By Dmitrij Chmelnizki

Alexey Shchusev (1873-1949) was one of the most celebrated architects of the Soviet Union, famous for Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow.

Not only a gifted designer of many prominent buildings, his career was quite unique and closely intertwined with the turbulent course of Russian and Soviet history. He was one of the very few architects who managed to rise to the top of the architectural hierarchy under the tsars and then to repeat this success under Soviet rule.