Rudnev, Lev

Born Mar. 1 (13), 1885, in Novgorod; died Nov. 19, 1956, in Moscow. Soviet architect.

In 1915, Rudnev graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he had been a student of L. N. Benois. He was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad from 1922 to 1948 and at the Moscow Architectural Institute from 1948 to 1952. Rudnev participated in Lenin’s program of monument propaganda, producing such works as the monument To the Fighters for the Revolution at the Field of Mars in Leningrad.

Rudnev’s best works are characterized by simple, massive forms and by the modernization of the classical orders. His works in Moscow include the M. V. Frunze Military Academy (1937) and the administrative buildings on Marshal Shaposhnikov Street (1934–38) and Frunze Esplanade (1938–55). All three projects were designed in collaboration with the architect V. O. Munts. Rudnev also worked on the building complex of Moscow University on Lenin Hills (1949–53; with architects S. E. Chernyshev, P. V. Abrosimov, A. F. Khriakov, and others; design awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1949). Other works include the House of the Government of the Azerbaijan SSR in Baku (with Munts; completed in 1952) and the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw (with other planners; 1952–55). Rudnev received three orders and various medals.