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DISCOVERING THE KREMLIN |

The 20th Century: the Kremlin’s Losses

Over the centuries, the Kremlin had become the center of Russian state, political and spiritual life.

By the late 19th - early 20th century, the Kremlin was a little neglected, but it was still a shining monument to Russia’s history, statehood and culture, and the symbol of Moscow as the first capital of the Russian empire. Over the centuries, talented master builders had constructed chambers and towers, magnificent churches and palaces, always shaping their art as a confirmation of the state’s authority. Their works remained standing as the generations passed.

But then came the 20th century, and these monuments of the pre-revolutionary era fell victim to what can only be called acts of barbarism. During Vladimir Lenin’s time, statues and monuments to tsarist rulers and grand princes were toppled. His successor, Josef Stalin, unleashed an orgy of destruction of historic and cultural monuments that did not spare even some of the unique edifices in the Kremlin.

One tragic loss was the destruction of the monument to Alexander II. The monument stood above the Kremlin’s Tainitsky Gardens and could easily be seen from the Zamoskvorechye district on the other side of the river. Work on the monument was begun under Alexander III in 1893, and was completed five years later under Nicholas II in 1898. The monument was the work of sculptor A. Opekushin, artist P. Zhukovsky and architect N. Sultanov, all three well known Russian masters. Together, they created a harmonious artistic ensemble and monument to the “reformer tsar,” who fell victim to terrorists.

The memorial consisted of a life-size bronze sculpture of Alexander II, set on a square pedestal with the words “To Emperor Alexander II by the love of the people” engraved on it. The sculpture was shaded by a canopy of polished dark red Karelian granite. The top of the canopy was made of specially fitted gilded bronze sheets with green enamel. On three sides -- the exception being the side facing the Chudov Monastery, Voznesensky Convent and the Maly Nikolayevsky Palace -- the monument was surrounded by a gallery with arches and openwork. Thirty-three mosaic portraits of Russia’s rulers from Prince Vladimir to Nicholas I based on sketches by artist P. Zhukovsky were placed in the gallery’s vaults.

The statue, built using funds donated by the Russian people, was demolished in the summer of 1918, while the columns and gallery stood forlornly overlooking the high bank of the Moscow River until the end of the 1920s.

The 1930s saw the destruction of many monuments and symbols of Russia’s spiritual heritage, including the Chudov Monastery and Voznesensky (Ascension) Convent in the Kremlin, the Maly Nikolayevsky Palace, the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor and the Red Porch (Krasnoye Kryltso).

The Chudov Monastery had particular significance for Russian Orthodox traditions over the centuries. It was founded in 1365 when the Metropolitan of All Russia Alexy gave his blessing for the construction of a stone church dedicated to the Miracle of the Holy Archangel Michael. The church remained standing for only half a century before its ceiling collapsed in 1431. The church was immediately rebuilt, but at the beginning of the 16th century, Grand Prince Ivan III ordered it pulled down, redesigned and rebuilt, which was done in 1503.

The resulting church was extremely beautiful, a marvel of harmony and proportion, drawing on classical Russian architectural traditions and rightly considered one of the finest examples of early Moscow architecture. The church’s interior was also a work of art, with a carved wooden iconostasis over the wall separating the sanctuary from the rest of the church. Part of the sanctuary itself was topped with a gilded carved wooden canopy, which, according to the inscription it bore, was the work of the “slave of God, Pyotr Remizov.”

A century after Metropolitan Alexy died, the Church of St. Alexy was built on the monastery’s territory and dedicated to his memory. Another church, the Church of the Annunciation, was built nearby. Changes and additions to the churches’ interiors continued right up until the early 20th century.

The Voznesensky (Ascension) Convent was founded at the beginning of the 15th century very near the Kremlin’s Spassky (Savior’s) Gate. The foundation of its main cathedral was laid in 1407 by the widow of Dmitry Donskoi, who took the name of Yefrosinya when she took her vows as a nun. In 1518, Grand Prince Vasily III decreed the construction of a new cathedral, the Cathedral of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cathedral was completed in 1521 and was reconstructed at the end of the 16th century on the orders of Boris Godunov.

Over the centuries, many of the wives and sisters of the Moscow grand princes found peace in the Voznesensky Convent, which was one of the most famous and respected convents in Russia. Aside from the main cathedral, another church, the Church of St. Michael, was built there in 1634. The Chudov Monastery and Voznesensky Convent were both closed after the Soviet government moved into the Kremlin in 1918. The buildings remained standing until 1929, when the authorities decided to raze them to make way for a military training facility.

Also demolished was the Maly Nikolayevsky Palace that bordered the Chudov Monastery’s wall. The palace was built in 1775 by architect Matvei Kazakov on the site of the demolished Sheremetyev mission and became the residence of Archbishop Platon, who moved there on the orders of the Holy Synod. The money to build the palace came from Catherine the Great. In 1817, the building came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Imperial Court.

The future Tsar Nicholas I took a particular liking to the palace and stayed there on many occasions. It was here that his son, the future Alexander II, was born on April 17, 1818.

This was a small palace, built in the austere classical style typical of the Moscow school of architecture in the last third of the 18th century. It was adorned with a harmonious semi-rotunda of four columns, stylized to resemble the Tuscan Order, and topped with an austere belvedere. The palace made a graceful addition to the rest of the Kremlin’s architecture, complementing the classical façade of the neighboring Senate building.

Like the two Kremlin cloisters, the palace was totally destroyed in 1929, when architect I. Ivanov-Shitz was commissioned to design and build a new administrative building in the Kremlin. The new building, completed in 1934, did not measure up artistically or architecturally to the monuments it replaced.

The Soviet authorities’ itch to rebuild everything reached even to the Great Kremlin Palace, the very heart of historical Moscow. At the beginning of the 1930s, they decided to build a huge hall for Party congresses inside the Great Kremlin Palace. In 1932, demolition work began in the Andreyevsky and Alexandrovsky halls – two of the palace’s finest rooms. Within no time at all, the rich decoration of the main imperial throne room, dedicated to the Order of St. Andrew, had been destroyed. The Alexandrovsky Hall, dedicated to the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, met the same fate. Builders knocked out the wall between the two halls and added a room for the congresses’ presidium. They also changed the shape of the windows looking out over the Moscow River. The demolition of what turned out to be a supporting wall sent cracks along the building’s southern façade, which began to buckle. In an attempt to reinforce the structure, a huge and ridiculous balcony was built that reached right into the middle of the hall. The resulting hall, with its sad and monotonous, dark wood-panelled interior made an all the more miserable impression as it was surrounded by other palatial halls and chambers that remained intact.

But the greatest loss to the Kremlin in the 1930s was the destruction of its oldest church, the Church of the Savior on Bor, whose foundations were laid, according to the chronicles, by Prince Ivan Kalita in 1330. This was one of the first stone churches built in the Kremlin. It was built near the prince’s palace and, thanks to its location, became the most esteemed palace church in the Kremlin over many centuries. The church was razed on May 1, 1933.

The last upheaval for the Kremlin’s architecture took place in the late 1950s - early 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev commissioned the construction of a huge Kremlin Palace of Congresses. The enormous building clashes with the ancient architecture of the Kremlin. The Cavaliers’ Building and part of the old Armory were demolished to make way for the new building.

[Next... The Most Recent History of the Ancient Kremlin]

| The Histiry of the Kremlin |  | The Era of Peter the Great
| The Origin of the Kremlin |  | The Second Half of the 18th Century
| The “Small Wooden Town” on Borovitsky Hill |  | 1812 and the Restoration of the Kremlin
| The Kremlin in the 13th Century |  | Construction Work in the Kremlin in the 19th Century
| A Residence Fit for Princes |  | The 20th Century: the Kremlin’s Losses
| The White Stone Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoi |  | The Most Recent History of the Ancient Kremlin
| The Kremlin in the 15th - 17th Centuries |  |

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