IN SEARCH OF HIGH-RISE CENTERPIECE: THE PALACE OF THE SOVIETS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IN THE 1930 s

The article observes one of the most ambitious architectural contests of the Soviet Union — the Palace of the Soviets epopee took place in the early 1930s. Four rounds of public contest, hundreds of projects and designs, polemics in Kremlin, in press and among soviet and foreign architects — even now the Palace of the Soviets phantom provokes society's interest and its image is used in popular culture, movies, literature, etc. Despite the fact that the Palace of the Soviets had never been constructed, that project became a forerunner of high-rise construction in the Soviet Union. For example, so called “seven sisters” — architectural ensemble built in Moscow in 1940—1950s — were born as a supplement to the Palace of the Soviets project.