Rear to Front. Magnitogorsk. Authors – Soviet sculptor Lev Golovnitsky, architect – Yakov Belopolsky. Material – bronze, granite. Height – 15 meters

Soviet sculptor Lev Golovnitsky (10 December 1929 – 29 April 1994) – People’s Artist of the RSFSR, member of the USSR Academy of Arts, and laureate of the RSFSR State Prize of Repin. Golovnitsky worked in the style of socialist realism. His work reflects the prominent figures and important events of the Soviet state. Chelyabinsk sculptor is the author of monuments to Vladimir Lenin, “Eaglet” in Chelyabinsk, the monument “Rear – to front” in Magnitogorsk and many others. Today, without the works of the sculptor is hard to imagine Chelyabinsk and other cities of the South Urals.
Born December 10, 1929 in the city of Kurgan, already in 1932 three-year-old Lev and his family moved to Chelyabinsk. From an early age the boy showed interest in drawing. From 1944 to 1947 he worked in the art studio of the Palace of Pioneers named after Nadezhda Krupskaya.
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The soldiers and guerrillas, going into battle. High relief of the monument to Mikhail Kutuzov in Moscow. Bronze, granite. 1973. Soviet sculptor Nikolay Tomsky (6 December 1900 – 22 November 1984)

Soviet sculptor Nikolay Tomsky (6 December 1900 – 22 November 1984) –
Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949, Corresponding Member of 1947), People’s Artist of the USSR (1960), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1970). Laureate of Lenin (1972), five of Stalin (1941, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952) and the USSR State (1979) Prizes. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1950.
In human nature inherent desire for beauty. And art – one of the forms of human activity, revealing the most beautiful in life and especially in man. Such an understanding of the high purpose of art evolved in Tomsky for many years. He appealed to the image of the builder of the new society, the image of a Communist. As a student of the Higher School of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, he, a former peasant and a soldier, thought about the main theme of which he will work.
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Village festival. 1950s, fragment. Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev (1920 – 2009)

Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev
An honored Artist of Russia, a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1953), Evgeny Rastorguev was born into a family of teachers in the village of Nikolo-Pogost of Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1940 he graduated from the Gorky Art School, and immediately began to participate in exhibitions of Soviet art. 1941-1945 – participant of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, he became a military cartographer, and later worked in the front newspaper, participated in the erection of the first memorial museum of the Second World War – the architectural memorial complex “Svir victory”. After the war, in 1946, he enters the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin in Leningrad, and then transferred to the Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov. He studied in the workshop of SV Gerasimov. In 1953, on the recommendation of his teacher, SV Gerasimov, he was admitted to the Union of Artists. Rastorguev was a member of the famous “Group of 16”.
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Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf
Golden Sheaf monumental Fountain, also known as “Friendship of Peoples of the USSR” was created by the architect-artist KT Topuridze, engineer VI Klyavin and teams of sculptors Z. Bazhenova, AI Tenet, IM Chaikov, ZV Ryleyeva and VP Gavrilov. It was opened in 1954. The initial project was called The Main Fountain, but in project documentation of 1953-1954 was also called “Golden Sheaf”. And finally, since 1954, it’s official name has become “Friendship of Peoples”, however, some sources sometimes use the name “Friendship of Peoples of the USSR.” The Golden Sheaf Fountain, first of all, fascinates with its size and outright luxury. Pool of fountain – an elongated octagon with internal dimensions for the major axis of 81 m and a minor axis – 56 m. By the way, to completely bypass the octagonal fountain, one will have to pass 170 meters and an area of 3.5 thousand square meters.
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Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968). 1972. Copper, bronze. The State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov

Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov (1935-2009) – Academician of Russian Academy of Arts (1997, Corresponding Member of 1979), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1979), Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1960), member of the Academy of Arts of Kyrgyzstan (1998). From 1977 to 1987 – Secretary of the USSR Union of Artists, awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples, “Badge of Honor”. The most famous works – the monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow and Orenburg.
Yuri Chernov became an orphan early: in 1939, was arrested and killed his father, in 1944, his mother died. The true parental warmth and care, Yuri and his two brothers found in the family of their aunt Anna (elder sister of mother) and her husband Lev Chernov, who adopted the boys, brought up and led them to an independent way of life. Seeing Yuri’s capacity for modeling, he was sent to study at the Moscow Art School (now – Moscow State Art Lyceum), the sculpture department. Communicating with friends, visiting exhibitions, museums, and especially the Tretyakov Gallery, which was opposite the school in Lavrushinsky Lane, living in the atmosphere of art, friendship, respect for knowledge and work – shaped the identity of the future artist.
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Vladimir Mayakovsky by Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky (August 12, 1921 – June 14, 1986)

Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky (August 12, 1921 – June 14, 1986) is the author of monuments and busts, installed in different cities of the former USSR. His most famous work is the second monument to Ivan Susanin in Kostroma. Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Commander of the Order “Badge of Honor”. According to testimony and materials released in the TV documentary on the First Channel “Odd Man Out” (2013), his father was the prominent Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. The fact that the biological father of Nikita-Gleb is Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was acquainted with a married Elizaveta (Lily) in 1920 during their joint work in the satire magazine “Windows of ROSTA”. The documentary film “Odd Man Out”, which premiered at the First channel to the 120th anniversary of the poet’s birthday, 20 July, 2013 revealed that fact. In the film, Elizaveta, the daughter of Lavinskaya, confirms the fact, relying on documents and photographs of the family archive, evidence of her late father, who left memories of visits of Mayakovsky to their family and his relationship with her mother.
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Composition “Dialogue” (Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev). Bronze, 2001. Sculptor Vladimir Tishin

Creativity of Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Tishin bears the features characteristic of the Moscow School of plastic. In particular, the desire to intensify the artistic language, theatrical, and colorful imagery. A great sense of material and design allows the sculptor to work in a variety of materials: wood, stone, bronze, and chamotte. Born 16, 1963 in Moscow, Vladimir Tishin graduated from Moscow State Art and Industry University named after Stroganov (MGHPU of Stroganov), the sculpture department (1985). And four years later, in 1989, became a member of the USSR Union of Artists. In addition, in 1990-1991 got a scholarship of the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 2012 he became a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
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