Cathedral of Christ the Saviour • 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 institutions at the local, diocesan or national level were systematically destroyed.

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. It was never 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.

The construction of the pool on a site of destroyed cultural heritage caused a negative reaction of the Moscow public. The history of the site's Cathedral, the unbuilt Palace of the Soviets, and the Moskva Pool was commonly summarized with the ironic expression "First there was a church, then rubbish, and now shame."

In February 1990, the Russian Orthodox Church received permission from the Soviet government to restore the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. A temporary cornerstone was laid by the end of the year.

A construction fund was initiated in 1992 and funds began to pour in from citizens in the autumn of 1994, and about one million Muscovites donated money for the project. In this year the Moskva Pool was dismantled and the cathedral reconstruction commenced. The lower church was consecrated to the Saviour's Transfiguration in 1997, and the completed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was consecrated on the Transfiguration Day, 19 August 2000.

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