Noi (Noah) Abramovich Trotsky (russian: Ной Абра́мович Тро́цкий; March 15, 1895 – November 19, 1940) was a Soviet architect.

Biography

Born in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to a family of a typesetter, Trotsky took art classes from the renowned painter

Nicholas Roerich Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (russian: link=no, Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophi ...

, graduated from the Academy of Arts in 1920 (then named "Petrograd Free Art Workshops") and 2nd Polytechnic in 1921. He also apprenticed with "Red Doric" architect

Ivan Fomin Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin (3 February 1872 – 12 June 1936) was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in 1899 in Moscow, working in the Art Nouveau style. After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1905, he became an established mast ...

around the same time. Often cited for his turn from

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

towards Stalinist neo-Classicism in the 1930s, Trotsky's training under Fomin indicates a long familiarity with classical forms. The high point of his Constructivist work is probably the Kirov District Administration building of 1938. Trotsky's best-known project is the House of Soviets in Saint Petersburg. At the year of its completion, the building was the largest office building in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). In March 1936, the

Leningrad Soviet The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (russian: Петроградский совет рабочих и солдатских депутатов, ''Petrogradskiy soviet rabochikh i soldatskikh deputatov'') was a city council of ...

decided to relocate all the city's administration to a new site at the southern end of International Avenue. In open tender, Trotsky's project was selected over ten others. It was completed after Trotsky death, with co-authors Modest Shepilevsky and Yakov Lukin, and it features an impressive 11-meter-high frieze by Soviet sculptor

Nikolai Tomsky Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky (russian: Никола́й Васи́льевич То́мский b. , Ramushevo, Novgorod Governorate d. 22 November 1984 - Moscow) was a much-decorated Soviet sculptor, designer of many well-known ceremonial monumen ...

. Trotsky taught at the Academy of Arts' successor, ''VKhuTeIn'' ('' :ru:ВХУТЕИН, :ru:Высший художественно-технический институт'', Higher Institute of Arts and Design, later renamed into '' институт живописи, скульптуры и архитектуры (им. Репина)'', (Repin) Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture), from 1929, was Professor there from 1939, and taught at the Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. He died in 1940 and is buried at the

Volkovo Cemetery The Volkovo Cemetery (also Volkovskoe) (russian: Во́лковское кла́дбище or Во́лково кла́дбище) is one of the largest and oldest non- Orthodox cemeteries in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Until the early 20th century i ...

in Saint Petersburg.

Work

(in St. Petersburg unless otherwise noted) * 2nd Power Station in Novgorodskaya Street, 1923 * Kirov Palace of Culture on

Vasilievsky Island Vasilyevsky Island (russian: Васи́льевский о́стров, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, V.O.) is an island in St. Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva Rivers (in the delta of the Neva River) in the south ...

, 1931–1937 * Kirov District Administration, with the monument to

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov ( né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and mem ...

by sculptor

, 1938 * Kirov Meat Plant, 1930–1935 * Bolshoy Dom, prison of the internal security services, Liteyny Prospekt, with co-designers Alexander Gegello and Andrey Ol, 1931–1935 * House of the Soviets, 1936–1941 * Opera Theater in Samara, with Nikolai Katsenelenbogen, 1936–1938

Sources

biography (in Russian)
* Berkovich, Gary. Reclaiming a History. Jewish Architects in Imperial Russia and the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Avant-garde: 1917–1933. Weimar und Rostock: Grunberg Verlag. 2021. P. 92. {{DEFAULTSORT:Trotsky, Noi Abramovich 1895 births 1940 deaths Architects from Saint Petersburg Russian avant-garde Constructivist architects Modernist architects