After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government closed the lavra in 1920. Its buildings were assigned to different civic institutions or declared museums. Part was used for training electrical engineers specialising in radio. In May 1923 Charles Ashleigh reported how the hall was used to demonstrate the new radio technology before a mixed audience primarily composed of peasants and soldiers, but with some townspeople. The broadcast started with am announcement followed by music with a band from the Moscow cavalry playing "Stenka Razin". Then the audience were treated to a short lecture on the benefits of chemical manure and machine ploughs. After a gypsy song the performance was brought to a conclusion with a talk about the wonders of radio. In 1930, monastery bells, including the Tsar-Bell of 65 tons, were destroyed. Pavel Florensky and his followers prevented the authorities from stealing and selling the sacristy collection but overall many valuables were lost or transferred to other collections.