Moscow to unveil statue of famous Soviet Armenian architect Karo Halabyan
A statue of renowned Armenian architect of the Soviet period Karo Halabyan is set to be installed in Moscow, Russia, RIA Novosti reports.
Deputies of the Moscow City Duma have already backed the proposal to erect the statue in Moscow’s Sokol district initiated by Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan.
The Armenian government is set to finance the statue erection by allocating 15 million rubles.
Born on 26 July 1897 in Elisabethpol (now Ganja), Halabyan held the prestigious title of the chief architect of Moscow and led many architectural projects in and around the city. His architecture was predominantly socialist post-constructivism and soviet neoclassicism.
Halabyan graduated from the Moscow Higher Art and Technical Institute in 1929. He authored the architectural design of the Builders Club, the residential building of Electrochemical Trust and many other places built in Yerevan. In 1932, Halabyan moved to live and work in Moscow. From 1932 to 1950 he served as a secretary of the Union of Architects of the Soviet Union. From 1937 to 1950 Halabyan was the deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the union. He was the vice president and later president of the USSR Academy of Architecture.
In 1943-1945 Karo Halabyan led the development of the recovery plan of Stalingrad. The buildings of the Sochi Sea Port (jointly with L. B. Karlik), the Central Academic Theatre of Russian Army (together with V. N. Simbirtsev), ground subway station Krasnopresnenskaya (jointly with T. A. Ilyin, V. I. Aleshin, and T. D. Zebrikova) have been constructed based on the project of Halabyan.