Palace of the Soviets (TheodoresTomfooleries)

Palace of the Soviets
Дворец Советов Dvorec Sovetov
View of the palace from the front, 2013
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Administrative center
Architectural style	New Classicism, Art Deco
Location	Moscow
Address	Ulitsa Volkhonka, 15, Moskva, Russia, 119019
Country	Soviet Union
Current tenants	Supreme Soviet
Height	300 metres (980 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	70

The Palace of the Soviets (Russian: Дворец Советов; tr. Dvorec Sovetov is the administrative center of the Government of the Soviet Union. It is the seat of the Supreme Soviet and its houses, the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. It sits on the now-demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The palace was originally a project under Stalin to build a political convention center for the Supreme Soviet- a series of contests were held between 1931-1933 with designs by Boris Iofan winning. Work began on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 1933, with the definitive design being drawn up in 1937. In 1941, construction on the project was cancelled due to the Great Patriotic War, and in 1942 most of the building's materials were used for wartime needs. Stalin's interest in the project ended after World War II, with further efforts and redesigns by Iofan to revive the project failing. Redesigns in 1948 and 1956 saw the height and size of the building downsized all the way to 270 metres (for reference, the 1937 proposal was 416 metres). The project was suspended indefinitely until the early 2000s, when the need to build a specially-designed administrative center for the growing Supreme Soviet was recognized.

The modern version is based upon Iofan's 1956 proposals, upscaled to a height of 300 metres with the statue of Vladimir Lenin shared across all the former designs being omitted in favor of a 45-metre flag pole depicting the flag of the Soviet Union. Its style is inspired by the original's neo-classical style and retains its Art Deco style from the original, however the updated version was built with New Classicism in mind. The building is the 3rd tallest in Europe and the tallest in the Soviet Union.