Who built the Mausoleum and how
If there was a prize for the fastest realization of an architectural concept, it would undoubtedly go to Alexei Shchusev. On January 21, 1924, leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Lenin died and, on January 27th, the first wooden mausoleum was built on the Red Square.
On the night of January 23, Shchusev received the most unusual order of his life – to build a crypt in three days near the Kremlin wall, “among the mass graves of the fighters of the October Revolution”. Lenin's embalmed body was to be placed there. The building had to fit into the existing ensemble of the square. The architect immediately had a solution: the mausoleum would be low and in a stepped shape. He recalled that they built “with the help of explosive teams in the frozen ground, just a wooden structure, filled with sawdust between the walls”. The structure was only meant to be temporary and had a laconic inscription of “Lenin” on the top.
The small building could not accommodate all those wishing to say goodbye to the author of the revolution. In addition, due to the crowds of people, the temperature in the room rose, which threatened the safety of the body. At the end of March 1924, it was decided to build a new mausoleum. Also wooden, but more large-scale, which stood for almost five years.
After that, an All-Union competition was announced for the design of a new, stone tomb. More than 100 applications were submitted. And Shchusev was the winner, again. The third mausoleum was built from reinforced concrete and faced with granite and labradorite. A 20-ton block of labradorite was used for the sarcophagus pedestal. Shchusev designed the new mausoleum so that the flow of people did not stop and did not provoke a crush: visitors went inside via the left staircase, went around the sarcophagus with Lenin's body and left the mausoleum through the right.
The construction lasted a year and a half: by October 1930, a new “space of immortality” appeared on the Red Square.
