"They've told me to build a torture chamber and I built them a cheerful one." (This chamber was located in the headquarters of the KGB on Lubyanka Square which Shchusev between 1940 and 1947).
"I am willing to give my monthly salary to a person, who would be able to explain to me what does the social realism in architecture mean." (Apparently Shchusev was quite greedy).
And yet another one, this time backed by a written account:
"Shchusev used to tell his students: 'If I was able to negotiate with the Popes [the Orthodox priests, whom he built a few churches before the Russian revolution], I will somehow negotiate with the Bolsheviks as well'."
From S.O. Han-Magomedov. Ivan Fomin. Moscow, 2011, p.90.
Strange enough, these and other bold statements didn't hinder Alexey Shchusev to remain one of the most acknowledged architects of the High-Stalinist era. He was awarded the Stalin Prizes in 1941, 1946, 1948, and posthumously in 1952; the Order of Lenin and other orders and medals.
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