(b Novgorod, 13 March 1885; d Moscow, 19 Nov 1956). Russian architect. From 1906 to 1915 he studied in the architectural faculty of the Academy of Arts, St Petersburg, under Leonty Benois. While studying and until 1924 he worked in the studio of Igor’ Fomin, who influenced him strongly. His first building was the seminary (1912), Seleznyovka, in Yekaterinoslavl’ Province (now Dnepropetrovsk Region) in Ukraine, a romantic echo of Romanesque architecture, prompted largely by the character of the local sandstone. After a trip to Italy he was attracted by Neo-classicism, as in his diploma design (1915). He designed the monument to the Victims of the Revolution (1917–19) on Marsovo Pole, Petrograd, which is among the first works of revolutionary romanticism. The wide open, stepped frame of the necropolis is formed of vast granite blocks, while the composition is based on an interpretation of classical architecture close to the spirit of Piranesi’s designs with an unprecedented feeling of spaciousness. In the early 1920s he executed a similar series of unrealized designs for monuments in Helsinki, Odessa, Vyatka and Simbirsk.

• Rudnev, Lev (Vladimirovich)
  • Russia, §III, 3(i): Architecture, 1917–c 1945
  • collaboration
    • Fomin: (2) Igor’ Fomin
  • groups and movements
    • Stalinist architecture
  • pupils
    • Lebedev, Viktor
    • Speransky, Sergey
  • works
    • Azerbaijan, §II, 3: Architecture, after 1917
    • Moscow, §I, 3: History and urban development, after 1917
    • Russia, §III, 3(ii): Architecture, after c 1945
    • St Petersburg, §I, 5: History and urban development, after 1917