Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (1890-1974) was one of the Russian avant-garde's most prolific and internationally celebrated architects during the 1920s. By 1937 the individualism of his architecture no longer had a place in Stalin's U.S.S.R.

Konstantin Melnikov was born a peasant on the outskirts of Moscow in 1890. Young Melnikov showed an early proclivity for drawing and began to attend the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. After completing the general education program, he studied painting, and then resolved to be an architect. He stayed on at the Moscow School, completing the architecture program in 1917. As seen in his surviving student projects, Melnikov's education in architecture was conservative, emphasizing the classical architectural tradition. Although he would quickly move away from historical revivalism, the monumental forms of some of his later modern works occasionally suggested the undercurrent of his classical training.

Melnikov entered the profession of architecture during...