Background
Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky was born on December 6, 1900, in the Starorussky District, Novgorod Oblast, Russian Federation into a blacksmith's family.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky
Hero of Socialist Labour
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Lenin Prize (1972)
Hero of Socialist Labour
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Lenin Prize (1972)
1937
1950
1953
1954
1959
1970
Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky was born on December 6, 1900, in the Starorussky District, Novgorod Oblast, Russian Federation into a blacksmith's family.
Nikolai Vasilyevich studied in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). In 1927, he graduated from the Arts and Crafts College.
Nikolai Vasilyevich first came to attention with his memorial to Sergey Kirov, a heroic bronze with friezes around the base, for which he won the 1941 Stalin Prize. Thereafter his career developed in an official direction; he would be eventually tasked to re-design Lenin's own sarcophagus, produce Stalin's bust at Stalin's grave, and produce at least five major statues of Lenin throughout the Soviet Union. His distinctive red-granite Lenin stood in the Leninplatz of East Berlin from 1970 to 1992. He taught at MGAHIS (1948-1982), as Professor and as Rector of the Academy (1964-1970).
Nikolai Vasilyevich became a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1949, and president from 1968 to 1983), member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR, the Hero of Socialist Labor (1970), five Stalin Prize laureate (1941, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952), the winner of the Lenin Prize (1972) and the USSR State Prize (1979), holder of three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Karl Marx (GDR).
