1931 Destruction of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral
The new government of the Soviet Union was determined to be the world’s first atheist state. It murdered or imprisoned thousands of priests, seized church property, and actively discouraged the practice of religion, be it Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. It sponsored the League of the Militant Godless, an organization which sought to inculcate atheism into the population.
Russia’s spectacular Orthodox churches, however, stood as visible reminders of a spiritual power which the Soviets wished to be rid of. Some churches were converted into museums of atheism, some were used as potato warehouses and, in 1931, the largest Christian church in the country was ordered destroyed. Tons of gold on the dome and interior were stripped away and some of the glorious mosaics were saved but much of the church where Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” was premiered was doomed. On December 5, a series of explosions levelled the building so thoroughly that it took a year just to clear away the rubble. For years the site remained a large outdoor swimming pool.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, plans were made to rebuild a replica of the original on the same site, financed largely by ordinary citizens of Moscow. Work began in 1992 and the cathedral was consecrated in 2000, the year in which the murdered Czar Nicholas II and his family were canonized as saints.
