Nikolai Varfolomeevich Baranov

Born Nov. 14 (27), 1909, at the station of Starosel’tsa in the former Grodno Province (today in Poland). Soviet architect. Member of the CPSU since 1938.

Baranov graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineers (1931) and the Academy of Fine Arts (1934). He studied with L. A. Il’in, V. A. Shchuko, and V. G. Gel’freikh. From 1938 to 1950 he was the chief architect of Leningrad and from 1956 to 1961 the vice-president and secretary-academician of the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the USSR; in 1963 he became deputy president of the Committee on Civil Construction and Architecture of the Gosstroi (State Committee on Construction) of the USSR. Baranov was a professor at the Moscow Architecture Institute (1956). His main works (with co-authors) include blueprints for the general development of Leningrad (1938–40; 1945–48), the architectural ensemble of Lenin Square and the new building of the Finland Station (1943–60), the building on Primorskii Prospect (1948–56), the Primorskii zone of Vasil’evskii Island (1943–66), a series of large government structures in Leningrad (including a multipurpose spectator sports hall seating 25,000; since 1967), and plans for the restoration and development of Pskov (begun in 1946). Baranov is the author of a series of works on city planning and architecture. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.