Robert Falk. Construction of the Palace of Soviets

Robert Falk painted this picture in 1939–1940, when the Palace of Soviets was being built in the centre of Moscow, on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, blown up in 1931. The palace was never completed.

Designed by Boris Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh, it was to rise about 415 metres, including a 100-metre statue of Lenin. The foundation was completed in 1939 and the steel frame was being prepared for assembly, but the war halted construction. In the autumn of 1941 some of the metal structures were turned into anti-tank hedgehogs for the defence of Moscow, and in 1942 the steel structures were dismantled and used for railway bridges. In 1958–1960 the open-air swimming pool "Moskva" was built on the foundation, and after it closed in the 1990s a new Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was built on the site.

Robert Falk (1886–1958) was one of the founders of the Jack of Diamonds group. From 1928 to 1937 he lived and worked in Paris, and then returned to the USSR. Oil on canvas.