| Pavlo Isaakovich Vigderhaus | |
| Birth Date: | 7 September 1925 |
| Birth Place: | Artemivsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR |
| Death Place: | Donetsk, Ukraine |
| Significant Buildings: | Monument to a Miner, Miner's Square (Donetsk) Church of the Nativity, Fallen Communars square (Donetsk), monument to Lenin (Gorlovka) |
| Awards: | USSR State Prize (1978) title Honoured Architect of Ukraine (2009) |
Pavlo Isaakovich Vigderhaus (Ukrainian: Павло Ісаакович Вігдергауз, Russian: Павел Исаакович Вигдергауз, September 7, 1925 – February 11, 2013[1]) was a Soviet and Ukrainian architect, recipient of the USSR State Prize (1978) and Honoured Architect of Ukraine (2009).
Vigderhaus was born to a Jewish[2] [3] family on September 7, 1925, in Artemivsk, in the Donetsk region in the family of a journalist. Since his father was working in different cities of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the family had to move permanently. The war found them in Makeyevka. In October 1941, Vigderhaus with his mother were evacuated to Kizel, Perm Krai, Russia. In Kizel Vigderhaus worked as a turner at the munitions factory, that was evacuated from Kiev.
In January 1943 he was called up to the Soviet Army and sent for training to the military infantry school. After six months of training, Vigderhaus was referred to the Guards 349 at 105th Guards Vienna Airborne Division, that was fighting in Hungary and Austria within 3rd Ukrainian Front. He was wounded in one of the battles for Vienna and discharged after treatment.
Vigderhaus dreamt of becoming an architect from the time that he was a schoolboy; shortly upon demobilization, he was walking through Stalino destroyed during the war, and saw an officer, who was drawing sketches of ruins. Vigderhaus came closer and learned that this man was an architect and was taking building measurements for its reconstruction.[4] Vigderhaus shared his dream with this man and he invited Vigderhaus to work to Oblast planning department (Oblproekt) as an assistant architect.
In 1947, thanks to work in Oblproekt he met already known Donetsk architects A. Strashnov and A. Kuznetsov. They advised him to go to Kharkov and enter the institute. Vigderhaus followed their advice and together with his friend entered the Kharkov Institute of Civil Engineering and graduated from it in 1953.[5]
In 1957, Vigderhaus became a member of the USSR Union of Architects. During almost 60 years dedicated to architecture, Vigderhaus has created most part of the buildings in contemporary Donetsk, including monument "To Miner's Glory" (1967), which is considered the unofficial symbol of Donetsk[4] [6]
In 1978, Vigderhaus was awarded the State Prize of USSR for landscape architecture in design - that was 8 years later after UNESCO had recognized Donetsk as the greenest industrial city in the world[7] Vigderhaus had one son and three grandchildren.
also, Vigderhaus is the author of numerous residential buildings in Donetsk and Donetsk Oblast'.[4] [5]