Vladimir Shchuko (1878–1939) was one of the leading Russian architects of the first half of the 20^th century. The article identifies all the buildings and projects of the master with Italian allusions, defines their prototypes, and studies their role in the general architectural context. Shchuko was the first architect who introduced the Palladian façade with the giant order into the Russian architecture (in his second house of Markov in St. Petersburg, 1910–1911). In the design of the Burtsev house (1911), Shchuko proposed an original interpretation of the Palazzo Tiene by Palladio. The architecture of the Moscow Bank in St. Petersburg (1915) was oriented at the Palazzo Massimo by Peruzzi. The three Schuko’s mansion projects of 1912, 1915, and 1916 published here for the first time reflect his interest in Palladian villas and Basilicas. The project of the State House of Abkhazia (1932) develops the theme of exedra façade from the Palazzo Colonna Barberini in Palestrina, which was used later in many Soviet sanatoria. The Ashgabat theatre (1934) is his most interesting orientalist project based on Venetian forms. The article also emphasizes the striking affinity of certain Shchuko’s buildings with the 1930s Italian architecture. The article concludes that Shchuko was the second Russian architect in terms of the frequency of references to Italian motifs, conceding only to famous Zholtovsky. However, he was the first one in terms of the variety of used prototypes.

The study was carried out at the expense of the State Program of the Russian Federation “Development of Science and Technology” for 2013–2020 in the framework of the Plan of Basic Scientific Research of the Ministry of Construction of Russia and the RAASN, research project 1.2.10.