May 24: Alexey Shchusev, the architect of the mausoleum, Kazan Station, and Lubyanka, died.
Alexey Shchusev died on May 24, 1949, in Moscow. He was 75 years old. During his half-century in the profession, he built dozens of churches, three Lenin mausoleums, the Komsomolskaya metro station, and the NKVD building on Lubyanka Square—and outlived all who cursed him.
From Chisinau to Academics
Shchusev was born in 1873 in Chisinau, the son of a retired zemstvo official. At 24, he graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied under Repin, Kuindzhi, and Benois. For his academic achievements, he was granted a year and a half of government-funded travel abroad.
Upon his return, he began working in neoclassical, baroque, and classical styles. In 1904, the Holy Synod commissioned him to restore the ruined St. Basil's Church near Zhitomir—one of the first examples of scientific restoration in the Russian Empire. The project brought Shchusev public renown, the status of academician, and the Order of St. Anne.
In total, he designed more than 30 churches. The most famous are the Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow and the church on Kulikovo Field.
Kazan Station and "stylistic double-dealing"
Shchusev designed railway stations—standard wooden towers and terminals in the Baroque and Empire styles. His major pre-revolutionary work was the Kazan Station in Moscow, where he blended various architectural styles. The building took nearly 100 years to complete: the Tsar's Tower was not completed until 1997.
In professional circles, he was condemned for his "stylistic double-dealing" and "unprincipled omnivorousness." Artist Mikhail Nesterov was succinct: "Shchusev is a lover not so much of styles as of stylizations."
After the Revolution: the Mausoleum and the Bolsheviks
After 1917, Shchusev supported the new government. He tried to keep his church experience under wraps, but he was credited with the following quote:
If I could negotiate with priests, then I can somehow negotiate with the Bolsheviks.
He was elected chairman of the Moscow Architectural Society. In 1918, he led the work on the master plan for "New Moscow" and proposed moving all government institutions to the north and Khodynka Field to relieve congestion in the historic center. The project was abandoned in 1925 due to disputes with the authorities, bureaucratic delays, and the fall from grace of its curator, Lev Kamenev.
In 1924, Shchusev was commissioned to build two temporary mausoleums for Lenin. The first, wooden, was erected in three days in minus-30 degree weather. The second appeared in the summer and served as a platform for party leaders. In 1929, Shchusev designed the third, a permanent mausoleum.
Stalinist monumentalism and disgrace
In 1933, Shchusev became head of the 2nd State Studio of Mosproekt. He worked in the style of Stalinist monumentalism: the "House of Architects" on Rostovskaya Embankment, the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, and the building of the Lenin, Marx, and Engels Institute in Tbilisi (supervised by Beria, the building became a benchmark for Soviet architecture). He also "corrected" other people's projects, including the Meyerhold Theater and the Moskva Hotel.
But his own project for the Palace of Soviets was rejected personally by Stalin:
Shchusev's project is the same Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but without the cross.
In 1937, Shchusev was suspended from his post. Colleagues accused him of plagiarism, "moral uncleanliness," "counterrevolutionary sentiments," patronizing prisoners, and criminal ties to the executed Marshal Tukhachevsky. Pravda cited his "willingness to compromise":
What ideological and principled contribution can a man give to Soviet art who boasts that he used to get along with monks, and now gets along with the Bolsheviks?
Lubyanka and the last years
A year later, Shchusev returned to the profession, taking up the post of chief architect of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Beria personally assisted him. He regularly received commissions from the NKVD, including the reconstruction of the Lubyanka building. He commented on this:
They asked me to build a dungeon, so I built them a more fun dungeon.
He developed designs for secret defense plants and post-war urban reconstruction plans. He designed the Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya metro station.
While on assignment in Kyiv, he suffered a heart attack and died a few days later in a Moscow hospital. It was May 24, 1949. He was 75 years old.
