The tower has been a subject of debate in the Russian news media and a topic of round-table discussions. Now an array of international architects, engineers, academics and cultural leaders has signed a petition pleading with President Putin to override the committee’s decision and spare the tower, whose destruction makes way for reckless development. Proponents for dismantling the tower say it’s a wreck; the situation is a classic case of demolition by neglect. The chief architect of Moscow, Sergey Kuznetsov, has suggested the tower could be rebuilt elsewhere, and the ministry of culture more or less endorsed that idea in late February. But petitioners argue that moving the tower would strip the work of its context.

Image The Shabolovka radio tower in Moscow was designed by the engineer Vladimir Shukhov. Credit... Richard Pare

Replacing the tower with a building of up to 50 stories would be out of keeping with the historic neighborhood near the Shabolovskaya metro station, an area of distinguished early-Soviet-era housing, the petition says. The tower, “a beacon and symbol of progressive, forward-looking civilization,” the petition adds, deserves nomination to the Unesco World Heritage List. Mr. Putin could authorize the rezoning of the area around the tower to prevent construction of a large building, a step that might prevent demolition. The city government could also halt demolition.

Protesters are planning a demonstration on Tuesday. The Russian Parliament may take up the issue next week, according to Shukhov’s great-grandson, also named Vladimir, who has helped organize the petition. There is no announced date for taking the tower down, but a final decision by Russian authorities is expected by March 24.

Among the signatories to the petition are the architects Tadao Ando, Henry N. Cobb, Elizabeth Diller, Rem Koolhaas and Thom Mayne; the engineers Guy Nordenson and Leslie E. Robertson; and the Tate Museums director Nicholas Serota. The petition was written by Jean-Louis Cohen, the architectural historian, along with Richard Pare, the British photographer, both specialists in buildings and monuments of the Soviet era.

“The impression when you stand beneath it is unforgettable,” Mr. Pare wrote in an email over the weekend. “The elements surge upwards, creating a rush of optimism and elation.” He contrasted it with the Lenin Mausoleum, “a space that stands at the opposite pole to the brilliance of Shukhov’s masterpiece,” he wrote, adding, “From light to dark in eight years.”