The mausoleum cannot support two: how Lenin and Stalin were “evicted” to the outskirts of Moscow

No, no, no one was going to bury the bodies of the leaders. There wasn’t even any talk about it. As for Stalin, as Ilya Zbarsky, a biochemist and long-time employee of the Research Laboratory at the Lenin Mausoleum, stated in his memoirs, preparations for embalming the body began even when the “leader of the peoples” was alive (but was already in a hopeless state ).

“Dead Stalin was brought to the laboratory 2 hours after his death,” wrote Zbarsky, “immediately an autopsy was performed and tissues were fixed for placement in the Hall of Columns (House of Unions. – “MK.”), from where a few days later he was transported to the mausoleum, and there embalming continued for three months for a long period of time.”

The technology of transforming leaders into “eternally alive” had by that time already been worked out to the smallest detail, to the point of automatism. There was no shortage of qualified specialists, drugs, equipment, or, so to speak, production facilities. Everything necessary for embalming and maintaining the body in an exhibitable state was located inside the tomb itself.

Here, for example, is what regular preventive work with Lenin’s body looked like in the same Zbarsky’s description: “The sarcophagus is opened, the melodic noise of a mechanism lifting a heavy structure is heard… We remove the cover and, taking the body by the shoulders and legs, we transfer it to the surgical table on wheels. We slowly and carefully roll it, opening the heavy doors, into the adjacent spacious room, lined with tiles… In it there are two glass baths, large bottles with glycerin and distilled water, jars with potassium acetate and cabinets with other reagents.

We untie the ribbons that tie the jacket cut on the back, carefully remove the clothes, unwind the rubber bandages and then carefully transfer the body to the previously prepared bath. The skin is smooth and elastic, but the entire body must be soaked in embalming solution. At the same time, we perform another inspection and, if possible, maintaining sterility, we correct previously unnoticed deficiencies. The described procedure continued for a month every day and was repeated every year and a half.”

In general, there were no problems in this regard: Stalin was “mothballed” even better than Ilyich. Here the embalmers got, so to speak, an ideal, fresh corpse, at which time they started working on Lenin’s body when it was already pretty damaged by decay and frost (and they didn’t have any experience in this matter yet – they acted, essentially , by “scientific poking”, trial and error).

But the “housing question” arose: Lenin’s “apartments” turned, figuratively speaking, into communal apartments. Apparently, the leaders of the party and government considered that it would be too crowded for two great leaders in one small Mausoleum. And they resolved the issue radically. Well, more precisely, they almost decided.

The first mention of the new posthumous residence of the leaders is contained in Minutes No. 1 of the meeting of the Funeral Organization Commission, dated March 5, 1953, that is, the day of Stalin’s death: “Oblige Comrade Yasnov to prepare a draft resolution on the construction of the pantheon. The deadline for the resolution is March 6.” For reference: Mikhail Yasnov, who was a member of the funeral commission, was at that time the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee.

Comrade Yasnov did not disappoint: on March 6, 1953, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a joint resolution “On the construction of the Pantheon – a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country.” The next day, March 7, it is published in the newspapers.

“In order to perpetuate the memory of the great leaders Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, as well as outstanding figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state, buried on Red Square near the Kremlin wall, to build a monumental building in Moscow – the Pantheon – a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country, – reads this document: – Upon completion of the construction of the Pantheon, transfer into it the sarcophagus with the body of V. I. Lenin and the sarcophagus with the body of I. V. Stalin, as well as the remains of outstanding figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state buried at the Kremlin wall, and open access to Pantheon for the broad masses of working people.”

And the work began to boil. Already on March 10, 1953, the venerable architect Nikolai Kolli presented to the Academy of Architecture “Preliminary considerations regarding the design of the Pantheon in Moscow,” which proposed two options for location: on Red Square – on the site of the Upper Trading Rows building, the current GUM, which was proposed to be demolished , – and on Sofiyskaya embankment, opposite the Kremlin.

“In its architectural and artistic composition, the Pantheon building should be linked to the silhouette of the future Palace of the Soviets, the high-rise building in Zaryadye and the historical architecture of the Kremlin,” said the “Considerations.” “Monumental sculpture should be widely used in the architectural and artistic treatment of the Pantheon building. bas-reliefs, memorial plaques, monumental paintings and mosaics reflecting the exploits and deeds of great figures of the Communist Party and the Soviet state…”

The architect’s flight of imagination is impressive: the total area of ​​the Pantheon, according to his plan, was to be half a million square meters; 2000-2500 square meters were allocated for the main hall, with the sarcophagi of Lenin and Stalin. “The Pantheon of the new, socialist type will be fundamentally different in its purpose and form from all mausoleums and pantheons previously created and existing in other countries,” Colley argued. “Bourgeois pantheons are essentially just tombs… The proposed Pantheon should be a Monument to the Eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country.”

As for the shape and size of the structure, the architect’s ideas did not raise any objections at that moment. However, they did not receive support regarding placement: both proposed options were rejected. Why is not known for certain. In some sources you can find a statement that the “red square” scheme was not liked because it would break the established order of parades. They say that the government rostrum should be on the same side as the Lenin-Stalin relics, and in this case the columns of troops would have to align to the left.

But this explanation does not inspire confidence. It is much more likely that the leaders of the USSR were frightened by the sheer scale of perestroika. In this case, not only GUM would have to be destroyed.

According to the updated “Kremlin” project, “in the second stage, to expand the space designed around the Pantheon building and create a background of monumental buildings,” 28 residential and non-residential buildings located on Kuibysheva Street (present-day Ilyinka), Vetoshny Lane and 25th October Street were to be demolished (now Nikolskaya), with a total area of ​​48,694 square meters and a population of 1,849 people. The building of the State Historical Museum was also supposed to be demolished: a “triumphal arch” was supposed to appear in its place.

Even if the leaders of the party and government were not at all worried about preserving the historical appearance of Red Square, even if they were not, as they say, behind the price, they could not ignore the distinct prospect of the actual paralysis of the administrative heart of the state as a result of long-term grandiose construction.

And apparently, the corresponding signal to the architects was given: most of the alternative options involved the construction of the Pantheon at a considerable distance from the center. A total of 23 accommodation projects were considered. In addition to the above-mentioned places (Red Square and Sofiyskaya Embankment), these were, in particular, Moskvoretskaya Embankment (the territory of the current Zaryadye Park), Kropotkinskaya Embankment (the territory where the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located today), the Maiden Field Square, Khodynskoye Field, Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. Gorky (ground part and Neskuchny Garden), Luzhniki, Sokolniki Park, Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo Park, PKiO im. Dzerzhinsky (current Ostankino Park), Izmailovsky Park, Fili-Kuntsevo Park, Poklonnaya Gora, the area between the Moscow-Minsk highway and the floodplain of the Setun River…

In general, the geography was, to put it mildly, extensive. The analysis and selection of projects was carried out by a specially created commission of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Architecture, chaired by the president of the academy, Arkady Mordvinov. But the last word, naturally, was not hers. The last word – in every sense – was spoken on June 2, 1954.

On this day, the USSR Council of Ministers issued resolution No. 1080 “On the development of the Pantheon project – a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country.” The first paragraph of the document read: “To approve for the construction of the Pantheon – a monument to the eternal glory of the great people of the Soviet country, a site in the southwestern region of Moscow on the territory of the Lenin Mountains, 3.5 km south of the new building of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov ( on the lands of the Vorontsov Vitamin Institute)”.

The State Committee for Construction Affairs under the Council of Ministers and the Moscow City Executive Committee was entrusted with organizing an open competition for the best Pantheon project. By November 15, 1954, the selected best works had to be submitted to the government. However, nothing is known about the results of the competition. There are doubts that it was carried out at all.

The cited decree is the last official document dedicated to the Pantheon. There were no more documents (at least, none are known). The press also quickly forgot about the project. In April 1955, the poet Alexander Tvardovsky wrote in his diary that the Pantheon “seemed to have sunk into oblivion among pressing matters.”

Actually, the fact that the enthusiasm of the Soviet leadership for the project sharply declined is already clear from the text of the resolution. This is evidenced by both the chosen location and the indicated upper limit of the estimated cost – “not more than 100 million rubles.”

For comparison: the Moscow State University building, the construction of which was completed in 1953, cost the budget 2.6 billion of the then Soviet rubles. The last lines of the document are also noteworthy: “To avoid any excesses in the design and construction of the Pantheon.”

However, as for the place, this, in fairness, was not a banishment of the leaders “to hell in the middle of nowhere.” Well, that is, then, of course, they were “Kulichki”. Regarding the center of Moscow, at least. But the authorities had an interesting idea about this area: in the 1950s, the idea arose of creating an administrative and government center in the South-West of Moscow – approximately in the same “steppe” where it was planned to “relocate” Lenin and Stalin.

It was planned to move most of the union authorities to the South-Western region, including the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, union ministries, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The buildings vacated in the center of Moscow were to be transferred to museums, as well as institutions at the Moscow and republican level. The Kremlin, for example, was to become the Central Museum of Russian History.

But the grandiose plan remained on paper: it did not reach not only implementation, but even the stage of an approved project. There is no need to be surprised: when, more than half a century later, a similar idea came to the minds of the current Russian leaders, things ended the same way: they discussed it, but forgot, leaving everything as it was. Well, or rather, they didn’t forget, but decided that as it is, it is cheaper, more familiar, and more practical. Best the enemy of the good.

For the same “fundamental” reason, it seems, the idea of ​​the Pantheon has sunk into oblivion. Well, and also, probably, because of the vision that visited Dora Lazurkina (an old Bolshevik who suffered during Stalin’s repressions – 18 years in prisons, camps and exile), which she spoke about in her speech at the XXII Congress of the CPSU on October 30, 1962: “Yesterday I consulted with Ilyich, as if he stood before me as if alive and said: I don’t like being next to Stalin, who brought so much trouble to the party.”

Lazurkina was, of course, not the only one at the congress who expressed the same opinion, but her speech was, of course, the highest emotional, culminating point of this high party meeting. And perhaps throughout the entire era of the Khrushchev Thaw. On the same day, the congress unanimously decided “to recognize as inappropriate the further preservation of the sarcophagus with the coffin of I.V. Stalin in the Mausoleum.”

On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, the body of the “leader of the peoples” was taken out of the tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall. The Mausoleum became spacious again.