Architect, art historian, and theorist, a member of the Academy of Arts of the Russian Empire and the USSR Academy of Sciences, Alexei Shchusev studied at Gymnasium No. 2 in Chisinau from 1883 to 1891.

He designed notable structures such as the Kazan Railway Station in Moscow, the Sergei Radonevsky Memorial Church on the Kulikovo Plain, the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God at Pecerska Lavra in Kiev, the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, and the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Tashkent, among others.

After the Great Patriotic War, he also co-authored the urban plan of Moscow and several other cities in the USSR, including his native city of Chisinau. Shchusev’s architectural style is a synthesis of Russian imperial and Stalinist influences.

Alexei Shchusev was honored with the Stalin Prize four times and received the Order of Lenin. A memorial plaque has been erected in Moscow on the house where he lived for 10 years, and he was buried at the Novo-Deviciye cemetery in Moscow.

His former parental home in Chisinau now houses a museum, and a street in the capital also bears his name.