Main Building of Moscow State University on Sparrow Hills

The Main Building of Moscow State University on Sparrow Hills is the central building of Moscow State University and the tallest of Moscow's seven "Stalinist high-rises." The height of the building's central section is 183.2 meters, and with its spire, 235 meters; until the 1990s it remained the tallest building in Europe. It was built in 1949–1953 to a design by the architects Lev Rudnev, Sergei Chernyshev, Pavel Abrosimov, and Alexander Khryakov, with the participation of the engineer Vsevolod Nasonov; the sculptural decoration of the facades was carried out by the studio of Vera Mukhina.

The decision to build eight high-rise buildings in Moscow, including a new university building, was taken by a resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers on 13 January 1947 on the initiative of Joseph Stalin; on 15 March 1948 a resolution was issued for the construction of the Moscow State University building on the Lenin Hills (now Sparrow Hills), and this date was later commemorated as the university's founding day. The original design was developed by the architect Boris Iofan, author of the unrealized Palace of the Soviets, who proposed a composition of a high central section and four symmetrical side wings with turrets. In the summer of 1948 Iofan was removed from the project — he insisted on placing the building at the very edge of the hill, whereas specialists considered this dangerous for the stability of the structure; the work was continued by a team led by the architect Lev Rudnev.

The building's load-bearing frame and foundation were designed by the engineer Nikolai Nikitin — later the author of the Ostankino Tower — who applied a box-type foundation and flexible columns, making it possible to erect a high-rise structure of varying height on difficult ground without settlement joints. The ceremonial laying of the first stone took place on 12 April 1949, and by the end of that year the frame of the central section had reached ten stories. The architects had originally intended to top the tower with a sculpture — of Lomonosov, Lenin, or Stalin — but in the end the building was completed with a 57-meter spire crowned with a five-pointed star, echoing the solution used on the other high-rises.

Construction was overseen by Lavrenty Beria and involved the labor of prisoners, for whom a temporary camp facility was set up on the 22nd floor. The ceremonial opening of the main building took place on 1 September 1953, and the university's first classes began that same day. Today the building remains not only an academic building but also one of the principal architectural symbols of Moscow, recognizable by its silhouette on Sparrow Hills.