Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a great Russian sculptor and sculptor, the author of many grandiose majestic monuments. For his significant titanic works, he was awarded many orders, medals and prizes.
Who was he - Mikhail Anikushin, whose biography intrigues everyone who has ever looked at his ingenious creations?
Let's lift the curtain not only on his life, creative activity and creative quests.
The childhood of the future master
Anikushin is a talented and meticulous sculptor. The future one was born at the turn of two revolutions - in the fall of 1917, in Moscow, in the family of a retired military man working as a parquet worker.
The large family did not live well, since the parents were simple workers. Therefore, little Misha faced need and deprivation from childhood.
It was a difficult time, a time of poverty and instability, a bloodthirsty fratricidal war and formidable political changes.
Did Mikhail Konstantinovich realize that he was born in a difficult epoch-making time? Hardly.
Parents did everything possible to make their children feel protected and protected amid the storms of life and political adversity. Little Misha spent the first years of his life in the village, where nothing overshadowed his growing up.
Endless steppes and open spaces, picturesque horizons, good-natured working fellow villagers, outlandish pets - all this was new, interesting and entertaining for a curious child.
Awakening talent
As he grew older, the boy delved more into what was happening, loved to observe the world around him, and do something with his own hands. He wanted to depict everything he saw - he sculpted animals and people, cut, planed and sawed out.
The talent of a sculptor awoke in Mikhail quite early, so his parents, noticing their son’s clumsy and awkward figures, decided to purposefully develop his abilities and talents.
As a teenager, the boy was sent to the capital's sculpture studio at the House of Pioneers, where he studied monumental fine art.
Kozlov G. A. - Anikushin’s first teacher. It deepens his knowledge of modeling techniques, introduces him to the traditions of realist sculptors of the nineteenth century, and helps improve applied artistic skills and abilities.
After graduating from school, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin plans to enter a prestigious sculpting university and goes to Leningrad.
But an unpleasant situation is happening there.
Admission to the Academy of Arts
It turns out that the documents that the young man sent to the Academy of Arts were lost along the way. They categorically did not want to allow the young, unfamiliar boy to take the exams. And then a mentor from Moscow came to the rescue. He sent an urgent telegram to the university management with a request to enroll the young man, briefly telling about his phenomenal talent and extraordinary skill.
If it were not for Kozlov’s intercession, perhaps Mikhail would not have entered the university, and then Anikushin the sculptor would not have come into fruition at the very beginning. The world would not have seen his great, grandiose creations, and Russian art would have become much poorer.
So, the young Muscovite is enrolled in preparatory courses at the Academy. Two years later, Mikhail becomes a full-fledged university student, enrolling in the first year of the sculpture department.
Education
What did you learn at Anikushin Academy? The sculptor Matveev, one of Mikhail’s teachers, a famous and skilled sculptor, taught the gifted student to deeply analyze and creatively convey nature. And although Matveev insisted on plastic generalization and artistic abstraction of the image, young Anikushin developed his own individual style, not similar to the handwriting of his mentor. In his sculptures he harmoniously combines the bright plastic image of the work and the material clarity of the outside world.
While studying at the academy, Anikushin created his first notable works - a whole series of figurines of children, such as “Pioneer with a Wreath” and “Girl with a Kid,” as well as a number of small sculptures of production workers, inspired by visits to the country’s manufacturing plants and factories.
The Great Patriotic War
However, the gifted novice master was unable to immediately begin creative work. The Great Patriotic War began. Anikushin volunteers to go to the front, where he serves in the anti-tank forces.
The impressions and sensations that the young soldier experienced at the front were reflected in his further sculptural work. Having learned the war from the inside, not from books and eyewitness accounts, but from personal actions and reflections, Mikhail Konstantinovich was able to reflect in his works the unprecedented strength and courage of the liberating soldiers.
After the Great Victory, Anikushin created a number of sculptures dedicated to military themes (these are both public monuments and individual portraits), in which he laconically and simply, without unnecessary details and expressions, conveys the inner strength and energy of the depicted objects.
For example, his immortal memorial “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad”, dedicated to the valiant feat of Leningraders during the tragic time of the siege.
It is not for nothing that the monument depicts not only soldiers and officers, but also civilians - workers, women and children, who with their lives covered and protected the rear of the Soviet military.
Sculptures of writers
Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a versatile and original sculptor. In his work, he was not limited to a single chosen theme, did not imitate anyone or copy anyone else's style.
Anikushin loved to create in different genres and directions, developing his own, unsurpassed and expressive style.
All his life he enjoyed working on sculptures of writers. Literature and its figures have always excited the imagination of the sculptor. He saw writers not only romantic and dreamy, not only enthusiastic and restless, but also strong in spirit, strong in body, and having a deep inner core.
This is how Pushkin and Chekhov appear before us, immortalized by the strong, confident hand of the master.
Anikushin designed and created a whole series of Pushkin sculptures. These were monuments, busts, and statues.
The sculptor approached each creation individually, deeply thinking not only about how to convey the unique character of the poet, but also about how the monumental work would fit into its surrounding environment - landscapes, city buildings, highways.
Thirty years of work
Among the majestic and profound works of Anikushin, it is worth highlighting the monument to Chekhov, erected in the capital of the Russian Federation.
Mikhail Konstantinovich thought for a long time about how to uniquely and originally convey with his sculpture the unsurpassed talent and spiritual potential of his favorite writer.
Anikushin decided to create a double monument, depicting two figures - the writer and his friend Levitan. The sculptor has always been attracted by the relationships of these great gifted people, representatives of the intelligentsia of the nineteenth century.
However, the sketch of the monument did not pass the competition, and for some time Mikhail Konstantinovich postponed work on it.
Only thirty years later did he present to the public a new, redesigned sculpture.
The monument to Chekhov amazed with its originality and originality. This was not the Chekhov whom the capital's inhabitants were accustomed to seeing: in pince-nez, with a cane and a beard.
Under the skillful fingers of Anikushin, Anton Pavlovich appeared as an elusive and at the same time brilliant personality, harmoniously combining nobility and talent, tragedy and dashing prowess.
Socio-political sculptures
Among other works by Anikushin, it is necessary to mention his sculpture, donated by the Soviet Union to the Japanese sister city of Nagasaki. The composition “Peace” represents two girls holding hands. They twirl as if in a dance, symbolizing joy, peace and unity.
The sculpture is simple and unpretentious, but clearly reflects the sculptor’s idea of sincere community between different peoples.
Other socio-political statues of Mikhail Konstantinovich were monuments to the leader of the proletariat, so common in the Soviet era.
And although such sculptures were erected routinely and in passing, Anikushin introduced his individual vision and personal view into the statue of the leader.
The monument to Lenin on Moscow Square contains all the depth and expressiveness of Vladimir Ilyich’s personality, his will, energy and steadfastness. It is interesting that the sculpture did not freeze in the standard pose that is familiar to us. On the contrary, Lenin is shown in motion and in action, which indicates his active nature and the influence that he had on the history of all of Russia.
It is noteworthy that the figure looks different from different sides. This speaks of the sculptor’s rare and exceptional style, capable of conveying the simple in a bright and varied way.
Confession
For his important activities and significant contribution to the cultural life of his native city, Anikushin received the well-deserved title “Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg,” as well as many awards, prizes and public titles. A school, a square and even a planet are named in his honor.
The great sculptor died in the spring of 1997.
Sculptor Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin (1917 - 1997) was born into the family of a parquet worker in the year of the famous October Revolution. In a sculpture studio in Moscow, G.A. Kozlov introduced the young man to the traditions of the Russian realistic school of the previous century. Inspired, Anikushin travels to Leningrad in the mid-1930s and enters the IZhSA sculpture department. He studied with master A.T. Matveev, and his influence on Anikushin will be decisive for many years.
But the young sculptor did not want to break with the material embodiment of the world in sculpture, did not want to see, like the “Matveevites,” only an abstract artistic form as a result. War broke out, and the aspiring sculptor went to the front.
After the war, all his work was connected by strong threads only with the city on the Neva. Monument to A.S. Pushkin on Arts Square was opened in 1957. This is the crown of the artist’s creation, the sculpture fits in the most organic way (let’s say such a phrase) into the ensemble of the square, which does not tolerate the slightest bad taste. Anikushin’s contemporaries noted this fact with surprise, and almost all tourists note it now. One gets the impression that the monument has been standing here since the founding of St. Petersburg. The Pushkin theme was very important for Mikhail Konstantinovich: he is working on the image of Pushkin for Pyatigorsk, Chisinau, Tashkent, the Chernaya Rechka metro station...
Another significant person is the leader of the revolution V.I. Lenin “in dynamics” was recorded by Anikushin on Moscow Square (1970). In general, his works are characterized by individualization, psychologism, feelings experienced under a “static” image, and subsequently an outright passionate impulse. These are the bas-relief “Victory” for the Great Concert Hall “Oktyabrsky” (1967), Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War”, installed on Victory Square (1975).
Another Russian classic, A.P., also worried the master. Chekhov. He worked on the monument for a long time (this is one of his main features - don’t rush anywhere, if you can do it better, do it), and eventually the monument appeared in Moscow.
Among his other works in the city on the Neva are the well-known monument to A. S. Pushkin (seated figure at the Pushkinskaya metro station in Leningrad, 1954), Portrait of the artist N. K. Cherkasov (1975), necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Monument G. S. Ulanova in Moscow Victory Park (opened May 30, 1984).
After the death of the master, they did not forget: a memorial plaque was installed at house 16 on Pesochnaya Embankment; The sculptor’s name is given to Anikushinsky Square on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt and Anikushinsky Alley, which runs from this square to Vyazemsky Lane, where his workshop was located.
Photo: vk.com, 2do2go.ru/uploads, sutochno.ru/images, e-cis.info/pobeda, i.t30p.ru/1xZ
The work of M. K. Anikushin, a master of easel and monumental sculpture, was one of the peaks of Russian art in the second half of the 20th century. His artistic nature was distinguished by its contradictions: noted for high titles and state awards, he stood out among his colleagues for his genuine democracy; gravitating towards monumental art, he at the same time showed a keen interest in the subtleties of human character and psychology. The complexity of the artist’s personality was reflected equally in his creativity and in his intense social work and resulted in a polar opposite in the assessments of his works.
Anikushin was born into a large family of a parquet worker. As a teenager, in 1931, he began studying in a sculpture studio in Moscow under the guidance of G. A. Kozlov, who introduced the future sculptor to the traditions of the Russian realistic school of the 19th century. In 1935, Anikushin went to Leningrad and entered the preparatory courses at IZHSA under V. S. Bogatyrev. In 1937, he was already a first-year student at the sculpture faculty, where he studied with V. A. Sinaisky and A. T. Matveev. Matveev sought to teach his students to creatively interpret nature and set the task of a living plastic search. The style of the outstanding master left its mark on Anikushin’s early work, but did not become decisive:
In his art, the young sculptor did not break ties with the material appearance of the outside world, while representatives of the so-called Matveev school strived for the utmost plastic generalization, transforming nature into an abstract artistic form. But Anikushin adopted the main thing from his teacher: already in his student works “Girl with a Kid” and “Pioneer with a Wreath” (both 1937) one can see the ability to see nature completely and embody his vision in a bright plastic image. My studies at the institute were interrupted by the war. From its first days, the artist joined the militia, and from November 1941 he joined the ranks of the Red Army.
Only after the victory does Anikushin return to Leningrad. From now on, his entire life and work will be inextricably linked with the city on the Neva. In 1947, Anikushin defended his thesis “Winner-Winner”. Devoid of external expression, the sculpture is made in a laconic manner that defines the artist’s work of the 1940s-60s. The internal energy of potential movement is hidden behind external staticity; the lack of detail is compensated by philosophical generalization and deep psychologism. These features also appeared in Anikushin’s portrait sculpture: “Portrait of a Mother”, “Portrait of P. A. Kupriyanov” (both 1948), “Egyptian”, “Young Man from Sudan” (both 1957), “Portrait of O. E. Usova” ( 1961), “Portrait of Academician A. F. Ioffe” (1964), etc. The master’s tense and restrained style is recognizable in his monumental sculpture of this time: monuments to A. I. Voeikov (1957), V. M. Bekhterev (1960) , Yu. M. Yuryev (1961), P. A. Kupriyanov (1968). It should also be noted the work in the field of memorial sculpture - the tombstone of E. P. Korchagina-Aleksandrovskaya (1958) and R. M. Glieru (1960).
The search for a new, unconventional solution marked Anikushin’s work on the image of V.I. Lenin (portraits, sketches of monuments). Moving away from the usual standards, the sculptor tries to show the leader in action, in active movement. The completion of this theme was the monument on Moskovskaya Square in Leningrad (1970).
The artist’s desire for dynamic expressiveness was manifested in his work on one of the main creations of his life - the monument to A. S. Pushkin on Arts Square in Leningrad (1957). Anikushin turned to the Pushkin theme in the 1940s, after the first, unsuccessful rounds of the all-Union competition for the best design of a monument to the poet took place. In 1949, the sculptor presented his sketch at the IV open round of the competition, in which he became the winner. While working on the final project of the monument, he created a large number of sculptural and graphic portraits of Pushkin, as well as figurative compositions for Moscow University (1953) and for the Leningrad metro station "Pushkinskaya" (1955). As a result, the sculptor settled on the option that most accurately conveys the state of creative impulse and inspiration. Anikushin brilliantly managed to embody the image of Pushkin, the creator. The monument fits surprisingly harmoniously into the architectural ensemble of the ancient square.
The master continuously develops the Pushkin theme and in the future - work is underway on a monument to the poet for Gurzuf (sketches, 1960, 1972, the monument was not installed), Tashkent (1974), on a statue for the Chernaya Rechka metro station in Leningrad (1982), busts for Chisinau (1970), Pyatigorsk (1982), etc.
In the work of Anikushin in the 1970s and 80s. the expressive manner dominates: the artist now prefers to depict not the complex state of transition from deep introspection to action, but the movement itself, a passionate impulse. In the portraits there is an emphasized individualization of character. This tendency was clearly expressed in the monumental bas-relief "Victory" for the Great Concert Hall "Oktyabrsky" in Leningrad (1967), in the tombstone of N.K. Cherkasov (1974), in the "Portrait of G.S. Ulanova" (1981) and especially acutely - in work on the monument to the “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War”, installed on Victory Square (1975). Back in the early 1960s. The master began work on a complex composition, consisting of several sculptural groups. The expressive nature of Anikushin’s plastic art is already visible in numerous sketches for the monument, in which the main focus of the artist’s work was revealed - the expression of the typical features of the era through the revelation of the characters of individual characters. In this cycle, the humanistic pathos of Anikushin’s art was heard in full force.
These aspirations of the artist found a different embodiment in his work on the image of A.P. Chekhov for the monument in Moscow. The result of many years of searching was a gallery of drawings and portraits of A.P. Chekhov and I.I. Levitan - initially the master conceived the monument as a paired composition (sketch "A.P. Chekhov and I.I. Levitan", 1961). Restrained, but expressive in plasticity, the image of Chekhov is distinguished by internal tragedy. The work on the monument to Chekhov was a kind of continuation of the Pushkin cycle, its dramatic development. Both great Russian writers excited the creative imagination of the master until the last days of his life.
Monument to A. S. Pushkin on Arts Square in St. Petersburg. 1957. Bronze, granite
Monument to V. M. Bekhterev on Bekhterev Street in St. Petersburg. 1960. Bronze, granite
Group "Soldiers". Monument to the “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.” 1975. Bronze, granite
Group "Winners". Monument to the “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.” 1975. Bronze, granite
I really love visiting St. Petersburg, visiting museums, historical places, palaces, mansions. Admire the views of this beautiful city, as well as the sculptures and monuments decorating it. A special place among them is occupied by the monument to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, probably familiar to everyone, on Arts Square in front of the Russian Museum. But do we all know his story?
You might think that the monument was erected back in tsarist times? But no, it was opened on June 19, 1957, and the author is sculptor Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin. It is this Soviet sculptor that I want to tell you about today.
His most famous creations in St. Petersburg are the monuments to Pushkin (on Arts Square and at the Pushkinskaya and Chernaya Rechka metro stations), and Lenin on Moskovskaya Square. In addition to them, the sculptor created monuments to Chekhov in Kamergersky Lane in Moscow and in the city of Chekhov, Kutuzov, Lenin (one of them in Turku), ballerina Ulanova, a memorial to the “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad” and others.
But it is noteworthy that Anikushin’s works are not only in our country, but also in Japan. In Osaka city in Nagai Park there is a sculpture called "Friendship" depicting two dancing girls. The sculpture was installed there in 1987. It was a gift from the city of St. Petersburg. By the way, there is the same sculpture in St. Petersburg. This is a copy made by Anikushin's students. It was installed in the park named after. Anikushin in 2000 on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, 56. In the Peace Park of the city of Nagasaki there are sculptural compositions donated by different countries. Among them there is also a work by Anikushin called "World".
And Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin was born in Moscow in 1917, in a large family of a Moscow parquet worker. Therefore, little Misha faced need and deprivation from childhood. Even in his childhood, the future sculptor loved to observe the world around him, and wanted to depict everything he saw, he sculpted, planed, sawed out people and animals.
His parents noticed his zeal for sculpting and sent the boy to a sculpture studio. Already the early work of the Moscow school student Misha Anikushin attracted attention to him, and the sculpture “Thinking” was exhibited at a large exhibition and noted in the press.
In 1935, after graduating from high school, Anikushin entered the Academy of Arts. In an effort to understand the secrets of the creativity of the works of Michelangelo and Thorvaldsen, Pimenov and Antokolsky, he stood for hours in the halls of the Hermitage and the Russian Museum.
When Anikushin was about to graduate from college, the Great Patriotic War began and peaceful life ended. Soviet Army soldier Mikhail Anikushin replaced the sculptor's chisel with a soldier's rifle. As a medical instructor, he carried dozens of wounded soldiers from the battlefield from bullets. Anikushin saw a lot of grief and blood during the war years, but did not break, but became even more spiritually mature and hardened.
The war ended, and Anikushin was back in Leningrad, within the walls of his native institute. A great desire to work, to express in plastic everything that has accumulated in the soul of the young sculptor, overwhelms him. Anikushin creates a lot and fruitfully. His diploma work “The Victorious Warrior” was highly appreciated by the State Commission. He said about this sculpture: “It seemed that the feeling of victory was best expressed in the peace, the silence after the battle just ended. The composition of the sculpture should convey that amazing state of silence that a victorious warrior experiences.” Anikushin was left at the institute as a teacher in the sculpture department. 
In subsequent years, Mikhail Konstantinovich created many beautiful sculptural works. These are portraits of mother and father, a figure of the famous surgeon P. A. Kupriyanov made in plaster and others. Anikushin tries his hand at a variety of materials - concrete and clay, bronze and granite, marble and plaster. His works of the 40-50s captured the images of remarkable figures of Soviet culture, scientists Voeikov and Bekhterev, artists Yuryev and Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya.
In the sculpture “To the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad”, installed on Victory Square (1975), Anikushin created multi-figure compositions depicting soldiers, sailors, and civilians: here is a girl running up to a sniper, and there is a young man with a gun, and here is an intellectual carrying iron... The sculpture is placed on a low pedestal, closer to the person’s eye.
But no matter what work the sculptor did, one dream did not leave him for a long time, one image powerfully dominated all his thoughts - this is the image of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin.
When at the end of 1946 a competition was announced for a monument to Pushkin in Leningrad, 
many outstanding sculptors of the country decided to take part in it. Anikushin also began working on the monument project with extraordinary enthusiasm.
In an effort to more accurately express the image of the poet in the monument, the sculptor travels to Mikhailovskoye, wanders along the alleys of the park, makes sketches, and rereads Pushkin’s poems and letters again and again. Anikushin got to know Pushkin so much, was so imbued with his image, that later it seemed to him that he saw a living poet in front of him.
One after another, sculptural portraits of Pushkin appear: a statue for Moscow University (1952) - the poet is dreamy and calm, in his hands is a book that he had just read, and now he stopped, leaning on a column, and thought, immersed in the world of his feelings and images , - a statue for a metro station in Leningrad (1955) - here is another Pushkin: against the background of a panel depicting Tsarskoe Selo, where his best lyceum years passed, sits an already middle-aged poet, indulging in quiet sadness about the irretrievably gone days of his rebellious youth.
In the summer of 1956, Anikushin, having interrupted work on the monument, travels around Italy, gets acquainted with the outstanding architectural monuments of the Renaissance, with the works of Bernini, Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, returns with a large baggage of impressions, and with a new upsurge continues the interrupted work on monument to Pushkin. Finally, in March 1957, the monument was completed, transferred to the factory for casting in bronze, and in the summer of the same year, on the significant day of the anniversary of Leningrad, it was opened for public viewing. It was a wonderful gift for Leningraders on the birthday of their city and it was located in the center of Leningrad, not far from Nevsky Prospekt, on Arts Square, where the Philharmonic, Opera House, and Russian Museum were located nearby.
Everyone who approaches this square from Nevsky Prospekt sees the figure of the poet standing on a pedestal from afar and immediately recognizes it. This is Pushkin - the great and immortal poet, the national pride of our people.
The silhouette of his figure is clearly visible against the background of green trees, majestic columns and the cast-iron fence of the Russian Museum. Pushkin stands in a relaxed and natural pose, his left leg slightly apart, one of his hands is freely lowered, the other is directed with a slight movement to the side. A gust of fresh wind opened the skirts of his coat, played with the ends of his carelessly tied tie, and slightly scattered the poet's curly hair. Pushkin's face is remarkable. Inspirational and beautiful, it is full of thought and feeling. The poet, of course, reads poetry. Which? Most likely these:
...While we are burning with freedom, While our hearts are alive for honor, My friend, let us dedicate our Souls to our homeland with wonderful impulses!
The monument was loved not only by Leningraders, but also by city guests, who, inspired by the poet’s poems, visit the monument and bring flowers to its foot.
For the monument to A.S. Pushkin Anikushin was awarded the Lenin Prize.
Later Anikushin explained his plan for the monument this way: “Pushkin is a very bright person in character, simple in his actions and clear in his thoughts, so I tried to discard all the details that would obscure this living image of our great poet... I wanted the monument to work on which lasted more than seven years, the figure of Pushkin exuded joy and sunshine..." 
The master continuously develops the Pushkin theme in the future - work was carried out on monuments to the poet for Gurzuf (1960), Tashkent (1974), busts for Chisinau (1970), Pyatigorsk (1982), Kaliningrad (1993), as well as figurative compositions for Moscow University ( 1953) etc.
There are also underground monuments to the great poet in St. Petersburg. The first of them was installed in 1955 at the Pushkinskaya metro station at a depth of 57 meters. At the end of the central underground hall there is a statue of A.S. Pushkin by Mikhail Anikushin. Behind it is a panel by artist Maria Engelke depicting a corner of Tsarskoye Selo Park. Another underground monument is located at the end of the underground hall of the Chernaya Rechka metro station at a depth of 67 meters. This station is located near the place where Pushkin fought a duel. The bronze sculpture by Mikhail Anikushin was installed in the year of the 145th anniversary of the poet’s death in 1982. The walls around the sculpture are lined with white marble, the floor is tiled with dark gray granite.
Anikushin was incredibly hardworking, honest in his work and creativity. He had incredible love for all people! He believed that beauty can be found in every person. And he looked for this beauty in every portrait he sculpted. He sculpted a bust Ulanova for placement in Victory Park. She came to him as a rather elderly woman, and posed for him twice in the studio. And the sculptor saw and depicted her as a young, graceful, thin girl. “He had a great talent - to convey the beauty of the human soul,” recalls daughter Nina Anikushina.
The sculptor died in 1997.
Anikushin once said: “All children should know art, be able to draw - whether they become engineers, workers, or astronauts. Anyone who learns fine art in childhood acquires three-dimensional vision, spatial imagination, and this is so necessary in all areas of human activity... The work of an artist, especially a sculptor, is associated with a respectful attitude towards heritage...” Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a versatile and original sculptor. In his work, he was not limited to a single chosen theme, did not imitate anyone or copy anyone else's style.
In 1999, the sculptor’s name was given to Anikushinsky Square on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt and Anikushinsky Alley, leading from the square to Vyazemsky Lane, where his workshop-museum is located in the same city of St. Petersburg.
When I next go to St. Petersburg, I will definitely visit the workshop-museum of the sculptor Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin.
Installed in St. Petersburg opposite the building of the Russian Museum, but the sculptor is also the author of more than twenty monumental compositions. The most famous work of Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is “Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad”, opened in 1975.
Although Mikhail Anikushin’s entire creative life, by force of circumstances, turned out to be connected with Leningrad, he considered himself a Muscovite in spirit and origin. Anikushin was born in Moscow, in one of the alleys located near Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street. His father came to Moscow from the village and worked as a parquet master almost until the last days of his life.
Mikhail was the fourth child in the family. The year he was born, his father was drafted into the army as the First World War continued. Having barely recovered from giving birth, the mother moved with all the children to the village, to live with her husband’s parents. Only in 1926, when Mikhail finished second grade, did the family return to Moscow, where by that time his father had also returned.
Even in early childhood, the boy’s unique abilities manifested themselves. He said that he had been sculpting and drawing for as long as he could remember. In Moscow, he entered school, where he became a school artist, designed wall newspapers and painted posters for the holidays. The art teacher advised Mikhail to study in the studio at the House of Pioneers of the Leninsky District. It was led by the famous teacher and artist G. Kozlov. He noticed that Mikhail had a good sense of volume and began sculpting with the boy.
Under the leadership of Kozlov, Mikhail Anikushin masters the necessary skills and begins to sculpt from life portraits of his comrades and small genre groups - “Young Aircraft Modeler”, “Help to a Comrade”. Kozlov insisted that Anikushin’s works be shown in the children’s art section at the exhibition dedicated to the fifteenth anniversary of the organization of the Red Army. There they were seen by the famous artist Alexander Deineka. He met with the boy and said that he needed to get a special education.
After graduating from high school, Mikhail Anikushin went to Leningrad, since the only sculpture department at the Academy of Arts was located there at that time.
Kozlov gave Anikushin a letter of recommendation to the rector of the Academy, Joseph Brodsky. Mikhail passes the entrance exams brilliantly and is immediately accepted into the second preparatory class at the Academy. Then the sculpture department was headed by V. Bogatyrev. Under his leadership, Anikushin not only completes training assignments, but also begins to work independently. His sculptures “Mother” and “Pioneer Reading His Poems” were shown at the exhibition of young talents dedicated to the Eighth Congress of the Soviets. There they receive an enthusiastic assessment from the artist B. Ioganson, who noted that the level of execution of the sculptures corresponds to the first year of the Academy.
In just a year, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin completely fulfills the curriculum of preparatory classes, and at the request of Bogatyrev, he is transferred immediately to the last class of a secondary art school. Now the sculptor G. Schultz becomes his teacher.
Under his leadership, Mikhail Anikushin carries out introductory work to the Academy. In 1937, he became a student in a sculpture class taught by the famous Russian sculptor A. Matveev. He was known not only as the author of beautiful monumental works, but also as a talented teacher who trained more than one generation of masters.
Anikushin studied in Matveev’s workshop for five years. Already while studying at the nervous course, he became an assistant to the professor and helped him in his work on the project of the monument to A. Pushkin. Together with other sculptors in 1937, Matveev took part in a competition for a monument to the poet, which was planned to be erected in Leningrad. Matveev’s project took second place in the competition, but he was unable to complete work on it: the war began.
In 1939, on the advice of Matveev, Mikhail Anikushin participated in a competition for the best design of a monument to the Azerbaijani poet Nizami. He received the first prize, and in the post-war period a monument based on his model was erected in Baku.
Since Anikushin was a fifth-year student at the beginning of the war, he was not drafted into the army, but was left at the Academy to complete his education. But he achieves conscription and becomes a soldier in an anti-tank regiment.
Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin stayed at the front until Victory Day, continuing to draw in his few free hours. He created a gallery of portraits of fellow soldiers. In 1945, Anikushin returned to the Academy and began work on his graduation composition, “The Victorious Warrior.” The work was highly appreciated by the commission; it was considered so successful that it was included as one of the components in the monument to the Chekist soldiers created in Stalingrad.
After graduating from the Academy, Mikhail Anikushin could have remained a teacher in the sculpture department, but decided to combine teaching and creative activities. He works with students and begins working as a portrait sculptor.
By 1949, two directions had emerged in his work: portraiture and monumental. The first major work completed after graduating from the Academy was the monument to Pushkin, which he submitted to the 1949 competition. Together with Anikushin, V. Domogatsky, S. Merkurov, V. Sinaisky, I. Shadr took part in the competition, but only a few options, including the model presented by Anikushin, received the approval of the commission and were exhibited in the Russian Museum. Spectators and the authoritative jury gave preference to two versions of the monument - Anikushin and Nikolai Tomsky. But the latter withdrew his candidacy. So Mikhail Anikushin became the winner.
However, he continued work on the monument. In the process of preparing the final version, Anikushin significantly changed the composition. He abandoned the round pedestal and, together with the architect V. Petrov, made a granite pedestal in the shape of a parallelepiped, which was in harmony with the classicist design of the Russian Museum.
While working on the monument, Anikushin created several versions of the poet’s figure. Some of them were so successful that they became models for a number of monuments to Pushkin. One of the first options became the basis of a marble figure installed in the foyer of the assembly hall MI "U on Vorobyovy Gory. Another version of the monument - “Seated Pushkin the Lyceum Student" - was placed in Tsarskoe Selo, it was made in bronze. The main version was installed as planned , in front of the Russian Museum.
At the same time, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is working on monuments to other Russian writers. In 1954, he painted a portrait of Mayakovsky for a monument, later installed on Mayakovsky Square in Moscow.
In 1956, Mikhail Anikushin went on a trip to Italy, working in museums in Venice, Florence, Rome and Milan. He created a series of drawings and graphic sheets, published in the form of a book.
Having returned from the trip, Mikhail Anikushin continues to work on the monument to Pushkin. He later admitted that his main version was influenced by the proportions of the sculpture “David” by Donatello. It was then that Anikushin suggested turning the figure of the poet around and raising his right hand in an expressive gesture. The figure acquired lightness and was filled with hidden movement.
In April 1958, Anikushin was awarded the Lenin Prize for the monument to Pushkin. At the same time, another monument to the poet was commissioned for him for the city of Gurzuf. Mikhail Anikushin depicted Pushkin sitting on the seashore. The basis for it was the famous portrait of the poet made by O. Kiprensky. For various reasons, Anikushin could not complete the monument; it was installed only in 1972.
The sculptor begins to work on the monument to Chekhov. But he did not meet the deadline set by the commission and presented the statue after the end of the competition. However, the jury found it possible to reject the remaining options and approved Anikushin’s work.
Initially, the master conceived a two-figure composition consisting of the figures of Chekhov and I. Levitan. But the commission accepted only the sculpture of Chekhov, which became the basis of the monument opened in Moscow in 1973.
Then he begins work on monuments to the physiologist Vladimir Bekhterev and the composer R. Gliere. In the first work, the influence of Anikushin’s teacher, the sculptor Merkurov, is noticeable. The peculiar laconicism of the silhouette is combined with deep psychologism. A monument to academician physicist A. Ioffe was designed in a similar way, first installed on the scientist’s grave, and then in front of the institute where he worked.
The master himself considered his best work to be the sculpture of the famous surgeon P. Kupriyanov, whom he met several times during his military service. Anikushin made the first version of the sculpture in 1947; it was a kind of sculptural sketch.
In 1967, at the request of Kupriyanov’s relatives, Anikushin returned to work on the bust and, based on it, created a monument to the surgeon, installed on his grave. Mikhail Anikushin solved it in the genre of bas-relief, which is rare for Russian sculpture. The full-length figure of a doctor appears to emerge from a massive white marble stele.
From the beginning of the seventies, Anikushin completely focused on the monumental plan: he began work on a monument dedicated to the heroic defenders of Leningrad during the war. Back in the fifties, together with the sculptor Sinaisky and the architect A. Baruchev, Anikushin participated in a competition to design a memorial to those killed during the siege. But then the competition was not completed.
Now he is developing a project for the monument together with his regular collaborator, architect F. Gepner. The monumental composition was accepted by the commission and became the basis of the memorial built on Moskovskaya Square in Leningrad. The conceived project turned out to be so grandiose that it was carried out in collaboration with the sculptor F. Kamensky and the architect F. Speransky.
The center of the composition was the monumental statue of Victory standing in front of the marble obelisk. True, in the process of work, Mikhail Anikushin abandons the traditional allegorical figure and replaces it with the composition “Winners”.
Around it there were six sculptural groups in which Anikushin depicted the defenders of the city. Each group forms a unique narrative unity with the plot. The sculptor admitted that the general idea of the composition arose under the influence of the “Requiem” he heard by D. Kabalevsky based on the poems of R. Rozhdestvensky. The images of the characters are inspired by the war poems of Olga Berggolts.
Mikhail Anikushin called the entire composition a tale of war. Indeed, he gave each figure both specific and generalized features. The sculptor sought to ensure that the monument conveys not only sorrow, but also the joy of victory. The master did not hide the fact that in the arrangement of individual elements of the composition he used the experience of his predecessors. In particular, the group "Defense Works" was born under the influence of Auguste Rodin's sculpture "Citizens of Calais".
Simultaneously with the work on the monument, Anikushin made a bronze sculptural frieze “Victory”, which was installed on the facade of the Great Concert Hall building.
In the last years of Mikhail Konstantinovich's life, Anikushin was mainly engaged in portrait sculpture and until the last days of his life he continued to teach in the sculpture class. He worked as a professor at the Academy for more than forty years.
