Nikita Lazarev


Nikita Gerasimovich Lazarev was a Russian civil engineer, contractor, real estate developer and Neoclassical architect, notable for his 1906 Mindovsky House in Khamovniki District of Moscow. According to Igor Grabar, Lazarev "led Arbat and Prechistenka neighborhoods into the new century" - his 1900s buildings concentrated in these upper-class areas.

Biography

Lazarev practice

Nikita Lazarev was born into an old wealthy family of Armenian descent; his ancestor, Ovakim Lazarev, founded the historical Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages according to the will of his brother Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev. Nikita graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineers and operated as a partner in Lazarev and Strotter construction company.
Buildings of his own design prior to 1906 were typical Moscow Moderne version of Art Nouveau - never reaching the level of Lev Kekushev or Fyodor Schechtel. However, his turn to Neoclassicism produced a landmark, Mindovsky House.

Mindovsky House

Mindovsky family originated in Kineshma, where serf Ivan Ivanovich Mindovsky launched his own textile mill. His grandson, Ivan Alexandrovich, commissioned the first historical Mindovsky House to Lev Kekushev. Next of kin, Nikolay Ivanovich, commissioned the second Mindovsky House to Nikita Lazarev. Various members of the clan also owned apartment blocks in the city. Lazarev's Mindovsky House became a statement of neoclassical reaction against "decadent art". It stands next to two William Walcot's Art Nouveau mansions, on a strategic corner lot visible from Prechictenka Street.
In 1927-1938 the building housed Embassy of Austria. After the Anschluss of 1938, it was used as an exclusive hotel, housing guests like Joachim von Ribbentrop and Winston Churchill. However, the rumour that Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed there is an urban legend. In April, 1955 the building became Austrian Embassy again. Mindovsky House is also known as the site of a fictional shooting in Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

Private life

Nikita Lazarev's niece was married to Ivan Zholtovsky, however, two architects didn't get along too well. Lazarev, a member of an old a prolific family, was also related to Wassily Kandinsky and other artists. A sportsman and driving enthusiast, he was the active member of upper-class Moscow Automobile Society before 1917. He was also a member of Valery Bryusov's Literary Arts Circle.
His son, professor Viktor Nikitich Lazarev, was a prominent historian of Byzantium. He was admitted to the Soviet Academy of Sciences together with Igor Grabar, a long-time friend of Lazarevs; neither Lazarev, nor Grabar ever were in the Communist Party.

Selected buildings