Published on: 2026-10-12
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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A comprehensive restoration of the house where the famous sculptor Nikolai Andreev lived and worked has been completed in Moscow. It was within the walls of this workshop in Afanasyevsky Lane that the sculptor worked on his series of graphic portraits of Vladimir Lenin. The building has the status of a federal cultural heritage site.
“The restoration of the historic building on Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane has been fully completed. It was built in 1894 based on the design of the outstanding architect Alexander Kaminsky and was in poor condition before the work began. The city program helped save this monument “1 ruble per square meter per year”, into which it was included in 2023. During the restoration, specialists carried out colossal work: they reinforced the brickwork, renovated the roof, repaired the plinth, and restored the facades to their historical color. Special attention was paid to details — unique metal stained glass windows in the workshop rooms and doors were recreated based on archival photographs, the interfloor staircase was carefully restored, and decorative elements in the building’s interiors were recreated. In particular, the ceramic furnace cladding and historic potter’s wheels on which the master worked were preserved and brought into order,
The historic building is located at: Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane, house 27, buildings 2, 3, 4.
Specialists also reinforced the building’s foundations and installed modern lighting, water supply, heating, and ventilation systems.
All work was carried out within the framework of the preferential lease program for cultural heritage sites based on the approved project documentation, the issued permit, and under supervision Moscow Heritage Department. After the restoration was completed, the entrepreneur submitted an application for its transfer to the preferential rent rate in the capital Department of City Property, overseeing the preferential program “1 ruble per square meter per year” in terms of lease relations.
A house with a creative history
The building of the sculpture workshops in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane has great historical value. Nikolai Andreev lived and worked here from 1900 to 1932.
The house was built in 1894. It is an example of architectural eclecticism, combining strict classical motifs with window and door designs in the Art Nouveau style typical of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the building has served as the center of a sculptural commune. Next to Nikolay Andreyev’s workshop was Maria Sinitsyna’s workshop, where young talents Vera Mukhina, Lyudmila Gold, Sofya Rosenthal, and Ivan Rakhmanov honed their skills. It was within these walls in the 1900s that Andreyev worked on his iconic urban monuments — to Nikolay Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard and to Doctor Fyodor Gaaz in Malyy Kazyonny Lane. In the post-revolutionary years, monuments to Alexander Herzen, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Nikolay Ogaryov were created here as well. In the early 1920s, the sculptor worked in this workshop on a series of his graphic portraits of Vladimir Lenin, which later formed the famous Leniniana of Nikolay Andreyev.
After the sculptor’s death in 1932, the residential rooms of the building became communal apartments, while the studios passed to a new generation of artists: Andrey Drevin, Viktor Dumanian, Oleg Tolstoy, Abram Malakhin, and Anton Lavinsky. During the dismantling of the rotten floor, specialists found plaster heads and other parts of sculptures and bas-reliefs of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Mayakovsky hidden underneath, as well as glazed tiles, books, furniture details, and other items from the early 20th century. Considering the dates on the discovered books, it can be assumed that one of these inhabitants was the keeper of a secret cache.
After the completion of the comprehensive restoration, a multifunctional creative space is planned to be opened in the building on Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane.
Photographic materials and other information about Moscow’s cultural heritage are also available in the new “Cultural Heritage” section of the city’s media bank “Mosphoto”.
Investors have restored 26 historic buildings in the capital under the preferential lease program “1 ruble per square meter per year”How Moscow and Saint Petersburg together preserve unique architectural monuments
The portal mos.ru features a large-scale special project, dedicated to the development of Moscow’s key sectors. These include transport, industry, healthcare, education, sports, and construction. The special project helps to understand how the capital has changed over recent years, which initiatives aimed at making residents’ lives even more comfortable are currently being implemented, and what awaits Moscow and its inhabitants in the near future.
On the project page “Culture, Heritage, and Leisure Industry” You can learn about how architectural monuments are preserved in the capital.
Moscow is the center of the country’s cultural life and ranks among the leading metropolises in terms of the number of museums and exhibition halls. The city has established a film cluster that unites the Moskino film plant on Ryazansky Prospekt, the Gorky Film Studio, and the Moskino film park.
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