Alexey Shchusev

Who was Alexey Shchusev?

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev was an acclaimed Russian and Soviet 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 Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna to design a cathedral for Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. The result was a charming medieval structure of the purest Novgorodian style.

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.