Moscow set to dismantle historic 1922 Shukhov radio tower, replacing nearly all original steel
Owner RTRS plans to begin dismantling the 1922 Shukhov hyperboloid tower in Moscow this fall, replacing almost all of its metal with a replica by 2028. Specialists warn this amounts to destroying, not restoring, the engineer's original work.
The Shukhov Tower in Moscow's Shabolovka district, built between 1919 and 1922 by engineer Vladimir Shukhov, once served as the Soviet Union's main radio and television transmitter and is regarded as a landmark of early 20th-century engineering. Its owner, the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS), plans to begin dismantling most of the structure this fall and replace it with a replica by 2028.
Why this isn't restoration
Project documents, prepared by the Central Research Institute for Industrial Buildings, describe dismantling the tower and rebuilding it with new metal. Some original supports from the tower's sixth, uppermost section — which bears the lightest load — may be kept. Every element that has lost more than 5% of its load-bearing capacity is to be replaced. The rebuilt structure is also planned to include an observation deck and an elevator.
The project was approved by the Main State Expert Review Board on April 3, 2026, with backing from Russia's Culture Ministry and Construction Ministry. RTRS deputy director Stanislav Belyavsky has said that "everything that can be restored will be restored" and that the result will be "exactly the same tower," but these claims do not match the actual project documentation.
How this became legally possible
Until 2022, the list of the tower's legally protected features specified particular elements — steel rods, rings, rivets, and joints — that could not be replaced. On July 8, 2022, a revised list with vaguer wording was approved, describing the protected material simply as "metal," which formally allows it to be swapped out entirely.
The tower has been out of use since broadcasting stopped in 2002 and has never undergone a major overhaul in its century of existence, despite withstanding all loads placed on it. RTRS did not respond to requests for comment, and no firm start date for the dismantling has been confirmed, though officials suggest work will begin in October.
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