Alexei Shchusev
Russian Soviet architect
October 8, 1873 - May 24, 1949
Alexey Shchusev was born in Kishinev (September 26) October 8, 1873 in the family caretaker charitable institutions. In 1891-1897 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, where his mentors were among Benoit and Repin.
In the years 1894-1899 visited Central Asia, Tunisia, several countries in Western Europe, was engaged at the Academy Julian in Paris (1898).
Since 1901 - the service of the Holy Synod. From 1913 he lived in Moscow.
He established himself as a master of church architecture in the "Russian style": the church-monument of Kulikovo, the abode of Ovruch, Trinity Cathedral in Pochaiv Laura, Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow (all from 1908 to 1912). He built a hotel and an Orthodox pilgrimage church of St.. Saint Nicholas of Bari (Italy, 1910-1913).
Shchusev served equally as a great master of architecture and as a historian and archaeologist, was restored in the church of St. Ovruch. Basil the Great, the 12th century.
Initially focusing on the medieval monuments of Novgorod and Pskov, in its most extensive retrospective, ensemble of the Kazan railway station used the theme of Russian baroque XVII century.
After the October Revolution of 1917 led the project "New Moscow", to foresee the modern principles of linking the radial-ring system of the city with transport communications. He held the post of chief architect of the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Industrial Exhibition. Was director of the Tretyakov Gallery (1926-1929), and since 1946 - the organizer and director of the Museum of Architecture, now bears his name.
Most of his famous work - The Mausoleum of VI Lenin in Red Square (1929-1930).
In subsequent studies Shchusev vanguard consistently gives way to the national historical stylization, dramatically monumental pathos expresses the "Stalinist classicism."
Prominently in his later work rehabilitation projects took the war-torn cities of Istria, Novgorod, Chisinau.
Author of a large number of scientific works on history and contemporary issues of architecture, Shchusev left a memory and as a teacher. Winner of four Stalin Prizes (1941, 1946, 1948 and 1952).
Shchusev died in Moscow on 24 May 1949.
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