On December 5, 1931, the cathedral of the Moscow diocese and the entire Russian Orthodox Church – the Cathedral of Christ the Savior – was blown up in Moscow. In 2021, this event will mark 90 years, as Moslenta writes about.
After the 1917 revolution, it was decided to build a new Palace of the Soviets on the site of the temple, the height of which was supposed to be 415 meters. In 1931 the temple was blown up. According to legend, after the first explosion, the building survived and the workers had to lay a new charge of explosives. Despite the fact that the construction began, the Palace of Soviets never appeared on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and some of the structures used at the beginning of its construction were used as anti-tank hedgehogs in the war. In the post-war period, it was decided not to return to the construction project of the Palace of Soviets, as a result of which a huge pit was dug on the site of the former temple for a long time. Only during the Khrushchev’s “thaw”, in the 1960s, the legendary pool “Moscow” appeared there.
After the 80s, the idea of restoring the temple appeared, which was implemented starting on December 5, 1990. On this day, a granite foundation stone was installed on the site of the former pit, and already in 1996, on the day of the Transfiguration, Patriarch Alexy II performed the rite of consecration of the lower Transfiguration Church and the first liturgy in it. The completely reconstructed temple was opened on December 31, 1999.
Earlier, historian Oleg Fochkin told Moslente how in the post-revolutionary 1920s, criminals plundered the capital’s churches in the capital.
#years #passed #explosion #Cathedral #Christ #Savior