Everything about Alexey Shchusev totally explained
Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev (
September 26,
1873,
Kishinev—
May 24,
1949,
Moscow) was an acclaimed
Russian architect whose works may be regarded as a bridge connecting
Revivalist architecture of
Imperial Russia with
Stalin's
Empire Style.
Shchusev studied under
Leon Benois and
Ilya Repin at the
Imperial Academy of Arts in
1891–
1897. From
1894 to
1899, he travelled in
North Africa and
Central Asia. Shchusev was a diligent student of old Russian art and won public acclaim with his restoration of the
12th-century St. Basil Church in
Ovruch,
Ukraine. He dwelt on
15th-century Muscovite architecture to design the Trinity Cathedral in
Pochayiv Lavra and a memorial church on the
Kulikovo Field. He was then commissioned by the royal family to design a cathedral for
Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. The result was a charming medieval structure of the purest
Novgorodian style (
1908–
1912).
Shchusev embarked upon his most wide-scale project in
1913, when his design for the
Kazan Railway Station won a contest for a Moscow terminus of the
Trans-Siberian Railway. This
Art Nouveau design fused elements of the
Kremlin towers and traditional Tatar architecture in one of the most imaginative Revivalist designs ever put to execution. The construction of the railway station, however, wasn't finished until
1940.
After briefly experimenting with
Neoclassicism, Shchusev turned to
Constructivism in the
1920s. Upon
Lenin's death in
1924, he was asked to design a
mausoleum for him. It took him just several days to come up with an
original architectural solution blending Constructivist elements with features taken from some ancient mausoleums, for example, the
Step Pyramid and the
Tomb of Cyrus. Other notable Constructivist designs of Shchusev were the Ministry of Agriculture or 'Narkomzem' in Moscow (
1928–
1933) and the Institute of Resorts in
Sochi (
1927–
1931), considered to be a major source for
Alvar Aalto's
Paimio Sanatorium.
After the mausoleum commission, Shchusev was cherished by the Communist authorities. In
1926, he was nominated director of the
Tretyakov Gallery. He was appointed head of the group that designed major bridges and apartment complexes in Moscow. His name was attached to the luxurious designs of the
Hotel Moskva just a few steps from the Kremlin (
1930–
1938) and the
NKVD headquarters on
Lubyanka Square (1940–
1947). Some say that he was the first to come up with the idea of
Gothic skyscrapers in Moscow.
It is debated whether these Stalinist designs were really Shchusev's or if they were actually executed by his disciples. The discussion of their artistic merits was exacerbated when the Moscow authorities announced their intention to demolish the Hotel Moskva in
2004. Actually, all these designs, whether executed for Moscow,
Tbilisi, or
Tashkent, featured Shchusev's trademark blend of Neoclassical elements with national architectural traditions.
In
1946, Shchusev established the
Museum of Architecture, which helped to preserve remnants of demolished medieval churches and monasteries. His last works of importance were the
Komsomolskaya station of the
Moscow Metro, whose decoration was stylized after 17th-century Muscovite churches, and the plan for reconstruction of
Novgorod after the ancient city had been destroyed by the
Nazis (in recognition of that, one of Novgorod's modern streets was named after him). Shchusev died four years after the end of the
World War II and was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery.
Shchusev was awarded the
Stalin Prizes in
1941,
1946,
1948, and posthumously in
1952; the
Order of Lenin and other orders and medals.
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