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Category Archive: Architecture

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

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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Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer

The sculptural group 'partisans' in the lobby of the metro station Partizanskaya, Moscow closeup

The sculptural group ‘partisans’ in the lobby of the metro station Partizanskaya, Moscow closeup. Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer (1891-1966)

Works by Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer (1891-1966) are well known to millions of people visiting Moscow. Frontier guard with a dog, woman with chicken, a young worker with a gear wheel, a revolutionary sailor, and dozens of other sculptures decorate the most famous Metro station “Revolution Square”. Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer created them during 1936-1939. Matvey Manizer (1891-1966) – People’s Artist of the USSR (1958), Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947-1966), the winner of three Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943, 1950). He created a number of works that have become classics of socialist realism. During the Great Patriotic War, in 1943 he donated the awarded Stalin Prize (the sum of 100 000 rubles) to the defense Fund. Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer was the author of Stalin’s death mask.
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Greatest Soviet relic Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin

Greatest Soviet relic Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin

Greatest Soviet relic Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin

Greatest Soviet relic Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin. This architectural monument to Lenin – the revolutionary, thinker, leader is well known around the world. Lenin’s Mausoleum – the creation of an outstanding architect of our time Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev. The history of the Mausoleum was told in the memories of People’s Architect of the USSR D. Chechulin: “I remember the hard days of January 1924. Unprecedented frost, bonfires in the streets, endless queue to the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, Alarm beeps, Crystal chandeliers in the Hall of Columns, black crepe, pain of irreparable loss… In those days, only once Shchusev appeared in the training workshop addressing to the students, and his colleagues, he said that he is extremely busy: in a matter of days and hours is necessary to build a temporary mausoleum.
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