Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, four times Stalin Prize laureate Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev - an architect and a great creator, an excellent theorist and no less remarkable architect, whose work is the pride of the country, will be the hero of this article. Here is a detailed review of his work, as well as his life path.
Architecture as a life process
Shchusev, the architect, though Soviet to the last cell of the body, but at the same time, as they say, an architect from God. He constantly convinced his colleagues with all his work that artistic principles always prevail in architecture over the most daring designs, since they are most closely connected with life in all its manifestations, and life does not tolerate inappropriateness. "Frozen forms do not exist, and architecture is the best able to confirm this," said Shchusev. The architect in it lived a seeker, constantly trying something new, never completely satisfied with the result, finding satisfaction only in knowledge. Starting from Vitruvius, every architect sought to createown theory of this art, and by the beginning of the twentieth century a great many of them had accumulated - very different both in categoricalness and in the breadth of coverage of their positions, with various goals and principles that explain or justify, guide or limit architectural creativity itself.
It is on the basis of all these theories adopted by the most prominent architects that creative trends and schools are formed. Unlike more ambitious colleagues, Shchusev (a very famous architect) never aspired to become the founder of anything, did not put forward theories, did not create schools. This was done by his followers, who studied his true significance in the history of both Russian and Soviet architecture, which was determined by the structures and buildings created by him. He, of course, spoke out and theorized, since his understanding of architecture, taste and talent interested many, many. And these statements are quite on a par with the painstaking research that other masters built in the quiet of their offices for many decades. Now, in every possible way, those grains of brilliant knowledge that Aleksey Shchusev, architect, once accidentally dropped, are being searched for in archives and memoirs.
Mausoleum
His works are imbued with both simplicity and wisdom, as well as an absolutely complete knowledge of the purely handicraft side of great architecture. They contain life experience, common sense, intuition and a huge investment of purely human feeling. This is what allowed him to always fill his offspring with the main social idea. Applyingexisting, even seemingly common forms, the architect A. V. Shchusev confidently created absolutely individual images. Whether it was a historical national style, classical or modern, he produced not abstract logical calculations, but an artistic unity welded together by an aesthetic sense of architecture, sculpture, and painting. This is exactly one of his most remarkable creations - the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, on Red Square, created in 1926-1930. Pyramidal stepped volume, groups of rectangular pillars that carry the upper slab - all this is nothing new in architecture.
However, in a magical way, the Mausoleum acquired power, originality, innovative features, exceptional expressiveness of all proportions, and most importantly - absolute connection with the purpose of this structure, fusion in the ensemble with the rest of the architectural elements of the square. All this made this building the main symbol of its time. It's all about proportions. The architect Shchusev A. V. calculated the height and thickness of the slabs in such a way, either growing or shrinking, that the mourning horizontals form a vertical line full of energy, and the mournful isolation and compactness of the lower chamber - the sarcophagus railings - suddenly turn into the expanse of stairs and stands, where freedom triumphs, wind and light. It is due to this ingenious find that the mourning majesty of the Mausoleum is transformed into the festivity and joy of victorious demonstrations. At present, repairs and reconstruction are being carried out on the territory of the Kremlin; therefore, the Mausoleum was closed at the last parades. The people are already bored and write a lot about it in the open spacesInternet. And indeed, the whole architect Shchusev is visible in this building, whose works carry a high spiritual content, a complex of great social ideas.
Biography
The October Revolution Shchusev met, already being an academician, a recognized architect with fifteen years of practice. In 1910, he was already honored for an exceptionally successful result with the most original methods of restoration of the twelfth century church in the city of Ovruch (Volyn). And he was born in 1873, in Chisinau, the third child in a poor family of a retired official. The ability to draw appeared very early, and it was almost impossible to tear the boy away from this occupation. From the age of eleven, he began to study with L. N. Benois, in whose workshop everyone received thorough professional training. Regarding mentors, the future architect Shchusev, whose work is admired for its high professionalism, was surprisingly lucky.
The canons of Russian classics and national heritage, for example, he was taught by Professor Kotov, whose credo was that it is unacceptable to blindly copy historical monuments of architecture, it is necessary to subject Russian antiquity to modern understanding, and pseudo-Russian style - squalor. The young man was greatly impressed by the ancient Central Asian architecture, especially Samarkand, where the budding architect Aleksey Viktorovich Shchusev measured the colorful monuments of Bibi-Khanym and Gur-Emir in detail and carefully. This played a huge role in his future work. For example, Kazansky railway stationarchitect Shchusev designed based on his Asian impressions.
First works
Shchusev graduated from the Academy in 1897, having received the highest score for his graduation project with a Big Gold Medal and a business trip abroad. It was the "Manor's Estate", which allowed him to spend almost two years studying the architecture of Vienna, Trieste, Venice and other cities of Belgium, Italy, Tunisia, France, England. Everywhere he made many sketches, from which the exhibition report was compiled. I. E. Repin, having familiarized himself with these works, was delighted. Upon returning to his homeland and after submitting the report, Aleksey Shchusev, an architect with no experience yet, immediately received an interesting order. It was an iconostasis in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for the Assumption Cathedral, which had to be designed from scratch. The talented Shchusev did an excellent job with this task, and it seemed that his work would now be constantly associated with places of worship.
In June 1904, the Synod entrusted him with a more responsible and difficult task, he was sent to Ovruch, where he spent the whole winter designing a temple on the ruins of a twelfth century monument. The result was a beautiful five-domed church completely in the traditions of Russian classics, however, all the surviving details were included in the context so organically that the temple seemed to be a single whole. The project was immediately recognized as one of the most beautiful phenomena of modern architecture. The press started talking about the fact that Shchusev created a new neo-Russian style. Glory came, but the architect Shchusev, whose biography is saturated with it toKraev, until the end of his life he took it calmly and simply did not notice the glory.
Martha
In 1907, Shchusev designed the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent (community), all its buildings. Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna sold her jewelry so that this charitable institution appeared, which was not a monastery, although the nuns-sisters of mercy gave vows comparable to monastic ones. However, after years they could leave without conflict with the church, start a family and live as laymen.
What inspired the already famous architect Shchusev, designing his Moscow "Marfa" with unprecedented tenderness? Veliky Novgorod inspired him, Pskov monuments - this magnificent surface of walls with volumes interconnected in harmony. It's very noticeable when compared. The large size of the buildings of the monastery look cozy and homely. The plan of the temple looks like a massive old key with a beard turned to the west and an eyelet, all three petals looking to the east. Due to these semicircular apses, a feeling of comfort is created, since the main volume is hidden from view, and a high drum topped with a pointed sphere of the dome completes the composition.
Chisinau
On Kerch Street (formerly Valley of Char) of his native city, the first two-story house of the architect Shchusev was built - the cottage of Mikhail Karchevsky, his classmate, then - the house of Dragoev at the intersection of Pushkin and Kuznechnaya streets (now Bernardazzi). And in 1912 he was erectedchurch in the village of Kuchuresti. Everything that the architect Shchusev designed and built, Orthodoxy necessarily concerned - to a greater or lesser extent, and this applies not only to places of worship. Much later, Shchusev was entrusted with the general scheme for the reconstruction of dilapidated Chisinau after the Second World War. And in his early youth, immediately after the brilliant defense of his graduation project, Shchusev, an architect, spent several months here, whose family remained attached to this city for life. A few months of happiness: he not only designed a house for a classmate, but also married his sister, Maria Vikentievna Karchevskaya.
In the same place, in the Valley of Char, in the suburbs of Chisinau, the personal life of the architect Shchusev began, which was reliably hidden from strangers for all the long years of his life. And now it is almost impossible to find data in his biographies that are not related to architecture. The monument to Lenin of his work was dismantled in 1991. He also designed a new bridge on the Byk River, at that time it was very full-flowing, the architect also actively consulted colleagues in the development of projects for the reconstruction of many destroyed buildings - the station, shops, offices and other buildings. Chisinau honors the memory of its famous compatriot: a street is named after him, in the house where he was born and grew up, there is a museum with his personal belongings, documents, photographs.
Shchusev Fashion
Immediately after the creation of the projects of Ovruch and the Marfa monastery, fame followed the architect on his heels. The rich hunted for him in the hope of building anything on their land, but in the fashionable Shchusev style. However, he was occupied with more interesting projects. In 1913, the pavilion of an art exhibition in Venice, built according to the drawings of Shchusev, was ready, the composition of which interpreted the national architecture of the seventeenth century. And in perfect combination with the picturesque Italian landscape. At the same time, in San Remo, according to the project of the architect, an Orthodox church was built, decorated with stone carvings, tiles, and a bell tower with a hipped roof. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in San Remo is entirely designed in the Russian church style of the seventeenth century.
But the Kazan station did not immediately interest him. However, all the works submitted for the competition were distinguished by their approximateness and schematism, and other prominent and experienced architects were not inspired, not only the fashionable Shchusev, an architect whose projects were original, talented, but still few in number. Nevertheless, his sketch of the future Kazan railway station was chosen, because the board was confident that they would be able to interest Shchusev, who had recently been fond of Samarkand, in the eastern gates of Moscow. The board made no mistake.
Kazansky railway station
Moscow Gates to the East - one of the most professionally verified decisions of the architect of the difficult assignments. Even the optimal color scheme was found. And what a brilliant solution to the integrity of the ensemble in its purely geographical essence! In October 1911, Shchusev was approved as chiefthe architect of this building, for which they put a fabulous sum - three million gold royal rubles. The details of the project have been worked out by the author for more than two years - this has never happened to him yet. The search was painful - this "pit" on Kalanchevskaya Square was not filled in any way, until Shchusev had a wonderful idea: to place the tallest building in the lowest place.
That's when the ensemble of many buildings played with unity, easily readable at a glance. The tower served as a real dominant, collecting all two hundred meters of structures under its wing. The success of this project was equal to the efforts to create it. The magazine "Architect", which placed it on its pages, was in great demand. Congratulations rained down. And indeed: such a huge length of the station does not interfere with the holistic perception of the entire building, because the symmetry is deliberately broken, and a single sharp tower helps to discover new combinations from anywhere in the square. So far, architects have not been able to manipulate chiaroscuro so freely, when not only the sun, but also clouds enliven stone patterns.
Versatility and style freedom
Shchusev acted absolutely unconventionally with the Kazansky railway station, it turned out to be a city building, and not, as usual, a slightly enriched industrial or slightly simplified palace building. The functions of the station premises are very diverse, and this prompted the design of the brilliant architect Shchusev. Works, photos of which are herepresented in abundance, with the same broad, confident, free interpretation (at least in large, even in small forms) demonstrate Shchusev as an architect not only of many faces, but also in all resourcefulness, constant and true to himself, to his views. This is the building of the sanatorium in Matsesta, and the Moskvoretsky bridge, and the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Opera House in Tashkent, and the Komsomolskaya station - the ring of the Moscow metro. Just as resourceful and at the same time canonically strictly built complex of buildings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR - a typical Russian ensemble, uniting diverse structures. Shchusev also led a team of architects who re-planned Moscow.
It is to them, and Shchusev in particular, that drivers who move slowly in traffic jams should bring their gratitude. Because if not for them, the movement would not be possible as such. The structure of the city was established, and there was practically no place for transport anywhere, especially in today's quantity. The architects significantly expanded all highways, especially Leningradsky Prospekt, connected the routes with radial-ring lines with reference to railway transport. It should be noted that this happened immediately after the revolution and the Civil War - in 1919. The commission that accepted the project reproached the architects for the inexpediency of such wide avenues and streets, but it was Shchusev who managed to convince the government members.
Also
In 1922, Shchusev, as the chief architect, was entrusted with VDNH,opened in August 1923. Then it was erected on the territory of the Gorky Park. Shchusev rebuilt the building of the mechanical plant into a handicraft pavilion, and he also supervised almost all construction, and these are two hundred and twenty-five buildings. In 1924, already the leading architect of the country, he was engaged in the creation of a project for the Lenin Mausoleum. In the second half of the twenties, in a number of works, Shchusev designed and built in the style of constructivism: a branch of the Tbilisi Institute under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the State Bank on Neglinnaya and Okhotny Ryad, the Lenin Library, a sanatorium in Matsesta and much more.
A special case is the unrealized building on Tverskaya of the Central Telegraph, where in response to the accusation of such a strong predilection for constructivism, Shchusev proved that constructivism has the right to live if it is filled with spirituality, its special dynamics and rhythm only help to strengthen the foundation spiritual culture, on which all architecture as such is based. In the appearance of the telegraph building, not only the connection of eras is clearly traced, but also others - an international communication plan, for which, in principle, it is intended - to connect countries and continents. Granite verticals, glass belts. Space. Monumentality. Beautiful, mesmerizing. Despite the fact that in the project the building was made absolutely precisely programmatically, economically, rationally. It was too innovative for the time. Now it would be easy to build and would be right.
I am glad at least that the beautiful hotel "Moscow" was built, the Soviet embassy in Romania and a huge number of othersobjects. In addition, Alexei Shchusev was active in teaching almost until the end of his life - in 1949, he wrote more than two hundred scientific papers.
