Exercise 1. Read and translate the texts

GREAT RUSSIAN ARCHITECTS

V. I. Bazhenov (1737 - 1799)

V. I. Bazhenov (1737 - 1799) was the founder of the Russian architectural classics of the 18-th century. He studied at the Moscow

University and at Art School in Paris. He became a professor and academician of some Italian Academies of Arts, and he was 28 when he became an academician in St. Petersburg, the vice-president of Russian Academy of Arts.

2. Bazhenov was the first Russian architect who designed his structures in their connection with surroundings as a three-dimensional composition, actively organizing town space. In 1784-1786 he created one of his best works, a masterpiece of Russian classical architecture -the famous Pashkov house which is now the old building of the State Library in Moscow.

3. Those who have seen his impressive buildings and looked at them with understanding will feel that he fully succeeded in his purpose and that he gave the world something that will take its place with the greatest structures of the world.

4. In addition to his being an outstanding artist and architect he was also a well-known figure encyclopedically educated. At the same time he was a brilliant practical engineer and an incomparable designer of architectural ensembles, the Kremlin Palace being one of these.