Review of the exhibition «The Architects of the Brethren. „Breathing.“ Medical Order of the State Research Museum of Architecture A. V. Schusev, 07.11.2025 — 01.02.2026 curators: Julia Starostenko, Anatoly Oksenyuk
Types of exhibition by the Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
Exhibition «The Architects of the Brethren of Spring. The beginning of the Shusev Museum of Architecture (MUR) is a multilayered narration, where the focus is on the fruitful path of the three architects, prominent representatives of the Soviet vanguard, especially its constructive direction. The presentation of rare archives is a „total“ collage. Leonid’s, Victor’s, and Alexander the Spring’s handwriting is formed from the point of view of the development of their monumental and innovative architectural program.
Opening of the exhibit by the Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
The exhibition involves a round-trip examination. The sections that follow each other help to identify key milestones in the evolution of the brother’s architectural language: the viewer becomes acquainted with the first feather samples, the first works as apprentices of name architects, and further independent projects. Measurable plans, drawings and diagrams of large projects, letters, rare photographs all create a bright, dynamic image of the «triumvirate» of brothers who worked individually and together.
Opening of the exhibit by the Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
The sections of the exhibition follow each other, softly moving one to another. The starting point is the city of Yurievec. He dives visitors to an exhibition in a small town on Volga. This is where the future vision was born in the county ' s rich architectural environment. The visual landscape of the brothers' childhood is the archival images of a single-storey wooden building, magnificent but subsequently lost cathedrals, and the schematic plans of the offices. Of particular importance is the Old Pleasant Church, the fragments of its figurines hidden in the wind, and, especially, the measured plans carried out by young Leonid. These drawings are the first step from vision to form analysis. In the documentaries displayed, the city is a living organism with its religious nature (photos of rituals) and a well — established home style, which the Springs absorbed and later sought to transform.
Types of the «City of Yurievec» section of the «Press Service of the Museum of Architecture»
L.A. Spring. «The blessed church in Yurievce. South View, 1902–1903. Paper, mast, waterwell, pencil — Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
The family icon, as Nikolai the Miracle and the holy patrons of the family, is subtle in referring to the following chapters: «The Spring Family» and «Learning». For the first time, MURA has shown unique archival materials to the public: genealogical tree, literacy for honorary citizenship from Nikolai II, photo albums. We see a family of first guild merchants actively promoting Yurievts (school construction, gymnasiums, improvement of urban infrastructure, social work, guardianship). The father’s wine and yeast factory is an early example of a production and settlement complex, the subject of which the brothers will later develop in special settlement projects in production.
Invented. 1: Against the right is the icon Nikolai Wondermaker with the holy patrons of the family of the Spring / Invent. 2: Group portrait of the Brethren brothers and the genealogical tree of the Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
The «Learning» section follows an informed path to the profession: the Moscow Business Academy of Business Sciences gave a business grip, and the higher arts (Leonid Vesnin, studied by Benoit and Chusev) and engineering (Victor and Alexander Vesnina) formed the unique synthesis of art and technology that became their business card. The educational works — copies of famous painters' towels, Leonid’s project, Alexander’s and Victor’s church projects — demonstrate mastery of the steaks and search for their own language.
Types of the «Learning» section of the «Press Service of the Museum of Architecture»
L.A. Spring. Academic work at the Academy of Arts. The country house project is a mansion. Facade, perspective, incision. 1906. Paper, waterwell, pencil — Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
«Standing the Masters,» perhaps one of the most intense sections. He shows the Springs not only as masters of design. In front of us are brilliant eclectics and practices of the 1910s. And in their own projects, they tried a variety of styles and methods, ranging from fine mansions and stables to huge shopping houses and banks. The drawings of income-generating houses, post offices, chemical factories show an incredible breadth of orders and professional relevance even before the revolution. This is a period of experience, experiments with form and function, which will be the basis for a future leap into new formats of space exploration.
Types of «Standing the Masters» section of the «Press Service of the Museum of Architecture»
1: L.A., V.A., A.A. Springs. Contestable Project for the Façade of the School of Painting, Vocation, and Building, 1910 / 2: V. A. Vesnin. Fragment of the project «Nicholski settlement, 1914 — MUAR Press Service»
The central part of «In the vanguard of modern architecture» is devoted to the Stellar Hour of Spring, 1920. The walls are marked visualizations and drawings: the House of the Soviets, the department store, and the House of the Society of Politicalcastors. The brothers are not only practitioners, but also theorists, educators of Vhutemas-Vhutein, founders of the OSA (Society of Modern Architects).
Type of section «In the vanguard of modern architecture» of the Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
1: L. A. Spring. Shatur Project, 1919. Calka, coal / 2: V. A. Springnin Building of Ivanovski s/x bank and department store in Ivanovo-Voznezsk, 1927. Paper, mascara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
However, the exhibition honestly shows the turbulence of the 1930s in the section «In a new phase»: changing course towards «the learning of heritage», fighting for the preservation of the ideas of design through the Union of Architects, Leonid’s death in 1933 as a shock to the whole architecture. The «large» projects of this period (government buildings, metro) demonstrate a complex adaptation to the new reality.
Type of section «In a new phase» — Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
V. A. Spring, A. A. Spring. Competition project for the heavy industry drug industry building in Moscow, 1935. Paper, mascara — Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
The story of the trio architects concludes with a chapter on «Last Work» devoted to military and post-war times. The mood for this part of the exhibition is filled with a sense of some sort of conclusion to the great era. Evacuation in the early years of the war, reconstruction work in Moscow, rare projects during the period of popularization of high-rise buildings, and finally the departure of Victor and Alexander. The exhibition ends with portraits of mature craftsmen, whose image the viewer had already felt deeply from the inside.
Types of «Last Work» section of the «Press Service of the Museum of Architecture»
The urgent need to preserve the brothers' heritage was understood by Lydia’s sister and Victor’s widow, Natalia Mikhaylovna. As custodians of the archives, they handed over the memory of the architects to museums, particularly at the A. V. Schusev Museum of Architecture.
Alexander Lydia’s (sister’s) postcard with a waterwell drawing of the interior of the Peterburg apartment of the Spring and Brothers at work. 27 (14) October 1906. Paper, ink — Press Service of the Museum of Architecture
«We are all healthy. Lenya passed his theater project yesterday, and it worked out well; Victor and I are preparing for the exam. Don’t send us any architecture magazines.» 27 (14) October 1906
«The architects are the brothers of spring. The beginning is an exhibition-encyclopedia, an exhibition-text, an exhibition-college. It abandons the monolithic image of the „triumvirate of designists“ in favour of living, multifaceted research. The unique material from the MUAR meeting made it possible, according to the curators, to show the builders as „just people searching, thinking, feeling“. They have been able to reveal how the provincial Yurievese, family traditions, academic schools, and a violent era have woven into a unique creative handwriting. The exhibition allows you to look at the history of the Russian architecture from a personal perspective. The prism of the brothers makes it clear that each building is not just a project, but a reflection of the thoughts and feelings of its creators.
Images provided by the Press Service of the State Research Museum of Architecture, A. V. Schuseva, Author of the text: Michael Arutyunyan
