The Pantheon (russian: Пантеон), officially also called the ''Monument to the Eternal Glory of the Great People of the Soviet Land'' (Памятник вечной славы великих людей Советской страны), was a project to construct a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

al memorial

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The tomb was planned to serve as the final resting place for prominent Communist figures along with the remains of Communists who had been buried at the

Kremlin Wall Necropolis The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was the national cemetery for the Soviet Union. Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik individuals who died during the Moscow Bolshevik Uprising were buried in m ...

. According to the plan,

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

's embalmed body would be transferred from

Lenin's Mausoleum Lenin's Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum) ( rus, links=no, Мавзолей Ленина, r=Mavzoley Lenina, p=məvzɐˈlʲej ˈlʲenʲɪnə), also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, i ...

to the new Pantheon. The decision to build the Pantheon was taken by the

Central Committee of the CPSU The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee directe ...

and

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

in a joint decision of March 6, 1953, the day following

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's death. It was decided that the Pantheon would be built in Moscow, but its location was not further specified. A likely location would probably have been opposite the Kremlin, on the Sophie quay by the

Moscow River The Moskva (russian: река Москва, Москва-река, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river running through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through centra ...

. The project was partly inspired by the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...

in Paris, and the idea was to transfer all the remains buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, and convert the Lenin Mausoleum into a monumental

tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on th ...

overlooking

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

. According to the decision, the Pantheon would be accessible to broad masses of visitors. The decision to build the Pantheon was never executed. Its fate may be connected with the turning point of Stalinist architectural projects after Stalin's death, and with the official condemnation of Joseph Stalin, whose body was removed from the Lenin MausoleumIn 1953-1961, the tomb was known as the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum. on October 31, 1961 and buried next to the

Kremlin Wall The Moscow Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognisable by the characteristic notches and its Kremlin towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers built in 1156. The Kremlin w ...

as part of the process of De-Stalinization. The decision of 1953 was further invalidated on December 4, 1974, when the Ministerial Council of the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

decided to formally protect the historical monuments of the Lenin Mausoleum and the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. File:Pantheon on Red Square 2.jpg, File:Pantheon on Zaryadie 2.jpg, File:Pantheon on Bolotnaya Square.jpg, Different designs' locations

Footnotes

References

* {{in lang, ru}
Various documents on the Pantheon project
rusarchives.ru National cemeteries Stalinist architecture Vladimir Lenin Unbuilt buildings and structures in Russia Proposed monuments and memorials

See also

Footnotes

References