Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin

Born Sept. 19(Oct. 2), 1917, in Moscow. Soviet sculptor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1963). Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1962); secretary of the board of the Artists’ Union of the RSFSR since 1960 and of the board of the Artists’ Union of the USSR since 1963; chairman of the board of the Leningrad section of the Artists’ Union of the RSFSR since 1962. Member of the CPSU since 1944. Member of the Central Revision Commission of the CPSU (1966).

Anikushin studied at the I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Leningrad with V. A. Sinaiskii and A. T. Matveev from 1937 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1947. He has been teaching there since 1947. In his monument to A. S. Pushkin in Leningrad (bronze, 1957), which earned him the Lenin Prize (1958), Anikushin achieved a psychological depth and natural quality of image, a severity and proportion of form, and a harmonious bond with the architectural ensemble. He also executed a monument to V. M. Bekhterev (bronze, 1960) in Leningrad and originated the plan for a monument to A. P. Chekhov in Moscow (1960–65) as well as a number of portraits and gravestones. Anikushin has been awarded the Order of Lenin and several medals.