Architect. He is recognized as a Russian architect, who built Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square, the final resting place of the first leader of Communist Russia, Vladimir Lenin. Built in 1930, the mausoleum is styled of Russian Avant-Garde modern architecture, consisting of a pyramid of cubes, which are faced with red granite, for Communism, and black labradorite, for mourning. Lenin's sarcophagus housed in a wooden mausoleum from death until the completion of the granite mausoleum. A rarity, he was commissioned by the Russian Royal family and later after the Russian Revolution, by the Communist government to design buildings. His works consist of the restoration of medieval buildings, Russian Imperialist and Constructivist designs as well as Neoclassical and Stalinist architecture. Born Alexey Victorovich Shchusev, the fourth of five children, he studied both painting and architecture at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts graduating with a Golden Medal in 1897, before traveling on a state-sponsored tour with his wife, Maria Karchevskaya, through Europe, North Africa and Central Asia. In 1908 he became a full member of the Imperial Academy of the Arts, and in 1910, an academician. He studied medieval Russian art, receiving public acclaim with his 1910 restoration of the 12th-century Ukrainian St. Basil Church in Ovruch. From 1908 to 1911 he taught at the Drawing School of St. Petersburg, until his move to Moscow in 1913, where he continued to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was then commissioned by the Royal Russian family to design a cathedral for Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow, finishing in 1912. In 1911 he received the commission by competition to build for the Trans-Siberian railway the Kazansky Terminal in Moscow. There was much delay in finishing the project as his original winning two-story design with a clock tower had to be altered for a one-story more economical version; this was followed by World War I in 1914 and the Russian Revolution of 1917. With a few loyal employees, the first part of the terminal was completed in 1926, the western façade in 1940, and the last part finished posthumously in 1990. From 1922 to 1929 he was the Chairman of the Moscow Architectural Society and worked to design the "New Moscow." In 1926, he was nominated director of the Tretyakov Gallery. After Lenin's mausoleum, he became a favorite of the Communist Party for many years, designing various buildings. With his younger brother Pave, an engineer, he designed bridges. His other designs were the Ministry of Agriculture or Narkomzem in Moscow, which was finished in 1933 and the Institute of Resorts in Sochi, which was finished 1931, and considered to be a major source for Alvar Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium. Built in 1930, he is credited with the luxurious Hotel Moskva, which is located steps from the Kremlin and Red Square. In 2004, an exact replica of his design was use to rebuild the hotel, which now houses the Four Season Hotel Moscow. During Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in September of 1937, he fell from grace, losing his executive positions and design contracts, and was effectively blacklisted from any architectural practice after allegedly being charged by an unknown source in a newspaper article with professional dishonesty. With several of his architect colleagues facing execution, Shchusev fled Moscow for the Caucasus but eventually, he coveted the Stalinist architecture, regaining his position. Many of Russia's most beautiful and historical buildings were destroyed with the invasion of Nazi Forces during World War II, including his Church of the Brotherhood in 1940. He was charged with securing and taking Lenin's ornate glass sarcophagus to Siberia during the war. In 1946, he established the Museum of Architecture, which helped to preserve remnants of demolished medieval churches and monasteries. Later, in his honor, the museum was renamed Shchusev State Museum of Architecture. He died a few days after a sudden heart attack. He was awarded four Stalin Prizes: one in 1941, 1946, 1948, and posthumously in 1952. He also received the Order of Lenin and other orders and medals. With only 40 of the over 2,000 stone buildings of the ancient city of Novgorod destroyed during World War II by Nazi Forces, he helped to design the city after the war, and to honor him, one of Novgorod's modern streets was named after him. In 2008 a Russian postage stamp displayed his image.