especially for Stalin's skyscrapers, an original “box foundation” was developed, which allowed the building to be erected without gigantic reinforced concrete massifs and vertical sedimentary joints.

In Lyubertsy and Kuchin, special factories for the production of reinforced concrete slabs were organized, and the use of a metal frame required the creation of new wall materials: “multi-hole” bricks and hollow ceramic stones.

Since the hotel was built later than other Stalinist skyscrapers, engineers and ordinary specialists took into account previous experience in order to optimize the workflow.

At the construction site, most cargo delivery operations were mechanized from the moment they arrived at the facility until transportation to the workplace.

[14] The building was erected in close proximity to the Moskva River, therefore, additional work was needed to drain the soil around the future foundation.

The reason was the desire to make a symbolic gesture in the context of the celebration in 1954 of the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Russia and Ukraine [15] The grand opening of the hotel on Dorogomilovskaya Embankment took place on May 25, 1957.

[16] In early June, the newspaper “For the cultural trade” noted that in “Ukraine” – the largest hotel in Europe – there are 1,026 rooms.

In the building of the hotel there was a post office, telegraph, savings bank and several shops – book, flower and theater.