When Napoleon Bonaparte retreated from Moscow, Tsar Alexander I signed a manifesto

on 25 December 1812 declaring his intention to build a cathedral in honor of Christ

the Saviour "to signify Our gratitude to Divine Providence for saving Russia from
the doom that overshadowed Her" and as a memorial to the sacrifices of the Russian
people. It took some time for work on the projected cathedral to get started. The
first finished architectural project, by Aleksandr Lavrentyevich Vitberg, was
endorsed by the Tsar in 1817. It was a flamboyant Neoclassical design full of
Masonic symbolism.
The building under construction in 1852 (as seen from the Kremlin)

Construction work was begun on the Sparrow Hills, the highest point in Moscow, but
the site proved unstable. In the meantime Alexander I was succeeded by his brother
Nicholas I. Profoundly Orthodox and patriotic, the new Tsar disliked the
Neoclassicism and Freemasonry of the design selected by his predecessor. He
commissioned his favorite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design, taking
as his model Hagia Sophia in the Ottoman capital Constantinople (present day
Istanbul, Turkey). Thon's Russian Revival design was approved in 1832. A new site
closer to the Moscow Kremlin was chosen by the Tsar in 1837. A convent and church
on the site had to be relocated, so the cornerstone of the new church was not laid
until 1839.

The cathedral took many decades to build; the scaffolding was not taken down until
1860. Its painting was overseen by Evgraf Sorokin, and thereafter some of the best
Russian painters (Ivan Kramskoi, Vasily Surikov, V. P. Vereshchagin) continued to
embellish the interior for another twenty years. The giant dome of the cathedral
was gilded using the new technique of gold electroplating, replacing the older and
insecure technique of mercury gilding.[6] Although Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture was
written with the building's completion in mind, it had its world premiere in a tent
outside the unfinished church in August 1882. The cathedral was consecrated on 26
May 1883, the day before Alexander III was crowned.[7]

The inner sanctum of the church (naos) was ringed by a two-floor gallery, its walls
inlaid with rare sorts of marble, granite, and other stones. The ground floor of
the gallery was a memorial dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon. The
walls displayed more than 1,000 square metres (11,000 sq ft) of Carrara bianca
marble plaques listing major commanders, regiments, and battles of the Patriotic
War of 1812 (with the lists of awards and casualties appended). The second floor of
the gallery was occupied by church choirs.
Demolition
The cathedral in the early 20th century
Demolition, 5 December 1931

Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the USSR's official state atheism resulted
in the 1921-1928 anti-religious campaign, during which many "church institution[s]
at [the] local, diocesan or national level were systematically destroyed."[8]
Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chose
the prominent site of the cathedral as the proposed site for a monument to
socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets. It was to have modernistic,
buttressed tiers to support a gigantic statue of Lenin perched on top of a dome
with his arm raised in the air.

The government plans for economic development in Russia during the 1930s required
more funds than were available at the time. In searching for additional sources of
revenue and funding, government agencies saw monetary value in religious and
historical monuments that had not yet been destroyed or otherwise repurposed for
government use. On 24 February 1930, the economic department of the OGPU sent a
letter to the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee asking to remove the
golden domes of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. The letter noted that the dome of
the church contained over 20 tons of gold of "excellent quality", and that the
cathedral represented an "unnecessary luxury for the Soviet Union, and the
withdrawal of the gold would make a great contribution to the industrialization of
the country." The People's Commissariat of Finance did not object to this proposal.
[9]

On July 13, 1931, a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union
was held under the chairmanship of Mikhail Kalinin. The meeting decided to build
the Palace on the territory of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior: �The place for
the construction of the Palace of Soviets to choose the area of the Cathedral of
Christ in the mountains. Moscow with the demolition of the church itself and the
necessary expansion of the area." This decision was prepared at a meeting of the
Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (b) on June 5, 1931.[10] 11 days later,
the resolution of the Committee for Cult Affairs under the Presidium of the All-
Russian Central Executive Committee was adopted:[11]

In view of the allotment of the site on which the Cathedral of Christ the
Savior is located, for the construction of the Palace of Soviets, the said temple
should be liquidated and demolished. Instruct the Presidium of the Moscow Oblast
Executive Committee to liquidate (close) the church within ten days ... The
petition of the OGPU economic department for gold washing and the petition for the
construction of the Palace of Soviets for the transfer of building material to be
submitted to the secretariat of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

For several months, urgent work was carried out to dismantle the temple building,
the remains of which it was eventually decided would be blown up. On 5 December
1931, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was dynamited and reduced to rubble. It
took more than a year to clear the debris from the site. The construction of the
Palace of Soviets was ultimately halted due to a lack of funds, problems with
flooding from the nearby Moskva River, and the outbreak of World War II. Some of
the marble from the walls and benches of the cathedral was used in nearby Moscow
Metro stations. The original marble high reliefs were preserved and are now on
display at the Donskoy Monastery. For many decades, these reliefs were the only
reminders of one of the largest Orthodox churches ever built. The flooded
foundation hole remained on the site, but in 1958 under Nikita Khrushchev, it was
transformed into the world's largest open air swimming pool, named Moskva Pool.
Rebuilt cathedral
The rebuilt cathedral, view across the Moscow River.
Night view next to the river.

In February 1990, the Russian Orthodox Church received permission from the Soviet
government to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. A temporary cornerstone
was laid by the end of the year. The architect Aleksey Denisov was called upon to
design a replica, but was soon fired from the project because of disagreements with
the Mayor�s office.[12] When construction was well under way, he was replaced by
Zurab Tsereteli, who introduced several controversial innovations.[citation needed]
For instance, the original marble high reliefs along the walls were replaced by
modern bronze ones, which have few, if any, parallels in Russian church
architecture.