Soviet Russian sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov. Portrait of Vladimir Vysotsky. 1981. Marble

Soviet Russian sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov was born October 2, 1950 in Moscow, the USSR. He became a member of the USSR Union of Artists in 1974, Honored Artist of the RSFSR and the Kirghiz SSR in 1984. In the period of 1986-1988 Alexander was a Secretary of the Union artists of the USSR. In 1995 he was given a title of People’s artist of the Russian Federation. The same year Alexander became the Head of the Department of sculpture of Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov, and professor (1999). In 1997 he was chosen a Member of the Russian Academy of Arts and member of the Presidential Commission on culture. Alexander Iulianovich Rukavishnikov – master of monumental and easel compositions, sculptural portraits. In 1976 he was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976) – for the sculpture “Builders”, “Work”, “Michelangelo.”
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Soviet sculptor M. M. Yershov. (b. 1945 Leningrad). Builders. 1975. Fireclay. Socialist Realism Sculpture

Socialist Realism Sculpture

Great October Socialist Revolution meant a turning point in the life of Russia, in the political, economic and social character of being of its peoples. A special role in the birth and development of a new country played culture – public, media, multinational. The October Revolution created the necessary public, social, ideological and moral prerequisites for carrying out a revolution in the field of culture. New challenges arose before the older generation artists, who immediately accepted the revolution and expressed it in their work. In fact, the Soviet generation of artists – the creators of the Socialist Realism art, having no analogies in the world history.
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Work by Soviet sculptor Mikhail Lysenko. Established in 1964 monument to Lenin was demolished after the coup in Ukraine in 2016

Born October 16, 1906 in the village of Shpilyovka, Sumy region, Soviet sculptor Mikhail Lysenko grew in a peasant family. People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), member of the USSR Academy of Arts (since 1970), in 1948, Mikhail Lysenko joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The future sculptor studied at the Kharkov Art Institute (1926 – 1931). Besides, he taught at the Kiev Art Institute from 1944, and became professor in 1947. He created monumental sculptures, however, the most important of them – the “Hill of Glory” in the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Lvov (bronze, 1947). And also a monument to NA Shchors in Kiev (with co-authors, bronze, 1949-54), a monument to Lenin in Zaporozhye (with NM Sukhodolov; bronze, 1964), and a monument to VP Zatonsky in Khmelnytsky (granite, 1969).
Lysenko received the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. Mikhail Lysenko died in the city of Kiev, May 8, 1972, after a hard trip to Turkmenistan. He was buried at the Baikovo cemetery.
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Lenin monument, Moscow Square, closeup. Soviet sculptor Mikhail Anikushin (1917 – 1997)

Soviet sculptor Mikhail Anikushin

In 1958, Mikhail Anikushin became a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR and four years later – Academician (1962). He was People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1977). Among his awards – the Lenin Prize (1958) and the RSFSR State Prize of Repin (1986). He was a member of the Communist party since 1944, and veteran of Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Born 19 September 1917 in Moscow, Anikushin grew up in a working class family. Meanwhile, the artist wrote: “I – the son of the Moscow parquet floor maker, a wonderful wizard Konstantin Anikushin. He made parquet floor for those who stay in the hotel “Moscow” in the capital. My elder brother – an engineer-surveyor Vladimir Anikushin participated in the discovery and creation of Karaganda industrial area. And I had to be on a par with them. All that I did, and what happiness I had – I am obliged to Great October. And what I haven’t done yet – I must do”. Anikushin studied at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin from 1937 to 1947 with a break for the war years (1941-1945).
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Soviet sculptor Alexandra Briedis (July 25, 1901 – November 14, 1992). Portrait of schoolgirl Mary. 1970. Gypsum

Soviet sculptor Alexandra Briedis (Alexandra Yanovna Briede, nee Kalninya, 25 July 1901 — 14 November 1992) – People’s Artist of the Latvian SSR (1955), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1958). Alexandra studied at the Academy of Arts in Riga (1923-31) at the workshop of K. Ronchevsky. She is the author of statues, tombstones, portraits, genre scenes, works of fine porcelain sculpture. Her works: “The young sculptor” (bronze, 1947), “The World” (marble, 1960), “Rain” (granite, 1969) – all were stored at the Art Museum of the Latvian SSR, Riga; “May there always be sunshine” (granite, 1963), “Antsite – Collective Farm Girl” (bronze, 1965), “My land” (aluminum 1967), “Lenin” (granite, 1969). She was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of Merit.
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The bust of Rabindranath Tagore. Work by Soviet sculptor Zair Azgur (1908-1995). Granite, 1956, the hall of the National Art Museum of Belarus

Soviet sculptor Zair Azgur
Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1958), Corresponding Member (1947), Hero of Socialist Labor (1978), People’s Artist of the USSR (1973), Azgur was the winner of two Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946, 1948), and member of the Communist Party since 1943. His works are in the collections of the National Art Museum, the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Memorial Museum – workshop of Zair Isaakovich Azgur (Minsk, Belarus), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Astrakhan Regional Picture gallery (Astrakhan, Russian Federation), the art museum of Moldova and others.
Zair Azgur was born on 2 January 1908 in the village of Molchany of Mogilev province (now Vitebsk region of Byelorussia), into a Jewish family. He graduated from the Vitebsk Art Practical Institute in 1925, his teachers were Y. Pen and MA Kerzin. In 1925-1928 Zair studied at Higher Artistic – Technical Institute in Leningrad; Art Institute of Kiev and Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts (1928-1929).

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Marx’s head. The model of the monument for the DDR. 1969. Gypsum. Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel (7 November 1917 – August 14, 2003, Moscow

Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel was the Professor, Academician, and Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Arts from 1988 to 2003. He was the People’s Artist of the USSR (1977), Hero of Socialist Labor (1985), winner of the Lenin Prize (1961) and the first degree of the Stalin Prize (1950). Member of the CPSU since 1963, Lev Efimovich Kerbel – author of more than 50 monuments and memorials installed in the USSR and overseas. He created a large number of statues of prominent figures of the Communist Party, Soviet politicians, generals, heroes of the Soviet Union and Socialist Labor. Together with the vice-president of the Academy of Arts M. Manizer Kerbel executed death mask of Stalin.
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