Nikolai Tomsky


Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky was a much-decorated Soviet sculptor, designer of many well-known ceremonial monuments of the Socialist Realism era.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J0505-0054-001, Berlin, Denkmal Lenin am Leninplatz.jpg|Lenin in East Berlin, Germany, 1970, removed 1992|thumb|right|250px

Biography

Born in the village of in Starorussky Uyezd, Novgorod Governorate, Russian Empire, into a blacksmith's family, Tomsky studied in Leningrad. In 1927, graduated from the Arts and Crafts College.
The sculptor first came to attention with his memorial to Sergey Kirov, a heroic bronze with friezes around the base, for which he won the 1941 Stalin Prize. Thereafter his career developed in an official direction; he would be eventually tasked to re-design Lenin's own sarcophagus, produce Stalin's bust at Stalin's grave, and produce at least five major statues of Lenin throughout the Soviet Union. His distinctive red-granite Lenin stood in the Leninplatz of East Berlin from 1970 to 1992.
Tomsky became a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts, member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR, the Hero of Socialist Labor, five Stalin Prize laureate, the winner of the Lenin Prize and the USSR State Prize, holder of three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Karl Marx. He taught at MGAHIS, as Professor and as Rector of the Academy.

Work

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