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. Soviet sculptor Zair Azgur, granite, 1956, the hall of the National Art Museum of Belarus

Soviet sculptor Zair Azgur (1908-1995) was Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1958), Corresponding Member (1947), Hero of Socialist Labor (1978), People’s Artist of the USSR (1973), winner of two Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946, 1948), 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.
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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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Portrait of Tchaikovsky. Marble. 1947. Soviet sculptor Zinovy Vilensky. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Soviet sculptor Zinovy Vilensky (1899-1984) – People’s Artist of the USSR (1980), second-degree Winner of the Stalin Prize (1948), member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1954). Zinovy (Zalman) ​​Moiseevich Vilensky was born October 15, 1899 in the village of Koryukovka of Chernigov region. He studied at the Department of painting of Kiev Art School, graduated from the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops in Moscow (1922-1928). Vilensky worked in the genre of monumental sculptures and sculptural portrait. His work is characterized by the transfer of the individual characteristics of the workshop model, careful modeling, the use of the expressive possibilities of the natural texture of the material.
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