Nikolai Vasilyevich Tomsky (Russian: Никола́й Васи́льевич То́мский; 19 December [O.S. 6 December] 1900, – 22 November 1984) was a much-decorated Soviet sculptor, designer of many well-known ceremonial monuments of the Socialist Realism era.
Born in the village of Staro Ramushevo in Novgorod province, into a blacksmith's family, Tomsky studied in Leningrad. In 1927, graduated from the Arts and Crafts College.
The sculptor 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.
Tomsky 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). He taught at MGAHIS (1948-1982), as Professor and as Rector of the Academy (1964-1970).
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