ST. ISAAC’S CATHEDRAL IN THE DECISIONS OF THE SOVIET POWER IN 1927-1928 (PART 2)

The cancellation by the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the summer of 1927 of the decision, previously made at the city level, to transfer St. Isaac’s Cathedral as an outstanding architectural monument to the People’s Commissariat of Education, explained by the personal position of Piotr Smidovich, the member of the Presidium responsible for the state-confessional relations, and the political and intra-party context, did not affect the activity of representatives of the professional architectural community, who recorded the emergency condition of the building and saw a way to start expensive repair and restoration work in declaring the building a museum. The persistence of the architects-restorers, together with the need proclaimed by the party leadership to intensify the antireligious struggle at the turn of 1927-1928, contributed to the revision of the All- Russian Central Executive Committee’s position and the adoption of a two-pronged decision to liquidate the church community of the cathedral and simultaneously organise a museum.