Palace of The Soviets - The Iofan-Schuko-Gelfreikh Design

The Iofan-Schuko-Gelfreikh Design

Iofan's original draft was crowned with a relatively small statue of "The Free Proletarian". In August 1932, as is clear from Stalin's memo, this statue disappeared from his draft, and Stalin personally intervened to correct the omission. A taller tower and Lenin's statue appeared after the fourth contest, in response to Stalin's public speech: "The Palace of the Soviets is a monument to Lenin. Don't be scared of height; go for it." In the process, the total height increased from 260 m (853 ft) to 415 m (1,362 ft). The Main Hall with a capacity of 21,000 seats was 100 m (330 ft) meters high and 160 m (525 ft) in diameter (the Little Hall in the Eastern Wing was 6,000 seats). This project was released to the public in March 1934. The Lithuanian-American artist William Zorach "let out a cry of protest, charging that the Soviets had stolen an idea submitted by him for a Lenin memorial in Leningrad" in vain. The statue structure was designed later; a 100 m (328 ft) 1936 version weighed in excess of 6,000 t (6,600 short tons). In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright, addressing the Congress of Soviet Architects, remarked "This structure — only proposed I hope — is good if we take it for a modern version of Saint George destroying the dragon."