Lev Rudnev


Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev was a Soviet architect, and a leading practitioner of Stalinist architecture.

Biography

Rudnev was born to the family of a school teacher in the town of Opochka. He graduated from the Riga Realschule and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. At the Academy he studied painting under Leon Benois and architecture under Ivan Fomin. From 1911 Rudnev was a success in various architectural competitions, and in 1915 he became a certified specialist in the art of architecture.
After the February Revolution Rudnev won the competition for the Monument to the Fighters of the Revolution on the Field of Mars in Petrograd. The avant-garde monument there was built according to his design
After the end of the Second World War, Lev Rudnev took active part in reconstructing the ruined cities of Voronezh, Stalingrad, Riga and Moscow. In 1922–1948 Rudnev was a Professor of the Academy of Arts in Leningrad; in 1948–1952 he was a Professor at the Moscow Institute for Architecture. Rudnev was also a member of Soviet Academy of Architecture.
Rudnev's most remarkable architectural work is the ensemble of the Lomonosov Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Hills. His Palace of Culture and Science in the centre of Warsaw in Poland resembles the markedly sculptural style of the MSU ensemble.

Projects

He was the author of many large scale Soviet projects, including: