Internet and culture: Internet-project “Virtual Museum of Architecture” to be launched in 2015

In 2015, at the website of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture and the portal "Kultura.рф" will appear a 3D version of the largest unrealized project of the Stalin era - the Palace of the Soviets.

With the help of interactive system Internet users will be able to walk through the halls of the huge building, to see the project in the context, as well as to compare the size of the Palace of the Soviets from the Eiffel Tower, the pyramid of Cheops and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

As part of the project "Virtual Museum of Architecture" in the Internet will be posted three-dimensional versions of nine of the 300 projects Palace of the Soviets: the winning project by Boris Iofan, Vladimir Gelfreich and Vladimir Shuko and competitive projects by Boris Iofan, Ivan Zholtovsky, Hector Hamilton, Armando Brazini, Le Corbusier, Moses Ginzburg and others.

The Palace of the Soviets - a grand unrealized construction project of the Soviet government, the work on which was carried out in the 1930s. The building was to be the culmination of all the high-rise construction in the USSR and the tallest building in the world.

It was declared an All-Union contest for the design of the Palace of the Soviets. Architects suggested solutions in various architectural styles, but in the final of the competition included projects designed in Stalin's empire. For the construction of the building in 1931 it was blown the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The construction was halted in 1941 at the stage of laying the foundation due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.

In 1950 on the foundations of the Palace of the Soviets was established an outdoor winter swimming pool "Moscow", which after the collapse of the Soviet Union was closed. In its place was built a new church of Christ the Savior, visually echoing the old one.