Palace of Soviets
Palace of Soviets (Palace of Councils) was an architectural project to construct the world's largest building in Moscow, Russia. The same name was given to the Moscow Metro station currently known as Kropotkinskaya.
The project submitted by Boris Iofan (on the picture) won the competition against many other projects, including ones by Le Corbusier and Takehiko Nagakura.
A 100 meter (325 feet) high statue of Vladimir Lenin was topping the superstructure composed of several receding tiers of cylindrical masses. The total height of the building was planned at 415 meters (1365 feet), taller than the Empire State Building, the tallest building at that time. The Palace would have housed several museums, the main and secondary auditoriums, with lower and underground levels given to the traffic handling, storage, and technical equipment.
The building was supposed to give an impression of an emormous ladder to the sky.
The utilitarian purpose of the bulding was to house Congresses of Soviets, likely the World Congress of Soviets.