Archival plans from 1934 explain how the US embassy in the USSR was built. It is interesting that the US wanted to see it on Sparrow Hills, but was unable to push through this idea due to “lack of mutual understanding on the construction conditions.”
William Bullitt, first United States ambassador to the Soviet Union.
The State Archive of the Russian Federation published an interesting correspondence on the Telegram channel “Documentary Past”. The first of the documents is a letter from the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR Valery Mezhlauk to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, dated September 22, 1934.
It was devoted to plans for the construction of the American embassy building in Moscow. Mezhlauk wrote that he had already received William Bullitt, the first American ambassador to the Soviet Union, twice.
The ambassador raised the issue of building the US embassy in Moscow and proposed a plan for its construction. The project and budget were approved in Washington, but were drawn up according to American standards.
Otherwise, as Bullitt claimed, the US government would simply not have allocated money for construction. The embassy building was supposed to be built in Sparrow Hills.
“Mezhlauk writes to the Central Committee about Bullitt’s demands to transfer all construction management issues to the hands of an American engineer and foremen, who are called upon to monitor American standards,” the State Archive of the Russian Federation reports.
The role of the USSR was limited to providing labor and materials according to American needs. The United States was willing to pay for labor and materials in dollars at a fairly generous rate.”
At the same time, the Americans reserved the right to “remove from construction sites workers whose work does not meet the quality required by American standards.”
The Americans offered to import materials and equipment from abroad, free of duties. Mezhlauk also drew attention to the fact that the prices of materials approved by the budget were higher than those at which similar materials were sold abroad in the Soviet Union.
“Taking into account Bullitt’s requirements, Mezhlauk proposes to create a special authorized structure that would answer all questions from the American side, receive payments in foreign currency and settle payments in rubles with Soviet employees and suppliers,” the file continues.
US Embassy in Mokhovaya, 1937. Photo: pastvu.com
The response to Mezhlauk’s letter, addressed to Molotov and marked “secret”, was given by the head of the USSR Central Executive Committee, Avel Enukidze. He noted that any construction organization would do an excellent job of constructing the embassy building and houses for American diplomats, building them according to American plans and standards.
But since the Americans did not agree to this, Enukidze offered to accept several of their demands, including providing them with the necessary manpower, as well as appointing a certain VP as a special commissioner for construction issues. Mikhailov.
The latter was supposed to handle all contacts with the American side and send specialists from the construction structures of the Central Executive Committee and the Kremlin to work and purchase the necessary construction materials.
“The construction and finishing of these houses must be of high quality,” Enukidze wrote. “Judging by some of the prices that Mezhlauk reported to me, they will not become unprofitable.”
“Yenukidze calls the construction site “the Neskuchny Garden area,” the State Archive of the Russian Federation notes. “It is known that the building of the US Embassy on Vorobyovy Gory was not built; the formal reasons were the lack of mutual understanding regarding the construction conditions.”
In 1934, the US Embassy received a building very close to the Kremlin – a newly built house on Mokhovaya Street. In 2022, a new square was formed on the territory of the US Embassy, previously registered in Bolshoi Devyatinsky Lane.
It is named after the Donetsk People’s Republic, and therefore the address of the embassy was changed. However, on the embassy’s website, instead of an address, geographical coordinates are indicated.
