Barshch, Mikhail Osipovich

Born Jan. 16 (29), 1904, in Moscow. Soviet architect.

Barshch graduated from the Moscow Higher Art and Technical Institute (1926), where he studied under I. V. Zholtovskii and A. A. Vesnin. In 1935 he began teaching at the Moscow Architectural Institute, since 1947 as a professor. From 1925 to 1932 he was a member of the Society of Modern Architects and was an adherent of constructivism (designed the Moscow Planetarium in 1928 in collaboration with M. I. Siniavskii). During the years 1950–58 he took part in the planning and construction of the Lenin Prospekt, the Iakub Kolas Square, and apartment houses in Minsk (State Prize of the Byelorussian SSR, 1968). He directed the planning of a series of model commercial and municipal utilities buildings (1956). He is one of the designers of the monument In Commemoration of the Outstanding Achievements of the Soviet People in the Conquest of Outer Space in Moscow (1964) and of the monument to K. E. Tsiolkovskii in Kaluga (1958). He has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.